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Apple leads tech pack in profit surge
updated 05:20 pm EST, Thu February 19, 2004
Apple profit surge
BusinessWeek reports that companies in 2003 posted the highest profit surge in history. Apple recorded the , a 552 percent jump in annual profits to $137 million, thanks to strong sales of its computers and the iPod. By comparison, the crowded software industry didn't see such a sharp increase. "Although profits at Oracle rose 22%, to $2.5 billion last year, sales climbed a meager 4% [...] Microsoft barely surpassed the industry's 8% total annual sales gain, with an 11% increase, to $34.3 billion."
wow
02/19, 05:36pm reply
Umm .. Im sure people will start bashing these numbers by starting off with the market share argument .. blah blah blah
AZEEZ !! Light !
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Great!
02/19, 05:40pm reply
All I've got to say is that's its nice to see Apple doing well, I hope this continues for them!
It's actually enjoyable being a webdesigner and working on a Mac Os X equipped machine..not even a top of the line one..
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OVERRIPE!!
02/19, 05:42pm reply
Microsoft is OVERRIPE to see continuing decreases in its sales increases.
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more MacNN misinfo
02/19, 05:47pm reply
Of course MacNN screwed up again -- it quoted percent profit increase for Apple but percent SALES increase for Microsoft. Two totally and non-comparable things. The actual article states that Microsoft only had 9% increase in profits.
Of course, percentages are meaningless when talking about these things. A company could have 1$ in profits in 2002 and $1000 in profits in 2003 and register a HUGE percentage increase for a ho-hum result.
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Lies, damn lies and ...
02/19, 05:54pm reply
statistics. What a ridiculous figure to use to measure the health or otherwise of a company. Just imagine if Apple had *lost* money last year: what percentage increase would they have made then? Negative?
Apple had a bad year in 2002 and a better one in 2003. That much is clear, but cut the meaningless measures.
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Cool
02/19, 06:13pm reply
Bring on the price cuts.
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Apple $137M, MS $8.9B Wow
02/19, 06:17pm reply
That's a huge difference! Places things in perspective. Personally, I think the time is ripe for Apple to increase their profits. Go go iPod mini!
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increases cant
02/19, 06:43pm reply
increases cant be negative. to answer your question. they would just report it as a loss.
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duh
02/19, 07:03pm reply
What's up with the competition dorks showing up and bashing MacNN around here? It's a free service, either get something from it or just avoid it if you're that concerned.
On topic, I hope that apple can continue to increase profits, though I wonder what significance this has as a company with one cent of profit in Jan. 2003 could have massive gains by improving it by ten cents!
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Sounds Positive
02/19, 07:20pm reply
especially with Apple being debt free now.
Still the stock price doesn't reflect a company doing so well. Guess they need more consumer sales. When are they upgrading the iMac to a G5? Maybe a lot of people like me waiting.
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