Sat - January 15, 2005

Apple reports Q1 of '05 financial results



What a quarter for Apple. Actually, that's an understatement. This was the BEST quarter for Apple in the company's history! On January 12, 2005, Apple reported a net profit of $295 million on revenue of $3.49 billion during the traditional holiday quarter. These numbers represent a 74% increase in year-over-year revenue. Few companies in Silicon Valley will report those kind of numbers this year.

What's even more impressive in the number of computers and iPods Apple sold in Q1. Apple shipped over 1 million Macintosh computers and 4.5 million iPods. Yes, I said 4.5 million iPods; that's a 525% increase from the year-ago quarter. Not to be outdone, computer shipments increased by 26% from the year-ago quarter. The so-called iPod "halo" effect appears to be bringing Macintosh sales up, which are Apple's highest gross-margin products.

Apple is growing at an amazing pace, although nothing like the growth experienced in the late 80's. We're on track to be 10 billion dollar company by the end of fiscal year '05. With the new products like the Mac Mini, iPod Shuffle, Tiger, iLife '05, and iWork '05, the company continues to head in the right direction. It will be interesting to see what numbers we report in Q1 of '06.

Posted at 12:15 PM    

Thu - December 16, 2004

Project Management Training



So ... it's been a while since I last posted. I've been ... well ... enjoying my new toy (Mustang). More on that later.

This past week (Dec. 14-16) I attended a three day project management training course in Sacramento with the blessing of my manager. The course, conducted by the Catalysis Group, covered the four key steps in project management--plan, execute, control, and close. Several interesting strategies for project planning, execution, and risk management were explored, may of which I had never been exposed to before. I have to say that I really enjoyed the course content and presentation. I went into the course having an instinctive feel for project management, but now I have several tools and models which I can wrap my head around to improve execution.

As an aside, I'll say that downtown Sacramento is pretty nice. I ended up staying in the Embassy Suites on the Sacramento River Promenade, less than a mile away from the state capital, Old Sacramento, and Raley Field, home of the Sacramento River Cats. Through morning runs I was able to explore a large portion of downtown Sacramento and the surrounding territory. The city is well laid out, doesn't have an excessive amount of traffic, and seemed safer than some other large cities I've visited in the past. In addition, I discovered a really nice river-front trail that starts in Old Sacramento and goes on for several miles along the Sacramento River.

Posted at 10:04 PM    

Wed - October 13, 2004

Apple reports Q4 of '04 financial results



It feels great to be working at Apple right now. The company is firing on all pistons and there really is no end in sight. Today we reported our Fourth Quarter results to much fan fare. Apple posted a net profit of $106 million, or $26 per share, on revenue of $2.35 billion. This represents a 37 percent increase from the year-ago quarter and Apple's highest Q4 revenue in 9 years. Most analysts expected earnings between 16 and 18 cents per share, so we really pleased Wall Street.

Due to the positive numbers and large number of iPod (2,016,000) and Macs (836,000) sold during the quarter, Apple's stock is literally raising the roof. We've hit 52-week highs several times in the last few days. Right now the stock is hovering around 45.00.

Posted at 08:20 AM    

Fri - October 1, 2004

Thank you PG&E!



The electric company takes a lot of crap from customers, but every once in a while it comes through. Like today for example. For no particular reason, PG&E decided that it should reward its customers by shutting off power just long enough for employees to send their employees home.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not complaining. I ended up having time to place my 2005 Ford Mustang GT order (see other entry), helping Ricci find the Japanese board game "Go", running across a cool bumper sticker ("My Doberman is smarter than your honors student"), learning how to play "Go", and learning how to play Risk 2210. So, thank you PG&E.

Posted at 09:39 PM    

Tue - September 28, 2004

Did you feel it?



So if you haven't heard already, there was a 6.0 earthquake in central California today around 10:15 a.m. (PDT). The epicenter of the quake was about seven miles southeast of Parkfield, CA. Parkfield, a small town with less than 40 residents, is located just under 180 miles South of where I live (Cupertino, CA).

Although many friends at work indicated that they felt the quake in the morning, I can't claim to have felt it. I was either really focused on my work or not yet fully alert (only had one cup of coffee before 11 a.m.).

Posted at 10:35 PM    

©