Photo: Apple

After going several quarters in a row topping their own guidance, as well as blowing industry consensus out of the water, Apple’s Q4 2011 earnings report has fallen short of industry expectations on softer than expected iPhone sales.

Even then, the company posted record iPad and Mac sales, as well as the highest September quarter revenue and profit figures in its history.

The numbers

As has become customary with Apple’s earnings report, the important figures to look out for are revenue, profit, iPhone sales, iPad sales and Mac sales. Apple PR announced that: ‘The company posted quarterly revenue of $28.27 billion and quarterly net profit of $6.62 billion.’ By comparison, Apple Q4 2010 revenue totaled $20.34 billion, with net profit of $4.31 billion. Analysts were disappointed, however, with industry consensus pointing to revenue of $29.45 billion.

Product sales

The company sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, up 21 per cent year-on-year but down on the 20.34 million iPhones the company sold last quarter. Sales of the iPad totaled 11.12 million units in the quarter, up an incredible 166 per cent from the same time last year, and in excess of the 9.25 million iPads the company sold last quarter. Mac sales totaled 4.89 million units in the quarter, up a meteoric 26 per cent year-on-year. Given overall growth in the PC industry slowed to just 3 per cent, according to Gartner, that’s certainly an impressive achievement.

The fast-declining iPod continued its downward spiral, with Apple selling 6.62 million iPods in the quarter – a 27 per cent year-on-year sales drop.

The takeaway

Outside of slowing iPhone sales – perhaps attributable to the imminent arrival of the iPhone 4S – Apple Q4 2011 sales suggest that all is well in Apple land. The company is already confident it will post record iPhone and iPad sales next quarter, and with the 4S selling three million units in its first three days of availability, there’s no reason for alarm bells to go off.

Photo: dsleeter_2000 / Flickr

We knew Apple was going to have a blow-out quarter over the Christmas period, but how big could they go was the question. In one word: huge! Apple revenue and profit figures in Q1 2011 are the best numbers in the company’s history, far outstripping the company’s own guidelines and analyst estimates.

You guys guess too conservatively

Profits of $6 billion off insane Apple revenue of $26.4 billion, a 71 per cent increase on the same period last year. This revenue far outstripped the analysts’ consensus of $24.38 billion, meaning earnings per share of the company were $6.43, and not the expected $5.38.

Device sales were insane

Huge iPad sales, iPhone sales and Mac sales contributed to the ridiculous numbers Apple posted.

The first, and perhaps most notable figure, is thanks to the iPad, which sold a mind-blowing 7.33 million units in the quarter. That’s nearly 2.5 million units per month, which is insane, when one realises the competition will be happy with a million sold in a quarter.

iPhone sales numbers were also record breaking, with an astonishing 16.24 million units sold. That is an 86 per cent increase on Q1 2010 figures. Insane.

The Mac, which doesn’t get the attention Apple’s newer products command, also posted big numbers. Unit sales of Apple’s computers totaled 4.33 million units in Q1 2011, a 23 per cent gain over the same period last year

The iPod was the only major product category that took a sales dip in moving close on 20 million units, a 7 per cent year on year decline.

Boom pow!

How exactly does one respond to these kinds of numbers? If you thought the world had Apple fever before, what do you call this? Apple revenue figures are insane, as are the individual unit sales. The iPad’s success alone floors us, and even with Steve Jobs taking a medical leave of absence, the company clearly has enough momentum going in 2011 to carry on just fine. Just fine.

Photo: Lost in Japan. Perdido en Japón / Flickr

While overall notebook sales growth has begun slowing, and is expecting to slow further still in the coming years, certain companies are still making a killing at the expense of others. Apple is one such company, with US Mac sales exploding, stealing some market share from industry leaders like Dell and HP.

Slowed somewhat in Q4

Both iDC and Gartner report (via MacWorld) that Apple posted double-digit Mac Sales in Q4, even though rivals surged ahead of the company off of strong corporate buying as the year closed in. As such, Apple went from the number three spot to the number five spot from Q3 to Q4.

The full picture

However, that doesn’t paint the full picture of just how well Apple is doing with Mac sales. Gartner reports that Apple’s Q4 sales were up 23.7 per cent, while IDC reports that Apple’s overall year-on-year increase was a very healthy 15.2 per cent.

In terms of individual sales, the Gartner research shows Apple selling 1.9 million Mac desktops – the lesser talked about computers in their lineup – snagging 9.7 per cent of the overall US market. IDC’s research revealed less optimistic yet still impressive results, showing Apple selling 1.7 million units for 8.7 per cent market share.

Both reports say, even with the slip due to robust corporate sales in Q4, Apple’s Mac sales gains were significantly larger than that of the industry’s average, with Gartner reporting PC industry sales in the US dropped by 6.8 per cent, and IDC also sighting negative numbers, saying sales dropped 4.4 per cent.

Momentum means something!

What’s most remarkable about how good Apple Mac sales currently are is this startling stat – only once since 2003 has Team Jobs failed to increase year-on-year sales of their computers. That, no matter how you feel about Apple, is remarkable.

Photo: Apple

At Apple’s Back to the Mac event, the big announcement was no doubt the revelation of the brand new Macbook Air. That wasn’t the only thing announced, though, with the company also revealing iLife ’11 and Mac OS X Lion. It’s in the OS X Lion section that Apple, for our money, revealed where they will continue to make big money, and that money machine is the Mac App Store.

The money machine

The 70/30 split is what makes the Mac App store so critical. If Apple’s hypothesis that it can get users and developers alike flocking to the platform proves true, then Steve Jobs and co will have another notable revenue stream, to accompany the big money spinners it already has.

And developers alike will be more than happy to retail their software through the app store if their chances of success are a full 150 per cent higher than the current model where you release your software in the wilderness, then pray like crazy it will take off.

Why it will work

We think the Mac app store will work for the exact same reasons the iOS app store works. Namely, discoverability, light curation, app charts and, perhaps most notably, the hundreds of millions of credit card details Apple already has. The ability to leverage being a trusted online retailer is hugely undervalued, and perhaps outside of Amazon alone, there is no single company more trusted with credit cards and that implements one-click purchasing better than Apple does, and that is colossal.

Why it might not work

The major hurdles plaguing the Mac App store’s chances of success are developer adoption and whatever terms and conditions Apple raises with the store. While on iOS devices, you’re almost forced to succumb to Apple’s conditions if you want applications, it’s not the same on the Mac space, where a robust desktop developer and web developer community already exists and retails products from various avenues. If Apple’s rules, as Jobs once said himself, are ‘too onerous’, the Mac App store is dead in the water.

Strangely, we don’t see this happening, and think it’s only a matter of time before this format of retailing apps becomes de facto across all operating systems. It certainly wasn’t invented by Apple but no other company has done as good a job refining it.

Photo: Apple

Apple has just sent out a press invite to a conference themed ‘Back to the Mac’. It’s a clever quip on how the company’s focus has shifted towards iOS devices, most prominently the iPad and the iPhone, but it suggests that Apple hasn’t forgotten what was for many years its bread and butter. What does the special Apple event or more specifically, Mac event, have in store for us?

New Mac OS X called Lion?

The invitation shows a graphic of a silver Apple logo with a lion being revealed in the background. That’s probably the first clue we’ve gotten as to what the next Mac OS X will be called, which will undoubtedly be unveiled at this Mac event. Granted this is just pure guesswork, but in keeping with its feline theme, I doubt we’re too far off in guessing this is what will be announced to replace Snow Leopard.

New MacBook Air

In addition to a new Mac OS X being unveiled, it’s been long-rumoured that Apple was planning a refresh of the Macbook Air. Admittedly, in a post iPad world, I do not see where the Air fits into any Apple fan’s lineup. Apple does have the ability to give their old hardware enough of a refresh that they remain interesting, so I would not bet against the company doing something slick with it, though. Apple event or not, do you care for a new Macbook Air?

New Macbooks and desktops?

What would be fantastic to see is an update to the Macbook, Macbook Pro, and even the iMac. To be fair, though, since each of these sets of hardware received an update this year, we’re not holding our breath for a ‘one more thing’ moment, where Jobs hops on stage and unveils a new design or anything of the sort. Nope. We just think this is more a mental refresh, and a Macbook Air refresh, than a general line refresh.

The special Mac event takes place on Wednesday, 20 October at 6PM UK time, and you can rest assured that, like any Apple event, the whole tech world will be there covering it.

Photo: Apple

Apple is the undoubted leader in all of mobile computing. They have a trifecta of products – the Mac, the iPhone, and the iPad – that are doing massive numbers and are widely considered world-beating. The iPod, though on decline, is no slacker either, and is still by far the world’s most popular media player. Competitors everywhere are wondering how to stop Apple. Nobody has the answers, but here is the curious onlooker’s guide to beating Apple.

Prioritise aesthetics and usability

Where Jonathan Ive has made Apple’s products the desire of industrial designers the world over, a team of very smart engineers have made their software impossibly simple to use and highly responsive, too. One may not think this now, but back in 2007, the world had never seen a mobile phone so simple to use.

And mobile had been around seriously for about 15 years. That’s remarkable. They did the same with the MP3 player industry with the iPod. And though you may not be sold wholesale on the Apple tablet PC, it is light years better than the clunky tablets that ran on Windows in the past. Beating Apple requires understanding design cannot be treated like a commodity, and software needs to both be elegant but highly usable.

Build a rock-solid central platform

One of the things Apple takes the most flack for is locking people into iTunes. For my money, iTunes may be Apple’s greatest achievement. Sure, the iPod, iPad, and iPhone are all genius pieces of work, but iTunes is the Trojan horse Apple has used to disrupt the music industry, and the applications market for mobile phones. Why is this? Because people are comfortable with iTunes, so the tacking on of additional services is totally rational to them.

All these other companies who are swinging against Apple need to develop similar platforms to make the rollout and adoption of newer products and newer pieces of media as seamless as iTunes has made picking up the Apple tablet, the Apple phone before that, and Apple MP3 player before that, too.

Beating Apple requires replicating their strategy and redeploying from that perspective.

Acknowledge it isn’t easy and build slowly

One of the things I admire about Google Android as a platform is how it is progressively getting better, and better, and better. When the G1 one came out I, and many, couldn’t help but feel a sense of ‘Is this it? This is what the fuss is about?’ because the software was ho-hum and the hardware average at best. But years on, with the HTC Desire and most recently the Samsung Galaxy S on the hardware side, and Froyo leading the charge on the software side, most everybody can admit that Google Android is a real contender.

This is the way for companies who don’t have an industrial design genius of Ive’s capability, or a product visionary of Jobs’ enormity.

Beating Apple is not impossible – though at this point probably implausible. Companies just have to want it, to be honest, and then not make mistakes as they go about it.

What’s your take? How does one upend the insanely popular Apple phone and Apple tablet PC?

Photo: Rego – twitter.com/w3bdesign / Flickr

The Internet, with its democratisation of information and its global marketplace, has given rise to a new crop of entrepreneurs who otherwise would never have started their own firms. But knowing what you should have for your newly found business is sometimes hard for some. These are some hard learned lessons on what kit you should budget for early if you’re starting your own business.

A laptop

This is the no-brainer, right? You know you need a computer to organise virtually everything, from contacts, to critical documents to being the tool you create your product/service on. We’re very biased towards Macs for small businesses because they require less servicing and are intuitive, too.

As an aside, you should also budget for software. While you may have got away with pirating the odd application here and there, when it comes to business and being found out, the risk of having your whole operation shutdown over negligence like that is too high. As a designer, you owe it to Photoshop, since it enables you to do your work, and so on.

An all-in-one printer… or not

If you rely on faxes, or frequently need to print documents, buying each paper-pushing office machine is silly. The next item in our startup business toolkit is what you should purchase instead – an all-in-one printer. This way you’ll not only save on invaluable space, you’ll also save on those hard to come by pennies, too.

If you’re environmentally conscious, and your business is mostly digitally based, whether it be through online sales or a digital store front, consider doing away with paper altogether.

A telephone system

If you run a small operation, you can make do with a single line telephone – preferably landline because, regardless of what people may say about the future of that industry, it certainly makes your establishment look more professional. By the way, your landline telephone doesn’t necessarily have to be separate, with many all-in-one printers shipping with phones built into their systems, too.

Also, as a startup business tip, make sure you put your phone number on all documentation, whether it’s sales material, internal material or every web page. Seeing a number knowing there’s a real person on the other end of the line is very reassuring to potential customers of a new web business.

Your needs dictate your purchases

As stated previously, this is just a startup business toolkit. You still need to make purchases according to your own needs. But at base camp, across various business and various industries around the world, this is what you need to budget for at the very least.

Photo: natashalcd / Flickr

To augment our reporting on which type of computer is best for you, we thought we’d revisit the fun Macs vs. PC debate.

Round 1: ease of use

The Windows PC, used by billions everyday around the world is, for most people, the easiest computer to use. And who can argue that? Windows has taught us how to interact with computers and applications, due to its global ubiquity. As such one may conclude that the PC is easier to use than a Mac. Hmm. Not so sure about that. The reason most people find that to be true is because switching from PC to Mac is a daunting, painful task. Initially. Once the switch is made, you get Mac lovers who doubt if Windows users are sane to even compare the two. What’s that saying? ‘It just works’?

Winner: draw. Macs are simpler computers to use, no doubt, but if PCs have locked you in to their way of doing things, whose to say it isn’t simpler to just stay on the Windows platform?

Round 2: capabilities

Oddly enough – and this may offend Mac fans the world over – this is an absolute blowout, with the PC taking capability odds by a country mile in the most extreme cases. The most expensive Mac cannot hope to do what an equivalently priced PC can. And don’t even get us started on gaming!

Winner: PC.

Round 3: pricing

This section is also short. In the classic Macs vs. PCs debate, Macs have always, and all evidence seems to suggest that they will always, be more expensive than PCs of equivalent capabilities. This, in basic consumerism stakes, is not a good thing. For Apple, though, it’s a great strategy for printing money.

Winner: PC

Bonus round: the ‘coolness’ factor

Let’s be honest, Mac users, we’re snobs. We think we know something die-hard PC fans don’t – and we just might, actually – when it comes to the fun associated with using a Mac and the cool of using a Mac. We pay an often insane premium for this right to say our computers are aesthetically better looking than yours are – and they usually are – and just work.

In the Macs vs. PCs debate, Macs are cooler than PCs. I don’t think this is debatable. But are they better than PCs? Considering the network effect of having many people using the same operating system, as well as capabilities and pricing, it’s hard to say emphatically that they are. PCs probably just pip the Mac on these grounds alone.

But, and this is the thing with taste, and building a premium products, many Mac users know this and are still not prepared to make the switch. And that is what makes Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive and co. so brilliant.

Photo: Microsoft

Remember those once classic ‘Get a Mac’ ads that ran for so long they got pretty, well, boring toward the end? Yes? Well, get this, in a move as strange as it is revelatory, Microsoft has its own ‘Get a PC’ page – if you will – helping potential users choose between the two platforms.

Strange positioning, huh?

The widely discussed ‘Deciding between a PC and a Mac’ page is a decidedly strange move for a Microsoft riding on a Windows 7 high. And it also shows a Microsoft with its back to the wall – somewhat unnecessarily, too.

Tell us how you really feel

Essentially the page takes the old ‘Get a Mac’ archetype and tells the story from a Microsoft perspective. Harsh comment after harsh comment soon followed. ‘You can’t get a Mac that ships with a Blu-ray player, TV tuner, Memory Stick reader, or built-in 3G wireless. You can with PCs running Windows 7’ reads one comment that was preceded by a ‘Macs might spoil your fun’ comment. On top of that Microsoft harps on about everything a Mac cannot do, or does badly. Macs ‘have a learning curve’ and they ‘don’t like to share’ plus they ‘don’t let you choose’. Macs might not even like your ‘PC Stuff’. Them be fighting words, Microsoft.

Super strange Twitter feed

Photo: Apple

And what’s more, Microsoft have a clearly filtered ‘what the buzz is about’ scrolling Twitter feed on the right hand column of the ‘deciding between a Mac and a PC’ page. All the feel-good things people are saying about the company pop up, but not one of the not-so-happy comments make it through. Not even a neutral comment creeps through, taking away from the authenticity of the ‘conversation’. Really, if Microsoft believes in the product that much, perhaps they should let users also voice their opinions.

Honestly, this ‘Get a Mac’ or ‘Get a PC’ or ‘PC vs. Mac’ thing is tired. Microsoft would be better served if they focused on making sublime products. Windows 7 OS is one such sublime product, no question, but what’s next? ‘Get a Mac’ got tired because it was overdone. Computer shoppers are at the point where, in all honesty, quality is everything because information on what is quality is readily available. The best things tend to bubble to the top that way – didn’t your earnings report confirm that, Microsoft?

Photo: Apple

Steam is set to do for the Mac what it did for the PC by bringing a dedicated digital marketplace/community hybrid for computer games when it launches on 12 May.

Delayed, but not-so-bad

Steam for Mac was originally slated for an April release, but slipped to May. Given Valve’s history of delaying highly anticipated titles by more than a year, a month-long delay isn’t all that difficult to stomach. Steam, which gained popularity on the PC by being a one-stop shop for PC game downloads, dlc and patches, is the largest digital games retailer in the world, and a noteworthy contributor to worldwide PC games revenue. The service, which has been PC exclusive until now, had community functionality built into it before online ‘community’ features were commonplace. And, as a result of Steam, its games and its focus on community, Valve has the most passionate fan base this side of the Halo franchise.

It has arrived

Photo: Valve

It’s a pretty sure bet that Steam for Mac will become the dominant download service on Apple’s platform in the same way it is for PC. Though there are various digital download services dedicated to the Mac already, none of them have managed to reach the scale and influence Steam has for PC. This is partly due to Valve, the owner’s of Steam, being among the most celebrated development studios in the world, meaning they understand the needs of other dev houses and gamers alike, giving them a competitive advantage over the competition.

What matters most is a large-scale digital download service is being launched on Mac, presenting a new revenue avenue for developers and publishers alike and, hopefully for Mac gamers, will see more dual PC/Mac games released in future. Steam for Mac deploys on 12 May.