It is common for enterprise-level customers to get an 800 number and be asked to bring their systems into a store for support. When a corporation has literally thousands of them this is clearly not feasible, and it has only been recently that Apple has addressed this with an enterprise-level support plan. The bottom line is that Apple still attracts those workaholics looking for a cause to fully commit themselves to, and despite the shortcomings of scaling to the enterprise area, their introduction of iTunes and iPods have revolutionized personal digital entertainment, and continue to propel the company to the highest levels of financial performance it has ever attained both in terms of p[profitability and sales performance.

Apple's Financial Position in 2006

As of November, 2006 Apple's financial performance is exemplary for the sector it competes in, and appears to be ready to move away from the purely digital entertainment positioning it had been pursuing with the iPod and iTunes back to a core Macintosh focus. This is being driven by the latest quarter's 56% growth of the Intel-based Macintosh, fuelling a 30% growth in total Macintosh Sales. In addition, iPod Sales in 4Q06 were 8.7 million units, reaccelerating to a 35% year-over-year growth rate. As a result of these developments, Apple appears to be capable of delivering close to an $18B year by many analyst's estimates, outpacing their per-segment growth as shown in the table, Segment Business Analysis below.

Segment Business Analysis

Revenues (000's)

Report Date

Americas

With the December-ending quarter appearing very strong many analysts are predicting Apple will have its first $6B+ quarter ever by the close of calendar 2006. A detailed analysis of the key financial metrics of performance for Apple is shown in the following table.
Apple Computer Inc. Financial Ratio Analysis

Profitability Ratios

Return on Equity (%)

Return on Assets (%)

Return on Investment

Gross Margin

EBITDA of Revenue (%)

Operating Margin (%)

Pre-Tax Margin

Net Profit Margin (%)

Effective Tax Rate (%)

Liquidity Indicators

Quick Ratio

Current Ratio

Working Capital/Total Assets

Debt Management

Current Liabilities/Equity

Total Debt to Equity

Long-Term Debt to Assets

Asset Management

Revenues/Total Assets

Revenues/Working Capital

Interest Coverage

References

Kawasaki (1990) - The Macintosh Way. Harper Collins. Reprint Edition. September, 1990