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Live blog: Apple’s Q3 2014 earnings call

Apple Q3 Live blog earnings call

As we mentioned last month, Apple will today host its quarterly conference call to discuss its earnings report from the third quarter of its fiscal year: this includes 35.2 million iPhones, 13.2 million iPads, 2.9 million iPods, and 4.4 million Macs. Apple reported today that it earned $37.4 billion in revenue during its Q3 period.

This will be the first quarterly conference call with analysts and investors since Apple announced its plans to acquire Beats Electronics and Beats Music in a $3 billion deal that it expects to clear regulatory approval by the end of the current quarter in September. Today’s call also will be the first since Apple’s developer conference in June as well as Apple’s announced partnership with IBM to bolster the iPhone and iPad effort in the enterprise. It also marks Luca Maestri’s first call as CFO since Peter Oppenheimer’s retirement, although Maestri has been present on past calls.

Investors and analysts will surely focus on Apple’s new product plans for the remainder of this year, though, and we’ll be listening to bring you coverage starting at 5pm EST/ 2pm PST.

Earnings report is out!

-Commence twenty minutes of high fidelity hold music notably not by Dre… Shazam integration with Siri in iOS 8 doesn’t recognize the song.

-You can listen along to the call at home here. Not yet playing on iTunes Radio… Someone should notify Eddy Cue. (These do hit iTunes after hours though if you’re into that sort of thing.)

-12 minute warning!

-Anyone know if that’s Craig Federighi playing the piccolo? 4 minute warning!

-The call is kicking off! Tim Cook and Luca Maestri will be speaking first, forward looking statements included, yada yada yada, then Q&A.

 

-Tim Cook speaking now, record number of people watched WWDC keynote: 20 million people viewed the live stream.

-Cook describing Apple’s new programming language Swift, says allows for new categories of apps

-Cook says 29 major car brands integrating CarPlay, mispronounces Hyundai (should rhyme with Sunday), Cook now recapping on HealthKit, HomeKit, and mentioning IBM partnership to work together to tackle the enterprise, says Swift will help with bringing these apps to iPhone and iPad

-Now talking earnings… record June revenue, attributing iPhone sales to BRIC countries

-Cook: iTunes is fastest growing business thanks to strong results from the App Store

-Cook now discussing customer satisfaction with iPad rather than focusing on sales

-Cook: IBM will be catalyst for future iPad growth

-Now discussing Beats deal including streaming music service

29 acquisitions since fiscal year 2013, 5 since end of March quarter (doesn’t include Beats)

-Cook: Incredible pipeline of new software and services

 

-Now Apple CFO Luca Maestri is recapping the earnings report…

-Maestri noted high iPhone sales despite rumors of new products which can lead to lower sales

-Maestri notes iPad growth in particular in the Middle East

-Says 100,000 iPads are used by government officials in Sweden

13 million iPads sold to education customers globally, notes new iTunes U app with features for students and teachers

-Notes 12% revenue year-over-year for iTunes growth in part thanks to App Store

75 billion cumulative App Store downloads, $20 billion paid to developers with almost half paid in the last 12 months

-Maestri repeats that Apple expects Beats acquisition to close by the end of this end (September), will report earnings in 2015

 

-Q&A kicking off with Maestri taking questions, Tim Cook remains on the call…

-Cook discussing new product categories and its strategy with the iPad, says tablet market is still young and Apple plans to innovate significantly with the iPad, talking about business as an opportunity for growth with iPad, think IBM partnership

-Cook now talking growth in China, again citing iTunes Software and Services category success thanks to App Store…

-Cook: Still in the process of rolling out in China

-Cook asked about impact of trade-in programs on iPhone sales… Cook answers that trade-in programs are not cannibalizing new device sales, are actually hugely beneficial for the Apple ecosystem… says his gut feeling is cannibalization is low and Apple products have higher resale value, encourages customers to buy more Apple products…

-Cook now discussing value-added tax in Japan, carriers receiving guidance from regulators to stop incentivizing customers to swap from other carriers at higher amounts, dampened market in Japan, Cook doesn’t believe will see much of a share change from this…

-Cook asked about three tiers of iPhone, asked to discuss iPhone 5c performance… Cook says Apple doesn’t divide out iPhone models but iPhone 5c growth compared to iPhone 4s year over year had highest growth in that mid tier…

-Cook addressing new iPhone pricing models tried by carriers, believes less than 1 in 4 iPhones sold on traditional subsidy plan, new upgrade options make buying new iPhones easier when new products are announced…

-Cook asked about Beats deal, IBM partnership, what he sees in Apple that is changing with these big deals… Cook repeating that mobile in enterprise is big opportunity… Apple always looking in the acquisition space, with Beats Apple gets incredible subscription service, rare set of talent, access to fast growing business with headphones and earphones, culturally matched with music…

-Cook asked about app distribution policy and the App Store with enterprise, Cook says Apple has no plans to change policy, all for taking friction out of the experience, not adding it… Cook mentioned exciting goal of moving from 20% to 60% in enterprise…

 

-That’s a wrap! The recording of the call will hit iTunes through Apple’s podcast feed this evening. Thanks for following along! (“Don’t Ask Why” by Ron Sexsmith playing out the call according to Shazam!)

 

 

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Comments

  1. Taste_of_Apple - 10 years ago

    It’ll be interesting to see how they explain the numbers. Investors will spin it negatively either way. Bring on new products in a few weeks!

  2. Fake Sound (@Secrxt) - 10 years ago

    Why does Jimmy Iovine look photoshopped over Jony Ive?

  3. Lars Pallesen - 10 years ago

    Man, this new CFO Luca Maestri is a bore to listen to … *snore*

    • 1chiefredfox - 10 years ago

      Just curious — how much excitement and pizzazz were you expecting from the… finance and accounting guy? ;-)

    • rlowhit - 10 years ago

      Oppenheimer was no life of the party on previous calls either.

  4. Kris (@thelastofkris) - 10 years ago

    Why is Cook the ONLY one without an Apple Laptop?

  5. Truffol (@Truffol) - 10 years ago

    The picture of Dr Dre in a suit is hilarious…

    Stock price isn’t really moving much after market

  6. Mishika Nahar - 9 years ago

    Beats by Dre are just fabulous look wise as well as Quality wise.I love the colors which they have. They are compatible with all smart phones with no noise disturbance.

  7. bobborries - 9 years ago

    Why is the Apple Logo on Walter White’s Macbook Pro look out of perspective?

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.