Jean-Louis Gassée, Monday Note:
Apple’s unexpectedly strong numbers caused Wall Street’s doomsaying visionary sheep to suddenly tell rosier AAPL share price tales.
And:
Apple plays the Long Game and seems to play it well.
And:
A reliable measure of Apple’s ambitious expectations is its R&D expense: It keeps climbing, 19% higher than last year. Another sign can be found in the Off-Balance Sheet section of the 10-Q. This year, Apple has committed $24B in manufacturing purchase obligations — money promised to suppliers. That’s a 16% increase over last year’s $20.7B. This doesn’t mean that the company’s output will increase by a similar amount, but it’s always a reliable trend indicator. For example, we saw the same number go down from $21.6B in December 2014, to $20.7B in 2015, a timeframe in which Apple revenue also declined.
This is but a small slice of Jean-Louis’ look at Apple’s long game. His Monday Note is always a great read.
Can there not be a middle ground between the doomsayers and people like Gasee, Benedict Evans, and Neil Cybart? Yes, record quarter, etc., but only due to the extra week. Everything would have been down again without it.
How about this: Apple is really super successful, but we’re past the peak. They’re still going to rake in money and the products will likely be the best in class, but there are concerning signs for both sales and quality in the future.
Apple is doing a good job…
… And it Looks like PROS still Love the Mac book PRo – Launch of Houdini FX – live on youtube – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry_mD67cO5c
but even that word — “concerning”. why is it “concerning”? the DOOM narrative says the iPad is concerning because its decreasing — yet even the decreased iPad revenue is larger than Facebook! or most any Silicon Valley company’s revenue. so…how is that concerning? its still massively profitable, even if less-big selling than previously.
is stablization of sales “concerning”?
Weren’t the numbers unexpectedly strong because of this quarter was 7.6% longer than the year before? On the flip side, next year will look way down because it will be compared against a longer quarter.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2014/02/06/_14_week_quarters_financial_markets_get_confused.html
I wonder wouldn’t Fitbit loved to be in Apple’s shoes and even with the extra week they have problem selling their products.
Kind of wonder why people are so against Apple making money, oh btw Apple did mentioned the extra week in their conference call and not because it was spotted by some analysts.