Results season sees Apple top of the pile
EMC and VMware report strongly too
TechTrade | 25 Jan 2012 :
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Apple has reported a very healthy first quarter to the 2012 fiscal year, which it says spanned 14 weeks and ended December 31, 2011.
The company posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion (€35.63 billion) and record quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion. The results compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly profit of $6 billion in the same quarter last year.
Analysis
Paul Hearns
ComputerScope
While the overall numbers for Apple may come as no surprise, looking at the individual unit sales tells a different story. With 5.02 million unit sales in the fourth quarter labelled as "Macs", it can only be assumed that this covers all Macs, from Macbooks, to iMacs etc. When iPads and iPhones account for 52.47 million units, it is not hard to see where the company's focus must inevitably go.
In the same way as Apple's server hardware business declined, as the PC business becomes less and less of a contributor to overall revenues, the question must be asked about the company's commitment to what appears to be a diminishing segment.
On the other hand, if one looks at the growth of VMware and EMC, as EMC suggests is being driven by cloud computing and Big Data, then a different story emerges. With intelligent storage and virtualisation being the very foundations of modern enterprise IT, as well as the wider cloud computing phenomenon, the smart money must surely be going into these shares. VMware's steady development of its enterprise virtualisation platform, systems management and desktop virtualisation offerings, it has kept pace with rivals if not outshone them completely, whereas EMC has come to the fore with its Greenplum range, to be at the cutting edge of Big Data.
Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 128% unit growth over the same quarter last year. The company also sold 15.43 million iPads, a 111% unit increase, 5.2 million Macs, a 26% unit increase, and 15.4 million iPods, a 21% unit decline, in the same period.
Despite the record quarterly results, the share price declined slightly (down 1.64% at time of writing).
EMC reported full year results for 2011, with a 14% increase in fourth quarter revenues globally. Consolidated revenue was up 18% for the year, to €20 billion (€15.4 billion), compared with 2010.
According to Irish country manager, Jason Ward, it was also a record year for the company in Ireland.
"As demand for hybrid cloud and big data solutions surges, our rapidly expanding channel and mid-market business is expected to continue growing, driving further expansion through next year," said Ward. "Here in Ireland and globally, EMC is taking market share, reinvesting for growth and delivering improved earnings as we transform the IT and business environments through innovative cloud and big data solutions."
VMware reported an even stronger fourth quarter and a good 2011 too. Revenue growth for 2011 was 32% to $3.77 billion (€2.9 billion), with fourth quarter annual growth of 27% to $1.06 billion.
Net income for the fourth quarter was reported at $200 million, compared to $120 million, for the fourth quarter of 2010. Operating income for 2011 was $735 million, an increase of 72% from 2010. Net income for 2011 was $724 million, compared to $357 million for 2010.
"The quarter's strong performance further signals that virtualisation is the foundation for simplifying and automating IT," said Paul Maritz, chief executive officer, VMware. "As customers continue to drive significant IT transformation, our task remains in providing solutions that go beyond cost reduction, yielding business and competitive value."
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