2015年经济学人 苹果公司 霸业已成

 Apple

iThrone

Apple reigns¹ supreme² when it comes to making money, but now faces even greater expectations

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 fiscal³ 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.

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 noted⁴ 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.

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 margins⁶, which hit almost 40% in the latest quarter. 

The tech industry has spawned⁷ 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.

Another thing that sets Apple apart from the tech pack is its success in conquering China. 

While rivals have been frustrated⁸ 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.

Any setback⁹ in China could hurt Apple. The company's overall dependence¹⁰ 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.

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 margin⁵, which bodes¹¹ well for profits.

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 frenzy¹². 

Apple profits by taking a chunk¹³ of the money developers make from app sales and in-app purchases. By binding¹⁴ 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 gadgets¹⁵.

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 shareholders¹⁶ and discuss them in April. 

Mr Cook can expect plenty of calls from activist¹⁷ investors¹⁸ before then, no doubt from their shiny new iPhones.

1 reigns   

n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期

参考例句：

• In these valleys night reigns. 夜色笼罩着那些山谷。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The Queen of Britain reigns, but she does not rule or govern. 英国女王是国家元首，但不治国事。 来自辞典例句

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

6 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。

7 spawned   

（鱼、蛙等）大量产（卵）( spawn的过去式和过去分词 )； 大量生产

参考例句：

• The band's album spawned a string of hit singles. 这支乐队的专辑繁衍出一连串走红的单曲唱片。
• The computer industry has spawned a lot of new companies. 由于电脑工业的发展，许多新公司纷纷成立。

8 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

10 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

11 bodes   

v.预示，预告，预言( bode的第三人称单数 )；等待，停留( bide的过去分词 )；居住；（过去式用bided）等待

参考例句：

• This bodes ill for the failure of the programme. 这是那项计划有凶兆。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• This bodes him no good. 这对他是不祥之兆。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

13 chunk   

n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量）

参考例句：

• They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
• The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。

14 binding   

有约束力的，有效的，应遵守的

参考例句：

• The contract was not signed and has no binding force. 合同没有签署因而没有约束力。
• Both sides have agreed that the arbitration will be binding. 双方都赞同仲裁具有约束力。

15 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

16 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

17 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

18 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会