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Microsoft (MSFT) this afternoon reported fiscal Q1 revenue and earnings per share that topped analysts’ expectations.
Revenue in the three months ended in September rose to $23.2 billion, yielding EPS of 54 cents.
Analysts had been modeling $22.01 billion and 49 cents.
Microsoft stock is up 89 cents, or 2%, at $45.86, in late trading.
The profit figure includes 11 cents of restructuring expense. Excluding that expense, the profit number would have been 65 cents per share, against a Street comparable of 55 cents, according to Microsoft. Microsoft took more charges sooner than the Street expected this quarter.
The company’s “devices and consumer” business revenue, rose 17%, to $8.36 billion, with 25% growth in online subscribers to its “Office 365″ hosted productivity suite. That figure leaves out the mobile phone division, which includes the assets of Nokia (NOK) acquired this year, which generated $2.6 billion in sales in the quarter.
The “Surface Pro 3” tablet computer saw sales of $908 million, roughly doubling from a year earlier.
Total commercial sales were up 10%, year over year, at $9.873 billion.
CFO Amy Hood called it a “strong start to the year,” adding Microsoft saw “continued cloud momentum and meaningful progress across our device businesses.”
“We will continue to invest in high-growth opportunities and drive efficiencies across the organization to deliver long-term shareholder value.”
CEO Satya Nadella remarked,
We are innovating faster, engaging more deeply across the industry, and putting our customers at the center of everything we do, all of which positions Microsoft for future growth. Our teams are delivering on our core focus of reinventing productivity and creating platforms that empower every individual and organization.
Update: During a phone call following the report, Microsoft’s director of IR, Chris Suh, was kind enough to spend some time going over the results, noting several bright spots.
Suh pointed out that the Surface Pro 3 sales this quarter marked the first time the product had ever reached positive gross margin for the first time this quarter. It made about $70 million in profit on that $908 million in revenue, said Suh.
Regarding the mobile phone unit, Suh said the business was “on track.”
He said Microsoft’s intention is to grow its share in the smartphone business, while managing the declining part of the businesses, feature phones.
Here are some things going on today in your world of tech:
Facebook (FB) hit a new all-time high today of $80.59, now up $2.12, or 2.7%, at $80.49. News reports noted founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg held a Q&A session in China to practice his Chinese language skills.
Facebook reports Q3 results next Tuesday, after the closing bell.
Shares of Comcast (CMCSA) are higher after the company beat Q3 profit expectations and expressed hope about its proposed merger with Time Warner Telecom (TWC). EVP Steve Burke, in charge of NBC-Universal, questioned whether Time Warner’s (TWX) HBO and CBS (CBS) would offer true “over the top” video services next year.
Shares of Check Point Software Technology (CHKP) are up $2.87, or 4.3%, at $70.25, after the company beat Q3 revenue and earnings expectations, reporting $370 million in revenue and 93 cents in profit per share against consensus of $367 million and 91 cents. The company forecast revenue this quarter of $395 million to $430 million, and EPS of 99 cents to $1.09, topping consensus of $410 million and $1.03. Analysts raised their price targets.
Shares of Avnet (AVT), the global electronics distributor, are up $2.06, or 5%, at $42.13, after the company beat Q3 expectations with $6.84 billion in revenue, up 8%, at $1.02 per share in net income, against consensus of $6.71 billion and 97 cents.
Shares of online food delivery service GrubHub (GRUB) are up 83 cents, or 2.3%, at $38, after easily topping consensus estimates with $61.9 million in revenue and 8 cents profit versus a projected $57.4 million and 4 cents, and forecast $68.5 million to $70.5 million in revenue this quarter, against a consensus of $66.7 million.
Shares of NXP Semiconductors (NXPI) are down $1.81, or almost 3%, after the company yesterday reported Q3 revenue just a hair above consensus and beat on the bottom line, and forecast this quarter’s revenue and earnings higher as well, at $1.49 billion to $1.54 billion, and $1.26 to $1.36 in EPS, versus consensus of $1.49 billion and $1.29 per share.
The stock has plenty of defenders today: FBR & Co.’s Christopher Rolland reiterates an Outperform rating and a $76 price target, writing that the company “shines in an otherwise difficult quarter for peers,” and that “at first blush, NXP posted better-than-feared results and guidance in an otherwise challenging quarter for most semiconductor companies; thus far this season, we have witnessed a marked difference between quality businesses such as NXPI, INTC, BRCM, and TXN and ‘the rest’.”
Rolland wasn’t the only one drawing a line in the sand for chip makers.
Raymond James‘s Doug Freedman writes that “The case is building that Microchip Technology’s (MCHP) pre-announcement projecting a cycle rollover at the beginning of the earnings season might have been partially driven by company-specific issues.”
In other earnings news, the stars from last night continue to climb higher today, with 8×8 (EGHT) up 94 cents, or 14%, at $7.64; Fortinet (FTNT) up 17 cents, or 0.7%, at $25.34; Polycom (PLCM) up $1.12, or 10%, at $12.54; ServiceNow (NOW) up $6.51, over 11%, at $64.58; and Infinera (INFN) up $2.78, or 26%, at $13.39.
Losers on the session include AT&T (T), following its Q3 miss, down 95 cents, or 3%, at $33.55, and local listings and reviews provider Yelp (YELP), following its weaker-than-expected Q4 forecast, down $10.63, or 15%, at $59.60.
Yelp has received one downgrade, and one upgrade. Stifel Nicolaus‘s Scott Devitt cut his rating to Hold from Buy, and stripped away his $85 price target, writing that “Yelp’s slowdown in active local business accounts in 2Q:14 may have been a sign of growing pains in its core business, as Yelp missed our estimate for the second consecutive quarter, adding just 6.3K accounts in 3Q:14 vs. our +6.5K forecast.”
But B. Riley & Co.’s Sameet Sinha raised his rating to Buy from Neutral, writing that “the company delivered a solid quarter, but guided down for 4Q14, in what we deem a one-time event.”
Shares of Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) are higher by $2.33, or 2.5%, t $93.96, after Barclays’s Alicia Yap initiated coverage with an Overweight rating and a $107 price target, arguing the company has room to improve its monetization of shopping on mobile devices.
Shares of Apple (AAPL) are higher as by $2.01, or 2%, at $105, following a DigiTimes article this morning by Ninelu Tu and Joseph Tsai claiming the company is considering increasing how much it pays assembler Hon Hai Precision’s Foxconn unit to boost production of the iPhone 6.
The article, citing multiple unnamed sources, claims Foxconn charges $20 per phone and Apple might raise that to $25.
On tap for earnings tonight is a pretty big cast of characters:
Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon.com (AMZN), Altera (ALTR), Freescale Semiconductor (FSL), Informatica (INFA), Ingram Micro (IM), Lattice Semiconductor (LSCC), KLA-Tencor (KLAC), Maxim Integrated (MXIM), Micrel (MCRL), Netgear (NTGR), NetSuite (N), Qlik Tech (QLIK), Juniper Networks (JNPR), Riverbed Technology (RVBD), Shoretel (SHOR), and VeriSign (VRSN).
Correction: As one sharp-eyed reader noted, the prior version of this posted incorrectly stated NXP’s forecast. The company forecast this quarter’s results ahead of consensus. I was drawing upon a Thomson Reuters report on the forecast, which was in error, without properly checking the actual company statement. My apologies to NXP, and to any readers confused by the error.
Two weeks after filing for bankruptcy, former Apple (AAPL) supplier GT Advanced Technologies (GTATQ), the company this morning announced that it has reached an agreement with Apple to “wind down” the sapphire production it had been operating for Apple in Mesa, Arizona and Salem, Massachusetts, and will give some proceeds of sales of “ASF” equipment for sapphire production to Apple to pay the $439 million debt if owes the company, over four years.
GT Advanced plans to exit the sapphire production market while remaining a vendor of tools.
Aside from money, one might ask what Apple gets. GT indicated it and Apple still have some sort of working relationship: “GT and Apple will continue their technical exchange involving the development of processes for growing next generation sapphire boules as GT continues to build on its successfully deployed ASF115Kg technology and expand its range above 165Kg.”
That vague statement leaves unclear what Apple’s prospects are of getting large amounts of sapphire material. It was believed this summer that GT Advanced was helping Apple to develop cover glass for the iPhone 6, which ended up not using the material. Some models of the forthcoming Apple Watch use sapphire, and so obtaining amounts of material suitable to those smaller displays is still important for Apple.
GT CEO Tom Gutierrez said he realized the company had caused “hardship for many of our important stakeholders,” and that the settlement was meant to “position GT for long-term success.” The company has laid off 650 employees in Mesa, it said, while some remain to help wind down operations. “”We recognize and regret the impact that these actions have on our valued employees and their families and we are committed to supporting them through this transition,” said Gutierrez.
GT Advanced shares are up 11 cents, or 21%, at 64 cents. Apple stock is up $1.07, or 1%, at $104.09.
Update: Re/Code’s John Paczkowski adds to the story this afternoon, quoting an Apple spokesperson as saying Apple is going to work with Mesa “to help the GT Advanced employees who will be impacted by this find new jobs,” and that Apple is “going to continue evaluating GTAT’s progress on larger sapphire boule development, as well as consider other options for the facility.”
That little bit has helped to push up GT shares by 26 cents, or almost 50%, to 79 cents, in afternoon trading.
Shares of Yahoo! (YHOO) are up $2.43, or 6%, at $42.61, after the company yesterday afternoon reported Q3 revenue and EPS that topped analysts’ expectations, though it forecast this quarter’s revenue below consensus.
During a conference call following the report, CEO Marissa Mayer defended both her turnaround of the company’s advertising fortunes, and also her stewardship of the company’s cash, having just received $9.4 billion in the Alibaba Group Holding (BABA) IPO last month.
On CNBC a short while, noted venture investor Bill Gurley with Benchmark, asked about Yahoo!, remarked, “I think a lot of people in Silicon Valley are huge fans of Marissa and are root in for her to succeed. Now that she’s past Alibaba, to the extent she can get the momentum together on the business, there is more upside than downside in the stock.”
Mayer called the results “good, solid,” emphasizing the company is moving forward with “strong momentum in our new areas of investment: mobile, social, native, and video, despite industry headwinds in some of our large legacy businesses.”
The mobile advertising business is “now material,” she said, with revenue topping $200 million in the quarter, and set to top $1.2 billion this year, or $700 million on an as-reported basis.
Regarding traditional ads, Mayer noted search revenue was up for the 11th quarter in a row. The number of ads clicked on varied by region, with the Americas seeing 9% growth, Asia-Pacific seeing fewer clicks. Regarding display ads, whose revenue declined as prices paid for them plunged, Mayer said what was important that ad impressions sold rose by 24%: “In my view it’s always better to have more things to sell and then subsequently focus on building greater demand, value and an improved pricing strategy.”
“Fundamentally we are moving from a company that makes web pages and monetizes through banner ads to a company that makes mobile apps and monetizes them through native ads,” said Mayer.
Mayer emphasized that she enlisted CFO Ken Goldman to convince Alibaba’s management to let Yahoo! hold onto more shares post-IPO, a move that she pointed out led to Yahoo! sitting on more cash than it would have. She also emphasized the company is working to finesse the tax issues of the remaining stake:
On the shares sold into the IPO, we have already discussed the $2.5 billion of additional shareholder value captured by reducing the number of shares sold. The IPO sale netted approximately $6 billion after taxes to the Company. We have committed to return at least half of that capital, approximately $3 billion, to shareholders. And in Q3 we undertook an accelerated share repurchase as part of that return. Today, our share count stands at approximately 976 million shares down from over 1.2 billion two years ago. On our remaining stake we continue to hold 384 million shares of Alibaba valued at $34 billion on a pretax basis. These shares are subject to a one-year lockup agreement. We worked hard to negotiate and achieved more favorable terms on that agreement. Those terms allow us to communicate our intentions and take preparatory actions during the intervening year. Though there are some restrictions on what we can say today. any have pointed out the value accretion that would occur if this final tranche were to be taxed upon sale at a lower rate than the previous sales. We are acutely aware of this. We have the best tax experts in the country working intensively on structures to maximize the value to our shareholders of our remaining stake in Alibaba.
That little tax issues carries a lot of weight today.
The stock has gotten at least one upgrade today, from FBR & Co.’s William Bird, who raised his rating on the shares to Outperform from Market Perform, and raised his price target $10 to $50, writing that “Management appears to be going into motion on delivering a tax shield on Asian assets, a significant potential value driver that we think could be worth $13/share.”
Management’s comments were incrementally more positive on YHOO’s ability to shield taxes on future Alibaba stock sales. Yahoo is looking at all options and is optimistic that it can affect a structure that makes sense from a tax and economic perspective. We believe that such structures could include a spin-split, a cash-rich split, and/or raising debt against Asian assets. Under the terms of Yahoo’s Alibaba agreement, Yahoo can take action in advance of the lockup expiration to create a structure that can minimize taxes. Yahoo intends to disclose its plans on or before its next earnings release versus our original expectation of next summer.
Shares of chip maker Broadcom (BRCM) are up $2.67, or 7.2%, at $40, after the company yesterday afternoon reported Q3 revenue of $2.26 billion and 91 cents, topping the consensus for $2.2 billion and 84 cents.
The company forecast revenue of $2 billion to $2.2 billion, slightly under the Street’s average estimate for $2.11 billion.
The quarter was marked by upside in the “broadband business,” including Broadcom’s chips for mobile “connectivity,” such as Bluetooth and WiFi connections in smartphones, while revenue from “infrastructure and networking,” such as chips that go into routers, was flat with the prior quarter, held back, to some extent, by slowing in purchases of networking equipment by service providers.
Analysts noted as well that Broadcom is benefitting from participating in Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 6.
CEO Scott McGregor was on CNBC a short while ago. He was asked about recent concerns of a slowdown in the chip industry, prompted by a warning from Microchip Technology (MCHP) two weeks ago.
Said McGregor, “We saw a number of smaller companies report some cautionary reports, but as we saw, and Intel and TI, there’s really broad strength in the industry.”
Bernstein Research’s Stacy Rasgon , reiterating an Outperform rating, and a $46 price target, calls the results “solid,” adding that “forward revenue guidance was slightly below consensus, but likely not unexpectedly (we note that the company also likes to leave room to guide up at their Dec analyst day).”
“Gross margins showed upside, and opex was again guided down substantially, as the company anticipates completing the cellular cost reduction faster than originally forecasted.”
“Overall we believe the company provided what they needed to, namely a ‘path’ to the December analyst day, without the core business falling off a cliff in the meantime. We anticipate that the investor meeting can act as a positive catalyst for the shares.”
Oppenheimer & Co.’s Rick Schafer reiterates an Outperform rating, and a $48 price target, observing that “Connectivity drove 3Q strength on the back of iPhone 6 content gains, while BRCM’s cash-cow Broadband business benefited from EM standards upgrades.”
Schafer sees the prospect of higher cash return come the analyst day: “With $2.7B in domestic cash and improving GM/OM/FCF profiles, a material improvement in BRCM’s capital allocation outlook appears obvious. BRCM’s December Analyst Day should provide greater color on targets for the new model.”
Jonathan Pitzer with Credit Suisse reiterates a Neutral rating, and a $40 price target, even though he raises his EPS estimate for this year on signs of better profitability:
Analyst Day on Dec 9th should be a positive catalyst and focus on new target margins (30-35% OpM) and more specific cash return goals ($8.93 cash/share, $4.45 US cash/share). We maintain our $40 TP and Neutral rating – while shares look attractive based on a 30-35% OpM – 10.3-12.4x versus 14.8x for peers; stock looks more fairly valued at 14.5x based on CY15 EPS (w/SBC) of $2.70. While ING clearly deserves a premium multiple to peers, Connectivity likely sees growth and profit erosion (a bit surprised ASP leverage in C3Q was not better), and Broadband is a solid business but probably under-grows the overall Semi Industry.
Fortune columnist Philip Elmer-DeWitt a short while ago tweeted from the courtroom in Springfield, Massachusetts that one-time Apple (AAPL) supplier GT Advanced Technologies (GTAT) has agreed to pay off its debts to Apple by selling the furnaces it had been using to try and supply Apple with sapphire.
You’ll recall that GT Advanced filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on October 6th, citing a need to restructure “on a stronger footing.” The company had already received hundreds of millions of dollars from Apple over the course of this year. Those were prepayments that apparently contingent on the company delivering sapphire material to Apple for use in new iPhone models. The iPhone 6 models released last month turned out not to have sapphire screens.
That prompted speculation GT had failed to meet its obligations and that Apple asked for its money back. Some speculated Apple might seek to take possession of the furnaces. Although the case has been sealed by the court, GT has reportedly said it was “burdened” by the Apple contract, and has suggested it might consider suing Apple at some point, according to media reports last week
Tonight, Elmer-DeWitt reports GT Advanced and Apple have reached an agreement:
— Philip Elmer-DeWitt (@philiped) October 21, 2014
GT shares ended today’s session at 60 cents, still down 95% from where it was before the bankruptcy filing.
Though Google’s (GOOGL) Android operating system continues to rack up gains in the world of mobile devices, there will always be other possibilities, such as Samsung Electronics’s (005930KS) “Tizen” operating system.
Another competitor to Android is “YunOS,” the mobile operating system developed by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding (BABA).
According to a report today by Michael Kan in IT News, Alibaba has landed at least one supporter for YunOS, Meizu, a relatively small Chinese maker of smartphones. Kan cites an announcement by Meizu today. Meizu has traditionally placed its own “skin,” or user interface, on top of Androi, known as “FlyMe.”
Kan cites data from IDC showing that YunOS has less than 1% of market share in the mobile market.
Kan notes that YunOS, which is based on Linux, has been a target of Google, which has accused Alibaba of making a variant of Android, which Alibaba has denied.
Shares of Verizon Communications (VZ) are up 5 cents, at $48.53, following a Q3 report this morning of in-line revenue, but lower-than-expected earnings. The report is the first major telco report of the quarter, to be followed Wednesday afternoon by that of AT&T (T).
AT&T shares are up 29 cents, or 0.9%, at $34.57.
The decline in profit at Verizon was front and center for analysts. Jim Breen of William Blair, who has a Market Perform rating on the stock, writes that price competition was the culprit, and Verizon is focusing on tablets to give it an edge:
The deceleration in sales growth can be attributed to pricing promotions as T-Mobile (TMUS $27.31; Outperform) and Sprint (S $6.21; Underperform) have become more aggressive on pricing. This pricing pressure was evident in the wireless EBITDA margin, which declined about 160 basis points year-over-year. The carrier once again took advantage of its 4G LTE network that is well ahead of its peers in terms of both coverage and capacity. With smartphone penetration now at 77% of Verizon’s retail postpaid base, tablets with cellular connectivity are providing the next leg of growth. Tablets represented the majority of Verizon’s retail postpaid net additions.
His conclusion as far as the stock: “Despite this quarter’s margin weakness, we continue to view Verizon as a stable investment with its 4.4% dividend yield, industry-leading market share, and expanding free cash flow.”
Citigroup’s Michael Rollins, who has a Buy rating on Verizon stock, and a $53 price target, writes that the results were “generally in-line with our estimates, with solid revenue growth, despite a pick-up in wireless competition.”
“Net-net, we thought wireless metrics showed Verizon’s ability to manage within a tougher competitive environment and remain a Buyer of Verizon.”
The company did well adding customers, though profit suffered and churn rose:
Service revenue growth of 4.8% to $18.4 billion was close to our 5.0% estimate on better volume with postpaid net adds of 1.52 million (vs. our 1.3 mil. est.) on favorable account growth of 249k (representing an acceleration to 1.3% yoy). Tablets clearly helped with 1.1 million adds, while phone adds were better sequentially at 457k, and both exceeded our estimates. Postpaid churn of 1.00% represented a modest pick-up, while devices per account rose to 2.82:1. Norm. OIBDA of $9.09 bil. was light of our $9.16 bil est., as the margin of 49.5% was 30 bps below our est., & we attribute the variance mostly to higher volume.
One of the lackluster areas of today’s Verizon report was soft results in the company’s telecom services for enterprise customers, with Verizon citing growth of just 1% in enterprise services revenue.
Jennifer Fritzsche of Wells Fargo, who has a Outperform rating on Verizon, thinks the same enterprise muted results in AT&T’s enterprise business, writing “We would expect a fairly modest tone on enterprise outlook (similar to VZ’s commentary this morning).”
Craig Moffett with Moffett Nathanson writes that it’s not surprising shares of Verizon and AT&T have struggled this year, given the low-ball pricing tactics of Sprint (S) and T-Mobile (TMUS). “What is surprising, however, is that AT&T and Verizon have performed so similarly.”
He observes results of the two “haven’t diverged all that much, but AT&T’s have been marked with an asterisk all year; their aggressive shift to equipment financing plans has created an accounting tailwind that has masked profound deterioration in pricing and profitability.”
Verizon, “in contrast, stuck to its guns as a premium player that competes on the basis of network superiority.” Nevertheless, Verizon is not a “compelling long idea; VZ shares appear to be roughly fairly-valued,” he thinks. Moffett is neutral on both names.
Shares of Apple (AAPL) suppliers such as NXP Semiconductors (NXPI), Skyworks Solutions (SWKS) and others are rising after Apple yesterday afternoon beat fiscal Q4 expectations, and forecast this quarter’s revenue higher as well, citing what CEO Tim Cook called “staggering” demand for the recently introduced iPhone 6 — a phone many of these vendors sell into.
Skyworks shares are higher by $2, or or almost 4%, at $53.86, NXP is up $2.73, or 4.4%, at $64.23, Qualcomm (QCOM) is up $1.72, or 2.3%, at $74.99, Avago Technologies (AVGO) is up $3.41, or 4.4%, at $81.40, and RF Micro Devices (RFMD) is up 19 cents, or 1.8%, at $10.63. It’s a far cry from worries about the chip industry that dominated trading at the start of last week, following a warning from Microchip Technology (MCHP). Even Microchip is rising today, up $1.18, or 3%, at $40.30.
NXP’s rise, it should be noted, comes despite the fact that headlines a short while ago mentioned a negative article in trade pub NFC Times today, by Dan Balaban, stating that NXP has lost the stock to provide NFC capability in phones from Samsung Electronics (005930KS).
Rick Schafer of Oppenheimer & Co. likes the prospects for both Skyworks and Avago, less so for Cirrus Logic (CRUS):
AAPL revenue guidance of $65B (+63% Q/Q) exceeded consensus $63.7B. For suppliers, we believe the focus turns to company-specific content and associated production ramps for holiday builds and product refreshes. We have a directionally positive bias on SWKS (PAD, analog, WiFi), BRCM (802.11ac WiFi, Touch IC) and AVGO (PAD, FBAR filter) content and a directionally negative bias on CRUS. We believe QRVO (RFMD/TQNT) lost content in iPhone 6/6+ refreshes [...] C3Q iPhone units of 39.3M were above consensus 37.4M. Our two favorite RF vendors AVGO/SWKS both saw increased content in iPhone 6, and each likely benefits from strong demand moving into C4Q. CRUS likely trades up on the news, but we believe CRUS likely sees incremental GM pressure.
Regarding softer iPad sales, he writes, ” Despite the miss, we believe the better than expected iPhone unit sales likely offset any near-term concerns for those leveraged to the iPad, including SWKS, BRCM and CRUS.
John Vinh of Pacific Crest, who has an Outperform rating, and an $80 price target, writes that the iPhone will boost Q3 results above what the Street is modeling, though there are “headwinds” for NXP:
We anticipate NXP will post slightly better Q3 results, with momentum associated with strong demand for the new iPhones and increased Apple content (NFC +secure element) to be partially offset by cyclical softness. These headwinds include: (1) slightly weak automotive demand in Europe, China and Japan due to macro softness and (2) cyclical weakness in standard products given our concerns in China. Additionally, we view the company’s Q3 guidance as conservative, as a 50% q/q increase in its emerging ID segment didn’t reflect the iPhone design win with both NFC radio and secure element (SE), in our opinion.
Shares of Apple (AAPL) are up $2.47, or 2.5%, at $102.23, after the company last night beat fiscal Q4 expectations and forecast this quarter’s revenue higher as well, boosted by what CEO Tim Cook called “staggering” demand for its new iPhone 6 models.
On the conference call, the company noted it is “not nearly close” in terms of getting enough supply of the iPhones to balance out that surging demand, making it hard to know what the ultimate level of demand may be. The company also said it will change its reporting in the current quarter, to report revenue from Apple Pay payments service in a special “services” line item on its income statement.
It also said that that when it does ship the Apple Watch next year, it plans to stuff the numbers into the category of “other” revenue, a move that was reported this morning by Daisuke Wakayabayashi of The Wall Street Journal as meaning the company “would not report watch sales as it does for iPhones and iPads.” (In fact, what Cook said, when pressed on the matter, was that ” In the future, we might decide something different. But for now, in Q1 we’re not shipping any Apple Watches. And so it seems appropriate to start it that way.”)
The shares got a lift today from noted hedgie David Einhorn, who appeared on CNBC, saying that the company is “pretty much working on all cylinders.”
Price targets are rising today, as the bulls anticipate the major iPhone upgrade cycle has legs, especially given Apple is tracking below its targeted inventory levels, suggesting there will be shipments well into March to build channel supplies.
Brian White, Cantor Fitzgerald: Reiterates a Buy rating, and raises his price target to $143 from $123. “In our view, innovation is alive and well in Cupertino and we believe this “super cycle” is just getting started [...] With Apple trading at just 10.3x our CY:15 EPS estimate (ex- cash), we believe the market needs to start thinking more boldly about Apple and appreciate the company’s opportunity to reinvent new product categories for years to come [...] We believe the partnership with IBM will open up new opportunities for the iPad in the enterprise market and ultimately we expect Apple to launch a larger-sized iPad (i.e., 12.9-inch iPad) that we have discussed as the ‘iPad Pro’.”
Bill Shope, Goldman Sachs: Reiterates a Buy rating, and raises his price target to $124 from $115. “This was a strong set of results as Apple delivered a clean beat both for the September quarter and December guidance. Importantly, gross margins were in-line to modestly better than expected, which we think should serve to offset a key bear concern on margin pressure from the new product ramp.”
Mike Walkley, Canaccord Genuity: Reiterates a Buy rating, and raises his price target to $120 from $115. “We believe Apple’s Q1/’15 sales guidance in the range of $63.5-66.5B was adversely impacted by F/X from the stronger dollar and iPhone demand well above Apple’s ability to supply throughout the December quarter. Our updated estimates are at the high-end of Apple’s guidance due to our surveys indicating an increasing sales mix of higher-ASP 64GB (versus 16GB) iPhone 6/6 Plus SKUs combined with a growing demand for the higher-ASP iPhone 6 Plus, particularly in China. We anticipate materially higher iPhone ASPs during Q1/F’15 and maintain above-consensus iPhone ASP of $680 adjusting for deferred revenue. Given the strong results and guidance, we maintain our bullish F2015 product cycle thesis.” Walkley trimmed his 2015 estimates to $215.9 billion in revenue form $217.2 billion, given lower iPad sales, but raised his EPS estimates to $8 from $7.77.
Tim Arcuri, Cowen & Co.: Reiterates an Outperform rating, and raises his price target to $113 from $110. “Better iPhone units/ASP so early in the launch plus a desire to build more channel inventory should add nice revenue ballast for a 1H:15 that we have always felt is under-modeled by the Street. iPad #s are likely to remain weak until 12.9″ launch, but Pay and Watch create new angles to the narrative and allow investors to “dream” again on where iPhone (and maybe Apple Watch) units can go as consumers buy more hardware because of these new use cases. Finally, we didn’t get anything new on capital return on this call, but in-line w/prior years, this should come in the Spring and we would expect another meaningful step-up in capital return.” Arcuri raised his 2015 estimates to $219.85 billion and $8.35 per share in earnings, up from $214.52 billion and $7.83.
Toni Sacconaghi, Bernstein Research: Reiterates an Outperform rating, and raises his price target to $110 from $108. “Overall, Apple projected a very bullish tone – it dramatically accelerated its share repurchases, spoke of very strong YoY growth in iPhone in all 39 launched countries to date, and were enthusiastic about its overall business looking into 2015 [...] Apple repurchased $17B in stock during the quarter ($9B through an ASR and $8B through open-market purchases), and paid out $2.8B in dividends. This represents an acceleration of its buyback programs, as the company had $39B in authorization remaining at the end of Q3, which would have suggested ~$8B in buybacks per quarter given Apple’s intention to complete its $90B in buybacks by the end of CQ415. Apple attributed the more aggressive buyback to confidence in the company’s upcoming product roadmap and strong demand for the iPhone 6/6+, and stated that it expects to update its capital return program at a similar time of the year as occurred during FY14, which would suggest April (FQ2) earnings.
Gene Munster, Piper Jaffray: Reiterates an Overweight rating, and a $120 price target. “During the Sep-14 earnings call, Apple management noted that starting in FY15 (the December quarter) the company will begin to target 5-7 weeks of channel inventory for iPhone and iPad. Based on our sales expectations for Mar-15 for each segment, the new channel inventory target would seem to imply an additional 3-4 million iPhone units and 1-1.5 million iPad units to be recognized in the Mar-15 quarter. Overall we believe this could add about $2.8 billion in revenue to March or about 5% excluding our estimate for the channel benefit [...] Beyond the March quarter, we believe buy side thinking will gradually shift away from the widely held product cycle trade approach and begin to value Apple more as a hardware/software platform that is unique in its ability to benefit from a world of increasing device usage.”
Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley: Reiterates an Overweight rating, and a $115 price target. “Apple characterized iPhone 6 demand as “staggering” and “markedly higher in every single country.” Our checks suggest early supply constraints have been addressed, but with Apple expanding from 32 countries today to more than 115 by December quarter- end, we see the potential for meaningful channel inventory build in March, which could drive better than normal seasonality. What’s more, consensus estimates only assume half of the 250M iPhone 4s and older devices still in use will be upgraded this year, leaving considerable pent-up demand in FY16. If Apple Pay or Apple Watch gain traction, we see further iPhone upgrade potential in FY15 and FY16.”
Tavis McCourt, Raymond James: Reiterates an Outperform rating, and a $110 price target. “Supply/demand imbalance bodes well for March seasonality: “Not on the same planet” is how Tim Cook described today’s iPhone supply/demand balance. At this point, the company is selling everything it can make, and it is unlikely it will be able to fill channel inventories to optimal levels by the end of the quarter. This should make for a less seasonal March quarter than typical.” McCourt raised his 2015 estimates to $212.83 billion and $7.48 per share from a prior $207.95 billion and $7.28.
Adnaan Ahmad, Berenberg: Reiterates a Sell Rating, and a $60 price target. “Our take here is that Apple has costs under better control in this cycle relative to previous ones and this shows as the cost per GB essentially doubled as Apple took away the 32GB option. In addition, we think that CEO Tim Cook has paid a lot of attention to gross margin development as he knows that this is critical for investors. In other words, the iPhone 6 versus other iPhones (in an extreme) has probably been designed with the share price in mind [...] Given the euphoria around upgrading to the 6 (among new and existing users), the concern we have is that future demand may have been pulled forward. What will the iPhone 7 have to differentiate it, a six-inch screen? A curved/flexi screen? In other words, this is the “once in a lifetime” upgrade/catch-up cycle. Beyond that, as with Samsung, what is the hardware innovation that differentiates? Foldable? If this thought process plays out as we think it may, 2015 is going to be an amazing year for Apple earnings, but there is a risk that 2016 will see a deceleration. And earnings deceleration for a well-loved/well-owned/heavily-hyped stock is never a good thing in our view.
Sherri Scriberner, Deutsche Bank: Reiterates a Hold rating, and a $102 price target. “We have tweaked our FY-15 GMs higher, driving a modest $0.10 increase in our FY-15E EPS, but have left the majority of our model unchanged. With strong near-term growth largely factored into AAPL’s current valuation and limited catalysts ahead of the Apple Watch, we expect shares to remain range bound and maintain our Hold rating.”
Stuart Jeffrey, Nomura Equity Research: Reiterates a Neutral rating and a $104 price target. “We continue to believe that demand for $450 and higher smartphones is finite and already close to saturation. Current strength in iPhone 6 sales are thus likely caused by an accelerated replacement cycle (both deferred and brought forward purchases) driven by the devices’ bigger screens. With 5s launch sales just 7% higher than those of the 5, innovation likely to prove limited with the ‘s’ release cycle and the impact of a premium device launch (6plus) factored into year-on-year numbers, the scope for material growth in 12 months time appears limited to us. Despite this, management’s target to boost channel inventory levels provides some support for FY15 growth. The iPhone 6 plus share of sales may yet surprise (boosting ASPs), and management also has the flexibility to announce a bigger-than-expected extension to the share buy-back plan should growth in net-income disappoint.”
Brian Blair, Rosenblatt Securities: No formal rating. “We are intrigued by Apple’s introduction of a new reporting segment, where it will wrap iPod, Beats headphones and other accessories as well as Apple Watch into a new “Other” category [...] We believe this will serve to mask critical metrics and ultimately allow the iPod category to quietly die (no new upgrades for 2 years) and allow the Apple Watch to hold some anonymity as it gets off the ground [...] We have been consistent in our view of iPad units in decline along with the overall tablet market softness. While Apple management is hopeful that a bright opportunity remains for the category, Tim Cook made comments on the conference call addressing the potential for cannibalization of iPad given the larger iPhone screens. The company recognizes that some buyers may opt for just an iPhone now, and they are content that selling that once device. (We think it’s critical to note the higher ASP of the iPhone 6+ relative to the iPad Mini models.).”
Kulbinder Garch, Credit Suisse: Reiterates a Neutral rating, and a 110 price target. ” We believe there is significant [iPhone] backlog and the real issue is supply. We now project volumes of 61mn/193mn /194mn units in the December quarter, FY15, and FY16, respectively [...] We continue to scope EPS momentum [...] We continue to believe that the stock will perform well near-term. However, with only 10% upside, we maintain our Neutral rating.
Andy Hargreaves, Pacific Crest: Reiterates a Sector Perform rating. “Despite the strong revenue numbers, FQ4 gross margin of 38.0% was below our estimate of 39.3%, and FQ1 gross-margin guidance of 37.5% to 38.5% failed to produce the upside that many investors anticipated from a strong mix of iPhone 6 Plus and 64 GB and 128 GB SKUs. This is likely to lower the high end of investor expectations for gross margin and earnings power through the iPhone 6 cycle [...] Both iPhone units and margins are relatively well understood for the current product cycle, so we believe a sustainable reversal in iPad unit sales or better expectations for Apple Watch may be needed to drive AAPL higher.”
Tech Trader Daily is a blog on technology investing written by Barron’s veteran Tiernan Ray. The blog provides news, analysis and original reporting on events important to investors in software, hardware, the Internet, telecommunications and related fields. Comments and tips can be sent to: email@example.com.


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Yuyuan Garden has culture and arts festival 'down to a tea'
A tea culture and arts festival has opened at the Yuyuan Garden scenic area in Huangpu District.
The event, in its 26th year, runs through to April 25.
It comprises tea ceremony performances, a forum, concerts featuring traditional Chinese musical instruments such as guqin (an ancient Chinese seven-string instrument), a tea brewing competition, a tea culture bazaar and tea sipping events.
Over the weekend, about 50 contestants put their tea brewing skills to test.
A bazaar of tea opened over the weekend in a tea house-like theater, which is illuminated at night.
Art work centered on tea culture will be created at the market.
There will be tea culture exchange and display activities, tea lifestyle experiences and oriental aesthetics displays.
Flash mob performances, a puppet art installation featuring the image of an ox, the Chinese zodiac and a modern art work "Father's time machine" with a strong industrial metal approach are also part of the showcase.
During a forum, topics such as the origins of tea and wine, haipai (Shanghai-style) culture, tea and health were shared.
The festival this year aims promote tea sipping by the young, enrich the essence of tea culture and display traditional Chinese culture.

domain: news


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Tarsus Group, organizer of the OFFPRICE Show, is pleased to announce a successful first live show of 2021, “OFFPRICE Orlando Market,” which took place between February 9-11. The event joined Fashion Week shows MAGIC Pop Up Orlando and WWIN Orlando Showcase as part of a Stronger Together initiative to reunite and reignite the industry.
Taking place in the Orange County Convention Center, the three shows were organized with health and safety as a priority, in response to fashion retailers’ and buyers’ demand for an in-person tradeshow to support a return to business, given that many have been negatively impacted during the pandemic as a result of being unable to trade. The format of the appointment-driven show was clearly successful in encouraging buying activity with millions of dollars worth of transactions taking place over three days. Exhibitors promoted current trends and timeless classics to buyers from small business owners and boutiques to retailers for large regional chains.
Juan Santiago of Ben Kaufman Sales, exhibitor at OFFPRICE Orlando Market, said “OFFPRICE is a part of our strategy because it gives us the ability to move products to buyers that otherwise would not have access to. Companies nowadays have a lot of hoops to jump through to get to the decision makers, and shows like OFFPRICE put us face-to-face with the right people.”
The event was organized in partnership with state government and Orlando Health, as well as adhering to the CDC-approved exhibitions-industry All Secure Standard. All exhibitors, attendees, contractors and staff complied with the measures which included the mandatory wearing of face masks throughout the event, daily temperature checks prior to entering the show floor, continuous sanitization and deep cleaning measures, and following physical distancing requirements both on the show floor and in public spaces.
As an additional layer of safety, show organizers produced the first trade show in the U.S. to offer on-site testing, with a negative COVID test result required to enter the show floor. Participants had the option to pre-test prior to arrival or take a free, rapid response test on-site. Event attendees welcomed the measures that allowed them to safely conduct much-needed business, with customer satisfaction survey results showing that 97 percent of respondents expressed the highest level of satisfaction in their on-site testing experience.
Buyer Jack Silvera, traveling to OFFPRICE from Panama, noted “We liked that we were able to meet various suppliers in Orlando after a whole year. We felt we had to support OFFPRICE because they are essential to our business. The show was well organized and safe. Wish more of you had attended. Looking forward to a larger show in Las Vegas in August. ”
Tricia Barglof, Executive Director of OFFPRICE, said “Our top priority has always been the health and safety of our exhibitors, attendees and staff members. To bring the community together is critical to the revival of retail. In-person negotiation and relationship building is at the core of OFFPRICE. Although cautiously optimistic heading into the show, we were extremely pleased with the turnout and buying activity on the floor. We knew people were eager to get back to some sense of normalcy regarding sourcing and Fashion Week was their first opportunity. In providing a safe and controlled environment, we hope our success will provide reassurance and confidence that live shows can still be an effective way to do business once again.”
The OFFPRICE show will continue to serve the retail community alongside the other Fashion Week shows, MAGIC and WWIN in August 2021. The event will be held August 7-10 at their new venue, the Las Vegas Convention Center, home of MAGIC, making it convenient for buyers to shop both shows that week.


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China is on the mend, and ETF investors have a growing number of funds to choose from.
Chinese shares are back in play again after years of being dogged and shunned like the ugly stepchild.
So, it’s time to take a dive into what type of ETFs or even share classes look promising. Regarding favorable sectors, the consumer space looks particularly attractive.
Increasing domestic demand and a lessening of the country’s dependence on exports has been a main focal point of the Chinese government’s newest Five-Year Plan (2011-2015), and Chinese officials recently reiterated this point.
Of the various share classes, A-shares focused on mainland Chinese companies have suddenly turned hot again, after the Shanghai Composite Index hit a nearly four-year low just a month ago. Until recently, A-shares were lagging behind the performance of other Chinese share classes, which have been rallying since late summer of 2012.
Targeting Chinese Consumers
The most popular China ETFs offer little to no exposure to the consumer space. The $9 billion iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund (NYSEArca: FXI) has zero exposure to the consumer sectors, while the $1.1 billion SPDR S&P China ETF (NYSEArca: GXC) has only 11 percent.
Instead, state-owned mega caps mostly dominate these types of funds. For example, China Mobile, the four big state-owned banks and the three big state-owned energy names make up 52 percent of FXI. Even in GXC—which I consider to be the SPY of China ETFs and currently the best choice for all-around exposure to China—these eight companies constitute 36 percent of the fund.
While there’s nothing inherently wrong with being overweight mega caps, investors preferring more exposure to the growth potential of smaller consumer-focused, nonstate-owned companies do have a number of other ETFs to choose from.
My two favorites here are the Global X China Consumer ETF (NYSEArca: CHIQ) and the Guggenheim China Small Cap ETF (NYSEArca: HAO).
As the name suggests, CHIQ specifically targets the consumer space and holds an assortment of 40 investable Chinese shares from both the consumer cyclical and noncyclical sectors. The fund holds mostly H-shares traded in Hong Kong, but also includes a few U.S.-listed N-shares in the mix.
HAO doesn’t necessarily target the consumer space, but it holds over 200 mid- and small-caps from all investable shares and its consumer cyclical and noncyclical exposure is roughly 25 percent of the fund. The fund has about 40 percent in companies with market caps greater than $2.7 billion, which we consider midcaps.
The iShares MSCI China Small Cap Index Fund (NYSEArca: ECNS) is a small-cap fund that holds over 300 companies and has about 28 percent exposure to the two consumer sectors. ECNS is more of a pure-play on small-caps, with 97 percent in companies with less than $600 million in market cap.
Between the two small-cap ETFs, I prefer HAO. I like that it’s able to hold some larger established names like Tsingtao Brewery and the Warren Buffett-backed car maker, BYD. Also, it includes U.S.-listed N-shares in the mix, such as Sohu.com and Youku Tudou.


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Scam 2003 Episode 6 Release Date: The SonyLiv newly released series Scam 2003 based on the real-life story of Abdul Karim Telgi is now available to watch. The issue in only 5 episodes of the show is released as of now and the series ends in the Midway. Here we are going to tell you about the Episode 6 release date and more.
Episode 6 of the show will be released in November 2023, The official and confirmed released date is yet to be announced by the makers but we have an update that the remaining episodes will be released in November 2023, You can expect episode 6 of the show by Mid week of November 2023. The official confirmation is yet to be done by the makers.
After the bumper Success of the scam 1992, the maker of the show created another series which is based on the similar incident. The story of Scam 2003 revolves around Abdul Karim Telgi and his Group who were responsible for the Scam of arpund 30,000 crores. The biggest scam in Indian History.


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Sony has announced Ps Classic, a minified version of the first Playstation, which sold 100 million units. It will be released 3rd December, on the 23rd anniversary of the original console’s launch in Japan.
PS Classic will be 45% smaller than PS One, will have HDMI support, will launch with two controllers and will arrive with 20 games pre- installed. Five of the games have been revealed with a longer list soon to be announced. These titles are:
Final Fantasy VII
R4 Ridge Racer Type 4
PlayStation Classic will be available for €99.99
500 Million PlayStation® systems sold means 500 Million adventures. This Limited Edition Bundle includes a PS4 Pro Console with a 2TB Hard drive, DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controller, PlayStation Camera, and Vertical Stand.
In this exclusive gameplay video, Game Informer’s Ben Hanson is joined by Days Gone’s creative director John Garvin and game director Jeff Ross to walk through and show off the first hour of this open-world PlayStation 4 exclusive.
God of War thrusts Kratos in a brand new realm filled with a new mythology. Learn why game director Cory Barlog decided to leave the Greek realm behind, and what attracted him to new mythos.
In stores April, 20.
The original roast master is back! Same sick burns, same smouldering attitude, now all scaled up in stunning HD. Spyro is bringing the heat like never before in the Spyro™ Reignited Trilogy game collection. Rekindle the fire with the original three games, Spyro™ the Dragon, Spyro™ 2: Ripto’s Rage! and Spyro™: Year of the Dragon.
We’re partnering with the talented team at Larian Studios to bring Divinity: Original Sin 2 to Xbox One and PlayStation 4 in August 2018! Step into the world of Rivellon and experience one of the most groundbreaking RPGs of all time!


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Erickson Air-Crane Inc. has slashed its proposed initial public offering price range to $8.00 to $9.00 per share from previous range of $13.00 to $15.00 per share.
In an amended S-1 filing with the SEC, the company said it now plans to sell 4.8 million shares of its common stock from 5.35 million shares intended previously.
Erickson Air-Crane is an aircraft manufacturing and operating company based in Portland, Oregon, United States. It is known for producing the S-64 Aircrane helicopter, which is used in wildland fire suppression and other heavy-lift operations.
Erickson Air-Crane intends to list its common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol "EAC."
The company also cut additional shares offered to underwriters to 720,000 shares from 802,500 shares.
[Related -Automating Ourselves To Unemployment]
The company estimates that it would receive net proceeds from the sale of shares of common stock in this offering of about $33.5 million, assuming an initial public offering price of $8.50 per share, the midpoint of the sale price range, after deducting underwriting discounts and commissions, expenses.
The company plans to use the proceeds of this offering to pay down indebtedness under its revolving credit facility, which will increase the amounts available for future borrowing under its revolving credit facility and will, in its view, increase the likelihood of its compliance with the financial covenants under its Credit Agreement on an ongoing basis and improve its ability to refinance its senior credit facilities.


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We were surprised earlier this year to learn Spicy Horse was creating a follow-up to American McGee's dark take on Alice in Wonderland, which itself seemed like a concept so common and benign in today's market as to almost be kind of adorable. But consider us officially shocked after watching this ...
According to a tweet from Geoff Keighley from the ongoing DICE summit, EA CEO John Riccitiello has just revealed a sequel to American McGee's Alice, coming soon. Details are slim -- in fact, we just told you all of them right now -- but we can assume that Alice 2 will have American McGee's name o...
Posted on Dec 12th 2014 1:30PM
Posted on Dec 12th 2014 12:00PM
Posted on Dec 10th 2014 12:30PM


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In a press conference held recently in their swanky Mumbai studios, MTV India announced the arrival of their second, ‘stylebaby’, the Lycra MTV Style Awards.
Initiated last year, the show has created a platform for mavericks from the fields of music and fashion to come together to create their own brand of magic on stage. The panel of judges who have selected the nominees this year include Fardeen Khan, Feroze Gujral, Jeetendra, Malini Ramani, Mandira Bedi, Manish Malhotra, Nikhil Chinapa and Sukhbir. The nominees were chosen for being original, dynamic, stylish, innovative and contemporary.
The three categories for the awards are Popular, Technical and Honours. The Popular Awards will recognise the most stylish people in the fields of music, television, films and sports while the Technical Awards will acknowledge people from the fashion industry including models, designers and fashion photographers. The Honours will recognise people in the field of business and politics. The panel of judges has narrowed the search to line up the style icons and now you have the power to select the winners across seven Popular categories. The winners in the Technical and Honours categories will be decided by the panelists.
Speaking on the occasion, Alex Kuruvilla, Managing Director, MTV Networks India, said ,“Last year the first Lycra MTV Style Awards were launched with a big bang and have already set a benchmark for style and fashion in the country. This year we are going all out to further build it into the definitive style platform that it is intended to be... The Most Stylish Show in India!”
Said Gregory Vas Nunes, Vice President, Apparel, Asia Pacific, Invista, “Lycra(r) pioneered the concept of Style Awards in China four years ago. Last year, we brought the same concept to India partnering with MTV. We are committed to redefining style around the world and are delighted to co-host the Lycra(r)MTV Style Awards that will salute individuals and celebrities that epitomize style in India. With the participation of individuals from fields as diverse as fashion, entertainment, sports, politics and music, LYCRA(R) remains as ever committed to making this the most happening fashion and lifestyle event in India”.
The show will be held on October 15 and aired at a later date on MTV.


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Wool celebrates return to comeback trail
After decades of losing ground to cheaper, synthetic rivals, wool — warm, comforting, biodegradable and, for those with the cash to splash, worn in styles fashioned by some of the world’s most celebrated designers — is making a comeback.
A five-year campaign, initiated and backed by the Prince of Wales, begins its second national Wool Week today to promote the uses of the most natural of fibres and support the industry.
Wool Week hopes to continue to popularise the benefits of the textile just as wool prices have reached their highest level in nearly five years, marking the resurgence of the country’s centuries-old tradition of sheep farming.
The campaign is fronted by John Thorley, the former head of the National Sheep Association, and Nicholas Coleridge,


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Tonx, the Los Angeles-based subscription coffee service acquired by Blue Bottle Coffee last April, has been relaunched today as Blue Bottle At Home. “Tonx is now part of Blue Bottle,” the Tonx.org redirect banner reads. “Same cool stuff, bigger team, exciting new features.” Tonx has been doing the “coffee startup” thing since before it was cool, and over the years Sprudge.com has chronicled some of their milestones in growth, and antics. For this latest step, we reached out to Tony Konecny (the titular Tonx) and Ryan Brown, Digital Products Manager with our friends and parters at Blue Bottle, to hear a bit more about the end of a brand and the launch of BBAH.
As Konecny told Sprudge, “Everyone has been working feverishly to get everything integrated, get the new site up, and discover and squash any bugs.” Brown and Konecny are currently holed up in Portland, making sure the new site stays up and taking care of any customers confused by the re-design. It sounds like sleep was in short supply, but spirits are high, and Brown says that they’re really happy with the results so far.
This may sound like a brave new world of coffee companies acting like tech companies, but the refrains from Konecny and Brown are familiar ones from any service industry: it’s all about customer experience. Konecny said that the goal with Tonx, and especially with the transition, was to make the customer experience as seamless as possible: “For existing Tonx customers, the only thing that is really changing is the packaging–the premise, the price, all the bells and whistles of ordering and account management remain the same.”
What’s new is the addition of different “cadences” of coffee delivery–“every week, every two weeks, every three weeks, or every month”–and the expansion of subscription plans to include Blue Bottle’s coffee blends. Brown says he is particularly happy about how this has integrated into the Blue Bottle online retail experience, after having worked previously for a number of years with at Tonx in a buying capacity. “People really enjoyed having us select for them what they’d receive,” Brown told Sprudge, and that same experience of rotating single-origin coffees is now captured in Blue Bottle At Home’s “Origin Subscription” option.
There is now also a subscription option for Blue Bottle’s drip coffee blends, as well as an espresso-focused subscription of both blends and single-origins. Brown says a lot of work was done to make sure that people would get an interesting rotation of coffees even if they paused their subscription or adjusted the frequency.
On integrating Tonx into Blue Bottle, Konecny said, “We built a lot of things from the ground-up really early on at Tonx, and Blue Bottle has a lot of very sophisticated pieces to integrate with.” The new coffee service they’ve come up with offers an interesting combination of approaches, and the team seems committed to making sure that the experience caters to everyone. Brown demured when asked about future plans for the service; right now the focus is on watching for bugs, he told us, as well as making sure their new customer support team is able to handle any confusion.
For more on the change-over, you can read Blue Bottle’s FAQ here, or check out Brittany Shoot’s take over at Fortune for some nice background on the booming subscription coffee business. But for now, RIP Tonx–you were brewed in Antarctica and you made us laugh.
Tonx Now Accepting Starbucks Gift Cards — January 9th, 2014
RoboTonx To Data Scan SXSW Hordes, Mommy Blogs — March 11th, 2013
Tonxious Gas: Nick Griffith Joins Tonx.org — April 10th, 2012
Tonx & Nik Are Givin’ Out Half-Pounders — January 25h, 2012
Humbug: Scrooge McTonx On Holiday Coffee — December 12th, 2011
Tonx For Nothing: Snap A Photo, Win A Free Bag — August 16th, 2011


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Chennai, Jan 8 (BPNS)
The Tiruppur garment export units are shutting down on January 17th and 18th due to high cotton yarn prices. This is to attract the attention of the central government on the high prices that are creating problems for the exporters.
Tiruppur Exporters Association (TEA) president Raja A. Shanmugham while speaking to BPNS said, “ The union government is yet to act in the higher prices of cotton yarn which is increasing by the day creating problems for our very existence. We are not able to compete with the prices of Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam, and the Government of India must immediately intervene in this matter or else more than 6 lakh workers will be affected.”
He said that the import duty of cotton must be removed and there should be prevention of export of cotton from India.
Meanwhile, the Textile Secretary has called for a meeting of all the stakeholders of the industry including the Cotton yarn producers, exporters, importers of Cotton, and the garment exporters on Thursday.
Raja Shanmugam said, “ We are planning to highlight the poor conditions of our units and will request the Government to intervene in the matter to protect the value-added garment exporting units of Tiruppur.”


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For many Romanian firms now is a great period to further scale globally. Five Romanian companies, tech and non tech, announced new plans of internationalisation.
Druid, the maker of smart virtual assistants (chatbots) for Enterprise organizations, announced the start of international expansion in markets in Europe, the Middle East, Australasia and the United States, following the signing of the global agreement with UiPath. Through this agreement, UiPath sells and integrates Druid conversational technology globally into the world’s first hyper-automation platform.
The Romanian company Trencadis continues its global expansion and announced that it has partnered with the Swiss group GeoZone to create AIOS Integrated Land Systems, the only one-stop-shop in the world dedicated to public institutions with responsibilities in property management.
AIOS relies on the need for governments to implement efficient property management systems and has created the only turnkey solution that contains all property management equipment and systems, from the first field measurement to the electronic payment of property tax. With a combined experience of the team of over four decades, AIOS Integrated Land Systems serves customers on five continents, in countries such as Romania, the United States, Australia, Laos, Ethiopia or Guatemala.
Laptaria cu Caimac
Dairy producer Laptaria cu Caimac is starting to export and aims to reach the shelf in Italy and Luxembourg. The company will start a bond issue, worth 3 million euros, this fall on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BVB).
DocProcess, a local entrepreneurial company specialised in the development of digital solutions for business process automation, announces the opening of a sales office in Paris, estimating revenues of one million euros on the French market at the end of the year and a staff of 25 employees.
Salad Box, a Romanian restaurant chain specialised on salads, will enter the Russian market in Moscow. The company wants to continue the international development in the franchise system, being already present on 15 markets.


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The Co-operative Group plans to close its Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, distribution centre later this year in a bid to improve efficiency and make its transport activities more cost-effective. Work carried out by the DC, which the supermarket hopes to close by the end of the summer, will be transferred to its depots in Andover, Thurrock and Castlewood, Derbyshire. A spokesman for The Co-operative Food said the primarily own-account operator runs around 50 vehicles from the site. It does occasionally use third-party […]
Prologis is developing the largest speculative build since the UK’s referendum on EU membership, a 275,000ft² DC at its Marston Gate site.
Construction has been completed on a new £22m food DC for The Co-operative in north Derbyshire, which the firm says will employ over 1,000 people and create around 320 new jobs. The Castlewood site, which will service over 500 Co-operative food stores in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire, will start operation in January with the first deliveries scheduled for March. It will become fully operational in September. Located just off junction 28 of the M1, the new site will take […]
Retailer Argos has said it managed to operate a normal service for customers despite a strike by warehouse staff at five of its distribution centres on Friday.


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The key feature of the PulseWallet solution is the use of PalmSecure biometric technology by Fujitsu Frontech North America. The integrated PalmSecure vein imaging technology enables merchants to provide one of the most secure payment options available, while providing an all-in-one payment system for consumers to access their electronic wallets.
Once registered, consumers can leave their credit or debit cards at home and simply scan their palm for payment at POS. Each palm scan is encrypted thus avoiding the security exposure encountered recently by some consumers at check out.
“We’re very excited to be launching PulseWallet at an event like CES. For the first time the public will see how smoothly and efficiently the complete solution, integrated with Fujitsu’s PalmSecure technology, works for merchants and consumers alike,” according to Aimann Rasheed, co-founder and CEO, PulseWallet. “We encourage all attendees to visit our booth to see and experience the future of fast, accurate and flexible POS, today.”
Samsung has announced the launch of Bixby, the virtual assistant for the new Galaxy S8.
Daniel Smith, Director of Relationship Management, Basset and Gold interview: “Consumer demand for new and innovative forms of finance is soaring”
Basset and Gold has announced the launch of its new Innovative Finance ISA (IFISA).
Anthony Walton, CEO of Iliad Solutions explores the latest developments and challenges with APIs.
How well do you know credit cards? Take our quiz and find out!


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CONESTOGA, PA — Turkey Hill has added a new limited-edition flavor to their portfolio, but the flavor is a mystery and it’s sure to get fans talking. For the first time ever, Turkey Hill is inviting flavor detectives across the nation to crack the case of its all-new Mystery Flavor, a taste so mysterious you’ll probably have to go through more than a few scoops before you guess right. The new flavor is sure to be the most delicious mystery of 2022 and starting this winter, fans across the nation can test their luck at guessing the flavor for a chance to win free ice cream for life.
“Surprising our fans with a delicious, but mysterious new flavor is what the Mystery Flavor is all about,” said Kriston Ohm, Vice President, Marketing. “We like to have fun at Turkey Hill and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to bring the unexpected to the freezer aisle. Our new Mystery Flavor is sure to sneak some mystery and intrigue into homes across the nation—we can’t wait for you to try it.”
Fans won’t have to wait long to learn the Mystery Flavor as Turkey Hill will uncover the mystery on March 15. From now until then, scan the QR code on the pack or visit www.turkeyhill.com/mysteryflavor to submit your best guess. Subject to official rules at www.turkeyhill.com/mysteryflavor. The Mystery Flavor is now available in freezer aisles at retailers nationwide, starting at an SRP of $4.29. For more information and official rules, please visit www.turkeyhill.com/mysteryflavor.
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(PRWEB) August 15, 2006
The new social network, created just for designers and artists in the fashion industry officially launched on Tuesday, August 15th. The community can be found at http://www.secondchancefashion.com.
second chance® apparel brand is a relatively new company that was launched into the national spotlight through the 2006 Grammy® awards, as well as other media events. The opportunities that second chance® apparel gained from Grammy® awards media exposure sparked the idea for a new social network.
Some trendsetters in the fashion and online world are pitching in to help by volunteering as Group Moderators for the second chance fashion community.
Volunteers helping launch the new community include:
Angelique Lee, founder of le-fashionista.com
Glamour magazine says that le-fashionista.com is “one of just 8 websites that style insiders swear by." Angelique is moderator for the “Designer” group in the Second Chance Fashion community.
Jay Arnold, creative guru of Imax Marketing Group and co-founder of Fabulous Stationery.com. Trend setter and online retail innovator Jay Arnold is heading up the “Cool Stuff” group in the community.
Cybele Parsignault, beauty blogger and marketing executive for the premier LA group, Distinctive Assets Cybele Parsignault has agreed to moderate the “Accessories” group in the community.
Silicon Valley firm Crowd Factory built the new social network. Crowd Factory team members have experience at Google, Oracle and Yahoo. They decided to team up with second chance apparel because of the passion of the second chance apparel group.
Crowd Factory’s Alexander Mouldovan calls second chance fashion a “groundbreaking online endeavor. We wanted to bring together new artists and designers as well as give consumers a direct line for input and feedback. It was the second chance® apparel team and their passion that made us decide to get involved in this project.”
If you would like to know more about second chance fashion or have any comments, please email Michelle Lamar or call Michelle at 816-590-7043.


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Many of Britain’s biggest banks have issued warnings to European customers that their accounts will be shut within weeks unless they have a UK address, according to financial advisory group deVere.
Nigel Green, chief executive and founder of deVere Group, has said that UK banks are “outrageously failing” tens of thousands of expat clients across Europe.
Due to Brexit, he explained, it will become illegal for UK banks to service British customers living in the EU without applying for new banking licences.
Green said: “Clients now need to take urgent steps to continue to be able to access, use, and manage their money. The move by these banks will be a major inconvenience to many tens of thousands of Brits living in the EU.”
A UK Finance spokesperson said: “The banking and finance industry has been working hard to prepare for changes caused by the UK’s departure from the EU and minimise any disruption to personal and business customers.
“Where possible, firms want to keep providing banking services to customers living in the EEA after the transition period. The impact on each customer will vary depending on the operating model of their bank or provider, the product or service being provided, and the legal and regulatory framework in the country in which they are resident.
“Impacted customers resident within the EEA should be contacted by their provider to inform them of any changes to the services they receive and any actions they need to take.”


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Ryanair says any customer entitled to a refund will now receive their money back within five working days if they use a new simplified process.
The airline says they've streamlined the refund process after 'learning lessons' from the millions of refunds processed during the pandemic.
It's part of a range of new measures the company has introduced via its app in a bid to improve customer service.
There were widespread complaints about Ryanair's refund process during the early stages of the pandemic, as millions of people were unable to fly due to travel restrictions.
While the airline has repeatedly defended its efforts to handle those refunds, Ryanair's marketing director Dara Brady told The Pat Kenny Show they've now made improvements.
He said: “We learned a lot during the COVID process, when processing over 30 million refunds. By and large, we think our team did an excellent job on that.
“We had some small issues with online travel agents who had provided fake passenger contact details, which made it hard for us to process."
Dara said the vast majority of people - particularly those who booked flights directly from the airline - received their refunds, but they did receive feedback that there was "some confusion" around the process.
He said some customers weren't sure exactly which email links needed to be clicked to deal with the refund process.
The airline's now updated their app, and it now includes a more "streamlined" refund process.
He said: “We’re really trying to streamline that process and bring more transparency. What we’re saying is that any customer who is entitled to a refund and selects that as an option, you’ll be to get confirmation and access to that in your Ryanair account with 24 hours.
“Within one click, that can be withdrawn to the original form of payment and that will be paid within five days.”
There'll also be an updated customer service system to deal with refund issues that can't be resolved easily.
However, Dara warned: “It might be the case you mightn’t like the answer [you get] - as we’ve always said, our flights are non-refundable if the flight operates.”
Other changes to the app include a 'day of travel assistant' which will offer live updates on flight status and boarding details (such as gate numbers).
Ryanair has faced scrutiny recently after it emerged that several hundred people across Europe were barred from flying with the airlines after they used credit card 'chargeback' procedures to gain refunds.
The process allows people who haven't received a refund directly to go directly to a bank or credit company for a 'chargeback' - basically reversing the original transaction.
This is different from being granted a refund from the company itself, and usually hits the airline or merchant with an extra charge.
Ryanair has now said customers who used the process won't be allowed to travel unless they settle their debt with the company.
Dara said this issue impacted less than 850 people, and defended the approach his company has taken.
He said: “Clearly, if you booked a ticket to go to Ed Sheeran in Croke Park and you can’t go… it’s not the case you can then go and say ‘I want a refund for my ticket’
“The terms and conditions clearly state that if you buy a ticket and it operates it's non-refundable.”
He claimed it's also “absolutely” in Ryanair's terms & conditions that they can ban people from flying with them if they owe the airline money.


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2013 has been branded ‘the year of 4G adoption’ – 4G being the fourth-generation mobile internet infrastructure. With a rising trend in businesses adopting mobile working strategies, it is clear that consumers and businesses alike will be looking to explore the benefits that this latest technology brings to the market. But while these benefits are seemingly compelling, adopting 4G represents a significant financial investment for businesses, with increased tariff and data consumption charges likely to be scrutinized heavily by any Finance Director.
The consumer applications of 4G spread far and wide. Users armed with these high-speed mobile internet connections are able to use complex web services (such as Skype and live video streaming) which previously relied on fixed connections. This, together with the increasing amount of personal information being stored remotely (in the cloud), is helping to further integrate these.
Meanwhile, 4G is also an attractive proposition to both small and enterprise businesses. With the lack of a ubiquitous global Wi-Fi infrastructure and 3G networks increasingly under strain, the idea of employees being constantly connected via a ‘super-fast’ mobile internet connection is key. Previously, slow and unreliable mobile internet connections restricted employees to basic tasks such as sending and receiving emails and other low-data consumption tasks. The introduction of 4G now facilitates the usage of complex office productivity tools, file sharing, video conferencing and other heavy data-orientated tasks on the move. Businesses that empower employees with 4G are able to establish fully-operational offices almost anywhere, thereby increasing the agility and responsiveness of these mobile workforces.
However, businesses not equipping their workforce with 4G run the risk of losing competitive advantage as competitors productivity levels soar. This poses a bigger problem for businesses located outside of 4G coverage and favors those located within concentrated urbanized markets. Competing on a global scale is increasingly important and, without the ability to adopt 4G, businesses are vulnerable against more efficient overseas competitors.
The end of 2012 saw 4G networks deployed in 59 countries, clearly outlining the growing appetite for the new technology. The news that the Chinese government is prioritizing its investments in 4G is a strong indication of the high regard this technology is held in rapidly developing markets.
4G is quickly becoming commonplace as are expectations of flexible and mobile workforces, therefore those not adopting the new technology will be, or at least perceived to be, at a disadvantage and lagging behind. With traditional office-based workforces becoming a thing of the past, as well increased productivity by domestic and foreign competitors, businesses may find themselves having to adopt in order to compete. However, even keeping up with the crowd might not be enough for businesses to differentiate themselves with the constant and relentless evolution of mobile technologies; as is evident in South Korea where businesses are surging on and will soon have access to 5G technologies.
To read the full article and our other B2B Tech Trends, please click here.


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- Cadbury Nigeria Plc has recorded a record-breaking 124% quarter-on-quarter growth in profit after tax, amounting to N3.453 billion, thanks to a 30% increase in its topline revenues, driven by better distribution, price adjustments, and improved product positioning.
- The company’s impressive Q1 profits delivered earnings per share of N1.84, the best since 2016, and investors rewarded Cadbury with a share price bump, gaining 9.8% on Thursday to close at N12.3 per share.
- To sustain this performance all year round, Cadbury will need to keep profitability margins at 15-20%, which will be challenging in a difficult environment, considering rising costs, inflation, exchange rate depreciation, and the new naira note swap policy.
Cadbury Nigeria Plc has released its unaudited financial statement for the first quarter that ended on March 31, 2023, highlighting a record-breaking 124% quarter-on-quarter growth in profit after tax, amounting to N3.453 billion.
The impressive growth in the bottom line will come as a relief to the country’s Managing Director, Mrs. Oyeyimika Adeboye who was appointed Managing Director, Executive Director of Cadbury Nigeria PLC as of April 1, 2019.
Since her appointment, she has implemented several strategies to revive the company’s bottom line, however consistency has been the challenge due to volatile operational costs. The latest results suggest they may have turned the corner.
The company’s profits were boosted by a 30% increase in its topline revenues of N16.5 billion compared to N12.7 billion reported a year earlier. The revenues were boosted by a rise in sales from its refreshment beverages segments which includes the manufacturing and sale of Bournvita and 3-in-1 Hot Chocolate.
Revenues from the segment went from N9 billion to N11.6 billion as a combination of better distribution, price adjustments, and improved product positioning helped boost sales of Bournvita and its chocolate drinks.
Cadbury also reported improved sales from its confectionary division which includes manufacturing and sale of Tom Tom, Buttermint, Candy Caramel, Candy Coffee, and Clorets gum. The division saw revenues jump to N3.9 billion from N3.4 billion same period in 2022.
Cadbury has invested heavily in developing and introducing new products into the market as it continues to face stiff competition from its peers. It recently debuted the biscuit segment which includes a new Bournvita biscuit. Revenue from this new segment was N604 million helping boost the top line. The segment also contributed N179 million to group profits.
Despite the growth in revenues, the company faced a rise in operating expenses as rising inflation, exchange rate depreciation and the new naira note swap policy exacerbated costs. However, it was able to reduce the impact of rising costs on margins.
Cost of sales sliced 62% of revenues much improved from 74.8% same period in 2022. Operating expenses weighed on margins reducing gross margins by 27.5%. It was 40.6% the prior year. Cadbury thus earned a profit of about N20.6 for every N100 of revenue compared to just N11.8 a year earlier.
Significance of the results
Cadbury’s Q1 profits delivered earnings per share of N1.84 by far its best quarter since 2016 when Nairametrics started keeping records of its financials.
- Before now, the company has only been able to report profits above N1 billion twice in the last 28 quarters. In fact, the profit of N3.45 billion in Q1 best of the N946 million reported in the whole of 2022.
- Nairametrics research analysts how noted that Cadbury historically has cyclical quarters where cost pressures are difficult to absorb thus depressing margins. In some quarters it posts losses that can wipe out gains made from prior quarters.
- However, to sustain this performance all year round, Cadbury will need to keep profitability margins at 15-20% which will be challenging in a difficult environment. Before this quarter its best profit margin was in the first quarter of 2021 where it reported a profit margin of about 17.6%. Margins fell to negative 8.6% the next quarter.
Investors reward Cadbury will a share price bump as the stock gained 9.8% on Thursday to close at N12.3 per share. Its current price-to-earnings ratio is 7.3x. The share price has now gained 21% in two days.
Cadbury has a year-high share price of about N17 per share.
Cadbury is a dividend-paying Company and declared dividends of N0.40 per share for the 2022 financial year payable on June 27, 2023, for members on the register of Members as on June 4, 2023.
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Growth with Web design Article from Dmzine
Growth with Web design Article from dmzine featuring Pegboard and how we work with designers.
Each quarter MYOB, the accounting software people, publish a business report. Some recent facts from their surveys show how much potential there is for web design.
A recent survey of 1,000 Australian businesses found only 35% had a website, only 51% of finance and insurance businesses are online, while 48% of manufacturing and wholesale businesses have a website and 36% of retailing and hospitality businesses have a website The survey also found that business owners with a website report a more successful year.
So what does this tell us?


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After appearing in live images on a couple of occasions over the past week, the yet to be revealed red LG Nexus 5 showed up yet again. This time around, a press image of the red handset made the rounds on Twitter, courtesy of @evleaks.
Right in line with earlier leaks, the press image reveals that the red Nexus 5, like its white relative, will essentially carry a dual-color scheme. In it, the back of the smartphone has been treated to the new color, whereas the front is all-black save for the red accent on the earpiece.
There is no word on the availability of the red Nexus 5 just yet. It shouldn’t be a long wait before the device goes official.
Exactly what i wanted for someone ;)
Using N5 for 2.5 months. its one of the best phones of this age. Camera is good too, its not bad.. maybe its not upto standards of Galaxy series or Sony but its good i love the videos and pictures i capture from it... So far i have never needed a B...
If you really want those specs you should look somewhere else. Only the color scheme has changed


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HYLETE is offering up to 12 million shares of the company’s common stock that will be available to investors at $1.00 per share, the release states, with a minimum purchase of 500 shares per investor.
According to a press release, the opening of the San Diego brewery will add dozens of jobs to the local market.
According to a press release, the new 3,200 square foot Lost Cause Meadery space will open to the public on March 28.
Callaway Golf Company has named Joe B. Flannery as its executive vice president of apparel and soft goods.
According to an interview with founder Antonio Gamboa on KPBS’ “Only Here” podcast, he is in the middle of contract negotiations with a location in S.D., dubbed Telefonica Norte.
The Houston, Texas-based franchise, which teaches children age 7 to age 14 to code by showing them how to build video games, has 25 locations open.
According to a press release, RateBeer, a consumer review website, tallied and rated millions of reviews to create a list of the world’s best beers.
OGIO has launched its first women’s collection, dubbed XIX (“Nineteen”), in honor of golf's 19th hole.
Vuori Clothing has appointed Catherine Pike, a former executive at Lululemon Athletica, as its new senior director of retail.
According to the company’s Facebook page, Donut Bar will open a new location in Tucson, Arizona, on February 22.
Co. Expects $1.2M in 2020 Revenue from Its Cold Brews
San Diego-based Chosen Foods, makers of avocado oil and other avocado-inspired condiments, has announced a new brand identity.
Bumble Bee Seafoods filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Nov. 21, 2019 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware.
Co. Hits $129M Revenue; Marketing Continues to Promote Co.’s Culture
Callaway Golf, the Carlsbad-based golf equipment and innovation company, announced today the release of its new MAVRIK line of drivers, fairway woods, hybrids and irons.


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By Jason Snell
April 30, 2019 7:27 PM PT
Last updated August 16, 2023
Apple’s financial results: Learning to sell the iPhone
There was a time—a very long time, in fact—when Apple didn’t need to make much of an attempt to actually sell iPhones. I don’t want to imply that the act of creating new iPhone models and new versions of iOS wasn’t an enormous task—it was. My point is, after the phones arrived on the scene, people really wanted them. And Apple just needed to make as many as it could and make them available in Apple retail stores and other locations, and they’d fly off the shelves.
That era ended last fall. And as Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri made clear on Tuesday’s conference call with analysts as a part of reporting the company’s latest quarterly results, Apple is now turning around iPhone sales by being more active when it comes to selling those iPhones to customers.
It’s my understanding that, starting last fall, every floor employee at Apple’s retail stores has had it emphasized to them that the goal is to boost iPhone sales. Even positions that would theoretically be bad fits for a focus on sales—people teaching Today at Apple classes, for example—are expected to show off the latest phone hardware in an attempt to get people interested in buying. If you take a photography course that roams the streets around the store for subject matter, you may be allowed to borrow a shiny new iPhone XR to shoot those pictures—all the better to tempt you with an upgrade.
What, employees at a retail store are expected to move product? It’s hardly earth-shattering stuff, but this is Apple. Apple didn’t need to pull those levers—until last fall, as iPhone sales started to dip. Now it’s pulling all the levers.
“Our retail and online stores continue to be a key point of innovation,” Cook said on Tuesday. “As we mentioned in January, we’ve been working on an initiative to make it simple to trade in a phone in our store, finance the purchase over time, and get help transferring data from the old phone to the new phone. As part of this initiative, we rolled out new trade-in and financing programs in the U.S., China, the UK, Spain, Italy, and Australia. The results have been striking. Across our stores, we had an all-time record response to our trade-in programs, and with more than four times the trade-in volume of our March quarter a year ago.”
Emphasizing the trading in of older models in order to get a discount on a new iPhone has worked around the world, including in China, where sales have really lagged. Apple is still experimenting with its approach in different markets, but the company is now motivated to learn, when it wasn’t before.
Or as Cook said: “Clearly what we’ve learned here—and it’s not a surprise, really—is that many, many people do want to trade in their current phone. From a customer or user point of view, the trade-in looks like a subsidy. And so it is a way to offset the device cost itself. And many people in literally every market that we’ve tried this in… want to take and pay for something on installments instead of all at once. And so, it’s a little different in each market in terms of what the elasticity is. But you can bet that we’re learning quickly on all of those.”
Apple’s also being aggressive in the prices that it offers to trade-in customers. “The incentives we’re offering, currently in our retail stores, a trade-in value that is more than sort of the ‘blue book’ [price] of the device if you will, for lack of a better description. And so we have topped those up to provide an extra benefit to the user,” Cook said, noting that iPhones of numerous generations are being traded in. Some people are replacing a two-year-old model, but some are replacing every year, and others are waiting three or four years. “It’s really all over the place,” Cook said.
In some markets, most particularly China, offering an installment plan that allows you to pay a monthly fee on your new iPhone rather than a lump sum has proven quite successful as well. As Cook put it on the analyst call, Apple is now learning about iPhone buying psychology in different markets, and changing its approach as it does.
“You can bet that we’re learning on each of these [approaches], finding the parts that the user likes the most. I think the key is, we’re trying to build something into the consumer mindset that it’s good for the environment and good for them to trade in their current device on a new device. And we do our best to getting the current device to someone else that can use that, or, in some cases if the product is at an end of life, we are recycling the parts in it to make sure that it can carry on in another form,” Cook said.
There was a time when Apple didn’t need to exert much effort to sell iPhones. Those times may be over, but it’s still got a lot of tricks up its sleeve. I’m not surprised to hear that, as Cook and Maestri both pointed out, iPhone sales are already turning around. The execs said that November and December were the worst months of the current iPhone dip, that March was the best of the bunch, and that the last couple of weeks of March were the best weeks of the entire quarter.
That’s why Apple projected a much smaller dip in revenue between its second and third financial quarters than usually happens. The company’s executives seem quite confident that their iPhone sales techniques are working and that the product’s downturn has been smoothed out or stopped.
A couple of other notes based on the results today:
Lots of talk about the growth in the App Store search advertising business. For those who don’t know, this is a business in which Apple takes money from its own app developers to provide prominent results when someone in the App Store searches on particular keywords. If you develop an iOS app and don’t buy your keywords out, your competitors will—and you’ll lose sales.
Tim Cook said that App Store search ads are “growing very, very fast… I think it was up around 70 percent over the previous year. We’re expanding into new geographies as well, and we still have more geographies out there that we think can move the dial further. So it is definitely a a business that is big and getting bigger.”
Just so we’re clear: This is a way for Apple to claw back more money from app developers by getting them to pay Apple to get more visibility in search (and to prevent their competitors from paying to jump over them in search results). I am not a big fan of this technique, but apparently it’s effective!
More than that, though: Since the people who buy search ads are app developers, who make money by selling apps in the App Store, this is essentially Services revenue that gets counted twice! First, people buy apps and Apple counts that revenue. Then, the app developers with whom Apple shares App Store revenue turn around and pay Apple some of their earnings in exchange for ads. I doubt this is a major mover in Apple’s rapidly growing services revenue line, but I have to admire the moxie of running those dollars through the Services revenue line twice.
Analyst Louis Miscioscia of Daiwa Capital Markets1 asked Cook about what services he expected to be the most successful in the short term and long term, the CEO expertly deflected that one. But he did talk a little bit about his vision for the future of Apple TV+:
“The TV+ product plays in a market where there’s a huge move from the cable bundle to over-the-top,” Cook said. (Over The Top is TV industry slang for getting channels via internet streaming rather than traditional cable or satellite. Tim’s practically a TV exec already.) “We think that most users are going to get multiple over-the-top products and we’re going to do our best to convince them that the Apple TV+ product should be one of them.”
Not to go too overboard with parsing specific words in Tim Cook statements, but I was struck by the phrase “one of them.” Apple is not trying to be the winner, to beat Netflix—and in fact, Cook is saying that he just thinks Apple TV+ can be part of a larger diet of streaming subscriptions. Maybe. I have some doubts that Apple’s current mid-tier streaming offering can compete in a world where streaming services from giants Disney, Warner Media, and NBCUniversal are battling it out with Netflix and Amazon, but for now Apple is in the game.
Finally, Services. What can I say? This is why Apple keeps talking about them and had a whole event about them. Services revenue made up 20 percent of Apple’s revenue this quarter, making it larger than the Mac and iPad put together. $11.5 billion dollars in one quarter. Consistent growth for years. It was the best quarter of all time for the App Store, Apple Music, Apple’s cloud services, and that App Store search ad business, and Apple says that AppleCare and Apple Pay set records for the second financial quarter.
If you’re sick of hearing about Apple’s services, you might want to sign up for a service that cures that, because it’s not going to stop. Right now when viewed from a distance, Apple’s a company with two primary businesses: the iPhone (50%) and services (20%). The iPad, Mac, and wearables each count for another 10 percent. They are individually enormous businesses—as Apple loves to say, each of them is basically a Fortune 200 company—but they are small compared to the scale of the iPhone and the services business.
- Hat tip to Mikah Sargent for finding him, because I couldn’t figure out what name they were saying on the call! ↩
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