Apple said last week that it earned $18 billion in the holiday quarter, up 38% from a year earlier, further cementing the computer maker’s place in the annals of business.
The Cupertino-based company earned more than nearly 90% of companies in the S&P 500 index each made in total profits since 2009, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Apple could distribute $556 to all 320 million Americans, commented ReCode, which called the results a “blowout.”
Writing in the Times, James Stewart observed that Apple earned “more than any company ever in a single quarter.”
Much of the profit came from sales of the iPhone, which accounted for 69% of Apple’s revenue. “Demand for iPhone was staggering,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts. “This volume is hard to comprehend.”
Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones in the quarter at an average price of $687 apiece, or about $50 higher than a year earlier, according to the Journal. Much of that reflects the love consumers are showing the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. During the quarter, Apple sold 34,000 iPhones every hour of every day.
I’m citing these measures because for the past six months I’ve admired Apple’s creating a phone with a display whose size rivals smartphones from Samsung. As the Journal noted, “strong iPhone sales helped Apple claw back market share that it gave up to Samsung… in the past three years.”
Apple saw Samsung succeeding with bigger screens, so Apple made an iPhone with a bigger screen. I imagine that’s what MBA’s learn to do – to co-opt something that appears to be working for your rival – but the fact that Apple succeeded at it seems like a testament to the smarts, strategy and skill of Cook and his team.
What’s more interesting is the idea that Apple also is making room for the company’s watch, which is slated to ship in April. Quartz cites a tweet by Paul Kedrosky, a financial commentator, who notes that Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus has created a “portability deficit” that in turn will make room for sales of the watch.
https://twitter.com/pkedrosky/status/560481958661480448
Still, two experiences I’ve had recently point to a problem with the move to macro and the design of smartphones generally. Last weekend I sold my iPhone 6, which proved to be too large for both my hand and my pocket. The phone felt uncomfortable in my hand compared with my iPhone 5c And note, my hand is medium size; I wear a size large glove. Plus, the plastic shell that encases the 5c allows the device to absorb my dropping it, which happens to lots of us, judging by all the cracked iPhone displays you see people holding and the offers by Radio Shack and others to replace glass.
Of course, as Apple’s earnings show, people love the larger phones. Within 30 minutes of my posting my iPhone 6 for sale on Craigslist, at least 15 people contacted me with offers to buy it. Yet weirdly, or not so weirdly, I’m happier with my 5c.
The other anecdote occurred Wednesday aboard the 3 train, where a woman of about 30 sat next to me. She juggled on her person an array of things, including a pink leather handbag and a black bag that she balanced on her lap. In her left hand she held a travel coffee mug, one of those that’s a ceramic version of a paper coffee cup but with a rubber lid that fits snugly. Hers had pink lipstick prints affixed to it. (The print was the same shade as the handbag.)
In her right hand the woman held a white iPhone 5s tuned to Spotify. She might have listened had she been able to retrieve and disentangle a set of earbuds from her left coat pocket without spilling the coffee, which she balanced momentarily between her knees the best one can while wearing a wool coat that extends to the thigh. Twice the woman tried to unbraid the earbuds, dropping them once before giving up entirely and shoving them back into her pocket.
Of course, the subway and, I suspect, every mode of public transportation in America, brims with people tethered by earbuds to smartphones. When you think about it, having to hold a smartphone in your hand while unsnarling earbuds, which looked awesome in those Apple commercials 14 years ago, requires a resoluteness that now makes earbuds seem like something that’s time to jettison. In short, they’re a restraint.
That, I imagine, may be where the watch and other so-called wearables figure. The watch reportedly will work with bluetooth headphones, allowing you to bypass your iPhone completely. If true, Apple may be arranging the market to suit its strategy. Regardless, when it comes to portability, it may be time, as someone once said, to think different.
