As we mentioned last month, Apple is scheduled to host its quarterly conference call today to discuss its earnings report from the fourth quarter of its fiscal year: this includes 39 million iPhones, 12.3 million iPads, 2.6 million iPods, and 5.5 million Macs. Apple already reported today that it earned $42.1 billion in revenue during its Q4 period.
This quarterly conference call with analysts and investors will include the opening weekend of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus sales which included a record 10 million sales including 4 million units sold during the first 24 hours of pre-orders. It will also be the first call since Apple previewed the Apple Watch to the public, shipped iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, and introduced new iPads and a Retina 5K iMac, although sales for those devices are not included in the previous quarter. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri will also likely mention Apple Pay, the company’s mobile payment service which launched for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus users earlier today.
Investors and analysts will have an opportunity to ask Tim Cook and company questions during the earnings call and we’ll be listening to bring you coverage starting at 5pm EST/ 2pm PST.
-Hold music has begun… you can listen along, but we’ll include the highlights here.
-Lots of hold music, 3 minute warning, no U2 music yet.
-Hopefully no one is using iOS 8.0.1 for this call…
-And here we go…
-Tim Cook is up first
-Tim recapping iPhone 6 and 6 Plus launches: “best we’ve ever created, customers absolutely love them”
-32 countires with iPhone 6 so far, 69 more before the end of October
-115 countries by the end of 2014
-Apple Pay is live today, as you may have heard
-Apple Watch still coming “early calendar 2015” with more details coming later
-Quick mentions of iPad Air 2, iMac with Retina 5K, iOS 8 and Yosemite
-Cook says Apple exceeded its own expectations this quarter, now going over the numbers that were released earlier
-Mac now has highest PC market share since 1995
-Cumulative app downloads hit 85 billion
-20 acquisitions this year, 7 in the September quarter
–Luca Maestri talking more numbers, breaking down product sales as released earlier today
-Chinese search engine Baidu is now using iPhones in their office, 20,000 employees and 30 in-house apps
-That 100% customer satisfaction rate for iPad mini 2 is back, and 55% of people polled say they plan to buy an iPad as their next tablet
[tweet https://twitter.com/sama/status/524300372286795778 align=’center’]
-All-time record billings in iTunes thanks to the App Store
-Registered developers up 39% over last year
-Final remarks now, covering a few reporting changes for Q1 2015
-Time for some questions
-Apple Pay question – how does Apple see this as a business model? A way to sell hardware products or more of its own product?
-Tim says it’s about creating a better customer experience and more secure payment system; dislikes companies monetizing customer payment data
-“The most customer-centric mobile payment system” – can’t wait to add more retailers and banks
-Question about iPhone ramping, Tim says fastest in history but demand is outstripping supply, no indication of when that will balance
-Tim notes again that demand is outweighing supply on iPhone 6, says “we’ve done a pretty good job on that,” but won’t say there’s no issue, calls it “a good problem to have.”
-Every answer to every question so far has essentially ended with “we can’t make enough iPhone 6 and 6 Plus units yet”
-Tim talking iPhone upgrades and the opportunities provided by customers upgrading at different times of the year, switching from Android, and buying their first iPhones. Also once again points out constrained supply.
-Question about iPhone 6/6 Plus sales split, Tim won’t give any specifics but says that Apple is selling everything they make; says it’s likely that a geographic difference will appear in popularity of certain models, but nothing solid yet
-68 million iPad sales in 2014, down YOY, Tim calls it “a speed bump, not a huge issue,” but wants to improve growth
-Tim says 50-75% first time buyers in some markets indicates tablet market isn’t saturated, but many people hold onto iPads longer than other products
-Tim says he is fine with Apple products cannibalizing one another
-Question about why Apple Watch is grouped into “other” category in new reporting groups, along with iPods and others
-Tim says it doesn’t indicate expectations for Apple Watch sales, categories were based on current revenue
-Question about any new product categories we don’t know about. Tim says “obviously we are working on other things as well,” won’t get any more specific.
-Question about China numbers, Tim says things are looking just fine, very optimistic about the future
-That’s all folks! You can catch a replay of the call on Apple’s earnings call podcast a little later.
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