Apple Just Had The Most Profitable Quarter Of Any Company Ever

TechCrunch ^ | January 27, 2015 | by Greg Kumparak

[Big Giant Head]

If you’ve got all Apple gear but still use a PC desktop, you’re really hobbling yourself for no good reason unless you can think of one right now. Microsoft sure can’t come up with one.

My gaming rig, designed explicitly for flight simulation, is Microsoft. Rather than purchase a Mac with the same hardware, I had one built to my specifications, and it was about a thousand dollars less than the equivalently hardware-d Mac. If I had that kind of cash, I would have considered it, though. I'm going all Mac except for my game rig. My wife is already all Mac, and we also have Apple TV, and two Ipods running around the house on kids' collars.

[palmer]

I have to update my MacBook soon as it is 4 years old.

It's a shame that their products are so good, the old rig is still perfectly good. I bought a mac in 1986, my second mac in 2011, my third in 2012 and sold the 2011 for a good price. I'd love to replace it again, but can't justify it. In between the first and second mac I had a variety of windows boxes, but none were as compelling.

[Dr. Sivana]

I bought a mac in 1986

Was it a Mac Plus? Did you spring for the $$ external SCSI hard drive?

[catfish1957]

5. Apple, 2014 1Q – $13.10 billion

6. Apple, 2013 1Q – $13.08 billion

7. Apple, 2012 1Q – $13.06 billion

Hmmm.. that looks pretty fishy to me. Who audits their books?

Another observation and comment to all the Apple Fanboys..... Just remember....this type of business is just two bad products away from a 75% correction. And you better hope the IWatch is not a trend.

I like my Ipad and Ipod, but still have to say that much of this run up is emotion rather than sound financial guidance.

[reaganbooster]

All over a stupid cell phone, what is called a smart phone.

Amen. Could not have said it better myself. They have turned its users into extremely rude people. 90% of the time they are used on social media by young people to talk smart to each other. As you said, a huge waste of time and dangerous when used at the wrong times.

[catfish1957]

Although i have yet to transition from PC to Mac

They need to learn to make this thing with some USB ports. One or two just doesn't cut it for me. On the upside, it seems ios sure has a better record at warding off viruses, malware, rootkits, etc. Seems like an ongoing fight with these issues with PC's.

[catfish1957]

Before I retired, I literally saw the transformation of society before my eyes. It got to the point that I had to tell my employees to turn off or leave their phones before entering my office. The under-40 crowd at the time had turned from functioning humans to heads down zombies affixed to their smart phones. The lunch room which a few years earlier was loud and boisterous with talk and chatter had turned into a full room of silent phone junkies.

Don't get me wrong, I love technology, and in fact I had a PC clone in 1984. However, it has now gotten to the point, where that technology is destroying the ability for humans to interact. And that is not good.

[CincyRichieRich]

Look at the profit margin. For Exxon and Walmart, it’s like 8% and 2.5% respectively; for Apple (AAPL), it is like 58%.

Where are the liberals screaming, too much profit, tax them more???

[Not gonna take it anymore]

I don’t understand the virtual Windows 7 on a Mac.

I bought Office for Mac and I get it all. Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc. I can send any file that I originate on my Mac to any PC and vice versa.

So why the virtual Windows?

[Not gonna take it anymore]

The minimal # of USB ports are my complaint as well. Though my Mac mini has 4 USB ports and an ethernet and HDMI port.

I bought a Belkin 4 port hub which works out great for all the other stuff I need to charge, etc.

[palmer]

It was the mac plus. I had to wait for a couple weeks on backorder. Later I got an external hard drive. I think it was 30MB for about $1200. I had to have some sort of connector installed in my mac plus, and SCSI makes sense but I don’t remember. Did you have one?

[Dr. Sivana]

I had to have some sort of connector installed in my mac plus, and SCSI makes sense but I don’t remember. Did you have one?

I was a Mac admin at a college in CT. The Plus had built in SCSI. Reasonably fast, but quite expensive. The connecting cable (25 pin to 50 connector flat edge) was good for $50 (from Apple). Plus, you had to have a terminator in most cases, sometimes two.

[Dr. Sivana]

So why the virtual Windows?

There is a whole galaxy of products that are available just for Windows, or at least not for Mac. A lot of ERP products (Sage MAS 200 for instance), and a bunch of financial programs. The world runs on more than Office and FileMaker Pro (which I love).

[palmer]

Yes, that all makes sense. Pretty sure I had a DB25 to centronix cable for the SCSI and a centronix terminator on the drive. I am still trying to remember what I had done to the mac. Some sort of internal connector for something brought out to the back of the case. I can’t think of what that would be.

[Crusher138]

I have to keep a couple of Windows machines around for specific Windows rip software for my t-shirt printers and embroidery digitizing software. I also need a specific version of Quickbooks that isn’t available on Mac, which I run virtually using VMware Fusion. Everything else is Mac.

Just compare the price of setting up a ten user Windows server vs a ten user Mac server. I just Googled “Windows Server” and I can’t even figure out what I would need, but I’m pretty sure it is hundreds if not thousands of dollars for just the software. Mac server is $29 with unlimited user licenses.

[Dr. Sivana]

Some sort of internal connector for something brought out to the back of the case.

Mac Pluses were not supposed to be opened (if you insisted, you needed a 10" torx shaft and a case spreader). The Mac SE was the first on with a slot and the possibility of an internal HD. A user might open the Mac Plus to upgrade the miserable stock 4x256K SIMMS to 2x1M or 4x1M.

[IamConservative]

I’m sure the moonbats think it is racist and unfair for Apple to make all this money when everyone doesn’t have an iPhone.

[MeshugeMikey]

now THAT is a milestone.

imagine what sort of sales they could accomplish in a market not hampered by socialism and chaos

[The KG9 Kid]

If you simply must have it, and some people do, it’s an option. Usually some workplace-related commitment.

That’s all I can think of, really.

[af_vet_rr]

In other news, Microsquish down 9.25% on the day.

It will take a while, but they seem to be slowly righting the ship and have their act together. The more time/distance they can put between themselves and Steve Ballmer, the more successful they will be. He made some really boneheaded moves that cost them a lot of money, but more importantly, cost them time and therefore marketshare.