Yesterday, the tech community on Twitter couldn’t help but speculate about why AT&T had pulled the sales of iPhones in New York (call it a conspiracy theory of geeky kind). The very vague phrase “fraud” was thrown around, but I doubt anyone was buying it. The substandard network in New York has been documented (and complained about) for a long while. With recent news that iPhone users are the cause of this (because they’re “data hogs”), you can almost see why AT&T made the decision. Almost.
With all new new commercials of both Verizon and AT&T defending their networks, who’s to say what company is right? But a word of wisdom to AT&T: ticking off your users that are only with you because of phone exclusivity is not the right approach. Nor should you try to quietly alienate an entire city because your network doesn’t work well.
Apparently the tech world is buzzing about the new Motorola Droid, which is being called “serious iPhone competition”.
Okay, I get it. You made a pretty amazing phone, Motorola. Your “iDont” is everything the iPhone doesn’t have and probably never will have (unless Apple gets smart about listening to iPhone users).
But I have a hard time believing this phone will be a bigger seller than the iPhone, even with amazing features. For most people, their iPhone has little to do with their loves of the device. Call it peer pressure, but it’s the cool phone to have. Unless the Droid can manage that, it won’t sell beyond the hard-core phone freaks.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — Apple Inc. said record sales of Macintosh computers and iPhones lifted its quarterly profit and revenue, which trounced Wall Street’s forecasts.
Shares of Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) rose 9% after hours to an all-time trading high of $204. The previous high in regular trading was $202, set nearly two years ago.
Mac sales soared 17% from a year ago to 3.1 million units, a quarterly record. Despite a recession and an average selling price of just over $1,200, Apple grew its PC market share to a 15-year high in the third quarter according to reports. Macintosh computers made up 8.8% of PC shipments last quarter, according to Gartner, while a separate report from IDC tallied up 9.4%. Both figures represent the highest market share the company has enjoyed since 1994.
The company said its successful launch of its new Mac operating system, Snow Leopard, helped push Mac sales over the 3 million mark.
“We’re thrilled with these record results, particularly given the economic environment around us,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, on a conference call with analysts. “Mac is showing fast momentum, growing faster than the rest of the market in the past two quarters.”
IPhone sales rose 7% to a record 7.4 million in Apple’s fiscal fourth quarter. IPhones make up 22% of the U.S. smartphone market, according to the latest data from IDC, second to Research In Motion’s (RIMM) BlackBerry, which has 51%.
“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, said in a statement. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”
IPod sales slumped 8% to 10.2 million for the quarter, despite slashed prices in September.
Record profit: The Cupertino, Calif.-based company said its fiscal fourth-quarter net income rose 47% to a record $1.7 billion, or $1.82 per share from a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were looking for $1.42 per share.
Sales rose 25% to $9.9 billion, topping expectations of $9.2 billion.
A recent change in generally accepted accounting principles allows the company to declare revenue from iPhone sales as it comes in, rather than spread out over the two-year span of customers’ contracts. Apple has not yet changed its accounting practices, but if it had, the company said it would have earned $12.3 billion.
For the current quarter, Apple said it expects revenue in the range of $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion, with earnings per share coming in between $1.70 and $1.78. The revenue outlook fell in line with analysts’ consensus expectation of $11.4 billion, while Apple’s earnings guidance fell short of Wall Street’s forecast of $1.91 per share.
Apple said its gross margin would fall to 34% this quarter from 36.3% in its fourth quarter, due to price cuts and a higher cost of installing memory in its products.
