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News & Opinion
Apple Updates
Software
News & Opinion
Apple's Quarterly Results: All-Time Record Mac and
iPad Sales
PR: Apple on Tuesday announced financial results for its
fiscal 2011 fourth quarter ended September 24, 2011. The Company posted
quarterly revenue of $28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.62
billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue
of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64
per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 40.3%
compared to 36.9% in the year-ago quarter. International sales
accounted for 63% of the quarter's revenue.
The Company sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, representing
21% unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 11.12 million
iPads during the quarter, a 166% unit increase over the year-ago
quarter. The Company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26%
unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.62 million iPods,
a 27% unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
"We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding
fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $108 billion and growing
earnings to $26 billion," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Customer
response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going
into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our
product pipeline."
"We are extremely pleased with our record September quarter revenue
and earnings and with cash generation of $5.4 billion during the
quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the
first fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 14 weeks rather than 13,
we expect revenue of about $37 billion and we expect diluted earnings
per share of about $9.30."
Apple has posted live streaming of its Q4 2011 financial results
conference call at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq411.
This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two
weeks thereafter.
Best Ever Mac and iPad Sales Help Apple Turn in
Record Quarter
Macworld's Philip Michaels reports:
"Record sales of both Macs and iPads helped Apple set new marks for
quarterly revenue and earnings for its fiscal fourth-quarter.
"The company announced Tuesday that it logged $28.27 billion in
revenue and $6.62 billion in net profit for the three-month period
ended on September 24. That's an increase of 38 percent in revenue and
54 percent in profit from the year-ago numbers."
"Wall Street may be less thrilled: analysts were looking for the
company to post earnings of $7.39 a share and revenue of $29.69
billion, according to Thomson Reuters. Still, Apple's results came in
ahead of the forecast chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer offered
in July, when he told analysts to expect earnings of $5.50 per share
and revenues of $25 billion during the fourth quarter.
"However, Apple seems to have high expectations for the coming
holiday season. Oppenheimer told analyst to expect December quarter
revenues of $37 billion - that's a 38 percent jump from the $26.74
billion Apple recorded last year."
Link:
All-time Mac, iPad Sales Help Apple Turn in Record Quarter
Are Macintosh Computers in Decline?
The Business, Marketing, and Solutions blog suggests that based on
current sales figures, a continuing trend for Apple to become more a
mobile company and less a computer company is discernible. The article
notes that 68% of Apple's revenues now derive from sales of iPads and
iPhones, which is going to make it very hard for cheap Windows 7
products to compete.
Meanwhile, Q3 2011 metrics show that only 17.9% of Apple's revenues
came from traditional Mac desktops and laptops, while the bulk of the
company's sales came from iPhone with 46.6% of revenue and iPad at
21.2%, with a combined revenue of 67.8%, up from 48% for the same
period last year - a whopping 19.8% increase, and indicating a growth
rate of 142% and 183% for iPad and iPhone, respectively.
So will the time come when Apple decides that traditional computers
are unnecessary? The blogger thinks probably not, noting that Apple has
been putting more iOS-like features into OS X but thinks it unlikely
that iOS will replace OS X entirely. However, OS X may soon become just
an afterthought to the iOS.
Reasonable deductions, alas, although that path will be resisted by
those of us who care about productive efficiency, require multitasking,
and remain unconvinced that touchscreen-oriented computing represents
an advance.
Publisher's note: Despite the declining percentage of Apple income
attributed to Macs, two facts stand out: Macs are selling at their
highest rate ever, and Mac sales are very profitable. The fact that
iPhone and iPad growth outstrips Mac growth only means that even more
people are being exposed to Apple quality and their user experience,
making them even more likely to go Mac next time they replace their old
Windows PC. dk
Link: The Continuing
Decline of Apple Computers?
Hate Mongers Picket Steve Jobs Memorial
Cupertino Patch's Anne Ernst and Pam Marino report:
"Purple, posters, protesters and messages of love and acceptance
were the counter theme when a hate speech group rolled into town
Wednesday morning.
"Cupertino High School counter protesters and their supporters
rolled up their sleeves, zipped their lips and silently spread the
message that 'love is the answer,' when a handful of protestors from
the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) showed up at the school with their
hands full of hate signs.
"WBC, an extremist group from Topeka, Kansas that claims God 'hates'
many things and is known to protest at military funerals, came to
Cupertino to protest outside Apple headquarters during the employees'
memorial service honoring Steve Jobs. The hate speech group decided
that while they were in town they'd tack on a visit to a local high
school, too, a picketer with WBC told Patch.
"But the tiny hate speech group was far outnumbered at both 'Tino
High where about 100 counter protesters gathered, and at Apple where
about 50 counter protesters demonstrated."
"In a way she was glad the WBC people showed up, [Cupertino High
School Principal Kami] Tomberlain said, not because they chose 'Tino,
but because it gave the students a chance to "counter the message with
love. I'm glad they had the opportunity.'
"The scene in the quad where the students gathered was composed;
students wore the symbolic anti-bullying color of purple, then sang and
danced in a party-like atmosphere. Outside the school, and later at
Apple, the scene was more raucous; adult counter protesters and WBC
members shouted at one another, each group singing songs with their own
messages."
Religion Alert
Publisher's personal note: It was nice to see that this has not been
widely reported - I had to search to find this one. Westboro Baptist
Church is an embarrassment to the Christian faith. Sadly, Westboro's
threat to picket received a lot of coverage, which gives the tiny
church - composed primarily of members of Pastor Fred Phelps' extended
family - undue influence. The Westboro Baptist Church is an independent
congregation not affiliated with any Baptist convention or association,
and it's disgraceful unchristian hate-mongering it at complete odds
with the message of Jesus Christ, who hung out with tax collectors,
prostitutes, and professional fishermen - and was critical of those who
used religion to condemn others. God loves the world (see John 3:16), including hate mongers
who claim to have the truth but are an embarrassment to Him. I hope
that Christians everywhere will pray that God opens the eyes of their
hearts (see Eph. 1:18)
to the better way (see
1 Cor. 12:31-13:13) and the Spirit exchanges their too-small Grinch
hearts with ones full of God's love for His broken world. dk
Link:
Hate Speech Group Pickets Cupertino High and Apple Wednesday
RescueCom Q2 2011 Computer Reliability Report
PR: The results for RescueCom's Computer Reliability Report
for the second quarter of 2011 again place Lenovo in the top spot, now
two quarters in a row.
"During these economically stressed times, when 90% of people
believe we are in a bad economy, it's even more important to know what
products will save you money down the road. Reliability is one of the
best indicators of how much your technology will cost you over the long
haul," says RescueCom CEO David Milman.
The Computer Reliability Report gives an unbiased summary of the
most reliable personal computer manufacturers. The top five brands with
the best overall reliability in Q2 2011 are:
- IBM/Lenovo (234)
- Toshiba (202)
- Apple (124)
- HP/Compaq (120)
- Asus/Sony tie (73)
Several significant changes occurred during quarter 2. Asus took a
nosedive in the second quarter, going from second position to fifth in
reliability. Asus experienced skyrocketing percentages of market share
throughout 2009, and maintained excellent customer support during that
time. It seems they are not able to maintain that level of support with
all the new customers, however, and are barely holding on to a position
in the top five for this quarter.
HP/Compaq, still the clear-cut leader in market
share, essentially maintained its same level of reliability from the
first quarter to the second. HP's move from the fifth spot to the
fourth place is due to the significant drop in the reliability rating
of Asus.
Toshiba, on the other hand, is the only manufacturer that increased
in its reliability score over the first quarter.
RescueCom's first quarter report called attention to Samsung as a
brand to watch. Even though its market share does not place this
manufacturer in the lineup of top manufacturers, Samsung continues to
rank high in reliability.
Dell, on the other hand, maintains second place in market share of
computers sold, yet lags far behind others in computer reliability.
Publisher's note: I hate poorly generated statistics almost as much
as meaningless ones. For instance, Mac users are far more likely to
call Apple and Dell users Dell when they have problems. In fact, I
can't think of a good reason to call RescueCom instead of Apple or a
local Apple Dealer. This is reflected in the fact that only 1.3% of
RescueCom's business comes from Mac users. Additionally, the market
share percentage only reflects current sales numbers, not the size of
the installed base. And finally, the age of the hardware isn't factored
in at all. I imagine there are a lot more old Macs and Dells, while
Asus and Samsung machines would be much more current. All of this
combines to make these precise statistics look a lot less meaningful.
Not only that, but the rankings in the article and in the table are at
odds with each other - one putting Apple in third place, the other at
two, while Asus is either tops in reliability or in fifth place. I hope
they fix computers better than they do statistics! dk
Link: RescueCom
Apple Updates
Security Update 2011-006 for Snow Leopard
Security Update 2011-006 (Snow Leopard) is recommended for all users
and improves the security of Mac OS X.
For information on the security content of this update, visit
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222
File Size: 136.28 MB
System Requirements: Mac OS X v10.6.8
Link: Security Update 2011-006 (Snow
Leopard)
'Lion Recovery Update Can't Be Installed on This
Disk'
A new Apple Knowledge Base article says that attempting to install
the Lion Recovery Update via Software Update may result in this alert
message, and the installation will stop:
"Lion Recovery Update can't be installed on this disk. An error
occurred while evaluating JavaScript for the package."
Products Affected: OS X Lion
Resolution: This can happen if your Mac does not have Lion Recovery
installed. To learn more about why Lion Recovery was not installed,
please see this
article.
Link: OS X
Lion: 'Lion Recovery Update Can't Be Installed on This Disk. An Error
Occurred While Evaluating JavaScript for the Package.' When Installing
Lion Recovery Update
Software
Tex-Edit Plus X 4.9.9 Includes Support for PowerPC
and Intel Macs, Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.7
PR: Tex-Edit Plus (TE+), my way out-front favorite text
crunching tool and lightweight word processor, is a scriptable, styled
text editor that fills the gap nicely between pure text/no formatting
text editors and full-featured word processors. It's fast, efficient,
has a clean, uncluttered interface, and is great for cleaning up text
transmitted over the Internet. It also has the best implementation of
AppleScript of any application your editor has used.
Tex-Edit Plus can read, convert, and save files in various
international formats, including Unicode, ASCII, and RTF. It can also
open the "raw" text of MS Word and other formatted word processor
documents.
TE+ developer Tom Bender has released a new OS X 10.7 Lion
compatible TE+ that runs fine on both PowerPC and Intel Macs,
supporting Mac OS versions 10.4 through 10.7+. Bender says he's tried
to minimize the formatting loss when moving between PPC and Intel
documents (although more complex docs can be ported using RTF, if
needed) and also notes that the speedup when upgrading from
Rosetta-dependent to Intel-native TE+ is surprisingly dramatic for some
operations.
New in version Tex-Edit Plus 4.9.9:
- Universal binary runs at native speeds on both Intel and PowerPC
Macs.
- Requires Mac OS 10.4 or newer. (Lion compatible.)
- Added a (scriptable) prefs switch to allow use of RTF as the
default document format. (Note that RTF does not support all document
data supported by the Normal document format, e.g. sounds, movies,
window sizing, etc.)
- Improved memory handling when saving documents that contain large
numbers of uncompressed pictures.
- Fixed picture handling bug noted when dragging in JPEG/TIFF/GIF
files.
- Removed the error dialog that appeared the first time Show Fonts
was selected.
- New Normal document format for Intel. (Normal documents created on
PPC and Intel systems are not 100% cross-compatible. Use RTF format if
you need to transfer complex docs between PPC and Intel systems.)
- Cosmetic adjustments to accommodate Lion metrics.
- Improved recordability to work correctly under Lion.
- Inserted pauses in the AppleScript Demo app so that it wont run too
fast on Lion. (!)
- Updated Page Setup dialog extension.
- Updated some localizations, particularly Italian.
System requirements:
- PPC/Intel
- Mac OS X 10.4 or later
Tex-Edit Plus is $15 shareware
Link: Tex-Edit
Plus
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