Apple sold a record-breaking 5.5 million Macs in Q4 2014

Apple has already revealed the total number of iPhones, iPods, iPads and Macs that the company sold by the end of the fourth quarter in 2014, but during the conference call revealed more specifics about the record-breaking quarter.

Apple revealed during their conference call immediately following the official results for their Q4 2014 that the Mac lineup has sold a total of 5.5 million within the fourth quarter of 2014. The results prompted Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, to call them “stunning,” and that the “Back to school season voted, and Mac won.” The 5.5 million Macs in the fiscal fourth quarter of 2014 marks the highest number of Macs sold in a quarter by Apple to date.

It is also up more than 1 million year-over-year, and the total means a 21% growth from the same quarter in 2013. The total sales equals $6.6 billion. As a final note, Apple revealed that the company had sold 19 million Macs throughout the total quarter of 2014, and that sales were particularly strong for the MacBook Pro lineup, as well as the MacBook Air.

Earlier on Monday, October 20, Apple revealed that the company had earned a revenue of $42.1 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter of 2014, and that iTunes had netted $4.6 billion in sales within the same time frame. Apple also revealed that they had opened more than 400 new Apple Stores around the globe, had made 20 new acquisitions throughout their year, and that there are big plans in the works for Beats.

On October 16, Apple launched their 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display, with a starting price tag of $2,499.99.

Apple seeds OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 second beta to developers

On July 30, Apple officially seeded the first beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 to developers, and now the company has followed up with the second beta just a week later.

On August 7, Apple seeded the second beta of OS X Mavericks 10.9.5 to developers, giving them, as usual, early access to what will eventually be released to consumers as a final build at some point in the (near) future. Much like the first beta, the specific alterations that Apple is bringing to the table are unknown, but that doesn’t mean Apple isn’t asking developers to focus on certain elements.

Like with the first beta to devs, Apple is asking those who have early access to the software, which brings the build up to 13F12, to focus on Thunderbolt, graphics, USB, USB SmartCards and Safari. The update is available through Apple’s developer portal, or through the Update Software function on Macs currently running the development software.

There’s no telling when Apple will switch this over to the public release, but if the beta builds continue to launch at this frequency, Mac owners shouldn’t have too much longer to wait.

[via Apple Developer]

Apple Scores Another Beat

Back in September, Apple said it expected revenue and gross margins for its fourth quarter to fall "near the high end" of the range it had previously provided - $34 billion to $37 billion, and 36 percent to 37 percent.

Today, it delivered on that promise.

Posting fourth-quarter financials after market close Monday, Apple reported earnings per share of $8.26 on revenue of $37.5 billion. That's well above the $7.92 on revenue of $36.82 billion analysts had predicted, and at the higher end of Apple's own range of guidance for the period, though it was down on a per-share basis from $8.22 billion, or $8.67 a share, a year earlier. Apple said its gross margins were 37 percent, right in line with expectations.

Apple said it sold 33.8 million iPhones for the quarter, 14.1 million iPads and 4.6 million Macs. Analysts were expecting iPhone sales of 33.4 million units, iPad sales of 13.9 million units and Mac sales of about 4.2 million units.

Apple declared a cash dividend of $3.05 per share payable on November 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 11, 2013.

"We're pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth-quarter revenue, including sales of almost 34 million iPhones," CEO Tim Cook said in an earnings release.

Apple's guidance for next quarter, perhaps the most closely watched data point of all today: Revenue of between $55 billion and $58 billion, and gross margins of 36.5 percent to 37 percent. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $55.53 billion.

Apple stock is trading down more than three percent after hours.

Notes from the call

• $16 billion in revenue from iTunes software and services.
• 400 million visitors to retail stores. $50 million in revenue per store.
• Completed 15 strategic acquisitions. That's one acquisition every three to four weeks.
• Greatly appreciate "suggestions" from shareholders about capital allocation. Will announce any changes to capital allocation program in the first part of 2014.
• Sold 33.8 million iPhones versus 26.9 million in the same period in the year prior. Increase of 26 percent, a new September quarter record.
• Experian says iPhone users spend 53 percent more time each day on their devices than Android users.
• Sold 14.1 million iPads this quarter versus 14 million in same quarter last year.
• Sales of Macs exceeded expectations. Down 4 percent year over year, but overall PC market was down 10 percent.
• Planning 30 new stores in fiscal 2014, two-thirds outside the United States.
• Company has $146.8 billion in cash; 76 percent of that is offshore ($111.3 billion).
• Cook on 64-bit processor in iPhone 5s and new iPads: "This is the front end of a long roadmap."
• Cook on iPhone 5c pricing: "If you look at what we've done, we're selling the iPhone 4s as our entry level offering. We sell the iPhone 5c as a mid-tier device. And then we have the iPhone 5s at the high end. Obviously some people read rumors about the 5c being an entry-level device, but that was never our intent."
• Cook says he stands by his statement that we will see exciting new products from Apple across 2014. "We believe we can use our skills to build new categories in areas where we do not participate today. We're confident in that."
• Cook on China: "We had a pretty good quarter in China, but want to do better." IPhone units were up 26 percent year over year despite constraints around iPhone 5s. For full year, Greater China generated $27 billion, up 14 percent year over year.
• Cook on the tablet market and Apple's new iPad lineup: "We continue to view the tablet market as huge. We see it as a large opportunity for us. We are not solely focused on unit share, we are focused on usage share and customer loyalty and other things that are important to us. ... We're confident we will grow strongly year over year. We're getting things off to a great start this weekend with iPad Air and later in the month we'll begin shipping the new mini. ... We did feel that we wanted to reduce the price of the iPad mini and now we're coming in at $299. ... IPad Air is the best iPad we've ever done. We believe these products are going to do really well. We think it's going to be an iPad Christmas."
• Cook on Apple's decision to offer iWork, iLife and Mavericks for free: "We wanted to make this software part of what it meant to own a Mac and an iOS device. IWork had become the best-selling productivity app on a mobile device, we wanted all of our customers to have access to it so they could have the best features. ... Other folks charge for their OS and productivity apps. We wanted to make it a part of the experience."
• Cook on iPhone 5s and iPad supplies: "The 5s ended the quarter with significant backlog, but supply is building each week. [We're] very confident in ability to keep ramping. In terms of Retina mini, we'll start shipping later in November. We know how many we can make, but we won't be able to assess demand until we ship ... it's unclear when supply and demand will be in balance there. ... We will see how we do on iPad Air as we go out this week. I think we'll have a very good weekend, but I'm not sure everyone who wants one will be able to find one."

Using a Mac – Hearing/Visually Impaired

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Spicy Horse Unleashes Hell Invaders This Fall

Spicy Horse has announced their next project will be a collectible card game/RTS tentatively titled Hell Invaders. Shooting for a fall release, Hell Invaders is being developed for PC, Mac, Linux and tablets.

Hell Invaders will consist of actual card battles, instead of two cards fighting on a table. The creatures of the cards will have 3D representations which will do battle as well as cards that offer upgrades and swappable skills, giving cards with identical characters a completely different experience.

Players can play in a single player campaign or fight in PVP arenas. Trading, card management and other social features will also offer more ways to enjoy your time in hell.

Spicy Horse will be unveiling more details about Hell Invaders in the coming months. Don’t Hate The Geek will relay all the information as it becomes available.

Pertinent Details

Title: Hell Invaders

Developer: Spicy Horse Games

Publisher: TBA

Genre: CCG/RTS

Platform: PC, Mac, Linux, tablets

Price: TBA

Release Date: Fall

Mac Rumors

What really floats their [boats], what hardens Apple's resolve is designing, making, and selling large numbers of personal computers, from the traditional desktop/laptop Mac, to the genre-validating iPad, and on to the iPhone — the Very Personal Computer. Everything else is an ingredient, a booster, a means to the noblest end.

– From Jean-Louis Gass e, in a post entitled “The Next Apple TV: iWatch”

“Huge opportunity” in Mac Cannibalization for iPad seen by Apple’s Tim Cook

Apple is not afraid of cannibalization which is a broad topic, considering that there is an opportunity for iPad in several different ways. The Mac sales were decreased on the quarter. And this made a great pressure on Apple. The CEO of Apple Tim Cook answered the questions related the issue of cannibalization of Mac sales. Tim Cook the CEO of Apple said that Apple can tackle with this kind of cannibalization and it's not better to ask someone to cannibalize it for you. Instead of asking someone else you should cannibalize it yourself.

He also said that on iPad the opportunities are so many. The reason behind this is that Windows market is much broader than the Mac Market. At the same time Tim Cook also said that he believed that tablet market is going to be much bigger than the PC market. "Halo effect" was the other point Cook wanted to convey up that the iPhone have. And this was the first time that the buyer of Apple picked up one and then purchased some other products.

Throughout his speech he said that they see cannibalization as an opportunity. He furthermore said that if someone who is buying an Apple product for the first time buys an iPad mini or an iPad, he is sure that they will purchase one more iPad product. He was very confident that this is surely going to happen therefore we can say that Apple see Cannibalization as an opportunity.

Apple has always embraced cannibalization. The reason behind this is that more sales are rack up by the product that replaces it than the product that they are pushing. It is considered that Mac possibly will be declined but as long as iPad continues to grow, it is a fact that that's of a restricted fear to Apple and its peak impudence.

Related posts:

1. Meeting of Time Cook with China Mobile and said Chinese market will soon be captured by Apple
2. Apple transparency about $100 million investment for Mac manufacturing, Maps, Forstall and more- A discussion with Tim Cook
3. Android and iPad market share is shrinking much faster than it was predicted

Apple’s new pet: The Black Swan

“Apple has yet to reveal what will end up being a ‘black swan’... Yes, if the threat of a long squeeze is realized, it could sail down there without even a tail wind. And while I don’t doubt the margin compression story on Apple, I think they’ll make it up on volume in home computing dominance,” Count Bitcoin writes for Seeking Alpha.

“This Swan could be gray or black, and could take any form for Apple. It could be as simple as Apple TV working,” Bitcoin writes. “Or when 80% of Windows users switch to tablets that operate as capable desktops – bursting with a massive App Ecosystem, as well as luxury suites of Adobe programs for Apple’s legions of writers, designers, artists, and musicians who have galvanized around Apple’s products.”

“Android will continue to gain in mobile, but Apple users stay with Apple with fierce loyalty. Windows users will undoubtedly switch to Apple, and Apple will find itself alone on the coffee table and/or workdesk of virtually every person who uses a computer at home and has to do more than just surf the web. Not to mention the millions of teens using earbuds to relieve their sensory deprivation (Public Education) across the U.S.,” Bitcoin writes. “Sorry Google, but Android devices are not ready to play in the home, not yet. Apple’s home computing dominance has just begun to warm up, and its mobile business, like any complex organism, will fight ruthlessly and tirelessly for survival and eventual dominance.”

Much more in the full article here.

Will Apple spark a U.S. manufacturing renaissance?

“Today the only American-made Mac is the kind you buy under Golden Arches and eat. America’s other well-known Mac, Apple’s Mac computer, is manufactured in China (like all other Apple products),” Gary P. Pisano writes for The Harvard Business Review. “That’s about to change. Apple announced last week that it will invest $100 million to make Macs (through third parties) in the U.S. This move makes strategic sense for Apple and is potentially important for the U.S. economy longer term.”

“It would be easy to dismiss Apple’s move as a pure publicity or political play. After all, Apple is often criticized for being the ultimate “designed in America, made in China” company - even though many other companies follow the same strategy,” Pisano writes. “But there are other good reasons for Apple to source some products from the U.S.”

Diversify Its Sourcing Footprint
Move Manufacturing Closer to R&D

Pisano writes, “Apple’s move is a spark that could help rebuild the electronics industrial commons.”

Read more in the full article here.

8 cranky complaints about the Mac from longtime Windows sufferer

Eight months ago, after 22 years of using a Windows PC as his primary work machine, Eric Knorr publicly declared he would switch to the Mac.

“Looking back over my eight months as a full-time Mac user, one thing stands out: OS X and Windows have borrowed so much from each other that the transition was anticlimactic. Sure, the Command key and menu bar took a while to feel natural, but I wasn’t a total Mac newbie, so it wasn’t hard,” Eric Knorr writes for InfoWorld. “Of course, I found lots of things to like, from the Dock to iCloud to Spotlight search to Time Machine to the lovely Cover Flow view in the Finder.”

Knorr writes, “As a public service to Windows emigrants like myself, I am obligated to list all these annoyances while they’re still fresh in my mind.”

8 cranky complaints about the Mac from longtime Windows sufferer:

Microsoft Office for the Mac: The worst problem with the Mac in business is Microsoft’s fault.

MacDailyNews Take: Okay, Microsoft’s fault, not Apple’s.

Switching windows within apps: Sounds trivial, but it kills me that I can’t flip through every open Outlook email message with Command-Tab (that switches me from app to app only). I discovered that Command-`(the Accent key under Esc) will switch among windows within apps — but it doesn’t always work.

MacDailyNews Take: Again, Microsoft’s fault, not Apple’s.

Obscure Multi-Touch trackpad gestures

MacDailyNews Take: Every gesture beyond pointing is obscure until you learn it. Not Apple’s fault.

No Apple docking stations:There are third-party MacBook docking stations, but my company won’t touch ‘em.

MacDailyNews Take: Your company’s fault, not Apple’s.

Cost of Apple peripherals

MacDailyNews Take: You get what you pay for.

Complicated keyboard shortcuts:Command-Shift-Control-3 to capture a screen to the clipboard? The Office shortcuts are worse…

MacDailyNews Take: Puleeze. And, again, Microsoft excretes Office, not Apple.

Who made the eject button a keyboard button? I’ve come to hate the sound of the optical drive ejecting a disc.

MacDailyNews Take: We’ve honestly never mistakenly hit that button... and optical drives are dead.

iTunes: This clunky, aggressive relic blew past its freshness date years ago. (Although a new version is supposedly due any minute now, so I may have to eat my words.)

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: That these are the eight “complaints” of a longtime Windows sufferer who’s finally upgraded to the Mac, should tell Windows-only sufferers all they need to know and remind all of us Mac users just how good we have it!

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "CognativeDisonance" for the heads up.]

Apple wins in Microsoft’s vicious cycle of PC abuse

“It’s time to cease speculation over why Steve Sinofsky left Microsoft,” Rocco Pendola writes for TheStreet. “It’s even time to lay off jabs at Steve Ballmer and his company’s less than desirable Surface tablet. Unless Sinofsky’s exit was step one in a Bill Gates’ master plan nobody knows about, Ballmer’s not going anywhere, even if shareholders raise hell.”

“With the stock unable to hold $30 when it had the chance on a slight whiff of Windows 8 euphoria, MSFT shareholders have a choice of three positions: Get out, be happy with an increasing dividend yield on a dying stock or put your faith in Ballmer,” Pendola writes. “Loyalty vis-a-vis an investment is a dumb concept. Given the obstacles Microsoft faces, faith will not be rewarded.”

Pendola writes, “Microsoft should be embarrassed by its retail presence. I’m not sure how Steve Ballmer can show his face in public after knocking off Apple’s (AAPL) design and failing miserably in the process. Relatively speaking, Microsoft stores are a waste of space... There’s hardly a peep of innovation or risk-taking at companies holding themselves hostage to the PC space and other sectors’ scraps. That spells to continued dominance, even for a slightly-weakened, Tim Cook-navigated Apple.”

Read more in the full article here.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader "Fred Mertz" for the heads up.]

iTunes Match: One year in

“On November 14, 2011 (a few weeks later than promised), Apple released iTunes Match, a $25-a-year, cloud-based service designed to provide access to your iTunes music library from a computer, iOS device, or Apple TV,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Macworld.

“The idea is simple: iTunes scans your music library, sends the information about your songs to Apple's servers, and then either ‘matches’ music that's in both your library and the iTunes Store, or uploads the music that isn't in the iTunes Store,” McElhearn writes. “Then, you can either download or stream (depending on the hardware) all of your music from a Mac or PC running iTunes 10; an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch running iOS 5 or later; or a second- or third-generation Apple TV.”

McElhearn writes, “In theory, iTunes Match is a great idea. In practice, however, everything doesn't work as well as it should in the realm of iTunes Match, with users facing a number of hiccups and difficulties since the service's inception. With renewal notices going out to those who signed up early on, it will be interesting to see how many people pony up for another year.”

Read more in the full article here.

Dev pulls MplayerX from Mac App Store over sandboxing; Latest of many Mac developers to abandon Apple app distribution

“Popular video playback application MplayerX is no longer being updated on the Mac App Store,” Electronista reports. “Citing Apple’s sandboxing rules, the developer is claiming that the step is coming only after ‘arguing with Apple over three months’ trying to make the newest version of the application function under the new Apple guidelines.”

“MplayerX features affected by the sandboxing rules include the automatic loading of subtitles for videos and the ability to play the next episode of a TV show in a folder,” Electronista reports. “Many applications will never be able to be sold on the Mac App Store due to close integration with the kernel of the OS violating the sandboxing requirement, such as most of the Rogue Amoeba line of audio enhancements, with the exception of audio-capture tool Piezo.”

Electronista reports, “The MplayerX developer isn’t alone in abandoning the Mac App Store. Codebase version control app SourceTree’s developers announced that after March 1 that they would not be updating the application because of Apple’s addition of the sandboxing requirement... Apple has implemented a more extensive system-wide security feature in conjunction with sandboxing, called Gatekeeper in OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion. By default, Gatekeeper only allows applications downloaded from the Mac App Store, and apps that are digitally signed with an Apple Developer ID... At this time, and for the foreseeable future, despite no credible, persistent malware threat to OS X, all new applications and updates on the Mac App Store are expected to comply with the sandboxing requirement.

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: This is a problem because, over time, the number of Mac users who know to go outside the Mac App Store for apps will dwindle to the point of not being able to support developers whose apps offer to do things the Mac App Store does not allow. It’s a conundrum for which we see no easy fix.