Apple announces ‘biggest ever’ holiday for App Store with $1.1 billion sales in two weeks

Apple on Wednesday announced that its App Store has had the biggest holiday ever with a record-breaking $1.1 billion revenue in the two weeks ending January 3, as customers increased their spending on apps and In-App Purchases, setting back-to-back weekly records for traffic and purchases.

“January 1, 2016 marked the biggest day in App Store history with customers spending over $144 million,” said Apple. “It broke the previous single-day record set just a week earlier on Christmas Day.”

“The App Store had a holiday season for the record books. We are excited that our customers downloaded and enjoyed so many incredible apps for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV, spending over $20 billion on the App Store last year alone,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing.

“We’re grateful to all the developers who have created the most innovative and exciting apps in the world for our customers. We can’t wait for what’s to come in 2016.”

Since its inception in the summer of 2008, the App Store has now paid developers nearly $40 billion, and that’s after Apple’s 30 percent cut. One-third of that revenue was generated in the last year alone, emphasizing the power of the ecosystem.

The year’s most popular App Store categories across Apple products? Gaming, Social Networking and Entertainment, according to Apple.

“Games and subscription apps dominated this year’s top grossing titles including Clash of Clans, Monster Strike, Game of War – Fire Age and Fantasy Westward Journey, as well as Netflix, Hulu and Match,” said the firm.

In the Apple TV’s App Store, which launched in October 2015, the most popular apps include Rayman Adventures, Beat Sports and HBO NOW. As for the Apple Watch, the most popular apps include Nike+ Running and Lifesum in the Fitness category, and iTranslate and Citymapper in the Travel category.

Source: Apple

Apple Q2 2014 earnings: 43.7M iPhones, 16.3M iPads, $45.6B revenue!

As expected, Apple is out with its financial report for Q2 2014 this afternoon. In a press release issued just a few moments ago, Apple announced that it sold 43.7 million iPhones, 16.3 million iPads, and pulled in $45.6 billion in revenue during its fiscal Q2.

Other than iPad sales, Apple beat the Street estimates by a wide margin. The Cupertino company also announced an accelerated strategy for its stock buyback plans, adding an additional $30 billion to the pot (for a total of $90 billion), as well as a 7-1 stock split…

Here is the full breakdown of Apple’s Q2 earnings:

• iPhones: 43.7 million versus 37.7 million expected
• iPads: 16.35 million versus 19.7 million units expected
• Macs: 4.1 million versus 4.03 million expected
• iPods: 2.76 million versus 2.99 million expected
• Revenue: $45.6 billion versus $43.6 billion expected

And here are some comments from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer:

“We’re very proud of our quarterly results, especially our strong iPhone sales and record revenue from services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re eagerly looking forward to introducing more new products and services that only Apple could bring to market.”

“We generated $13.5 billion in cash flow from operations and returned almost $21 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the March quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “That brings cumulative payments under our capital return program to $66 billion.” 

 

The last time Apple split its stock was back in 2005. Shareholders will receive six additional shares for each share they hold and the share price will drop to around $80. The company also increased the dividend by 8% per share, and says it plans to do so yearly.

Apple Q1 2014 earnings: 51M iPhones, 26M iPads, $57.6B revenue!

As expected, Apple is out with its financial report for Q1 2014 this afternoon. It’s an important one, as it follows a number of product releases in the late fall of last year, and then of course the holiday season, where the company typically posts huge numbers.

And it continues that tradition today. In a press release issued just a few moments ago, Apple announced that it sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads, and pulled in $57.6 billion in revenue during its fiscal Q1—all record-breaking for the Cupertino firm…

Here is the full breakdown:

• Revenue: $57.6 billion
• iPhone units: 51 million
  
• iPad units: 26 million
  
• Mac units: 4.8 million

And here are some comments from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer:

“We are really happy with our record iPhone and iPad sales, the strong performance of our Mac products and the continued growth of iTunes, Software and Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We love having the most satisfied, loyal and engaged customers, and are continuing to invest heavily in our future to make their experiences with our products and services even better.”

“We generated $22.7 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional $7.7 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the December quarter, bringing cumulative payments under our capital return program to over $43 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.”

 

Apple Is Once Again the World’s Most Valuable Company !

Apple keeps riding high, and it managed to regain its top spot as the world’s most valuable company. The Cupertino-based boys managed to out-Exxon the Exxon for the 1st place and we congratulate them (and their shareholders) for this major achievement. It’s much better to have a tech giant at the top than one of the companies that make Earth less livable place.

It’s interesting to note that back on August 10, 2011, Apple’s market cap was $337.17 billion, nowhere close to the new high of some $416 billion.

Apple’s market cap was around $414 billion during trading on Thursday, with the company’s stock up as high as $456.80 in the morning session. Exxon, meanwhile, saw shares slide more than 2 percent during the morning, sending its market cap to around $408 billion, following a disappointing earnings report.

The change made Apple, at least temporarily, once again the most valuable company in the world by market cap. It’s a title the company held throughout 2012, but ceded after its stock went tumbling late in the year and through the first half of 2013.

Over the last month, shares of AAPL have surged nearly $50. However, Apple is still off about $100 from the start of 2013, and remains well below its peak north of $700 reached last September.

Exxon overtook Apple’s market cap in late January of this year, amidst a continued selloff of AAPL stock. At the time, Apple was worth about $413 billion, not far from where it was as of Thursday afternoon.

After a few quarters with relatively flat growth, investors are hopeful that Apple can once again gain momentum this fall, particularly with the anticipated debuts of new iPhones and iPads. Among the products expected are a so-called “iPhone 5S,” a new low-cost iPhone, a thinner and lighter fifth-generation iPad, and a second-generation iPad mini.