Apple has record fall 2019 thanks to iPhone 11, services and wearables

[Commodus]

Here's the official release.

 

Quote

“We are thrilled to report Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, fueled by strong demand for our iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models, and all-time records for Services and Wearables,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “During the holiday quarter our active installed base of devices grew in each of our geographic segments and has now reached over 1.5 billion.

 

Notably, during the usual results call Apple noted that the iPhone 11 was the top-selling phone every week of the quarter, and that the whole iPhone 11 family led phone sales through the quarter.  In other words, it was all the new shiny handsets that people were interested in, not so much the iPhone 8 or XR.

 

Mac and iPad sales weren't doing so well, although that's not too surprising since the big new models were the 16-inch MacBook Pro (a high-end model released halfway through the quarter), Mac Pro (meant for high-end pros, of course) and the 10.2-inch iPad.  Many of the real money-makers probably won't get updates until sometime this quarter, if not later.

 

The results are interesting to me because I saw so, so many people who were convinced iPhone sales had plateaued and it was downhill all the way from here.  Admittedly Apple is comparing against a very so-so quarter from a year ago, but it seems like the company figured things out between the lower iPhone 11 pricing and making the higher-end Pro models more interesting than the XS was.

[ARikozuM]

Can we bring back those jobs to the US? Record profits surely signal that higher wage jobs in the US manufacturing sector is possible. 

[TempestCatto]

As long as Starbucks makes pumpkin spice coffee and Ugg makes boots, Apple will sell an iPhone to that basic white bitch who never wears pants and has a squeaky laugh.

[Arika]

4 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Can we bring back those jobs to the US?

can the profits be kept in the country where they were earned and not flicked overseas to avoid paying tax to the countries that made them all this money?

[Commodus]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Can we bring back those jobs to the US? Record profits surely signal that higher wage jobs in the US manufacturing sector is possible. 

This has been discussed many a time, but likely not.

 

In short: it's not just about pay, it's about the flexibility of the workforce and access to component partners.  And if Apple did bring the manufacturing to the US, it'd likely be highly automated and thus only bring a handful of jobs.  See the Mac Pro plant in Texas as an example.

[ARikozuM]

13 minutes ago, TempestCatto said:

As long as Starbucks makes pumpkin spice coffee and Ugg makes boots, Apple will sell an iPhone to that basic white bitch who never wears pants and has a squeaky laugh.

Or wears pants that show EVERYTHING... 

 

[shudders]

[hishnash]

20 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Can we bring back those jobs to the US? Record profits surely signal that higher wage jobs in the US manufacturing sector is possible. 

you need to bring the full manufacturing pipeline to the US just brining final assembly (what foxconn do) is oh not use. You need all of the other (much more important, and skilled jobs) like PCB manufacturing, battery, camara, cpu etc.

These currently are all produces in east asia (japan, south korea, taiwan and china). For it to be viable to do meaningful manufacturing fo this type of product in the US you need to move all of these companies (very few of which are even affiliated with the US at all). Also you need to move more than one so that you have a market and fallback options in case of production issues.
 

[TempestCatto]

12 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Or wears pants that show EVERYTHING... 

 

[shudders]

For the record, leggings and that are not pants and I fucking hate when people wear them as such. Makes them look like a damn whore (which they usually are anyway).

[Reytime]

26 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Can we bring back those jobs to the US? Record profits surely signal that higher wage jobs in the US manufacturing sector is possible. 

The key factor in this becoming a profit story is that snapping iPads together in Asia is much cheaper than in the US.

[hishnash]

19 minutes ago, Arika S said:

can the profits be kept in the country where they were earned and not flicked overseas to avoid paying tax to the countries that made them all this money?

in short that depends on the region of the world, the US has quite a nasty tax policy for this, so it means its cheaper for apple to borrow money in the US (then move that debt to another country and pay it off there) than it is for apple to bring that money back to the US. 

many other countries have a diffrent policy on this, basically as long as you paid taxes in the nation you sold the product in you don't pay taxes again when it crosses the boarder this lets apple easily move money to china/japan/korea/taiwan without paying tax a second time. But if they had these hubs in the US apple would need to pay US tax on the money they would be bringing back into the US so that apple could pay for the parts in the US.

[DrMacintosh]

36 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

Can we bring back those jobs to the US? Record profits surely signal that higher wage jobs in the US manufacturing sector is possible. 

Certainly, but only if corporations are able to get out of having to pay for employee benefits. That’s why US manufacturing is dying, healthcare (dental, vision, etc.) is all privatized and employers end up paying for it. That’s a big cost for them and cuts their bottom line significantly. Socializing those services would allow corporations to start manufacturing in the US again. 

[xtroria]

This sure does seem like a thread that will get locked soon

[hishnash]

2 hours ago, DrMacintosh said:

Certainly, but only if corporations are able to get out of having to pay for employee benefits. That’s why US manufacturing is dying, healthcare (dental, vision, etc.) is all privatized and employers end up paying for it. That’s a big cost for them and cuts their bottom line significantly. Socializing those services would allow corporations to start manufacturing in the US again. 

Its not about employe benefits or staff costs its about supply chain. Apple don't `make` all of their phones they buy in form 100s of different supplies (all over eastern asia). 

If apple just moved the foxconn factories to the US (final assembly + putting in the box) they would end up having a massive logistical nightmare importing all the different parts (all that paperwork for each shipment). Compared to importing a single phone importing all the parts from all the different nations they are made in would be a massive headache. Apple would need to force the people who make the parts to move to the US.

[RejZoR]

Apple sales have stopped or dropped about the same as PC gaming is dying and is "pretty much dead" nonsense we keep on hearing repeatedly. The fact is, Apple phones are really good. People can whine about individual annoyances, but if you look at them as devices, they are greatly rounded in pretty much all aspects. Hardware and software. AirPods, regular and Pro. Great. Apple Watch, pretty freaking awesome, iPads have been sort of in its own class when it comes to tablets for quite a while and latest laptops and desktops are also getting high remarks recently.

 

iPhone XR was a huge success for them coz it was a well rounded, reasonably priced device. I have one and it's really good phone. So I can see why iPhone 11 is such a success, it's done in a similar way, but even better. And for less. It's still expensive, but it's a bit cheaper than last year's phone with better hardware. And I know how hard people will whine about the notch and LCD display, but there's actually nothing wrong with either. I used to be a notch hater and now after using it for a year, I couldn't give any less shit if it's up there or not. I don't take notch as intruding into my display as much as I see display protruding into the frame in 2 corners where it saves some space for signal and battery icons. And I probably wouldn't trade FaceID functionality for anything, because it's so seamless and works so well.

[Commodus]

5 hours ago, RejZoR said:

Apple sales have stopped or dropped about the same as PC gaming is dying and is "pretty much dead" nonsense we keep on hearing repeatedly. The fact is, Apple phones are really good. People can whine about individual annoyances, but if you look at them as devices, they are greatly rounded in pretty much all aspects. Hardware and software. AirPods, regular and Pro. Great. Apple Watch, pretty freaking awesome, iPads have been sort of in its own class when it comes to tablets for quite a while and latest laptops and desktops are also getting high remarks recently.

 

iPhone XR was a huge success for them coz it was a well rounded, reasonably priced device. I have one and it's really good phone. So I can see why iPhone 11 is such a success, it's done in a similar way, but even better. And for less. It's still expensive, but it's a bit cheaper than last year's phone with better hardware. And I know how hard people will whine about the notch and LCD display, but there's actually nothing wrong with either. I used to be a notch hater and now after using it for a year, I couldn't give any less shit if it's up there or not. I don't take notch as intruding into my display as much as I see display protruding into the frame in 2 corners where it saves some space for signal and battery icons. And I probably wouldn't trade FaceID functionality for anything, because it's so seamless and works so well.

I think you may be a little too sunshine-and-roses about Apple's lineup, but there is a truth that many tech forum enthusiasts are disconnected from what most customers care about with products.

 

In my experience, most people couldn't give a rat's ass that the iPhone 11's screen is an 828p LCD instead of a 1080p+ OLED, that there's a significant notch or that they can't install a custom launcher.  They just want a phone that's reasonably fast, lasts a long while on battery and takes quality photos.  And Apple seems to have done that at a price people are willing to pay.

[RejZoR]

@Commodus

I don't think I am, I'm just looking at it from different perspective now (had Android phones since Android Eclair, bought iPhone last year). I used to be the one who hated notches, laughed at higher end phones with 720p displays and even in the past stated I'd never ever own anything from Apple. Now I have 3 devices from their lineup, iPhone XR, AirPods 2 and Apple Watch 5. How things change...

 

But then I realized I ran Huawei P7 at 720p mode to save battery anyway coz there was so little visual difference you had to switch modes and look at it from 5cm to notice slight difference on fonts only and despite testing many custom launchers, in the end I kept returning to stock ones. And I didn't mind EMUI or MIUI which behave quite similarly to iOS anyway. I've already commented on the notch... The Retina marketing nonsense has some merit though. I really can't notice anything visually wrong with iPhone XR display. It has great viewing angles, great visibility even in really strong sun, great colors and even blacks aren't really that bad to be annoyance of any kind. I can't see individual pixels on anything to a point it would bother me. And yeah, I had AMOLED and 1080p displays before and returning to "720p" LCD was mentally annoying at first, but honestly, I couldn't give a damn now. And not because of iPhone, I returned to LCD with Xiaomi Mi5 and I can't say anything bad about it either.

 

So, there's that. It's a solid performer on basically all areas and I think people value that quite a lot. With Androids, even if you get 4K display and 12GB RAM for same price as iPhone 11, you're still going in a Google's relationship and bullshit Android updates ecosystem of endless waiting for updates to arrive and losing that crappy ability after 2 years or less in most cases. There is no such exceptions with iPhones. I know it's gonna be VERY hard for me to go back to Android software support shenanigans. I was just sick and tired of all the waiting and looking for info, digging custom images and finding ways to update the damn thing. With iOS, if I see there's an update for it in the news, I'm 100% guaranteed to get it if I check for updates that moment. And looking historically, Apple provides updates for 5 years in such manner. That's something I really value and like. And I think so do most casual users who stick with one phone for years.

[BuckGup]

Makes sense since Apple is very much a fashion brand now. Also Apple has way better security that Google, Hauwei, and every other phone cannot match. You pay more but it's like a fee for Apple to not sell your data to everyone

[Commodus]

2 hours ago, BuckGup said:

Makes sense since Apple is very much a fashion brand now. Also Apple has way better security that Google, Hauwei, and every other phone cannot match. You pay more but it's like a fee for Apple to not sell your data to everyone

That's why it's always a bit odd when people grouse that Apple gear is supposedly overpriced, but then complain that Microsoft is displaying ads in the Start menu, or that Google seems to want too much data, or...

 

That's not to say that Apple isn't charging a premium beyond this, but some of the higher pricing comes from Apple's refusal to subsidize hardware with ads and data.  You don't even see those tacky stickers that you often find on pre-built Windows PCs.  I like the feeling that the computer is there for me, not to serve as an ad vehicle for the companies that made it.

[BuckGup]

1 hour ago, Commodus said:

That's why it's always a bit odd when people grouse that Apple gear is supposedly overpriced, but then complain that Microsoft is displaying ads in the Start menu, or that Google seems to want too much data, or...

 

That's not to say that Apple isn't charging a premium beyond this, but some of the higher pricing comes from Apple's refusal to subsidize hardware with ads and data.  You don't even see those tacky stickers that you often find on pre-built Windows PCs.  I like the feeling that the computer is there for me, not to serve as an ad vehicle for the companies that made it.

Yeah for sure. The apple store employees are also very well trained. 

[iglance tech]

100% down for bringing back jobs to the US. Apple is raking it in.

[Commodus]

1 hour ago, iglance tech said:

100% down for bringing back jobs to the US. Apple is raking it in.

Easier said than done.  As I pointed out earlier, any new assembly plants in the US are likely to be highly automated.  The fantasy is that tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs will come stateside; the reality is that it's more likely to be hundreds.

[bimmerman]

I'm not surprised. The 11 is a good phone, the 11 Pro even better.

 

Most consumers don't know what screen resolution their phone has, and don't care besides.

 

I have the XR for a work phone and an LG V40 for my own phone. I have noticed and cared exactly zero times about the XR's resolution and LCD/OLED disparity.

[williamcll]

This will just prove that apple can push their price even further.

[xtroria]

On 1/29/2020 at 10:58 PM, RejZoR said:

So, there's that. It's a solid performer on basically all areas and I think people value that quite a lot. With Androids, even if you get 4K display and 12GB RAM for same price as iPhone 11, you're still going in a Google's relationship and bullshit Android updates ecosystem of endless waiting for updates to arrive and losing that crappy ability after 2 years or less in most cases. There is no such exceptions with iPhones. I know it's gonna be VERY hard for me to go back to Android software support shenanigans. I was just sick and tired of all the waiting and looking for info, digging custom images and finding ways to update the damn thing. With iOS, if I see there's an update for it in the news, I'm 100% guaranteed to get it if I check for updates that moment. And looking historically, Apple provides updates for 5 years in such manner. That's something I really value and like. And I think so do most casual users who stick with one phone for years.

iOS is simply easier to deal with in most cases and iPhone has tendency of being “alright” despite being 2+ years old.

 

In developing countries though since most people use mid range android phone and iPhone prices are jacked up so much (iphone 11 costs the same as note 10+), app development is better on android phones so a lot of people just use high end samsung

[Fnige]

On 2/6/2020 at 10:59 AM, xtroria said:

iOS is simply easier to deal with in most cases and iPhone has tendency of being “alright” despite being 2+ years old.

 

In developing countries though since most people use mid range android phone and iPhone prices are jacked up so much (iphone 11 costs the same as note 10+), app development is better on android phones so a lot of people just use high end samsung

Also apple is just as or more powerful then their competitors in performance