Design Sojourn

While all the fan boys were getting Macgasms over the new 27″ iMac or the Macbook with the sausage shaped profile, I was interested in only one thing: Apple’s financial results. I tweeted my response on my twitter stream. Here’s a screen-shot.

Yep, I wanted to run to every rooftop and yell it out, nice and loud.

Here are the key numbers from Business Week.

1) The company reported revenues that grew 25% over the same quarter a year ago and profits that grew 46%.

2) Apple reported revenue of $9.87 billion, and a profit of $1.67 billion or $1.82 per share.

3) Apple’s stock finished the regular trading session higher at $189.96, up $1.81 or nearly 1% after opening at $187.84. On Oct. 15 Apple stock hit a 52-week high of $192.32, less than 6% off its all-time high of $202.96 set on Dec. 27, 2007.

4) Apple set an all-time single-quarter sales record with its Macintosh computers, selling 3.05 million, accounting for $3.95 billion, or 40% of sales. Apple finished the year just short of the 13 million unit mark for the fiscal year, an improvement over the prior year of nearly 3.3 million units.

5) iPhone unit sales also set a quarterly record or 7.4 million units, amounting to a year-on-year improvement of nearly 7%. IPhone sales broke the 20-million unit mark for the fiscal year.

6) iPod sales declined slightly year-on-year to 10.177 million, down from 11.05 million, and also down sequentially from 10.215 million from the third quarter.

7) Apple finishes its fiscal year 2009 with sales of $36.5 billion, up more than 12% from fiscal 2008, and per-share profit for the year $6.29, beating the consensus estimate by 41 cents.

I think this proves two things.

Firstly, people have not stopped buying. (Just look at the number of Macs sold!) Under such tough economic conditions, consumers have instead become very picky in the things they buy. Also Macs are not cheap, and yet it sells. This means people are willing to spend on purchases that makes sense to them. So what do we do? Focus on making better products. Correction. Focus on making your product is the best in class.

Next, I’m sure you would agree that Design plays a very important role in the success of Apple. I would even go as far to say that Design is their key strategic competitive advantage. In good times of excess, people could easily dismiss Apple’s success as a result of a “tide that raises all boats”. However, if we consider that Apple has successfully operated during a recession, it’s proof that Design can keep a company profitable and resilient.

So now do it! Spread the word, tell everyone, email, link to this post, re-tweet it so that the world will know the Golden Age of Design has come!

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