iphones Ringing Up Huge Cash For Apple
In my closing article for 2014 I hinted at what will prove to be the ever increasing popularity of Internet enabled portable devices for 2015 – not far wrong! Device maker Apple has just posted the largest ever recorded quarterly profit for a public company of $18billion US dollars – exceeding the $15.9billion profit made by oil giant ExxonMobil in the second quarter of 2012!
So how do you make a 3 month profit of $18billion dollars? Simply sell around 75 million iPhones during the same 3 month period all around the globe. This is the equivalent of every man, woman and child in Australia buying an iPhone – 3 times over – in a 3 month period! Wow, these are big numbers and the crazy thing is that Samsung in comparison sell greater numbers of phones however they don’t make near as much profit on each one!
How crazy is this? Apple can make more profit from selling phones around the world than the largest global oil company providing fuel and oil to power all of our cars, trucks, trains, earthmoving and farm machinery! And put into more understandable figures this is the same as making $9 million per hour (of profit after expenses) for every hour during a 3 month period!!!
It is just as well we now have sliced bread, instant coffee, dish washers, microwaves, automatic car washes and fast food as we need the spare time to work on figuring out how to use our phones as well as waiting on hold for the likes of Telstra support or Apple iCloud support. It is bemusing that as we slip into a more technologically advanced world we also create a heap of extra issues for ourselves that we never previously had!
I don’t want to knock technology too much as I operate smack bang in the middle of that industry but I do sympathise with customers as well as getting upset myself at how difficult some technologies can be to live with. A lot of the confusion seems to stem from the software controlling these devices often been written by dead set computer geeks that would have enough trouble communicating verbally let alone through written instructions.
So where does this leave the average Joe? Unfortunately you are getting left behind today if you don’t try to keep up to some degree. Having at least the basics of Internet access and an email address opens a lot of doors that are otherwise closed. What device do you buy to do this? The answer varies greatly with both personal choice and the intended use and in this regard we are often called upon to help a customer decide exactly what devices would suit them best.
At the end of the day, don’t always believe what your peers are saying you need and definitely don’t believe what someone from the younger generation tells you is essential, but ask lots of questions and observe what others aren’t having too much trouble with. Also be wary of commission based salespeople simply trying to clinch a deal. Keep in mind that any computer / Smart Phone (cheap or dear) if badly setup is going to provide endless frustrations and headaches.
Next week we will take a look at the differences between some of the latest gizmo offerings and in particular what uses they are suited to. Until then I still have more benches and shelving to build at our new shop as well as signage to construct.
Future Byte Me topics can be emailed to [email protected] and Bruce is contactable at Kerr Solutions new shop at 205 Musgrave Street or on 49 222 400.
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