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Apple
蘋果公司
iThrone
霸業已成
Apple reigns supreme when it comes to making money, but now faces even greater expectations
說到企業的賺錢能力方面，蘋果公司無疑是全球的霸主，但現在他們卻面臨著更高的期望
NEVER before has so much money been made by a single firm in such a short period of time. On January 27th Tim Cook, the boss of Apple, announced that it had made $18 billion in its latest fiscal quarter, which ran almost to the end of December 2014. That beats the previous record of $15.9 billion reported by ExxonMobil, an oil company, in 2012, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.
單單一家公司，在這么短的時間內賺了這么多錢，歷史上從未有過。1月27日當天，蘋果公司CEO蒂姆·庫克（Tim Cook）宣布，在最新的財務季度當中（接近于2014年12月底結束）公司獲得了180億美元的凈利潤。而根據標普道瓊斯指數公司（S&P Dow Jones Indices）的資料顯示，這一數據打破了先前由石油公司埃克森美孚（ExxonMobil）于2012年所創下單季度159億美元的記錄。
Apple's telephone-number-sized profit stemmed largely from sales of its hugely popular iPhone, which accounted for over two-thirds of its $74.6 billion revenue. Chief executives rarely admit to being dumbfounded by their companies' performance, but Mr Cook said it was “hard to comprehend” the extent of the interest in Apple's products. He noted that, on average, 34,000 iPhones were bought every hour of every day during the latest quarter. That added up to 74.5m phones, way more than market-watchers had expected.
蘋果的巨額利潤中很大部分來源于它旗下十分受歡迎的產品iPhone，在公司746億美元的季度營業收入，iPhone占了三分之二。一般而言，首席執行官很少承認自己會被公司的表現嚇呆，但庫克先生卻表示“難以理解”市場對蘋果產品的著迷程度。他還提到，在最新的財務季度期間內，平均每天的每小時都要售出34000臺iPhone手機，而最終的季度總銷量則為7450萬臺，遠超市場分析師預期。
Apple is the world's largest company by market capitalisation as well as its most profitable. Strikingly, it has risen to greatness using a rather old-fashioned business model: selling highly desirable objects at fat gross margins, which hit almost 40% in the latest quarter. The tech industry has spawned numerous software-based firms, such as Google and Facebook, that don't have to worry about shifting goods around, yet they make much less than the Colossus of Cupertino. Amazon handles lots of physical goods, but loses money.
無論是從總市值還是從盈利能力方面來看，蘋果都是全球最大的公司。然而，令人驚訝的地方卻是蘋果取得這一成績的方法。它所用的是一個相當傳統的商業模型：在高毛利率的情況下（最新一季中約為40%），大賣搶手貨。科技產業孕育出了無數以軟件為基礎的公司，如谷歌（Google）和臉譜（Facebook），他們也不需要進行真實的貨物流通，但他們賺的錢較“庫比蒂諾的巨無霸”（Cupertino，蘋果公司總部，位于美國舊金山）要少得多。亞馬遜公司（Amazon）的主營業務為處理大量的實體商品，但該公司卻處于虧損狀態。
Another thing that sets Apple apart from the tech pack is its success in conquering China. While rivals have been frustrated there, Apple has just become the largest force in China's smartphone market measured by units shipped, according to Canalys, a market-research firm. Apple's revenue from the Greater China region, which includes Taiwan and Hong Kong, soared 70%, to just over $16 billion.
另一個使得蘋果公司在同行中脫穎而出的因素，在于其對中國市場的成功占領。它的對手們紛紛在中國折戟沉沙之時，蘋果公司卻成為了中國智能手機市場的霸主。根據市場研究機構易觀國際（Canalys）所提供的資料顯示，蘋果手機的出貨量為中國第一。蘋果在大中華區（包括臺灣和香港）的產品銷售收入增長了70%，其數額略高于160億美元。
Any setback in China could hurt Apple. The company's overall dependence on the iPhone is another risk. But these are early days for the iPhone 6, Apple's latest device, whose bigger screen takes the firm into the “phablet” category of larger phones that are wildly popular with customers. Some iBulls also point out that Apple's share of the smartphone market is small compared with devices using Google's Android operating system (see chart). So it has plenty of room to grow.
在中國市場的任何挫折，都可能使蘋果公司遭受沉重打擊。而蘋果對旗下產品iPhone的全面依賴性，無疑是另一個風險。但這部分擔憂對于iPhone 6來說還言之尚早。作為蘋果公司的最新產品，iPhone 6擁有比以往更大的屏幕，引領公司進入到了“平板手機”的競爭領域，而目前消費者們正是對大屏幕手機青睞有加。一部分“資深果粉”還指出，與谷歌的安卓操作系統相比，蘋果的智能手機市場占有率還是算小的（如上圖所示）。因此，蘋果手機還有充足的增長空間。
If it is still to reduce its dependence on iPhones, Apple will need new money-spinning gizmos. Mr Cook said this week that its much-ballyhooed smartwatch will go on sale in April. Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies, a consulting firm, thinks Apple could sell 22m-24m in the first 12 months after the launch, producing billions of dollars of new revenue. Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, reckons the watches will have a higher-than-average gross margin, which bodes well for profits.
如果蘋果公司仍舊要降低其對iPhone系列的依賴性，那么就需要有新的盈利產品。本周，庫克先生表示萬眾期待的智能手表將會在4月正式發售。創意策略咨詢公司（Creative Strategies）顧問蒂姆·巴加林（Tim Bajarin）認為，蘋果能夠在該產品首發的12個月內賣出2200萬至2400萬個，獲得數十億的新營收。斯坦福·伯恩斯坦公司（Sanford C. Bernstein）則估計，蘋果手表能夠擁有高于平均水平的銷售毛利率，而這便預示著可觀的利潤。
Apple should be able to make more money from software and services, too. The firm's online store of software apps had its busiest-ever day on January 1st and the introduction of a smart watch will lead to another app feeding frenzy. Apple profits by taking a chunk of the money developers make from app sales and in-app purchases. By binding customers into its “ecosystem” of hardware and software plus services such as Apple Pay, a contactless-payment system, the firm also makes it more likely they will stay with it when they upgrade their gadgets.
與此同時，蘋果公司也應該能在軟件和服務方面賺取更多的錢。本年的1月1日，蘋果的線上應用商城迎來了有史以來業務最繁忙的一天，而智能手表的推廣也會引發另一場應用搶購狂潮。蘋果公司的盈利點在于，從軟件開發者的應用軟件銷售額和應用內的產品服務銷售額兩部分當中，抽取大量的提成。通過將消費者與蘋果的硬件、軟件和服務（如非接觸式支付系統 Apple Pay）三者緊密結合的方式，蘋果公司構建出了自己的“生態系統”，這也令消費者們在對自己的設備更新換代之時，更有可能繼續購買蘋果的產品。
This still leaves the company with a headache other firms would die to have: its Croesus-like mountain of cash, which now stands at $178 billion—a figure that is greater than the market capitalisations of information-technology giants such as Intel and IBM. Apple, which has already spent billions of dollars on share buy-backs, will revisit its plans to return money to shareholders and discuss them in April. Mr Cook can expect plenty of calls from activist investors before then, no doubt from their shiny new iPhones.
蘋果公司所頭疼的問題，正是其他公司拼了命都想得到東西：堆積如山的現金。目前，蘋果所擁有的現金為1780億美元，這個數字比信息技術巨頭英特爾（Intel）和IBM公司的市值還要高。蘋果公司早已花費了數十億美金用以股份回購，而它將會重新制定其對股東們現金返還計劃，并將在今年4月對此進行商討。在那之前，庫克先生就可以預想到大量活躍市場人士的來電。毫無疑問，這些人當然是用他們纖薄的新版iPhone打過來的。譯者：顏士竣 校對：周鼎燁
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