Apple : Best Quarter Ever, Yet Stock Takes A Tumble
Bucking the trend of poorhouse postings from most of the major telephone manufacturers, Apple is only too happy to announce their best quarter results ever. Ever.
Apple are dominating all the markets they currently operate in, and the numbers cement just how successful they have been in the last few months. 11 million iPods sold. 2.5 million Macs. 717,000 iPhones. Oh, those aren’t the new puppy, but sales of the iPhone ‘classic’. The profit reports are up to June 30th, a good few weeks before iPhone 3G was unleashed. Pretty impressive.
What does that mean in real terms? Revenues of $7.5 billion, and profits of $1.1 billion. Understandably, Steve Jobs was only too glad to shout this glorious news from his ivory tower, but also in a press release.
“We’re proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple’s history. We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G, and we’re busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months.”
Wait, what? New products? With the iPhone, especially in 16GB flavour, the iPod Touch range has become pretty redundant. Could they be adding fatter hard drives to bring the iPod back to the fore? An even thinner Macbook Air, perhaps? You can never be too rich or have too thin a laptop…
Sounds like sunshine and lollipops all round, but then why did Apple stock take a nosedive of up to 11%? Well, the problem with having such a charismatic, integral and prominent figurehead as Steve Jobs, his status reflects upon the company hugely. Rumours of his ill health have been circulating for a number of months, and the wall of silence from the Apple camp is deafening.
As recently as in 2004 he underwent extensive surgery for pancreatic cancer, but his frail figure at the Developer’s Conference earlier this year set tongues wagging almost as much as the iPhone 3G reveal.
The response that analysts received from Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer when they pried further were almost as worrying. “Steve loves Apple. He serves as CEO at the pleasure of the board, and he has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.” Yes, only if he’s ill. If he’s feeling fine, why keep it a secret?
This defensive answer had precisely the opposite effect with some concerned stock holders briskly selling their shares. Let’s hope Steve sticks around to enjoy Apple’s new levels of success, or it could all be over prematurely…
