by Jason Wilk on January 21, 2009
As Apple (AAPL) rares up for it’s Wednesday Q4 earnings report, many investors are weary. In the past few weeks, the economy has stayed sluggish, Steve Jobss has left on medical leave and the usually exciting product debuts at MacWorld from Apple showed little to get excited about.What to look at against Wall Street expectations.
- Expect 20 million+ iPods shipped during the December quarter for the holiday season, beating the 18.6 million expectation.
- Expect a standard 2.5-2.6 million Macs shipped or even with the Street’s 2.5 million expectation.
- Wall Street is expecting 5 million iPhones to have shipped. Keep in mind September numbers showed Apple shipped 6.9 million phones, and that wasn’t even the holidays.
- Wall Street expects $9.7 billion in revenue and $1.32 in EPS. I couldn’t find an Apple store that wasn’t overcrowded this holiday season. People are excited about the iPhone, the new Mac computers are light years ahead of the competition and margins are consistently solid through the whole family of products. The 6 month old iTunes App store on the iPhone has already surpassed 500 million downloads, on its way to being the billion dollar marketplace it was projected to be when it debuted this summer. I expect Apple to be north of $10 billion in revenue this quarter, adding to that $20 billion in cash flow the company is sitting on. Why so bullish? Investors looking to the wrong reasons why Apple will slow down. Things like the popularity of netbooks this winter compared to the pricing of Mac, as well as lack of attention to the app store’s success will offset earnings predictions.
Official Numbers Are In: The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000 representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
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by David Heyerman on January 11, 2009
- With CES last week, and the Detroit Auto Show to come, the tech scene, especially the cleantech scene has been bubbling with news, whether it be positive or negative. There’s been a lot of talk about energy infrastructure investment to come in 2009, and one sector sure to benefit from this investment is cleantech automotive. The economy should benefit tremendously as near 280,000 jobs could be created with the deployment of a smart grid in 2009.
- Toyota – Because of a snag in the battery pack, Toyota will be pulling their plug-in Prius from the Detroit Auto Show next week. DIY’s need not worry, there are plenty of kits out there. With production slowing down seriously, the company has also begun lowering salaries of its Japanese employees.
- Aptera – Like previously mentioned, Aptera’s promised end-of-2008 delivery date didn’t happen but turns out it’s way worse than expected. We’re not talking a couple months delay here, an official letter from the Google.org backed company explains that volume production won’t come until October 2009. Great job, as Fambro and Musk high-five!
- Mazda – This might be the most impressive green car development yet in 2009. Currently catalytic converters are very expensive due to the amount of precious metals (platinum, rhodium) used in their production, however are incredibly important because of their emission reductions. The company just developed a new manufacturing process for catalytic converters that will cut the amount of precious metals by 70% in their 2010 Mazda3. Hats off Mazda, maybe you won’t live the rest of your life in Japanese car manufacturer mediocrity.
- Nissan – Straight off an electric network partnership with Switzerland, Nissan’s back at again, this time with a battery announcement. Nissan and NEC plan to invest $1.1 Billion into a the production of 200,000 high-capacity electric vehicle batteries. Only problem, the investment will be made by 2011 or later.
- Dodge – Pictured above is the new Dodge EV to be name the Circuit. The electric car is to be unveiled next week at the Detroit Auto Show.
- Ener1 – Lithium-ion vehicle battery producer Ener1 is looking for some government cash as they apply for $480 million in low-interest loans from the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Incentive Program (ATVMIP). Tesla is asking for $400 million from the same program.
- Stay tuned for updates as the announcements roll in from Detroit. Already we’ve seen leaks from Chrysler with their new 200C extended-range EV, Toyota with their full electric FT-EV, and Ford promising a pure electric by 2011.
by David Heyerman on December 18, 2008
- It’s without a doubt the long-term sustainability and financial aspects of cleantech investment are promising. However, due to the current state of the economy mixed with an uncertainty in production efficiency, investment in 2009 will continue to grow, but at a slower rate than 2008.
- Cleantech VC, @Ventures go further to say that there’s really no way to gauge the cleantech market’s future. Their reasoning behind this is although there’ve been very few failures with venture backed cleantech companies, there’ve also been very few exits. Isn’t this to be expected with a relatively new market in general? As investment grows, startups weed eachother out, leaving only the ones with the most efficient practices. We’re still in that weeding-out stage, and I can imagine as we dive deeper into this recession, those top companies will become more prominent.
- Obama just appointed an accomplished energy team including LA’s own, Nancy Sutly. Before being appointed to Obama’s cabinet, she served as Los Angeles’s debuty mayor of energy and the environment. Considering Obama could invest near $100 Billion within his first year on energy infrastructure and green job creation, the future of cleantech appears to be shining bright.
- It’s safe to say that like almost all markets, including cleantech, growth will slow in 2009. This takes nothing away from the whole reason behind cleantech itself; long-term sustainability with the goal of preserving the environment. As we progress and bounce back from this slight dip in the economy, leading green companies will grow, as will invesments in the sector.
- UPDATE: According to a report released yesterday, a National Venture Capital Association survey has shown that although VC investment will slow in 2009, greentech will receive more venture capital than any other sector.
by John Jorgensen on December 1, 2008
- Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman wrote a guest post on TC titled “The First-Time CEO’s Recession Survival Guide” with some solid advice for any startup CEOs who want their companies to live to see the economy recover.
- 1. Compete With Your Successor – Imagine the CEO who would replace you if you got fired. Think about all the objective decisions that person would be able to make. And then make them yourself.
- 2. Act Like an Owner. This goes along with #1. Take responsibility and re-examine every expense of your company.
- 3. Get a Board You Connect With (Not Just One With Connections). Instead of big names who you feel the need to impress, choose board members that you can speak candidly with who have real world experience turning a profit.
- 4. Run Weekly Revenue Meetings to brainstorm immediate ways to increase revenue week over week.
- 5. Automate Bad News. Provide revenue & traffic reports on a consistent basis to the board. This forces you to deal with problems in the open as they happen.
- 6. (Just Ask to) Meet Your Peers. Ask other entrepreneurs their opinions; their advice tends to be more practical and valuable than what you would hear from an “expert.” [Anyone who has had the opportunity to listen to Jason Nazar (Docstoc CEO) speak in Los Angeles can vouch for the veracity of this.]
- 7. Create Simplicity. Don’t ignore complexity, instead, work through it by using a combination of precise identification and persistence.
- 8. Go on the Attack. The economy is hurting your competitors too. Don’t wait around for conditions to get better before taking action. Be aggressive — when others slow down, it often pays to speed up.
- 9. Be a Roman. Don’t let your head get too big after a single brush of success. On the same token, don’t let small setbacks seem like the end of the world. Keep your head down and charge forward.
- 10. The Journey is the Destination. Every CEO dreams of the big exit, but even that won’t compare to the rush you feel while you’re building your business. Remember, you’re never down and out until the lights are shut off.
TC
by Jason Wilk on November 27, 2008
- Apple’s global Black Friday sale has gotten off to a weak start in New Zealand and Australia.
- Why is it weak? Well for starters the discount is only available for the iMac and MacBook computers. Secondly, the discount only knocks off $100 for higher powered Macbook Pro or iMac models and only $50 for lower powered machines. Even less for the suite of iPod’s and accessories. I’m sure I could find my old college ID somewhere and get the same discount as that.
- This is bad news for Apple if this discount spreads to the US Black Friday Sales, where analysts were expecting Apple to knock off 15% for most Mac products.
- With such dismal discounts, Apple is taking a big risk that they will be able to keep sales high through this holiday season. I’m Bearish on Apple for this winter.
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