News - Apple results disappoint despite record iPhone sales

[HEXUS]

China Mobile deal provided few fireworks and iPhone 5c wasn't plastic fantastic.

Read more.

[Boon72]

yeah, i can see how over $4 billion a month in profit is a bit low LOL

[crossy]

yeah, i can see how over $4 billion a month in profit is a bit low LOL

It is a disappointment if the analysts were all expecting $8bn+/month.

Apple has ... the possibility of becoming a big mobile payments and advertising company.

Oh great - just what the (online) world needs ... more adverts!

The online payments stuff is probably more useful, but only if/when Apple get over their "the only game in town is us" mindset and make whatever service they're trying to sell universally available.

Think the article has got it right - the high-end smartphone market is a LOT more cut-throat these days and I think that perhaps Apple is trading on it's name (and past glories) rather than on any noticeable technical superiority. Read a good article the other day comparing the latest from Apple, HTC and Samsung and the conclusion was that there were standout aspects of each phone, but all things considered, they were pretty evenly matched. Ditto with middle- and high-end tablet market - it's impossible to select a clear "winner".

High-end market's getting pretty dull as a result imho, and the interesting stuff is happening at lower price points. More about value-for-money than any real technical advance.

[peterb]

It isn't really so much about the phone as the supporting synchronising infrastructure - Apple iCloud, Microsoft's one drive or Googles. er... whatever its called, or blackberry's - afgain, whatever its called.

Which one do you distrust the least?

[McEwin]

"I think the 5S, people are really intrigued with Touch ID," said Cook. "It's a major feature that has excited people. And I think that associated with the other things that are unique to the 5S, got the 5s to have a significant amount more attention and a higher mix of sales."

[cringe] The phone reads my fingerprint... that's not exactly new, or exciting. It's the design that sells iPhones and the minimal price difference means it's unsurprising that the 5C flopped (in my girlfriends words "it looks crap"). Tim Cook doesn't need me or anyone else to tell him that.