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The Prophet of Profit (4/14/99)
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We're sure you've all heard by now, but for those of you who spent the last day or so engrossed in a "Full House" marathon collecting evidence for your "Olsen Twins as Live Troll Dolls" theory, Apple's winning streak continues: not only did they post their sixth consecutive quarterly profit, but they also managed to beat Wall Street's estimates yet again. Those high-falutin' financial analysts were predicting a profit of about $85 million, but Apple's black ink for the second quarter actually hit about $50 million higher than that. An Apple press release dishes all the dirt on where the money came from last quarter.
Every dark cloud may have a silver lining, but this cloud is nothing but silver. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, profits are up $80 million (or nearly $40 million if you ignore one-time gains and charges), revenues were up a respectable 9%, and gross margins rose from 24.8% to 26.3%. Okay, so there's a little dark smudge-- Apple's profit in Q2 wasn't as big as Q1's $152 million, but Q2 is usually Apple's weakest quarter so we can't let that dampen our spirits. After all, it's great to see that Apple's still on an upswing, showing year-over-year growth for its second consecutive quarter; in fact, Apple's now growing faster than the computer industry as a whole. IDC claims that the industry growth is 14%, while Apple's unit growth was 27%-- nearly twice that. We can expect to see bigger installed-base market share numbers if this trend continues.
The biggest news of all, however, is that we have a winner for our quarterly "Beat the Analysts" contest. Kirby Lambert proved he's just a wee bit more in tune with Apple's money vibe than all those high-paid analysts, since he predicted Apple's $135 million profit right on the nose. Congratulations to Kirby, who will receive a copy of Star Warped by Parroty Interactive just in time to prepare for next month's Episode 1: The Phantom Menace premiere. And the rest of the faithful viewers who entered should feel proud that their consensus (about $108 million), while a little on the short side, still beat the pants off the Wall Street estimates. Start gearing up for next quarter's contest! It's never too early to drag out those spreadsheets...
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/14/99 episode: April 14, 1999: Six for six-- this much street-beating black ink is almost boring, isn't it? Meanwhile, Apple's market share continues to climb, propelled by the continually-refreshed iMac line, as Apple trots out the fourth iMac model in eight months...
Other scenes from that episode: 1465: If You Build Them... (4/14/99) Hey, speaking of market share (and we sort of were a while ago... at least, we mentioned it. It's a valid segue, honest!), MacCentral reports that Apple's is, unsurprisingly, on the way up. PC Data, those lovable little bean-counting gnomes who keep us informed about who's buying how much of what, say that Apple's share of the retail and mail order market for the first two months of 1999 was 11.3%, twice as high as it was a year ago... 1466: iMac Intro, Take 4 (4/14/99) As if another street-beating quarterly profit weren't enough good news for one day, Apple also formally announced the latest iMacs, now running at a mind-bending 333 MHz. If you've been paying attention, you knew that these were coming; in fact, they've been here for a week or so already, if you know where to look...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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