Apple’s Q2 results were way better than analysts had forecast. It is rare for any company of the size and longevity of Apple to report an organic 83% increase in revenues (to $24.7b) and a 95% increase in profits (to $5.99b). Increases at that level are for start-ups or the highly acquisitive!
If you were going to be ‘picky’ you’d report the decline from 7.3m to 4.7m in the number of iPads sold (compared to Q1) as the iPad2 was launched. This is quite a lot lower than expected. COO Tim Cook said "We sold every one we could make. Demand (for the iPad2) has been staggering. I'm still amazed that we're heavily backlogged". I think there were two reasons for this. a) Why buy an iPad1 in Q2 when the iPad2 was due at the end of the quarter? b) Supply issues. It could well be that iPad2 sales double in Q3 - certainly we expect them to be back to Q1 levels as 'the mother of all backlogs" is cleared.
Interestingly Apple said it had NOT been affected by the disaster in Japan in terms of either supply or sales in the region in Q2. But it cautioned that the situation was 'unpredictable' and forecast a $200m hit in Q3 due to lower sales in the region.
You could also pick on the 17% decline in iPods to 9m. But I guess everyone who wants one has one now! Even here, consumers are going for the touch rather than the cheaper models so Apple gains on the bottom line.
But Macs were up 28% at 3.76m and iPhones surged – up 113% at 18.65m (compared with Q2 FY10)
Steve Jobs said Apple was “firing on all cylinders”. Perhaps not the best words to use. But these results really are ‘to die for’. Apple is still the ‘gold standard’. One day the ‘Apple doubters’ who, over the last three or more years have emailed me saying ‘the bubble is about to burst’, will shut up and accept that Apple is in a class of its own.