Apple Making Big Profits, Disses Netbooks Again

By Marcus Yam
published

With the iPad, Apple definitely has nothing good to say about the netbook market.

In case it wasn't already obvious, Apple is having pretty great success in the market. The company yesterday revealed its financial results for its fiscal 2010 second quarter ended March 27, 2010.

Apple posted revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.08 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion, or $1.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Helping Apple's bottom line is the 33 percent growth of Macs over last year; Apple sold 2.94 million Macintosh computers during the quarter. The real star was the iPhone, however, as Apple 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 131 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. All those iPhone sales may have taken a little away from iPods, however, as Apple sold 10.89 million iPods during the quarter, representing a one percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

"Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue in the range of about $13.0 billion to $13.4 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $2.28 to $2.39," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.

"We’re thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. "We’ve launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year."

During the conference call after the announcement, Apple's COO Tim Cook answered a question regarding if iPad sales could cannibalize those of the MacBook line. While it's too soon to tell as the iPad hasn't even been out a month yet in just a single country, Cook did take the opportunity to boast how much better he feels the Apple tablet is over any netbook.

According to TechCrunch, Cook said, "With the iPad in terms of netbooks — to me it’s a no brainer. It’s sort of 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well."

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
51 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bonezy
    Hmm... I don't know about you Mr. Cook, but I'd rather not be sitting in class and take notes on a touch screen, thanks.
    Reply
  • coopchennick
    "With the iPad in terms of netbooks — to me it’s a no brainer. It’s sort of 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well."

    I can think of a few things that netbooks can do and the ipad cant at all...
    Reply
  • albion000
    "With the iPad in terms of netbooks — to me it’s a no brainer. It’s sort of 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well."

    It has USB ports, is user-serviceable, largely customizable, runs business-class applications (if slowly), and leaves another $200+ in your wallet? I mean, those aren't exactly ACTIVE things, but still. Having played around with an iPad, it's obvious they aren't really products for the same styles of use despite the overlap.

    Hopefully version 2 of the iPad will beef up the processor a little (CULV?), make the battery and drive accessible, and support USB peripherals and SD memory cards. Not holding my breath on these, but with a little more of an open platform it COULD be a netbook-killer.
    Reply
  • keither5150
    Cook's comments are retarded.

    Here is a good video from the onion.com It's not as stupid as what Cook said.

    http://www.theonion.com/video/apple-introduces-revolutionary-new-laptop-with-no,14299/

    How many words per minute can be typed on the iPad? I can type about 65 on a keyboard. My friend types over 90 wpm. Students that buy this instead of a netbook should be kicked out of school for being dumb.

    I am shocked that a COO would say such a thing.
    Reply
  • thedreadfather
    "With the iPad in terms of netbooks — to me it’s a no brainer. It’s sort of 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well."
    Off the top of my head (and note he didn't say well compared to the iPad):

    1. Web browsing
    2. Printing
    3. Forfeiting IP addresses
    4. Portability
    5. USB
    6. VGA out
    7. HDMI out
    8. Bluetooth
    More?
    EDIT:
    9. Flash/Silverlight (thanks below)
    10. Run Windows (or OSX for that matter)
    11. Open application support
    12. Word Processing
    13. Skype/VoIP
    14. Read optical media
    15. Read SD cards
    Reply
  • mlopinto2k1
    Here we go...
    Reply
  • Ragnar-Kon
    Well, other than the fact I despise all Apple products with the exception of their Macbook Pro line, this is wonderful news for my Apple stock.

    Good job Apple, your making my wallet happy.
    Reply
  • lauxenburg
    I hope this doesn't turn into the next Mac vs PC. iPad vs Netbook.

    Please no. The iPad is pretty useless in so many ways. It does stuff that we accomplish perfectly with other things and doesn't required to be charged and lugged around...

    Scenario: Guy finishing his presentation handout sheets and the presentation itself while on the subway. He realized he had some faulty information and needed to correct it before he handing it out.

    Guy: "Just finished editing my Keynote and Pages document" Gets in his office building... "I will just go to desk and print it out" Gets to his office only to be denied by the lack of a print feature....

    Sad face. Gets fired for not having a presentation...

    ----

    So if I have a $500 device something like a print feature would be a "no brainer". Especially if you are marketing productivity suites on the device. Even if they allowed the dock connector to plug into a printer via USB and print through there. Even better, wireless networking printing. This is Apple, not HP, not Dell. Apple is supposed to make the best stuff, supposedly. (According to themselves) Make something that actually does something.
    Reply
  • zachary k
    why use a netbook when you have a keyboardless, locked down, slow, giant ipod the size of a netbook.
    Reply
  • frostyfireball
    "With the iPad in terms of netbooks — to me it’s a no brainer. It’s sort of 100 to 0."

    He's quite confused as to what people need and why people buy netbooks. 100 to 0 in favor of the netbook is more like it.
    Reply