While it should come as no surprise, Apple is doing very well, thank you. Amidst all of the gloom and doom, the hand wringing and the concern over the future, Apple is simply rolling along as if to say “What recession?” In what will likely be a classic case study in business schools for the future, Apple has taken an approach to the market that is so revolutionary that it has to be examined. You see, they are providing high quality products that fill needs for their customers. In the process they have even created even more need due to the nature of their products and the possibilities they offer. That is just brilliant.
In case you missed it, that was sarcasm. Apple is simply doing what every other company strives for but doesn’t have the chops to pull off in most instances. For years Apple has been the cool company always lurking on the periphery with the best gadgets and toys. For a variety of reasons they were usually very successful but the ups and downs of sales of their computers made life difficult at times.
Enter the iPhone. Apple’s market changer has done just as advertised. It has been so successful that wannabes like the BlackBerry Storm pale in comparison. If it weren’t for the AT&T drawback there would probably be twice as many iPhones in the world as there are now.
As it is Apple is having trouble keeping up with demand for the product so maybe the whole AT&T thing has its benefits. TechCrunch reports that the performance of the company in Q2 was stellar
The quarterly numbers are in for Apple. And once again they’re very good. It was another non-holiday record quarter in terms of revenues and earnings. But the real number that jumps off the page is the iPhone sales. Let’s just say it: The iPhone looks well on its way to being Apple’s primary business.
Last quarter, Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones. That’s a colossal 626 percent growth over the year ago period, when Apple sold 717,000 iPhones. Now, it’s important to note that the iPhone 3G wasn’t released last year until July, while the new iPhone 3GS dropped in June this year. But still, the difference is huge.
What is more amazing is the new economy that has been created due to the iPhone. Development of iPhone apps is occurring at a dizzying pace and appears o be gaining speed. The money that is available to many through this can make one wonder since there are now over 50,000 apps in the AppStore and there have been approximately 1.5 billion (with a b) downloads. While many of those are free more and more are 99 cents and when you do that math it can be astounding. Latest numbers put the money spent monthly on iPhone apps at around $82 million and that will only continue to grow.
If there is a downside, iPod sales are moving in the other direction but that seems natural considering the functionality of the iPhone. When the iPod touch with a camera is introduced in the coming months there will likely be a rebound there as well. Also, the folks at Apple were being very cryptic about specifics on sales of the $99 iPhone which led to some speculation.
So aside from distractions like Steve Jobs health issues there is nothing in the way of Apple moving full steam ahead and maybe even becoming more of the norm. Wouldn’t that be interesting.
