iPhone销售强劲提振苹果利润

SAN FRANCISCO — For Apple, the iPhone continues to be the device that makes the company tick.

旧金山——对于苹果(Apple)来说，iPhone依然是让公司保持动力的支柱产品。

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)等强劲对手在手机销售方面开始显露疲态的同时，苹果第三财季iPhone销量为3520万部，同比增长了13%。不过，这个数字略低于分析师的3600万部预期。

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.

但对于苹果来说，iPhone销量让分析师略感失望似乎也没有担心的必要。在截至6月28日的财季，总部位于加州库比提诺的苹果公司录得77.5亿美元利润，高于去年同期的69亿美元。

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.

苹果这一财季的营收为374.3亿美元，高于去年同期的353.2亿美元。根据汤森路透(Thomson Reuters)的数据，华尔街分析师的预期为379.3亿美元。

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.

苹果表示，Mac电脑可观的销售状况也助推了增长。苹果在这一财季售出了440万台Mac电脑，高于去年同期的380万台，超出了分析师约390万台的预期。

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的强劲销量一定程度上要归功于不久前与中国移动达成的一项分销协议，也抵消了苹果另一款主打产品iPad令人失望的业绩。这一财季的iPad销量为1330万部，同比下降了9%。分析师此前的平均预期为1440万部。

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销量上升，iPad销量即使小幅下滑也无大碍。苹果这一财季的毛利率为39.4%，同比增长了2.5个百分点。每部iPhone带来的利润要高于iPad，所以如果销售势头从iPad转移到iPhone，利润率会出现增长。

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.

三星正在艰难地抵抗来自小米和华为等公司的低成本竞争。与三星不同，苹果公司这一财季的在华销售为公司带来了极大的提振。苹果在华营收同比增长了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.

对于苹果来说，中国市场的重要性正日益增强，尤其是因为美国和欧洲部分地区的智能手机市场已经出现饱和。

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.

创意策略公司(Creative Strategies)的消费科技分析师本·巴加林(Ben Bajarin)说，事实上，中国市场的重要性将成为苹果以亚洲地区为目标、开发成本更低的大屏iPhone的动力所在。

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.

据研究公司国际数据公司(IDC)估计，去年在中国销售的智能手机中，至少20%拥有五英寸及以上大小的屏幕。该公司预计，这一比例到2017年将飙升至50%。

“Positioning a lower-cost iPhone that’s in the larger screen size would fit Asia’s trend perfectly,” Mr. Bajarin said.

巴加林说，“推出一款屏幕更大、价格更低的iPhone将完全符合亚洲的趋势。”

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.

一名了解苹果产品计划的知情者说，这正是苹果今年秋天打算做的事。由于这些计划是保密的，知情者要求匿名。分析师预计，苹果将推出两种型号，屏幕尺寸分别为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.

尽管如此，iPad销量下降或多或少还是冲淡了iPhone的强劲表现所引发的兴奋。“iPad销量达到了我们的预期，但我们知道，它没有达到你们许多人的预期，”蒂莫西·D·库克(Timothy D. Cook)在公司的财报电话会议中对分析师说。周二晚间，苹果股票在盘后交易时段下跌了约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.

苹果首席财务官卢卡·马埃斯特里(Luca Maestri)在采访中说，iPad销量因地区而异。在中国和印度，平板电脑的销售出现了大幅增长。在美国等更成熟的市场，iPad的销售就会低迷一些。

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.

苹果援引IDC的数据表示，在美国和欧洲西部国家，平板电脑的销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.

传统上讲，对整个行业来说，截至6月的季度都是一年之中智能手机销售较为缓慢的时间段，这是因为许多消费者都想等到秋天或假期购物季再购买新的智能手机。

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.

作为世界第一大手机制造商，以及苹果在手机业的头号竞争对手，三星电子也不例外。三星本月表示，预计本财季利润同比将下降24%。三星认为，这部分是因为目前是中国智能手机销售的淡季，而中国是世界上最大的智能手机市场，另一个原因是来自低成本竞争对手的激烈竞争。

Tablet sales shrank for Samsung, too, last quarter. The company said that generally, consumers upgrade tablets less often than they do smartphones.

三星上季度平板电脑销量也出现下降。公司表示，总的来说，消费者更换平板电脑的频率低于智能手机。

That might be the same reason iPad sales slowed this quarter as well.

这可能也是这一财季iPad销量放缓的原因。

“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.

杰克道研究公司(Jackdaw Research)独立电信分析师简·道森(Jan Dawson)说，“这是有规律的——许多新用户在购买iPad，但已经拥有iPad的人不会很快更新换代。”

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.

苹果的马埃斯特里还表示，他相信，苹果与IBM新的伙伴关系将会提升iPad在使用平板设备的企业中的销量。本月早些时候，两家公司表示，将共同开发专门用于iPhone和iPad的100款企业程序。

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.

马埃斯特里说，他认为对于人们多长时间更换iPad的问题，现在下结论为时过早，因为第一台iPad四年前才面世。他说，“我们现在还不知道更换周期究竟是怎样的。”