on 7/30/02 12:24 PM, SlashDevNull at slashdevnull_at_mac.com wrote:
>>> ONCE AGAIN, Apple was losing hundreds of millions of dollars a quarter.
>>
>> ONCE AGAIN, Apple was losing 'sales'.
>
> Ummmm sales = dollars. Not sure if you have studied economics or not,
> but they are equal. I really can't see the CFO of Compaq talking to
> shareholders and saying 'Well, we have good news and bad news. The bad news
> is that we lost 500 million dollars last quarter. The good news is that we
> lost sales so that really isn't money and it really doesn't count.
> Rejoice.'
>
> Doesn't make much sense, does it?
>
Far be it for me to delurk just for this topic, but I've seen this idea
bandied about a bit too much. Slash old Man, you may have studied economics
but you might want to go back and crack the book again.
Sales do not equal dollars in the sense you mean, and the two of you are
talking past each other. In 1996 Apple computer had a net loss of $742mm on
sales of $9.8B. In 1997, the figures are ($378mm) on $7B. By 1998, they
made a profit of $283mm on sales of $5.9B. It is possible to lose sales but
be more profitable at the same time. Apple proves this in the very years
you are all yelling about.
From 97 to 98 Apple 'lost' a billion dollars in sales, but became more
profitable by about half a billion. The issue is not sales or market share.
The issue is profitability.
As for the rest of it, none of the numbers for the Newton are public, and it
doesn't seem like anyone on this list has them. In fact, I've just posted
the only numbers I've seen on this thread. My source, for those who care,
is Value Line.
-- Read the List FAQ/Etiquette: http://www.newtontalk.net/faq.html Read the Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ This is the NewtonTalk mailing list - http://www.newtontalk.net/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Thu Aug 01 2002 - 06:03:24 EDT