Apple anuncia los resultados del cuarto trimestre de su año fiscal

CUPERTINO, California EEUU —21 de Octubre de 2008— Apple® ha anunciado hoy los resultados financieros del cuarto trimestre de su año fiscal 2008 (julio, agosto y septiembre de 2008) cerrado el 27 de septiembre de 2008. La compañía ha logrado unas ventas trimestrales de 7.895 millones de dólares (6.020 millones de euros) y ha obtenido un beneficio neto trimestral de 1.140 millones de dólares (869 millones de euros), equivalente a 1,26 dólares por acción. Estos resultados se comparan con las ventas de 6.220 millones de dólares (4.740 millones de euros) y el beneficio neto de 904 millones de dólares (689 millones de euros) ó 1,01 dólares por acción, obtenidos el mismo trimestre del año anterior. El margen bruto de la compañía ha sido del 34,7 por ciento, por encima del 33,6 por ciento del año fiscal precedente. El 41 por ciento de las ventas trimestrales las ha realizado Apple fuera de EEUU.

De acuerdo con el tratamiento de suscripción contable requerido por los principios contables GAAP (Principios Contables Generalmente Aceptados), la compañía reconoce ingresos y costes de mercancías vendidas a lo largo de toda la vida económica del iPhone™ y del Apple TV®. En el caso de ajustar las ventas y costes de los productos sometidos a los principios contables GAAP para eliminar el impacto de la suscripción contable, los correspondientes resultados no-GAAP* durante el trimestre son de 11.680 millones de dólares (8.900 millones de euros) de "Ventas Ajustadas" y 2.440 millones de dólares (1.859 millones de euros) de "Beneficio Neto Ajustado".

Apple ha vendido durante el trimestre 2.611.000 ordenadores Macintosh®, lo que representa un incremento del 21 por ciento en número de unidades y del 17 por ciento en valor sobre el mismo trimestre del año anterior. La compañía ha vendido también durante el trimestre 11.052.000 iPods, lo que supone un crecimiento del 8 por ciento en número de unidades y del 3 por ciento en valor sobre el mismo trimestre del año anterior. Las ventas trimestrales de iPhone alcanzaron los 6.892.000 unidades, comparado con las 1.119.000 unidades del mismo trimestre del año anterior.

"Apple ha cerrado uno de los mejores trimestres de su historia, con un espectacular rendimiento del iPhone: hemos vendido más teléfonos que RIM", dice Steve Jobs, consejero delegado de Apple. “No sabemos aún como afectará a Apple este ciclo económico descendente del mercado. Pero estamos armados con la mejor gama de productos de nuestra historia, los empleados con mayor talento y los mejores clientes de nuestra industria. Con 25.000 millones de dólares en caja, guardados en el banco, y con cero deudas".

"Estamos muy satisfechos de haber incrementado las ventas un 35 por ciento y haber generado 9.100 millones de dólares en flujo de caja en el año fiscal 2008", dice Peter Oppenheimer, director financiero de Apple. "Mirando al futuro, la visibilidad es reducida y la previsión es todo un desafío; y por lo tanto vamos a ser prudentes a la hora de predecir el trimestre de diciembre. Nuestra previsión se sitúa en una horquilla amplia, con un objetivo de ventas trimestral comprendido entre los 9.000 y 10.000 millones de dólares y un beneficio diluido entre 1,06 y 1,35 dólares por acción".

Apple ofrece la grabación de la conferencia de comunicación de resultados trimestrales a prensa y analistas en modo streaming vía web, usando QuickTime, la tecnología de Apple basada en estándares para difundir audio y video en directo o bajo demanda. Estará disponible durante aproximadamente dos semanas en  www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq408/ El reproductor de QuickTime está disponible gratis, para usuarios de Macintosh y Windows, en https://www.apple.com/es/quicktime/
 

During fiscal 2007, the Company began selling the iPhone and Apple TV. Because the Company may provide unspecified features and additional software products to iPhone and Apple TV customers in the future free of charge, in accordance with GAAP the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for these products on a straight-line basis over their economic lives, with any loss recognized at the time of sale. Currently, the economic lives of these products are estimated to be 24 months. This accounting treatment, referred to as subscription accounting, results in the deferral of almost all of the revenue and cost of goods during the quarter in which the products are sold to the customer. Other costs related to these products, including costs for engineering, sales, marketing and warranty, are expensed as incurred. Further, the costs to develop any future unspecified features and additional software products that may eventually be provided to customers also are expensed as incurred. In contrast, the Company generally recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for its other products, such as Macs and iPods, at the time of sale, as the Company does not provide future unspecified features or additional software products to those customers free of charge.

In July 2008, the Company began selling iPhone 3G, the second-generation iPhone, and significantly expanded distribution by establishing carrier relationships in over 70 countries. Unit sales of iPhone 3G have been significantly greater than sales of the first-generation iPhone. During the first quarter of iPhone 3G availability ended September 27, 2008, 6.9 million units were sold, exceeding the 6.1 million first-generation iPhone units sold in the prior five quarters combined. As a result of this growth in unit sales, the amount of iPhone revenue and product cost that the Company deferred for recognition in future periods under subscription accounting increased materially in the quarter ended September 27, 2008.

While the GAAP results provide significant insight into the Company’s operations and financial position, management supplements its analysis of the business using financial measures that look at the total sales, related product costs and resulting income for iPhones and Apple TVs sold to customers during the period. The presentation at the end of this press release includes the following non-GAAP measures: “Adjusted Sales,” “Adjusted Cost of Sales,” “Adjusted Gross Margin,” “Adjusted Operating Margin,” “Adjusted Income before Provision for Income Taxes,” “Adjusted Provision for Income Taxes,” “Adjusted Net Income” and “Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share.” These financial measures are not consistent with GAAP because they do not reflect the deferral of revenue and product costs for recognition in later periods. The Company uses these financial measures, along with other measures discussed below, to provide additional insight into current operating and business trends not readily apparent from the GAAP results.

Management uses Adjusted Sales to evaluate the Company’s growth rate, revenue mix and performance relative to competitors. Given the significant increase in iPhone unit sales during the quarter ended September 27, 2008, Adjusted Sales provides a meaningful measurement of the Company’s growth by reflecting amounts generally due to Apple at the time of sale related to products sold within the period. Further, eliminating the effects of deferred revenue (current sales deferred to future periods and prior sales being recognized currently) provides more transparency into the Company’s underlying sales trends. Management uses the non-GAAP measures of “Adjusted Cost of Sales,” “Adjusted Gross Margin” and “Adjusted Operating Margin” to measure the Company’s operating performance based on current period iPhone and Apple TV sales and to facilitate on-going operating decisions. Additionally, because the Company recognizes engineering, sales, and marketing expenses as incurred, including expenses related to iPhone and Apple TV, management uses Adjusted Sales to evaluate returns on those costs, to manage year-over-year operating expense growth, and to budget future expenses. Furthermore, because they are considered meaningful indicators of current business performance, the non-GAAP measures “Adjusted Sales” and “Adjusted Operating Margin” are metrics that will factor into the determination of management compensation beginning in fiscal year 2009. Finally, management uses the non-GAAP measures of “Adjusted Income before Provision for Income Taxes,” “Adjusted Provision for Income Taxes,” “Adjusted Net Income” and “Adjusted Diluted Earnings per Share” to measure the Company’s operating performance based on current period iPhone and Apple TV sales, to facilitate on-going operating decisions, and compare performance relative to competitors.

Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures, when taken together with the corresponding consolidated GAAP measures and related segment information, provide incremental insight into the underlying factors and trends affecting both the Company’s performance and its cash generating potential. Management believes these non-GAAP measures increase the transparency of the Company’s current results and enable investors to more fully understand trends in its current and future performance. Beginning with this earnings release, the Company plans to include these non-GAAP measures of financial performance as part of its earnings releases.

As noted previously, these non-GAAP financial measures are not consistent with GAAP because they do not reflect the deferral of revenue and product costs for recognition in later periods. These non-GAAP financial measures do not adjust for the costs associated with the Company’s intention to provide unspecified new features and software to purchasers of iPhone and Apple TV products. These costs are expensed as incurred under GAAP’s subscription accounting model, and are not adjusted in these non-GAAP financial measures. As such, these non-GAAP financial measures are not intended to reflect in a given period all of the costs of sales made in that period. Rather, the non-GAAP financial measures presented below are intended for the limited purpose of presenting performance measures that include the total sales, related product costs, and resulting income for iPhones and AppleTVs in the period those products are sold to customers.

Management believes investors will benefit from greater transparency in referring to these non-GAAP financial measures when assessing the Company’s operating results, as well as when forecasting and analyzing future periods. However, management recognizes that:

Further, these non-GAAP financial measures may be unique to the Company, as they may be different from non-GAAP financial measures used by other companies. As such, this presentation of non-GAAP financial measures may not enhance the comparability of the Company’s results to the results of other companies.

A reconciliation of each non-GAAP financial measure to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measure or measures appears at the end of this press release.

This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those about the Company’s estimated revenue and earnings per share. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; potential litigation from the matters investigated by the special committee of the board of directors and the restatement of the Company’s consolidated financial statements; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company’s gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; the Company’s reliance on the availability of third-party digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the Company’s reliance on sole service providers for iPhone in certain countries; war, terrorism, public health issues, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; unfavorable results of other legal proceedings; and the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors and other resellers of the Company’s products. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 29, 2007; its Forms 10-Q for the quarters ended December 29, 2007, March 29, 2008 and June 28, 2008; and its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 27, 2008, to be filed with the SEC. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

Apple inició la revolución del ordenador personal en la década de los setenta con el Apple II y reinventó el ordenador personal en los ochenta con el Macintosh. Hoy, Apple sigue liderando la industria en innovación con sus premiados ordenadores, con el sistema operativo OS X, iLife y sus aplicaciones profesionales. Apple está también en la vanguardia de la revolución de los medios digitales con sus reproductores portátiles de música y vídeo iPod y la tienda online iTunes, y ha irrumpido en el mercado de la telefonía móvil con su revolucionario iPhone.

Contacto de Prensa:
Paco Lara
Apple
media.es@euro.apple.com
91 354 2900