Never before has so much money been made by a single firm in such a short pe

游客2024-02-05  14

问题     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 financial quarter. 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 shocked by their companies’ performance, but Mr. Cook said it was "hard to comprehend" the extent of the interest in Apple’s products. He noted that, on average, 34,000 iPhones were bought every hour of every day during the latest quarter.
    Apple is the world’s largest company by market capitalisation(总值)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 margins, which hit almost 40% in the latest quarter. The tech industry has bred 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 frustrated there, Apple has just become the largest force in China’s smartphone market measured by units shipped, according to Canalys, a market-research firm.
    Any failure in China could hurt Apple. The company’s overall dependence 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"(平板手机)category of larger phones that are wildly popular with customers. Some iFans also point out that Apple’s share of the smartphone market is small compared with devices using Google’s Android operating system. So it has plenty of room to grow.
    Mr. Cook said this week that its much-anticipated 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 margin, which predicts good profits. Apple should be able to make more money from software and services, too. [br] Which of the following statements is true?

选项 A、The market share of Apple’s smartphone is small compared with Android devices.
B、Sales of iPhones are more than market-watchers have expected.
C、Customers always choose Apple when they upgrade their smartphones.
D、The software and services of Apple’s online store are free.

答案 A

解析 事实细节题。倒数第二段末句指出,一部分“果粉”还指出,与使用谷歌的安卓操作系统的设备相比,苹果的智能手机市场占有率还是算小的。因此,苹果手机还有很大的增长空间。A)是对本句大意的概括,故为答案。原文第一段末句提到,在最近的财务季度期间,平均每天的每个小时都要卖出去34,000台iPhone手机,但B)“iPhone手机的销量超过了市场观望者的预期”,原文并未提及,故排除;C)“当顾客要更新智能手机时,他们总是选择苹果”,原文未提及,故排除;原文末段末句提到苹果公司也应该能在软件和服务方面赚得更多的钱,由此可知,D)“苹果在线商店的软件和服务是免费的”是不正确的,故排除。
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