Yesterday Apple announced their third quarter financial results. Here are the highlights of Apple's sales this last three months:
- 26 million iPhones
- 17 million iPads
- 4 million Macs
- 6.8 million iPods
These sales led to quarterly revenue of $35 billion and net profit of $8.8 billion.
Half decent right?
Nope! Not if you read anything in the media today. You'd of thought that Apple posted major losses or something. The truth is that pretty much any other company on the planet would kill to have financials this 'disappointing'.
It seems that this disappointment is stemming from the fact that Apple didn't reach the expectations of Wall Street analysts. The results - as usual - were still better than Apple themselves predicted they would be.
And here's the thing: these results are the third best quarter Apple has ever posted. Ever. Yes, ever. I even read one article today explaining that this 'disappointment' was evidence that Tim Cook was no Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs never presided over quarterly financial reports that failed to meet market expectations. Of course, the article failed to mention that Steve Jobs also never presided over three consecutive quarters that posted over $30 billion in revenue. You could argue that Steve Jobs was no Tim Cook!
Anyway, all this serves to highlight the sad state of so much tech reporting around the world today. Journalists are more interested in writing posts and headlines that grab attention than they are offering good, reasoned, level-headed analysis. It's a sad state of affairs.
I should add that, by Apple's recent standards of unprecedented growth, these figures are somewhat lower than might have been expected. But that does not in any shape or form amount to a disappointment. These figures are by all accounts still pretty stunning.
It's also worth saying that, due to Apple's product release cycles, it is best to pass true judgement on Apple on an annual rather than quarterly basis. The figures announced yesterday are reflective of the reality that we've reached a point in the year that many people are already now holding off on buying new iPhones as they know there's a new one coming soon.
The result of this is that Apple's next but one quarterly results will without doubt be their biggest financial quarter ever. Especially if you add in a new, smaller iPad into the holiday season mix as well.
All said and done, I don't think Tim Cook is going to be losing any sleep tonight.