蘋果公司和華爾街分析師的季度業(yè)績電話會議經常乏善可陳，既無新聞也無熱點。但上周四晚的會議例外，因為蘋果首席執(zhí)行官蒂姆·庫克和財務總監(jiān)盧卡·馬艾斯特利給投資界爆了一點兒料。這個“意外”把股東們嚇了一跳，而且一度將蘋果的市值壓到了一萬億美元以下——這是今年8月突破萬億后蘋果市值首次跌破。

上周四晚上，蘋果首先披露了財務數據，表現仍然強勁，但蘋果也警告說假期旺季銷售可能不及華爾街預期，讓投資者感到失望。

大約一小時后，財務總監(jiān)盧卡·馬艾斯特利扔出的“炸彈”放大了人們的失望情緒。逐條宣讀了下一季度蘋果在財報披露和會計方法上即將做的調整后，馬艾斯特利冷冰冰地補充說，蘋果已經決定不再披露iPhone、iPad以及Mac電腦的季度銷量數字。

馬艾斯特利向分析師念出了稿子上的話：“正如我們反復重申，公司目標是提供豐富人們生活的偉大產品和服務，以及無以倫比的客戶體驗，希望用戶高度滿意、熱愛產品并且深度參與。實現目標之后，業(yè)績也會非常亮麗。近年來我們的業(yè)績表明，任何一個季度的產品銷量都不一定能代表公司真正的實力?！?/p>

由于預期不佳，蘋果公司股價在盤后交易已下滑了3%左右。此言一出，跌幅迅速擴大，一度達7.5%，原因是外界擔心縮了水的數據或許另有所指。

分析師相當不滿，他們說投資者或許會認為政策調整是為了避免承認iPhone銷量下降?；ㄆ旒瘓F分析師吉姆·蘇瓦對庫克和馬艾斯特利說：“不公布iPhone銷量可能會引發(fā)諸多負面反應。聽上去你們還會繼續(xù)披露收入，但可能會有人擔心不公布數字意味著iPhone銷量一年不如一年?！?/p>

庫克和馬艾斯特利回應了蘇瓦，但之后略顯唐突地結束了電話會議。庫克解釋說：“有點像你在超市把購物車推到收銀臺，然后收銀員問：‘里面有多少件東西？’比起購物車里物品的整體價值，數量并不是很重要?！?/p>

過去一年中iphone的銷量陷入停滯——和此前一年相比，銷量僅上升了0.4%。但通過提高售價以及推出更貴的新款手機iPhone X，蘋果讓消費者花了更多錢，收入也實現迅猛增長。一年來，iPhone收入提高了18%，接近1670億美元。

該策略仍在繼續(xù)——上個月推出的新iPhone更為昂貴，首次亮相的高端型號iPhone XS Max的價格則更上一層樓。上周蘋果故技重施，提高了新iPad Pro、MacBook Air和Mac mini的起售價。

馬艾斯特利提出的一條理由無可爭辯。他說，“幾個最主要的競爭對手都不公布銷量數據。”的確如此，亞馬遜和谷歌等公司從未披露過季度銷量，也不公布各類產品帶來的收入，而蘋果雖然不再透露銷量，仍將公布收入數字。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：夏林

Apple’s quarterly conference calls with Wall Street analysts can be tepid affairs, with little news or excitement. But that wasn’t the case on last Thursday evening, as CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri dropped a bit of a bombshell on the investment community. The surprise spooked shareholders and briefly pushed the Apple’s stock market value below $1 trillion for the first time since it crossed that symbolic threshold in August.

Initially on last Thursday, Apple reported yet another quarter of strong financial results, though its warning that holiday season sales wouldn’t be as strong as Wall Street hoped disappointed investors.

That disappointment was magnified an hour or so later when CFO Luca Maestri dropped the bombshell. Reading off a list of reporting and accounting changes Apple would make in its next quarterly report, Maestri dryly added that the company had decided to stop disclosing exactly how many iPhones, iPads, and Mac computers it sold every quarter.

“As we have stated many times, our objective is to make great products and services that enrich people’s lives and to provide an unparalleled customer experience so that our users are highly satisfied, loyal and engaged,” he told the analysts, reading from the script. “As we accomplish these objectives, strong financial results follow. As demonstrated by our financial performance in recent years, the number of units sold in any 90-day period is not necessarily representative of the underlying strength of our business.”

Apple’s stock price, which had already slipped about 3% on the weak forecast in after-hours trading, quickly dropped as much as 7.5% on concern over what the reduced disclosure might signal. Though later, the drop moderated a bit and Apple’s value was sitting just above $1 trillion.

Analysts sounded less than pleased, saying investors may see the policy change as a way to avoid admitting that fewer iPhones are being sold. “You know, there will probably be a lot of pushback about not giving iPhone unit data,” Citigroup analyst Jim Suva said to Cook and Maestri on the call. “It sounds like you’re still going to give revenue data, but some people might fear that this now means that the iPhone units are going to start going negative year over year.”

Cook and Maestri pushed back, but ended the call somewhat abruptly after giving their responses to Suva. “This is a little bit like if you go to the market and you push your cart up to the cashier and she or he says ‘how many units you have in there,'” Cook explained. “It doesn’t matter a lot how many units there are in there in terms of the overall value of what’s in the cart.”

Over the past year, the number of iPhones sold has stalled—it rose just 0.4% compared to the same 12-month period a year earlier. But by raising prices and adding the new more expensive iPhone X model, Apple has convinced customers to pay more and showed strong revenue growth in the business. Over the last year, iPhone revenue increased 18% to almost $167 billion.

That strategy is continuing, as Apple’s new iPhones introduced last month came at higher prices and the company debuted an even more expensive top-end model, the iPhone XS Max. Then last week, Apple copied the strategy and raised starting prices for its new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini models.

One of the CFO’s rationales is indisputable. Masetri noted that “our top competitors do not provide unit sales information.” That’s true. Companies like Amazon and Google never reveal exactly how many gadgets they’ve sold in a quarter, or even the revenue generated by such products, as Apple will continue to do even after the surprise shift.