iPhone銷售強勁提振蘋果利潤大綱

SAN FRANCISCO — For Apple, the iPhone continues to be the device that makes the company tick.
舊金山——對於蘋果(Apple)來說，iPhone依然是讓公司保持動力的支柱產品。

While top rivals like Samsung are starting to show weakness in phone sales, Apple sold 35.2 million iPhones in the third fiscal quarter, up 13 percent from the period a year ago. The total was slightly below the estimates of analysts, who had expected 36 million iPhones to be sold.
在三星(Samsung)等強勁對手在手機銷售方面開始顯露疲態的同時，蘋果第三財季iPhone銷量爲3520萬部，同比增長了13%。不過，這個數字略低於分析師的3600萬部預期。

But for Apple, slightly disappointing analysts on iPhone sales does not appear to be cause for alarm. The company, which is based in Cupertino, Calif., reported profit of $7.75 billion in the quarter that ended June 28, up from $6.9 billion in the quarter a year earlier.
但對於蘋果來說，iPhone銷量讓分析師略感失望似乎也沒有擔心的必要。在截至6月28日的財季，總部位於加州庫比提諾的蘋果公司錄得77.5億美元利潤，高於去年同期的69億美元。

Revenue was $37.43 billion, up from $35.32 billion in the quarter a year ago. Wall Street analysts had expected revenue of $37.93 billion, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson Reuters.
蘋果這一財季的營收爲374.3億美元，高於去年同期的353.2億美元。根據湯森路透(Thomson Reuters)的數據，華爾街分析師的預期爲379.3億美元。

Healthy sales of Macs also helped fuel the growth, the company said. Apple reported selling 4.4 million Macs, up from 3.8 million in the same quarter last year, beating analysts’ expectations of about 3.9 million.
蘋果表示，Mac電腦可觀的銷售狀況也助推了增長。蘋果在這一財季售出了440萬臺Mac電腦，高於去年同期的380萬臺，超出了分析師約390萬臺的預期。

The strong iPhone sales, thanks in part to a recent distribution deal with China Mobile, offset other, more disappointing results from Apple’s other signature product, the iPad. The company sold 13.3 million iPads, down 9 percent from the year-ago quarter. Analysts had predicted it would sell an average of 14.4 million.
iPhone的強勁銷量一定程度上要歸功於不久前與中國移動達成的一項分銷協議，也抵消了蘋果另一款主打產品iPad令人失望的業績。這一財季的iPad銷量爲1330萬部，同比下降了9%。分析師此前的平均預期爲1440萬部。

But a small dip in iPad sales is not so bad if iPhone sales are up. Apple’s gross profit margin was 39.4 percent, up 2.5 percentage points from the quarter a year ago. Apple makes more money on each iPhone than it does on each iPad, so when sales momentum shifts away from the iPad toward the iPhone, profit margins are better.
但如果iPhone銷量上升，iPad銷量即使小幅下滑也無大礙。蘋果這一財季的毛利率爲39.4%，同比增長了2.5個百分點。每部iPhone帶來的利潤要高於iPad，所以如果銷售勢頭從iPad轉移到iPhone，利潤率會出現增長。

And unlike Samsung, which is having a difficult time fending off low-cost competition from companies like Xiaomi and Huawei, sales in China gave Apple a big boost over the quarter. Apple’s revenue in China grew 28 percent from a year ago.
三星正在艱難地抵抗來自小米和華爲等公司的低成本競爭。與三星不同，蘋果公司這一財季的在華銷售爲公司帶來了極大的提振。蘋果在華營收同比增長了28%。

China is an increasingly vital market for the company, especially now that the smartphone markets in the United States and parts of Europe have become saturated.
對於蘋果來說，中國市場的重要性正日益增強，尤其是因爲美國和歐洲部分地區的智能手機市場已經出現飽和。

In fact, the importance of China would be an impetus for Apple to develop a lower-cost, big-screen iPhone to target the Asian region, said Ben Bajarin, a consumer technology analyst for Creative Strategies.
創意策略公司(Creative Strategies)的消費科技分析師本·巴加林(Ben Bajarin)說，事實上，中國市場的重要性將成爲蘋果以亞洲地區爲目標、開發成本更低的大屏iPhone的動力所在。

IDC, the research firm, estimates that at least 20 percent of all smartphones shipped last year in China were five inches or larger. It predicts that number will balloon to 50 percent by 2017.
據研究公司國際數據公司(IDC)估計，去年在中國銷售的智能手機中，至少20%擁有五英寸及以上大小的屏幕。該公司預計，這一比例到2017年將飆升至50%。

“Positioning a lower-cost iPhone that’s in the larger screen size would fit Asia’s trend perfectly,” Mr. Bajarin said.
巴加林說，“推出一款屏幕更大、價格更低的iPhone將完全符合亞洲的趨勢。”

And that is what Apple intends to do in the fall, according to a person briefed on Apple’s product plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plans were private. Analysts expect Apple torelease two sizes — a model with a screen that measures 4.7 inches diagonally and the other at 5.5 inches.
一名瞭解蘋果產品計劃的知情者說，這正是蘋果今年秋天打算做的事。由於這些計劃是保密的，知情者要求匿名。分析師預計，蘋果將推出兩種型號，屏幕尺寸分別爲4.7英寸和5.5英寸。

Still, the excitement over the iPhone was tempered somewhat by iPad results.“IPad sales met our expectations, but we realize they didn’t meet many of yours,” Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, told analysts on the company’s financial earnings call. Shares of Apple were down about half a percentage point in after-hour trading Tuesday evening.
儘管如此，iPad銷量下降或多或少還是沖淡了iPhone的強勁表現所引發的興奮。“iPad銷量達到了我們的預期，但我們知道，它沒有達到你們許多人的預期，”蒂莫西·D·庫克(Timothy D. Cook)在公司的財報電話會議中對分析師說。週二晚間，蘋果股票在盤後交易時段下跌了約0.5%。

In an interview, Luca Maestri, Apple’s chief financial officer, said iPad sales brought in mixed results in different regions. In China and India, tablet sales grew substantially. In more mature markets, like the United States, however, iPad sales were softer.
蘋果首席財務官盧卡·馬埃斯特里(Luca Maestri)在採訪中說，iPad銷量因地區而異。在中國和印度，平板電腦的銷售出現了大幅增長。在美國等更成熟的市場，iPad的銷售就會低迷一些。

Apple cited data from IDC, the research firm, indicating that tablet sales in the United States and Western Europe would decline 5 percent last quarter.
蘋果援引IDC的數據表示，在美國和歐洲西部國家，平板電腦的銷量上季度可能下降了5%。

Traditionally, the quarter ending in June is a slow time of year for smartphone sales industrywide because many consumers are holding out until fall or the holiday shopping season to buy new smartphones.
傳統上講，對整個行業來說，截至6月的季度都是一年之中智能手機銷售較爲緩慢的時間段，這是因爲許多消費者都想等到秋天或假期購物季再購買新的智能手機。

Samsung Electronics, the No. 1 handset maker in the world and Apple’s top rival in the mobile handset industry, is no exception to this trend. This month, Samsung said it estimated its quarterly profit would fall 24 percent compared with the period a year ago. In part, the company blamed the time period — a slow season for smartphone sales in China, the largest smartphone market in the world — for the shortfall. The company also blamed intense competition from its low-cost rivals.
作爲世界第一大手機制造商，以及蘋果在手機業的頭號競爭對手，三星電子也不例外。三星本月表示，預計本財季利潤同比將下降24%。三星認爲，這部分是因爲目前是中國智能手機銷售的淡季，而中國是世界上最大的智能手機市場，另一個原因是來自低成本競爭對手的激烈競爭。

Tablet sales shrank for Samsung, too, last quarter. The company said that generally, consumers upgrade tablets less often than they do smartphones.
三星上季度平板電腦銷量也出現下降。公司表示，總的來說，消費者更換平板電腦的頻率低於智能手機。

That might be the same reason iPad sales slowed this quarter as well.
這可能也是這一財季iPad銷量放緩的原因。

“It’s part of a pattern — lots of new people are buying iPads, but people who already have them haven’t been replacing them very quickly,” said Jan Dawson, an independent telecom analyst for Jackdaw Research.
傑克道研究公司(Jackdaw Research)獨立電信分析師簡·道森(Jan Dawson)說，“這是有規律的——許多新用戶在購買iPad，但已經擁有iPad的人不會很快更新換代。”

Mr. Maestri of Apple added that he believed Apple’s new partnership with IBM would only help lift iPad sales among businesses using tablets. Earlier this month, the companies said they would work together on 100 business programs exclusively for iPhones and iPads.
蘋果的馬埃斯特里還表示，他相信，蘋果與IBM新的夥伴關係將會提升iPad在使用平板設備的企業中的銷量。本月早些時候，兩家公司表示，將共同開發專門用於iPhone和iPad的100款企業程序。

Mr. Maestri said he felt it was too early to draw conclusions about how often people replace iPads, because the first iPad came out only four years ago. “We still don’t know exactly what the replacement cycles are,” he said.
馬埃斯特里說，他認爲對於人們多長時間更換iPad的問題，現在下結論爲時過早，因爲第一臺iPad四年前才面世。他說，“我們現在還不知道更換週期究竟是怎樣的。”