I’ve watched as Apple shares have slumped by 10% over the last few days and every article seemed to signal ‘the end is nigh’. Having spent at least 5 years being bombarded with emails saying the same, I must admit even I felt a little apprehensive waiting for Apple’s Q2 results to get on the wire.
I shouldn’t have had any concern. Yet again Apple busted every analyst forecast with a massive 58% increase in revenues (YOY) to $39.2b. Net profit was up 94% at $11.6b with gross margin up from 41.4% to 47.4%. And cash, glorious cash, was up $12.6b at $110.2b.
35.1m iPhones (up 88%), 11.8m iPads (up 151% - Tim Cook says 'the new iPad is on fire! We are selling them as fast as we can make them') and 4m Macs (up 7%) were sold. iPods sales only declined 15% to 7.7m – which, frankly, I find amazing.
Tim Cook promises a year when ‘you are going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver’. By that we fully expect the iTV to disrupt the TV sector just as Apple has disrupted music players, mobile phones and invented a whole new tablet sector with huge effects on the PC/laptop/netbook market.
Apple shares have jumped nearly 7% in after hour trading. More humble pie for the doubters to eat.
Note - I have declared so many times that I am a very long term Apple shareholder having bought in at c$10. I could have sold with huge % profit over many years. I have not and currently have no plans so to do.