In his recent posts Horace took a look at Apple’s fixed assets and their development over the recent years. He also tested the hypotheses that Apple is making investments into machinery & equipment on which iOS devices are produced by overlaying iOS volumes with preceding changes in property, plant and equipment (PP&E). The question that … Continue reading “Are Apple’s investments in PP&E extraordinary?”
Dan and Horace talk about Apple’s quarter with an eye toward the operational commitments being made. We cover the cost of store openings, data center purchases and machinery used in manufacturing iOS devices. By tracking capital expenses we can get a clue about where Apple wants to go. This episode is sponsored by Sourcebits, Handelabra … Continue reading “5by5 | The Critical Path #10: The Means of Production”
Last quarter I was wrong because I thought Apple would throttle production of the iPhone 4 in the fourth quarter post-launch. “The reason growth would moderate was that Apple slowed production of the old model in order to switch out to the new model–we saw the same thing happen with the slowdown in iPad 1 … Continue reading “How did I get the iPhone number so wrong (part II)”
In the last two posts (How much does an Apple store cost?, The down payment on iCloud) I discussed two line items in the PP&E asset class on Apple’s Balance Sheet. In isolation, the data is interesting as it gives us an idea of the cost structure of stores and facilities being developed to sustain its current … Continue reading “How much do Apple's factories cost?”
The August comScore mobile survey (MobiLens) is out. It measures the penetration or consumption of various mobile products and services in the US over a three month period. I track the change in this data over time. Here are some highlights: In August about 520,000 users switched to using smartphones (from non-smart phones) as their … Continue reading “Can the BlackBerry recover?”
Thirty minutes after the end of the ‘Let’s talk iPhone’ event, 5by5.tv will be hosting a set of commentators[1] giving initial impressions of announcements. “Tune-in” at http://5by5.tv/live I’ll update this post with a link for the download once available. [UPDATE] Dan Benjamin talks about Apple’s “Let’s Talk iPhone” event with Dan Moren, Marco Arment, John … Continue reading “Let's talk 'Let's talk iPhone' on 5by5.tv”
The Wall Street Journal reported that Sprint Nextel made a “multibillion-dollar” gamble on the iPhone. This is based on information that Sprint committed to buy 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years. Wall Street Journal reporters calculated that the deal is worth around $20 billion on the basis of iPhone ASP during the last … Continue reading “Sprint's gamble”
I’ve been providing analysis of Apple’s operating and financial performance for some time. Recently we’ve begun to look at comparisons of financial performance for comparable companies. Now it’s time to dig deeper and do comparisons of operating performance as well. To start, Microsoft. Whereas Apple has product lines (iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, iTunes, Peripherals and … Continue reading “Comparing top lines: Apple vs. Microsoft”
On October 4th, Tim Cook will take the stage at Apple’s fall event. With Steve Jobs’ transition to head the Board of Directors of Apple and after serving as CEO for fourteen years, it is time to take a look at his reign. Looking at his performance vs. peer companies from a capital market performance, … Continue reading “Visualizing the Steve Jobs era”
[Updated with new charts including data from StatCounter and not NetMarketshare] Generally speaking there is an equivalence drawn between iOS and Android as technologies and even as user experiences. However, as I’ve pointed out on several occasions there is a very clear nonequivalence in business models and thus the “fuel” which keeps each platform running. … Continue reading “The perils of possession without utilization”
