Apple: Reception questionable, revenue excellent
After spending an uncomfortable hour on stage responding to user and press issues with the reception on Apple’s iPhone 4, Jobs and company will be on more familiar ground at their earnings call this afternoon.
At today’s investor call, Apple executives are likely to find a much more receptive (pun intended) audience than the one the tech press (at least the enemy tech press) has given the iPhone 4. Despite all the noise being made by industry pundits and analysts about problems with Apple’s latest handset offering, the company has continued to rake in the revenue, primarily on the back of sales of more than 3 million of those very same iPhone 4 units over just one month. It makes one wonder where the disconnect is between a tech press corps that makes endless noise about how bad the handset is and a consuming public that continues to buy the iPhone 4 more quickly than Apple can make it. Please feel free to sort out the obvious.
The third quarter Apple numbers are expected to include around $15 billion in revenue, and earnings better than $3 per share. It makes no difference how you calibrate your signal bars, those are top flight numbers and the only death grip in sight will be the one that Apple investors have on their stock certificates. Investors be pleased with the sales of 3 million iPhones since June 24 and the continuing strong sales of the iPad, according to a CNET story. In case you were wondering, a number of Apple financial analysts have calculated the total cost of Antenna-gate, and it seems to come out as mere pennies per share, payable in quarter 4.
In case you were feeling bad for Steve while he was answering questions at the Antenna-gate press conference, remember that he owns a veritable mountain of Apple stock, whose meteoric rise over the past few years has provided excellent insulation for his bank account. There is no requirement that you like the man, but it is a little difficult to explain how anyone (except the owner of trainloads of sour grapes) could not respect the incredible job he has done at Apple.
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