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Transcripts/AAPL/2016-Apr-26-AAPL.txt

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+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2016 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 26, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO
+ * Tim Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Katy Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Gene Munster
+   Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst
+ * Rod Hall
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Shannon Cross
+   Cross Research - Analyst
+ * Toni Sacconaghi
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Simona Jankowski
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Steve Milunovich
+   UBS - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Apple, Incorporated second-quarter FY16 earnings release conference call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over Nancy Paxton, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Good afternoon, and thanks to everyone for joining us today. Speaking first is Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, and he'll be followed by CFO, Luca Maestri. After that, we'll open the call to questions from analysts. 
+Please note that some of the information you'll hear during our discussion will consist of forward-looking statements, including without limitation, those regarding revenue, growth margins, operating expenses, other income and expense, taxes, future business outlook, and plans for capital return and debt issuance. Actual results or trends could differ materially from our forecast. 
+For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in Apples Form 10-K for 2015, the Form 10-Q for the first quarter of FY16, and the Form 8-K filed with the SEC today, along with the Associated Press release. Apple assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective date. 
+In addition, today's comments will refer to a metric we describe as the purchase value of services tied to our installed base. This is a non-GAAP measure, and a reconciliation to the corresponding GAAP measure can be found on our investor relations website at Apple.com/investor. I'd now like to turn the call over to Tim for introductory remarks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Nancy, and good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us. Today, we're reporting the results of a very busy and challenging quarter, and we're also announcing an update to our capital return program. 
+Revenue for the quarter was $50.6 billion, which was within our guidance range. Despite the pause in our growth, our results reflect excellent execution by our team in the face of ongoing macroeconomic headwinds in much of the world, and difficult year-over-year comparisons. 
+We saw continued currency weakness in the vast majority of our international markets. In constant currency, our revenue declined by 9% from last year, 400 basis points less than the reported decline of 13%. For the first half of the fiscal year, our revenue in constant currency was up 1% year-on-year. 
+Despite challenges, there were a number of encouraging signs during the quarter. Our installed base of over 1 billion active devices continued to grow strongly. We added a huge number of Android switchers and new-to-Mac customers, and we generated very strong growth from services. 
+We sold 51.2 million iPhones in the quarter, consistent with the range of our own expectations, but lower than the exceptional year-ago quarter, when we saw an acceleration in iPhone upgrades, and 40% iPhone sales growth over the previous year. To provide some additional color, iPhone sales come from three sources: Customers who upgrade from previous iPhone models, customers who switch from Android and other operating systems, and customers who purchase a smart phone for the first time. 
+As we look at each of these three sources of iPhone sales, we see a business that is healthy and strong. First, from an upgrade perspective, during the first half of this year, the upgrade rate for the iPhone 6s cycle has been slightly higher than what we experienced in the iPhone 5s cycle two years ago, but it is lower than the accelerated upgrade rate we saw with iPhone 6, which as you know, was a big contributor to our phenomenal revenue growth a year ago. Most importantly, our customers are incredibly loyal. A recent Kantar survey of US smart phone purchasers indicated a 95% iPhone loyalty rate, the highest ever measured for any smart phone. 
+Second, we continued to see a very high level of customers switching to iPhone from Android and other operating systems. In fact, we added more switchers from Android and other platforms in the first half of this year than any other six-month period ever. 
+And third, with only 42% smart phone penetration of the global handset market today, iPhone is still attracting millions of first-time smart phone buyers each quarter, especially from emerging markets. For example, in India, our iPhone sales were up 56% from a year ago. 
+Next, I'd like to talk about services, which was our second-largest revenue generating category during the quarter. Setting aside the amount we received from a patent settlement in the December quarter, the March quarter services revenue was our highest ever. Services revenue jumped 20% to $6 billion. App Store revenue was up 35% to beat last quarter's all-time record, and Apple Music continues to grow in popularity with over 13 million paying subscribers today. We feel really great about the early success of Apple's first subscription business, and our Music revenue has now hit an inflection point after many quarters of decline. 
+The services business is powered by our huge installed base of active device, which crossed 1 billion units earlier this year. As we discussed on this call in January, those 1 billion-plus active devices are a source of recurring revenue that is growing independent of the unit shipments we report every three months. In fact, the purchase value of services tied to our installed base was a record $9.9 billion in the March quarter, up 27% over last year, accelerating from the 24% growth rate we reported in the December quarter. 
+The reach of Apple Pay also continues to expand, following a very successful launch in China in the March quarter, and last week's roll-out in Singapore. Apple Pay is growing at a tremendous rate, with more than 5 times the transaction volume of a year ago, and 1 million new users per week. There are more than 10 million contactless ready locations in the countries where Apple Pay has launched today, including over 2.5 million locations now accepting Apple Pay in the United States, and more expansion of Apple Pay is coming soon. 
+Turning to the Mac, we met our sell-in expectations, in addition to reducing channel inventory by about 100,000 unites. Overall, the Mac continues to attract  a large percentage of new customers. In our latest survey of major markets, over half of buyers were new to the Mac, and in some countries, the percentage is extremely high, like in China, where over 80% of customers were purchasing a Mac for the first time. We're confident in our Mac business, and our ability to continue to innovate and gain share in that area. 
+Turning to the Apple Watch, unit sales met our expectations in the quarter. For some color on how we think about Apple Watch sales, we expected seasonality to be similar to the historical seasonality of iPod, which typically generated 40% or more of its annual unit sell-through in the December  quarter. 
+We started shipping Apple  Watch just one year ago, and it has quickly become the best-selling and most loved smart watch in the world. In fact, unit sales of Apple Watch during its first year exceeded sales of iPhone in its first year. Last month, we refreshed the lineup for the spring with new bands and a new starting price point, and the response from customers has been great. 
+Apple Watch is an increasingly essential part of user's lives, from responding to messages, managing calendars and navigating with maps, to helping them  be more fit. And in some cases, the heart rate sensor has even helped save lives. We're really excited about the first year with Apple Watch. We have learned a lot, and we believe it has an exciting future ahead. 
+We announced some fantastic new products during the March quarter. iPhone SE became available on March 31, so none of its sales were reflected in our second-quarter results, but so far this quarter, we're seeing terrific customer response. iPhone SE is the most powerful four-inch phone ever, and it's a great option for customers all over the world who want a compact phone with advanced features, and a great price, without compromising performance. Demand has been very strong, and exceeds supply at this point, but we're working hard to get the iPhone SE into the hands of every customer who wants one, as quickly as possible. The addition of the iPhone SE in the iPhone lineup places us in a better strategic position to attract even more customers into our ecosystem. 
+We also unveiled the stunning 9.7 inch iPad Pro, with cutting-edge performance and our most advanced display yet. The reviews of our new iPad Pros have been great, and we are hearing from customers of the features and capabilities in the new Pros make them both the ultimate upgrade for iPad owners, and a great PC replacement. 
+In the June quarter, we expect to see our best iPad revenue compare in over two years. iPad is the best-selling, best-reviewed and  most used tablet on the market. Customers tell us that they love iPad for its unique mix of portability, capability, and versatility, with over 1 million iPad apps in the App Store to help them work, play, learn, and create. 
+We also announced Care Kit, a new software framework that developers can use to help people take a more active role in their health, by keeping track of their care plans, monitoring their symptoms and medication, and delivering the insights they need to make smart decisions about their health. We're very excited about the ways iPhone and Apple Watch are helping people lead healthier lives. We believe there's great promise here for the future, and we are very interested in where this can take us. 
+As always, we are contributing to society beyond our products, promoting the use of renewable energy across our facilities and inside our supply chain, and developing cutting-edge technologies to revolutionize recycling in the materials we use. We are unwavering in our commitment to protect the security and privacy of our customers and their data, and we are actively promoting inclusion and equality across our business. 
+As we continue through the June quarter, I'd like to remind you that we measure the health of customer demand based on sell-through. Despite ending Q2 within our channel inventory targets, in light of the macroeconomic environment we plan to lower our channel inventories in the June quarter. This will impact our reported revenue in Q3. Luca will provide more details on this in his commentary. 
+But before turning over the call to him, I will summarize by saying that the future of Apple is very bright. Our product pipeline has amazing innovations in store. We are very excited about bringing together developers for our four major platforms at our worldwide developers conference in June. 
+We are forging ahead with important investments in research and development, in our infrastructure, and in our supply chain. We've made 15 acquisitions in the last four quarters to accelerate our product and services roadmaps, and we are always on the lookout for companies with great technology, talent, and strategic fit. 
+Creating value for shareholders by developing great products and services that enrich people's lives will always be our top priority, and the key factor driving our investments and capital allocation decisions. As our business continues to generate high levels of free cash flow, we are in the fortunate position to expand our capital return program again this year, as we have done each year since we started the program four years ago. 
+Today, we are announcing an extension of the timeframe of the program by four quarters through March of 2018, and we are expanding the total program size from $200 billion to $250 billion. Luca has more details on this announcement and our results for the March quarter. Luca? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Tim, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me start with the March quarter results. Revenue for the quarter landed within our guidance range at $50.6 billion, compared to $58 billion in the year-ago quarter, a decline of 13%. 
+As we had expected, our comparisons to last year were influenced by the continued strength of the US dollar against foreign currencies. That being said, in constant currency, our revenue declined by 9%. On a geographic basis, in Asia, our revenue grew strongly in Japan, but it declined in greater China and the rest of Asia-Pacific. 
+However our business in these two regions is faring better than the numbers might suggest. We had significant channel inventory reductions and currency weakness, which affected our reported revenue for both of these segments. In mainland China, revenue was down 11%, and the decline was 7% in constant currency terms. Keep in mind that we were up against an extremely difficult year-ago compare, when our mainland China revenue grew 81%. We remain very optimistic about the China market over the long-term, and we are committed to investing there for the long run. 
+Gross margin was 39.4%, near the high-end of our guidance range, thanks to strong cost performance. Operating margin was 27.7% of revenue, and net income was $10.5 billion. Diluted earnings per share were $1.90, and cash flow from operations was strong, at $11.6 billion. 
+For details by product, I start with iPhone. We sold 51.2 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 61.2 million in the year-ago quarter, a decline of 16%. It was a particularly challenging comparison to the record quarter a year ago, when iPhone 6 grew 40% as we entered last March quarter, and supply demand imbalance, which was recovered during the quarter. 
+Also, this year we reduced channel inventory by 450,000 units, while we increased inventory by 1 million units a year ago. We have exited the quarter with in our five to seven-week target range for channel  inventory. iPhone ASV was $642 compared to $659 in the year ago quarter, with weak international currencies and very popular mid-tier and entry offerings contributing to the difference year-over-year. 
+iPhone's momentum in business markets continues to be very impressive. A recent survey by 451 Research, formerly known as ChangeWave, found that among US corporate buyers planning to purchase smart phones in the June quarter, 78% planned to purchase iPhones. That's the highest June quarter iPhone purchase intent ever measured by the survey and 5 points higher than a year ago. 
+Turning to services, we generated $6 billion in revenue, an increase of 20% over the March quarter last year, thanks primarily to the continued strong performance of the App Store, with revenue growing 35% to a new all-time high. According to App Annie, the App Store generated 90% more global revenue than Google Play in the March quarter, up from a 75% lead in 2015. Among our customers who purchased apps and content from our iTunes Stores, the average amount spent per customer reached a new all-time record in the March quarter. 
+Next, I'd like to talk about the Mac. We sold 4 million Macs compared to 4.6 million last year, a decline of 12%. It was a challenging quarter for personal computer sales across the industry, but we believe we gained market share. Despite the overall market slowdown, we generated double-digit market growth in a number of markets, including Russia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and the UAE. 
+Just last week, we updated the MacBook, our thinnest and lightest Mac, with the latest processors, faster graphics, fastest flash storage, and longer battery life. We think our customers are going to love this update. We ended the quarter within our four to five-week target range for Mac channel inventory. 
+Turning to iPad, we sold 10.3 million compared to 12.6 million in the year ago quarter. We also reduced channel inventory by about 200,000 units, and we exited the quarter within our five to seven-week target range. In the same segments of the public market where we compete, we continue to be highly successful. Recent data from NPD indicates that iPad had 78% share of the US market for tablets priced above $200. And the latest data published by ABC indicates that iPad accounts for 72% of the US commercial tablet market, comprising business, government, and education. 
+iPad customer metrics are also extremely positive. In February, 451 Research measured a 97% consumer satisfaction rate for iPad Air 2, and among consumers planning to purchase a tablet within the next six months, 59% planned to purchase an iPad, more than 3 times the purchase intention rate of the next highest brand measured. Corporate buyers reported a 94% satisfaction rate for iPad, and a June quarter purchase intent of 71%. 
+Revenue from other products grew 30% over the last year, thanks to Apple Watch. We have expanded distribution to 60 countries, and introduced bands in beautiful new colors for spring, so customers can personalize their watches in more ways, with a range of colors, styles, and materials. Our customers are very happy with Apple Watch, with 451 Research measuring 94% customer satisfaction. 
+We're also making great progress with our enterprise initiatives. IBM now has engagements for more than 200 deployments of native iOS apps for large enterprise customers to accelerate mobile transformation. Our mobility partner program also continues to grow, with 108 partners across 20 countries. 
+We see continued broad industry adoption of native iOS apps to transform how professionals do their work and serve their customers. For example, retail bankers are using iOS apps on iPads to greet and onboard customers, reduce queue times, and improve the customer experience. And in hospitals, using doctors and nurses are using iOS Apps on iPhone and iPad to share and communicate more effectively, so that they can spend more time with patients, and less time on administrative tasks. 
+Let me now turn to our cash positions. We ended the quarter with $232.9 billion in cash plus marketable securities, a sequential increase of $17.2 billion. $208.9 billion of this cash, or 90% of the total, was outside the United States. 
+We issued $15.5 billion in US dollar denominated notes during the quarter, including our first green bond tranche to fund initiatives such as renewable energy and environmental design projects. We exited the March quarter with $72 billion in term debt. We returned   $10 billion to investors during the quarter, including $2.9 billion in dividends and equivalents, and $7 billion on purchases of 71.8 million Apple shares, to open market transactions. 
+We have now completed over $163 billion of the current $200 billion capital return program, including $117 billion in share repurchases. As Tim mentioned, today we are announcing the latest update to our program, which we are increasing to a total of $250 billion. Once again, we are allocating the majority of the expansion of the program to share repurchases, given our strong confidence in Apple's future, and the value we see in our stock. The Board has increased the share repurchase authorization by $35 billion, raising it from the current $140 billion level to $175 billion. We will also continue to net share settle, less the employee restricted stock units. 
+We also know that the dividend is very important to many of our investors who value income, and we are raising it for the fourth time in less than four years. The quarterly dividend will grow from $0.52 per share to $0.57 per share, an increase of about 10%. This is effective with our next dividend, which the Board has declared today is payable on May 12, 2016, to shareholders of record as of May 9, 2016. 
+We continue to plan for annual dividend increases going forward. With $12 billion in annual dividend payments, we are proud to be one of the largest dividend payers in the world. In total, with this updated program, during the next eight quarters, we expect to return $87 billion to our investors, which represents about 15% of our market cap at the current stock price. 
+As in the past, we expect to fund our capital return program with US cash, future US cash flow generation and borrowing from both domestic and international debt markets. We will continue to review capital allocation regularly, and solicit input on our program from a broad base of shareholders. This allows us to be thoughtful about the size, the mix, and the face of the program. 
+As we move ahead into the June quarter, I'd like to review our outlook, which includes the types of forward-looking information that Nancy referred to at the beginning of the call. We expect revenue to be between $41 billion and $43 billion. The revenue guidance implies a year-over-year decline, as we lap an incredibly strong June quarter last year, when revenue grew 33%, due in part to accelerated iPhone upgrade purchases. This tough compare is compounded by the continued weak macro environment this year, and the strong US dollar, which affects our revenue growth in international markets. 
+Embedded in this guidance is a planned channel inventory reduction worth  over $2 billion, as we have elected to be prudent about our channel inventory position, given the current macro environment. The guidance also reflects a range of possible scenarios related to how quickly we can get into supply-demand balance for iPhone SE. Due to these factors, our expected demand is greater than the revenue range implies. 
+Sequentially, our guidance implies a revenue decline of 15% to 19%, which is comparable to the 17% sequential decline that we've averaged from the March to June quarter for the last three years, despite the anticipated channel inventory adjustments I just described. We expect seasonal sequential declines in iPhone and iPad sales, and a sequential increase in Mac sales. We also expect iPhone ASPs to decline sequentially as we get further from the launch of iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, and as iPhone SE enters the mix. 
+We know that our revenue guidance falls short of market estimates for the third quarter. We believe the difference counts primarily from three areas: First, the $2 billion plus channel inventory reduction I just mentioned. Second, the effect of the channel inventory reduction, and the launch of iPhone SE on iPhone ASPs, as well as the current constrained supply of iPhone SE. Third, different estimates for Mac, which we expect to grow sequentially at the rate similar to what we have experienced in the past June quarters. 
+We expect gross margins to be between 37.5% and 38%. We expect continued cost improvements to be more than offset by the sequential loss of leverage from lower revenue, and a differing mix of products. We expect OpEx to be between $6 billion and $6.1 billion. 
+We expect OI&E to be about $300 million. And we expect the tax rate to be about 25.5%. With that, I'd like to open the call to questions. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Luca.  
+(Caller Instructions) 
+Operator, may we have the first question, please? 
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) 
+First, we hear from Simona Jankowski with Goldman Sachs. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          My first question was actually just a clarification, in terms of putting in context that $2 billion in channel inventory reduction. What was that last year, just to help us make the comparison on a year-over-year basis? The bigger question, Tim was, with the smart phone market now reaching a pretty mature growth base, how does Apple think of itself going forward? Is it a growth company, or is it a more mature tech company? And if it's still the former, how does that change how you think about M&A especially given the position you're in with your balance sheet strategically? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Simona, let me give you the data point on the sell through and then I'll let Tim answer the strategic question. We had a channel inventory reduction that was worth a bit less than $800 million a year ago. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Simona, this is Tim. In terms of do I think the smart phone market is mature? I think that the market, as you know, is currently not growing. However, my view of that is that's an overhang of the macroeconomic environment in many different places in the world. We're very optimistic that this too shall pass, and that the market and particularly us will grow again. 
+The reason that we're optimistic is we look at sort of the three places that iPhone sales come from, and from an upgrade point of view, as I mentioned in my comments, we compare favorably, slightly better than the upgrade cycle that we saw on the iPhone 5s. We are lower than the iPhone 6, but I think all of us know that was an extraordinary cycle, that accelerated upgrades from 2016 into 2015, and so that comparable will be tough for this year, but that's a transitory thing. 
+As we look at switchers, we're extremely excited that for the first half we have set a record from switchers from other platforms. The largest we've ever seen in any six month period before, so we've got traction there. And then on emerging markets, if you take a look at India, we grew by 56%, and we're placing increasing emphasis in these areas, where it's clear there will be disproportionate growth versus the more developed areas. 
+The next thing is with the iPhone SE, we have seen our ability to attract even more customers into the platform, with incredible product that is at a new price point for us, with the latest technology. And so we're optimistic about attracting even more customers with that. We also look at our pipeline, and were very excited about what's in our pipeline. All of those things make me optimistic. 
+Your other question was on M&A, and regardless of the first, we're always looking in the market about things that could complement things that we do today, become features in something we to, or allow us to accelerate entry into a category that we are excited about. As I have said before, our test is not on the size. We would definitely buy something larger than we have bought thus far. It's more about the strategic fit, and whether it's  a great technology and great people. We continue to look, and we stay very active in the M&A market. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Could we have the next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          From Piper Jaffray, we'll hear from Gene Munster. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good afternoon. Tim, can you talk a little bit about the iPhone ASP trends, and specifically you mentioned that the SE is going to impact, but how are you thinking about the aspirational market share that's out there, and your actual market share, and using price to close that gap? Is it just the SE or could there be other iPhone models that will be discounted, to try to be more aggressive in emerging markets? 
+And one for Luca. Can you talk a little bit about the services segment, in terms of what piece of the services is driving growth, and maybe a little bit about the profitability on a net basis versus the growth basis that you  have referred to in the past. Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+           I think the SE is attracting two types of customers. One is   customers that wanted the latest technology, but wanted it in a more compact package. And we clearly see even more people than we thought in that category. 
+Secondly, it's attracting people aspire to own an iPhone, but couldn't quite stretch to the entry price of the iPhone, and we've established a new entry. I think both of these markets are very, very important to us, and we are really excited about where it can take us. I do think that we will be really happy with the new to iPhone customers that we see from here, because of the early returns we've had. We are currently supply constrained, but we'll be able to work our way out of this at some point. But it's great to see the overwhelming demand for it. I will let Luca comment on the ASPs. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the ASPs, Gene we mentioned that we were going to be down sequentially, and this is really the combination of two factors. So when we go from the March quarter to the June quarter, is the fact that we are having the SE entering the mix, and that obviously is going to have a downward pressure on ASP, and also this channel inventory reduction that we have talked about, obviously the channel inventory reduction will come from higher-end models, and that is also affecting the sequential trend on ASPs. 
+The question on services, when we look at our services business, obviously growing very well across the board. The biggest element, and the part of the services business that is growing very well, we mentioned 35%, is the App Store. It's interesting for us that our music business, which had been declining for a number of quarters, now that we have both a download model and a streaming model, we have now hit an inflection point, and we believe that this would be the bottom, and we can start growing from there over time. 
+We have many other services businesses that are doing very well, we have an iCloud business that is growing very quickly. Faster than the App Store, from a much lower base but I think it's important for us as we continue to develop these businesses. Tim have talked about Apple Pay. It doesn't provide a meaningful financial contribution at this point, but as we look at the amount of transactions that go into Apple Pay right now, and we think ahead for the long-term, that could be an interesting business for us, as well. 
+From a profitability standpoint, we have mentioned last time that when you look at it on a gross basis, so in terms of purchase value of these services, the profitability of the business is similar to Company average. Of course, when you met out the amount that is paid to developers, and you look at it, in terms of what is reported in our P&L, obviously that business has a profitability that is higher than Company average. We don't get into the specifics of specific products or services, but it is very clear it is significantly higher than Company average. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Gene. Could we have the next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, thank you. First for Luca. This is the worst gross margin guide in a year and a half or so, and over the last couple of quarters, you have talked about number of tailwinds including component cost, the lower accounting deferrals that went into effect in September. You just mentioned the services margins are above corporate average. So the question is, are some of those tailwinds winding down? Or is a significant guide down in gross margin for the June quarter entirely related to volume and the 5 SE? And then I have a follow-up for Tim. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Katy, clearly the commodity environment remains quite favorable, and we continue to expect cost improvements. The other dynamics that you have mentioned are still there, obviously what is different, and particularly as we look at it on a sequential basis coming out of the March quarter, we would have loss of leverage, and that obviously is going to have a negative impact on margins. The other factor that's important to keep in mind is this different mix of products. 
+Particularly when you look at iPhone, what I was mentioning to Gene earlier, I think we've got a couple of things that are affecting not only ASPs, but obviously, they also affects margins. And it's the fact that we have a channel inventory reduction at the top end of the range, and we've got the introduction of the iPhone SE at the entry level of the range. And so when you take into account those factors, those are the big elements that drive our guidance range right now. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Thank you. And that a question for Tim, appreciate the optimism around longer-term iPhone unit growth, but with developed market penetration in anywhere from 60% to 80%, the growth is going to have to come from new markets. You talked about India. Could you just spend a little bit more time on that market? What are some of the hurdles you have to overcome, for that to be a larger part of the business? When we expect Apple to have more distribution, and specifically your own stores in that country? Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Katy, in the short term, let me just make a couple of comments on the developed markets, just to make sure this is clear. If you look at our installed base of iPhone today versus two years ago, it's increased by 80%. When you think about upgrade cycles, upgrade cycles would have varying rates on it. As I talked about on the comments, the iPhone 6s rate, upgrade rate is slightly higher than the iPhone 5s, but lower than the iPhone 6. 
+But the other multiplier in that equation is obviously the size of the installed base. The net of the idea is that I think there's still really, really good business in the developed markets, so I wouldn't want to write those off. It's our job to come up with great products that people desire, and also to continue to attract over Android switchers. With our worldwide share there's still quite a bit of room in the developed markets, as well. 
+From an India point of view, if you look at India, and each country has a different story a bit, but the things that have held not only us back, perhaps, but some others as well, is that the LTE rollout with India just really begins this year. So we will begin to see some really good networks coming on in India. That will unleash the power and capability of the iPhone, in a way that an older network, 2.5G or even some 3G networks, would not do. The infrastructure is one key one, and the second one is building the channel out. 
+Unlike the US as an example, where the carriers in the US sell the vast majority of phones that are sold in the United States, in India, the carriers in general sell virtually no phones, and it is out in retail, and retail is many, many different small shops. We've been in the process. It's not something we just started in the last few weeks. 
+We've been working in India now for a couple of years or more, but we've been working with great energy over the last 18 months or so, and I am encouraged by the results that we're beginning to see there, and believe there's a lot, lot more there. It is already the third largest smart phone market in the world, but because the smart phones that are working there are low-end, primarily because of the network and the economics, the market potential has not been as great there. I  view India as where China was maybe 7 to 10 years ago from that point of view. I think there's a really great opportunity there. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Katy. Could we have the next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We will go to Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have one, and then a follow-up, as well. My sense is that you talked about adjusting for the changes in channel inventory, that you are guiding for relatively normal sequential growth. And I think if you do the math it's probably the same or perhaps a touch worse in terms of iPhone unit growth sequentially, relative to normal seasonality between fiscal Q2 and Q3. I guess the question is, given that you should be entering new markets and you should see pronounced elasticity from the SE device, why wouldn't we be seeing something that was dramatically above normal seasonal, in terms of iPhone revenues and units for this quarter? 
+Maybe you could push back on me, but I can't help thinking that when Apple introduced the iPad Mini in a similar move, to move down market, there was great growth for one quarter, and the iPad never grew again and margins and ASPs went down. It looks like you are introducing the SE, and at least on a sequential basis, you not calling for any uplift, even adjusting for channel inventory, and ASPs I presume will go down and certainly it's impacting gross margins as you've guided to. Could you respond to, A, why you're not seeing the elasticity, and B, is the analogy with the iPad mini completely misplaced? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Toni, it's Tim. Let me see if I can address your question. The channel inventory reduction that Luca referred to, the vast, vast majority of that is in iPhone. That would affect the unit compare that you maybe thinking about. The iPhone SE, we are thrilled with the response that we've seen on it. 
+It is clear that there is a demand there, even much beyond what we thought, and so that is really why we have the constraint that we have. Do I think it will be like the iPad Mini? No, I don't think so. I don't see that. 
+I think the tablet market in general, one of the challenges with the tablet market is that the replacement cycle is materially different than in the smart phone market. As you probably know, we haven't had an issue in customer satisfaction on the iPad. It is incredibly high, and we haven't had an issue with usage of the iPad. The usage is incredibly high. 
+But the consumer behavior there is you tend to hold on for very long period of time, before an upgrade. We continue to be very optimistic on the iPad business, and as I have said in my remarks, we believe we are going to have the best compare for iPad revenue this quarter that we have quite some time. We will report back in July on that one, but I think iPhone has a particularly different kind of cycle to it than the tablet market. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, and if I could follow-up, Tim. You alluded to replacement cycles and differences between the iPad and the iPhone. My sense was, when you were going through the iPhone 6 cycle, was that you had commented that the upgrade cycle was not materially different. I think your characterization was that it accelerated a bit in the US, but international had grown to be a bigger part of your business, and replacement cycles there were typically a little bit longer. I'm wondering if it was only a modest difference between the 5s and the 6, how big a difference are we really seeing in terms of replacement cycles across the last three generations, and maybe you could help us, if the replacement cycle was flat this year relative to what you saw last year, how different would your results have been this quarter in the first half? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          There's a lot there. Let me just say I don't recall saying the things that you said I said about the upgrade cycle, so let me get that out of the way. Now let me describe without the specific numbers, the iPhone 6s upgrade cycle that we have measured for the first half of this year, so the first six months of our fiscal year to be precise, is slightly better than the rate that we saw with the iPhone 5s two years ago, but it's lower than the iPhone 6. I don't mean just a hair lower, it's a lot lower.  
+Without giving you exact numbers, if we would have the same rate on 6s that we did 6, there would -- it will be time for a huge party. It would be a huge difference. The great news from my point of view is, I think we are strategically positioned very well, because we have announced the SE, we are attracting customers that we previously didn't attract. That's really great, and this tough compare eventually isn't the benchmark. The install base is up 80% over the last two years, and so all of those I think bode well, and the switcher comments I made earlier, I wouldn't underestimate that, because that's very important for us in every geography. Thanks for the question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Toni. Can we have the next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          From Cross Research Group, we'll hear from Shannon Cross. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have a couple of questions. One, Tim, can you talk a bit about what's going on in China? The greater China revenue I think was down 26%. You did talk about mainland China, but if you could talk about some of the trends you're seeing there, and how you think it's playing out, and maybe your thoughts on SE adoption within  China as well. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Shannon, thanks for the question. If you take greater China, we include Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China in the greater China segment that you see reported on your data sheet. The vast majority of the weakness in the greater China region sits in Hong Kong, and our perspective on that is, it's a combination of the Hong Kong dollar being pegged to the US dollar, and therefore it carries the burden of the strength of the US dollar, and that has driven tourism, international shopping and trading down significantly compared to what it was in the year ago. 
+If you look at mainland China, which is one that I am personally very focused on, we are down 11% in mainland China, on a reported basis. On a constant currency basis, we are only down 7%, and the way that we really look at the health or underlying demand is look at sell-through, and if you look at there, we were down 5%. Keep in mind that is down 5% on comp a year ago that was up 81%. 
+As I  back up from this and look at the larger picture, I think China is not weak, as has been talked about. I see China as -- may not have the wind at our backs that we once did, but it's a lot more stable than what I think is the common view of it. We remain really optimistic on China. We opened seven stores there during the quarter. 
+We are now at 35. We will open 5 more this quarter to achieve 40, which we had talked about before. And the LTE adoption continues to rise there, but it's got a long way ahead of it. And so we continue to be really optimistic about it, and just would ask folks to  look underneath the numbers at the details in them before concluding anything. Thanks for the question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. My second question is with regard to OpEx leverage, or thinking about when I look at the revenue, your revenue is below our expectations but OpEx is pretty much in line. So how are you thinking about potential for leverage, cost containment, maybe when macro is bad and revenue is under pressure, and how are you juggling that versus the required investment you need to go forward? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It is Luca. Of course, we think about it. We think about it a lot, and so when you look at our results, for example, our OpEx for the quarter, for the March quarter was up 10%, which is the lowest rate that you have seen in years. And when you look within OpEx, you actually see two different dynamics. You see continued significant investments in research and development, because we really believe that's the future of the Company. 
+We continue to invest in initiatives and projects ahead of revenue. We had a much broader portfolio that we used to have. We do much more in-house technology development than we used to do a few years ago, which we think is a great investment for us to make. And so that parts we didn't need to protect, and we want to continue to invest in the business, right? 
+And then when you look at our SG&A portion of OpEx for the March quarter, it was actually down slightly. So obviously we think about it, and of course we look at our revenue trends, and we take measures accordingly. When you look at the guidance that we provided for the June quarter, that 10% year-over-year increase that I mentioned to you for the March quarter goes down to a range of 7% to 9% up, and again, the focus is on making investments in Road and continuing to run SG&A extremely tightly, and in a very disciplined way. 
+As you know, our E2R, expense to revenue ratio, is around 10%. It's something that we are very proud of, it's a number that is incredibly competitive in our industry, and we want to continue to keep it that way. At the same time, we don't want to under-invest in the business. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Shannon. Could we have the next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          From UBS we hear from Steve Milunovich. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Tim,  I first wanted to ask you about services and how do you view services? You've obviously highlighted it the last two quarters. Do you view it going forward as a primary driver of earnings, or do you view it, and you mentioned platforms in terms of your operating systems, which I would agree with. In that scenario I would argue it's more a supporter of the ecosystem, and a supporter of the hardware margins over time, and therefore somewhat subservient to hardware. It's great that it's growing, but longer-term, I would view its role as more creating an ecosystem that supports the high margins on the hardware, as opposed to independently driving earnings. How do you think about it? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The most important thing for us, Steve, is that we want to have a great customer experience, so overwhelmingly, the thing that drives us are to embark on services that help that, and become a part of the ecosystem. The reality is that in doing so, we have developed a very large and profitable business in the services area, and so we felt last quarter and working up to that, that we should pull back the curtain so that people could -- our investors could see the services business, both in terms of the scale of it, and the growth of it. As we said earlier, the purchase value of the installed base services grew by 27% during the quarter, which was an acceleration over the previous quarter, and the value of it hit -- was just shy of $10 billion. It's huge, and we felt it was important to spell that out. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, and then going back to the upgrades of the installed base, you have clearly mentioned that you've  pulled forward some demand, which makes sense, but there does seem to be a lengthening of the upgrade cycle, particularly in the US. AT&T and Verizon have talked about that. Investors I think perceive  that maybe the marginal improvements on the phone might be less currently, and could be less going forward. At the same time, I think you just announced that you can get the upgrade program online, which I guess potentially could shorten it. Do you believe that upgrade cycles are currently lengthening, and can continue to do so? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          What we've seen is that it depends on what you compare it to. If you compare to the 5s, what we are seeing is the upgrade rate today is slightly higher, or that there are more people upgrading, if you will, in a similar time period, in terms of a rate, than the 5s. But if you compare to 6, you would clearly arrive at the opposite conclusion. I think it depends on people's reference points, and we thought it very important in this call to be very clear and transparent about what we're seeing. I think in retrospect, you could look at it and say, maybe the appropriate measure is more to the 5s, and I think everybody intuitively thought that the upgrades were accelerated with the 6, and in retrospect, when you look at the periods, they clearly were. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Steve. Could we have our next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We will go to Rod Hall with JPMorgan. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod Hall,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, thanks for fitting me in. I wanted to start with a general, more general question. I guess, Tim, this one is aimed at you. As you think about where you thought things were going to head last quarter, when you reported to us, and how it's changed this quarter, obviously it's kind of a disappointing demand environment. Can you just help us understand what maybe the top two or three things are that have changed? And so as we walk away from this, we understand what the differences are, and what the direction of change is? Then I have a follow-up. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+           I think you're probably indirectly asking about our trough comment, if you will, from last quarter. And when we made that, we did not contemplate or comprehend that we were going to make a $2 billion-plus reduction in channel inventory during this quarter. So if you factor that in and look at true customer demand, which is the way that we look at internally, I think you'll find a much more reasonable comparison. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod Hall,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. Thank you. And then for my follow-up, I wanted to ask you about the tax situation a little bit. Treasury obviously has made some rule changes, and I wonder, maybe if Luca, you could comment on what the impact to Apple from those is, if anything? and Tim, maybe more broadly how you see the tax situation for Apple looking forward? Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Rod, these are new regulations, and we are in the processing of assessing them. Frankly from first read, we don't anticipate that they are going to have any material impact on our tax situation. Some of them relate to inversion transactions, obviously that's not an issue for us. Some of them are around internal debt financing, which is not something that we use, so we don't expect any issue there. 
+As you know, we are the largest US taxpayer by a wide margin, and we already pay full US tax on all the profits from the sales that we make in the United States, so we don't expect them to have any impact on us on tax reform. I will let Tim continue to  provide more color, but we've been strong advocates for comprehensive corporate tax reform in this country. We continue to do that. We think a reform of the tax code would have significant benefits for the entire US economy, and we remain optimistic that we are going to get to a point where we can see that tax reform enacted. At that point in time, of course, we would have much more flexibility around optimizing our capital structure, and around providing more return of capital to our investors. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The only thing I would add, Rod, is I think there are a growing number of people in both parties that would like to see comprehensive reform, and so I'm optimistic that it will occur. It's just a matter of when and that's difficult to say. But I think most people do recognize that it is in the US's interest to do this. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod Hall,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Rod. A replay of today's call will be available for two weeks as a podcast on the iTunes Store, as webcast on Apple.com/investor and via telephone. And the numbers for the telephone replay are 888-203-1112, or 719-457-0820, and please enter confirmation code 7495552. These replays will be available by approximately 5:00 PM Pacific time today. 
+Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at 408-974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions. Joan is at 408-974-4570, and I am at 408-974-5420. Thanks again for joining us. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. We do thank everyone for your participation.  
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
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Transcripts/AAPL/2016-Jan-26-AAPL.txt

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+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2016 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 26, 2016 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO
+ * Tim Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+ * Katy Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Gene Munster
+   Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst
+ * Mark Moskowitz
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Kulbinder Garcha
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * Shannon Cross
+   Cross Research - Analyst
+ * Toni Sacconaghi
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Simona Jankowski
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Brian White
+   Drexel Hamilton - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 1Q16 revenue of $75.9b, net income of $18.4b and diluted EPS of $3.28.	Expects 2Q16 revenue to be $50-53b.
+
+
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 1Q16 revenue = $75.9b.
+    2. 1Q16 net income = $18.4b.
+    3. 1Q16 diluted EPS = $3.28.	
+    4. 1Q16 YoverY revenue growth = 2%.
+    5. 1Q16 GM = 40.1%.
+    6. 2Q16 revenue guidance = $50-53b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 1Q16 Business Review (T.C.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. All-time record quarterly revenue $75.9b in Dec. qtr.
+               1. In line with expectations.
+               2. Up 2% over last year's blockbuster results.
+               3. In constant currency, growth rate would have been 8%.
+          2. Record revenue and continued strong operating performance led to all-time record quarterly net income of $18.4b.
+          3. Sold 74.8m iPhones in Dec. qtr.
+               1. All-time high.
+               2. Avg. of over 34,000 iPhones an hour, 24 hours a day, seven days a week for 13 straight weeks.
+               3. Almost 50% more than 1Q volumes just two years ago.
+               4. More than four times volume five years ago.
+               5. 74.8m iPhones is incredible number.
+          4. Results are particularly impressive, given challenging global macroeconomic environment.
+          5. Seeing extreme conditions, unlike anything Co. has experienced before, just about everywhere it looks.
+          6. Major markets, including Brazil, Russia, Japan, Canada, Southeast Asia, Australia, Turkey and Eurozone, have been impacted by:
+               1. Slowing economic growth.
+               2. Falling commodity prices.
+               3. Weakening currencies.
+          7. Since FY14-end.
+               1. Euro and British pound down double-digits.
+               2. Major currencies like Canadian dollar, Australian dollar, Mexican peso, and Turkish lira declined 20% or more.
+               3. Brazilian real down more than 40%.
+               4. Russian ruble declined more than 50%.
+          8. Two-thirds of Co.'s revenue is now generated outside US.
+               1. Foreign currency fluctuations have meaningful impact on results.
+               2. $100 of Co.'s non-US dollar revenue in 4Q14 translated to only $85 last qtr., due to weakening currencies in international markets.
+                    1. Movement has been dramatic.
+               3. Last qtr. alone, currency impact has been large.
+          9. 8% growth rate translates to $80.8b in constant currency revenue.
+               1. $5b more than reported revenue.
+                    1. Difference is about size of annual revenue of Fortune 500 co.
+     2. China:
+          1. Last summer, while many companies experiencing weakness in their China-based results, seeing just opposite with incredible momentum for:
+               1. iPhone.
+               2. Mac.
+               3. App Store.
+          2. In Dec. qtr., despite turbulent environment, produced best results ever in Greater China.
+               1. Revenue grew:
+                    1. 14% YoverY.
+                    2. 47% sequentially.
+                    3. 17% YoverY in constant currency.
+               2. Great results were fueled by highest ever quarterly iPhone sales and record App Store performance.
+          3. Notwithstanding these record results, began to see some signs of economic softness in Greater China earlier this month, most notably in Hong Kong.
+          4. Beyond short-term volatility, remains confident about long-term potential of China market and large opportunities ahead.
+               1. Maintaining investment plans.
+          5. Despite economic challenges all over world, remains incredibly strong.
+               1. Has satisfied and loyal customer base.
+               2. Saw greater number of switchers from Android to iPhone than ever in 1Q.
+               3. Committed to making best products in world and expanding Co.'s experience to change customers' lives in better and more meaningful ways.
+          6. Invested through economic uncertainty in past.
+               1. Has always come out stronger on other side.
+               2. Some of most important breakthrough products in AAPL's history were born due to investing to downturn.
+          7. Seeing these times as opportunities to invest in new markets.
+     3. Accomplishments:
+          1. Shipped amazing new iPad Pro.
+               1. Well received by customers along with new smart keyboard and revolutionary Apple Pencil.
+          2. Launched all-new Apple TV with its own app store laying foundation for future television.
+               1. Had best qtr. by far for Apple TV sales.
+               2. Number of apps developed for Apple TV is growing rapidly.
+               3. Today, there are over 3,600 apps delivering everything from games to entertainment to educational programing.
+          3. Expanded distribution of Apple Watch almost 12,000 locations in 48 countries.
+               1. As expected, sets new quarterly record for Apple Watch sales with especially strong sales in Dec.
+          4. Released OS X El Capitan, refining experience in improving performance for Mac customers.
+          5. Updated entire iMac family with stunning new retina displays and introduced a new lineup of wireless accessories.
+          6. Launched Apple Pay in Canada, Australia with American Express.
+               1. Announced plans to bring this amazingly convenient, private and secured mobile payment experience to China, Hong Kong, Spain and Singapore in coming year.
+               2. Consumers have spent billions of dollars with Apple Pay.
+               3. In 2H15, saw significant acceleration in usage with growth rate 10 times higher than in 1H of year.
+               4. There are now over 5m contactless payment ready locations in countries where Apple Pay is live today.
+               5. It seemed to be accepted thousands of Exxon and Mobil branded stations across US, via their Speedpass plus app.
+          7. Shared Apple Music experience with even more listeners with over 10m paying subscribers, less than four months since customers begin paying for service.
+          8. Financial position has never been stronger.
+               1. Has mother of all balance sheets with almost $216b in cash, which translates to nearly $39 per diluted share of AAPL stock.
+               2. Investing confidently in future.
+               3. Returning capital to shareholders at a rapid pace.
+          9. During a period of economic uncertainty, believes it is important to appreciate significant portion of Co.'s revenue [recurse] over time.
+          10. Customer satisfaction and retention rates are second to none; provides with long-lasting foundation.
+               1. Recent consumer surveys by 451 Research, formally known as ChangeWave measured an incredible 99% customer satisfaction rate for iPhone 6S and 6S plus and equally impressive 97% rate for the iPad era 2.
+               2. iPhone royalty rate is almost twice as strong as next highest brand.
+               3. Growing portion of revenue is directly driven by existing installed base.
+               4. Because of enduring value of device, replacing is likely higher to be given or sold to someone who will love in use it after.
+          11. Installed base has been growing fast.
+               1. Recently reached major milestone crossing 1b active devices for first time.
+                    1. This is an unbelievable asset.
+                    2. Installed base is growing quickly.
+                    3. Seen acceleration in growth of services business; another large and important source of recurring revenues.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 1Q16 Financials (L.M.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Results:
+          1. Vast majority of services provided to customers, apps, movies and TV shows, are tied to installed base of devices rather than to current qtr. sales.
+          2. For some of these services like content, recognizes revenue based on transaction value.
+               1. For App Store, shares a portion of value of each transaction with app developer, and only recognized revenue on portion that Co. keeps.
+          3. When aggregating purchase value of services tied to installed base during FY15, adds up to more than $31b.
+               1. Increased 23% over FY14.
+          4. In recent Dec. qtr., purchases of installed base services reached $8.9b.
+               1. Grew 24% YoverY.
+          5. Installed base services, quite profitable.
+               1. GM on purchase value basis, similar to Co. avg.
+          6. Active device is one that has been engaged with services within past 90 days.
+               1. Active installed base recently passed 1b devices; YoverY growth more than 25%.
+          7. Has built huge installed base around four platforms:
+               1. iOS.
+               2. Mac OS.
+               3. watchOS.
+               4. tvOS.
+          8. Tremendously satisfied loyal customers who are engaged with services at fast growing rate.
+          9. All aforementioned provides with unparalleled foundation for future of business.
+     2. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $75.9b.
+               1. Increased $1.3b or 2% YoverY.
+               2. Growth was driven by:
+                    1. All-time record iPhone sales.
+                    2. All-time record revenue from services.
+                    3. Expanded availability of Apple Watch.
+                    4. Successful launch of new Apple TV.
+               3. Achieved this record revenue performance despite large negative impact from weakness of foreign currency.
+               4. In constant currency, revenue growth rate was 8%.
+          2. Achieved impressive results in Greater China.
+               1. Revenue grew 14% YoverY and 47% sequentially to an all-time record of $18.4b.
+               2. Emerging markets performance was strong overall, up 11% YoverY, and representing 34% of total Co. revenue.
+          3. GM 40.1%.
+               1. Up sequentially and better-than-expectations, mainly due to:
+                    1. Favorable commodity cost.
+                    2. Product mix.
+          4. Operating margin 31.9% of revenue.
+          5. Net income $18.4b; all-time record.
+          6. Diluted EPS $3.28.
+               1. Increased 7% YoverY over previous all-time record.
+          7. Cash flow from operations $27.5b; strong.
+     3. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 74.8m iPhones.
+               1. Increase of 300,000 vs. last Dec. qtr.
+          2. Sales grew 76% in India and more than 45% in:
+               1. Korea.
+               2. Middle East.
+               3. Africa.
+          3. Sales up 20% or more in many Western European countries.
+               1. Grew 18% in Mainland China.
+          4. ASP $691 vs. $687 in 1Q15 despite of unfavorable FX impact.
+          5. Seeing strong interest in iPhone with consumers and business users.
+               1. Among corporate buyers planning to purchase smartphones in March qtr., 451 Research found 79% planned to purchase iPhones.
+                    1. That is highest iPhone purchase intent in eight-year history of survey.
+          6. Started qtr. below channel inventory target range.
+               1. Due to extremely successful manufacturing ramp, able to exit qtr. slightly [above] low-end of target range of 5-7 weeks of iPhone channel inventory.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Sold 5.3m Macs vs. 5.5m last year.
+               1. Declined 4%.
+          2. Continued long-running trend of PC market share gains based on IDC's latest estimate of 11% global market contraction.
+               1. YoverY sales growth in Mainland China 27%.
+          3. Ended qtr. within 4-5 week target range for Mac channel inventory.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Sold 16.1m vs. 1Q15's 21.4m.
+               1. Exited qtr. within 5-7 week target range of iPad channel inventory.
+          2. Tablet market:
+               1. Highly successful.
+               2. Recent data from NPD indicates that iPad has 85% share of US market for tablets priced above $200.
+               3. Latest data published by ITC indicates that iPad accounts for 67% of US commercial tablet market, comprising:
+                    1. Enterprise.
+                    2. Government.
+                    3. Education.
+               4. In Nov., 451 Research measured 97% consumer satisfaction rate for iPad Air 2.
+                    1. Among consumers planning to purchase a tablet within next six months, 65% planned to purchase an iPad.
+                    2. Corporate buyers reported 95% satisfaction rate; March qtr. purchase intent, 73%.
+     6. Enterprise:
+          1. Initiatives expanding.
+          2. IBM released 48 new IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps in Dec. qtr.
+               1. There are now over 100 apps in IBM MobileFirst for iOS catalog for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
+          3. Partnership with Cisco gained significant momentum, since announced it at Aug.-end.
+          4. Continuing to grow mobility partner program.
+               1. Added more than 25 partners in Dec. qtr., bringing total to over 90.
+     7. Services:
+          1. Revenue almost $6.1b, including $548m received from patent infringement dispute.
+               1. Excluding that amount, revenue was $5.5b.
+                    1. New all-time record and increase of 15% over last year due in large part to strong growth from apps.
+               2. Revenue from App Store increased 27%.
+                    1. Number of transacting customers grew 18%; all-time record.
+               3. Among customers who purchase apps and content from iTunes Stores, avg. amount spent for customer reached an all-time high in Dec. qtr.
+     8. Other Details:
+          1. Revenue from other products grew strongly.
+               1. Up 62% YoverY due to:
+                    1. Growing contribution from Apple Watch.
+                    2. Successful launch of new Apple TV.
+               2. Both aforementioned established new all-time quarterly records.
+          2. Expanded Apple Watch distribution significantly over course of qtr.
+               1. Experienced especially strong results during holiday buying season.
+     9. Cash Position:
+          1. 1Q16-end [$215.7b] in cash plus marketable securities.
+               1. Increased $10.1b sequentially.
+               2. $200b of this cash or 93% of total was outside US.
+          2. Returned over $9b to investors.
+          3. Paid $3b in dividends and equivalents.
+          4. Spent $3b to repurchase 26m AAPL shares through open market transactions.
+          5. Launched sixth share repurchase program, spending $3b and receiving an initial delivery of [20.4m shares].
+          6. Now completed over $153b of our $200b program, including $110b in share purchases.
+          7. Plans to provide update on capital return program during 2Q results in April.
+               1. Plans to be active in US and international debt markets in 2016 in order to fund capital return activities.
+               2. On 01/26/16, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.52 per share of common stock payable on 02/11/16 to shareholders of record as of 02/08/16.
+     10. 2Q16 Guidance:
+          1. Revenue $50-53b.
+               1. Providing wider range for revenue than usual for 2Q because of volatility seeing in economy and financial and currency markets.
+          2. GM 39.0-39.5%.
+               1. Believes these are extremely strong margins in light of headwinds faced from FX and sequential loss of leverage.
+          3. OpEx $6.0-6.1b.
+          4. OI&E about $325m.
+          5. Tax rate about 25.5%.
+          6. Does not provide guidance beyond current qtr.
+               1. Difficult to forecast economic and FX factors.
+               2. At this point, believes March qtr. faces most difficult YoverY compare relative to rest of year.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L164"/>(Operator Instructions) 
+<Sync id="L165"/>Your first question will come from Simona Jankowski with Goldman Sachs. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L166"/>Hello.  <Sync id="L167"/>Thank you very much. <Sync id="L168"/>Just in terms of your March quarter guidance, it does imply a double digit decline at the midpoint. <Sync id="L169"/>Maybe if you can just clarify, first of all, what FX headwind is embedded in that?  
+<Sync id="L170"/>And then just going to the fundamental underpinning reasons for that, how much of it do you think has to do with international markets in terms of weakening demand and how much of that do you think is comps versus any other factors you might identify, such as a response to higher prices for the iPhone in certain overseas markets? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L171"/>Thank you, Simona.  <Sync id="L172"/>Let me take this one. <Sync id="L173"/>In constant currency, when you look at it for the March quarter, revenue would be down between 5% and 10%.  <Sync id="L174"/>So we are looking at a 400 basis point impact from foreign exchange for the March quarter. 
+<Sync id="L175"/>You talked about a number of issues that are, in fact, included in this guidance.  <Sync id="L176"/>In addition to lapping, of course, a very strong year ago quarter -- just remind you that revenue growth a year ago was up 27% -- there's a number of things that we're facing. <Sync id="L177"/>The macroeconomic environment is weakening.  <Sync id="L178"/>When you think about all the -- particularly all the commodity-driven economies, Brazil and Russia and emerging markets, but also Canada, Australia in developed markets -- clearly, the economy is significantly weaker than a year ago. <Sync id="L179"/>We talked about the unfavorable FX, which again is 400 basis points. 
+<Sync id="L180"/>One of the things that we've done to respond to the foreign exchange situation has been to increase the price of some of our products in certain international markets.  <Sync id="L181"/>That has had the effect of protecting our margins, which you've seen have been very strong, both in the December quarter and in the guidance that we provide for the March quarter.  
+<Sync id="L182"/>But inevitably over time, higher prices affect demand and so we are capturing that in our guidance.  <Sync id="L183"/>So I would say these are the major reasons and the drivers for the guidance on revenue. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L184"/>Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L185"/>Thank you, Simona.  <Sync id="L186"/>Could we have the next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L187"/>And next from Piper Jaffray, we'll hear from Gene Munster. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L188"/>Good afternoon.  <Sync id="L189"/>Tim, could you talk a little bit about the iPhone upgrade program and the theme of iPhone as a subscription?  <Sync id="L190"/>In particular, do you believe that this could have a measurable impact on the December quarter once we anniversary this? <Sync id="L191"/>And then any thoughts on rolled outside the US when that program would.  
+<Sync id="L192"/>And my follow-up question would be, I know you can't talk about new products, but any high level thoughts on the virtual reality theme.  <Sync id="L193"/>Do you think this is more of a geeky niche or something that could go mainstream? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L194"/>On your first question about iPhone, I think the most important thing, Gene, as you know for us, will always be the product and the experience.  <Sync id="L195"/>And so that's first and foremost. <Sync id="L196"/>Secondly, I would say we were blown away by the level of Android switchers that we had last quarter. <Sync id="L197"/>It was the highest ever by far.  <Sync id="L198"/>And so we see that as a huge opportunity. 
+<Sync id="L199"/>Thirdly, the markets, sort of the emerging markets broader than BRIC, but including all of emerging,  when I look at our share in these markets and the LTE penetration, I see huge opportunities. 
+<Sync id="L200"/>In terms of the upgrade program itself, I think over time, it will be meaningful as customers get into a different pattern. <Sync id="L201"/>How much of that plays out in the Q1 of 2017 range is difficult to say. <Sync id="L202"/>My own sense would be that the other items I've mentioned are probably more important, but I am optimistic about the upgrade program, as well. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L203"/>And then virtual reality? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L204"/>In terms of virtual reality, no, I don't think it's a niche. <Sync id="L205"/>I think it can be -- it's really cool and has some interesting applications. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L206"/>Thank you, Gene. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L207"/>Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L208"/>Could we have the next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L209"/>From Morgan Stanley, Katy Huberty. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L210"/>Yes, thanks. <Sync id="L211"/>I appreciate the macro comments as it relates to guidance, but can you talk a little bit about how you're thinking consumers might react from an ASP perspective? <Sync id="L212"/>Do you expect consumers to move down the product line, given the macro environment?  
+<Sync id="L213"/>And then also, how is channel inventory influencing guidance?  <Sync id="L214"/>Do you feel like channel inventory needs to come down, given the demand trends?  <Sync id="L215"/>And then I have a follow-up. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L216"/>Couple of points here, Katy. <Sync id="L217"/>Our iPhone ASP was $691 during the December quarter. <Sync id="L218"/>We couldn't be happier with the level of ASP that we generated in the December quarter. 
+<Sync id="L219"/>Keep in mind that the foreign exchange impact on that number was $49.  <Sync id="L220"/>So obviously, the mix of products was very strong. <Sync id="L221"/>We had great reception for the new iPhones that we launched at the end of September. 
+<Sync id="L222"/>Of course, we have a very strong mid tier this year in the portfolio, with 6 and 6 Plus.  <Sync id="L223"/>But overall,  when you look at the outcome during the December quarter, it was very, very strong.  <Sync id="L224"/>So we feel very good about that and we feel that we have a very, very strong portfolio for iPhone. 
+<Sync id="L225"/>On the question around channel inventory, we entered the quarter, the December quarter -- and we mentioned it back in October -- below our target range of five to seven weeks. <Sync id="L226"/>We have built a bit of inventory during the course of the December quarter.  <Sync id="L227"/>But we have exited at the low end of the five to seven weeks, so we feel that we are in good shape there. <Sync id="L228"/>And we've exited the quarter also on iPad and Mac well within the ranges that we want to have. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L229"/>And then as a follow-up, back in October you guided FY16 CapEx up over 30%. <Sync id="L230"/>What's driving that growth? <Sync id="L231"/>Can you rank it between equipment purchases, data center and real estate?  <Sync id="L232"/>And given the slowdown that you started to see in December, are you still comfortable with that level of investment growth? <Sync id="L233"/>Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L234"/>Yes.  <Sync id="L235"/>So that is kind of the ranking, Katy. <Sync id="L236"/>It starts always for us with our tooling and manufacturing process equipment, and that is up a bit year-over-year. 
+<Sync id="L237"/>Then we've got data centers.  <Sync id="L238"/>And data centers is a growing expenditure for us, because, as we mentioned in our prepared remarks, our installed base of customers ands devices is growing, and is growing very significantly.  <Sync id="L239"/>And the data center capacity that we put in place is to provide the services that are tied to the installed base.  <Sync id="L240"/>So that type of expenditure goes together with the installed base.  
+<Sync id="L241"/>And then around facilities, you probably know that we are nearing completion of our new campus here in Cupertino, and so this is the year where we've got our peak requirements in terms of capital. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L242"/>Thank you, Katy. <Sync id="L243"/>Could we have the next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L244"/>From Bernstein, we'll hear from Toni Sacconaghi. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L245"/>Yes.  <Sync id="L246"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L247"/>I have a question, a follow-up, please. <Sync id="L248"/>To start, just on iPhones, it looks like your guidance implies about a 15% to 20% unit decline in iPhones for fiscal Q2, which I think, unless you really see a change in demand profile in the second half, suggests that iPhone units will decline year-over-year for FY16.  
+<Sync id="L249"/>And I'd like you to address that question, because the obvious follow-up questions are is that because you believe the smartphone market won't grow or because Apple may be reaching saturation in the market? <Sync id="L250"/>Is that because Apple's replacement cycle accelerated last year and is decelerating this year and that's why we'll see a decline in units?  
+<Sync id="L251"/>Or is there something about Apple's ability to gain share in a market where the market is moving to much lower price points?  <Sync id="L252"/>But I'm wondering, and Tim, maybe you're best to answer it, if you can address what appears likely to be a decline in iPhone units and how we put that in the context of how we should think about that, given some healthy data around switchers that you highlighted. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L253"/>Toni, we do think that iPhone units will decline in the quarter. <Sync id="L254"/>We don't think that they will decline to the levels that you're talking about. <Sync id="L255"/>We aren't projecting beyond the quarter, as Luca mentioned earlier; but at this point in time, we see that Q2 is the toughest compare. 
+<Sync id="L256"/>We believe it's the toughest compare because of the year ago quarter also had catch up in it from Q1. <Sync id="L257"/>If you recall, we were heavily supply constrained throughout the whole of Q1, and so some of that demand moved into Q2.  <Sync id="L258"/>Plus, we are in an environment now that is dramatically different from a macroeconomic point of view than last Q2, from a currency point of view, from the level of which we've had to adjust pricing in several of these markets, and the overall melees in virtually every country in the world.  <Sync id="L259"/>And so it's really all of those factors that play in there and it's difficult to sort out how much is due to which one. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L260"/>Right.  <Sync id="L261"/>Can you speak to any of the points around your expectation for the smartphone market or whether you think your replacement cycle has changed or whether your ability to gain share has changed? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L262"/>The market itself, we don't spend a lot of time on predicting. <Sync id="L263"/>Our view has always been that if we do -- if we make a great product and have a great experience,  that we ought to be able to convince enough people to move over.  <Sync id="L264"/>And so as I look at maybe your broader umbrella point about a question on saturation, the metrics I see would strongly suggest otherwise. 
+<Sync id="L265"/>For example, almost half of the iPhones that we sold in China last quarter were to people who were buying their first iPhone.  <Sync id="L266"/>And certainly if you go outside of China into the other emerging markets, our share is much lower and the LTE penetration is so low -- in some cases, it's zero -- that it indicates to me that there's still a lot of people, a tremendous number of people in the world, that will buy smartphones and we ought to be able to win over our fair share of those. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L267"/>Okay.  <Sync id="L268"/>And I just have clarifications, I don't really have a follow-up question. <Sync id="L269"/>Luca, you had talked about channel inventory increasing.  <Sync id="L270"/>It was 18.4 million for iPhone last quarter.  <Sync id="L271"/>Can you tell us how many more units you had this quarter?  
+<Sync id="L272"/>And then I'm not sure if I misheard you,  but I think you said your total installed base grew 25% year-over-year. <Sync id="L273"/>Can you confirm that?  <Sync id="L274"/>Because if Services grew at 13% and your installed base grew at 25%, it almost implies your penetration of your installed base, in terms of your ability to sell services, is going down. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L275"/>Maybe I'm going to start with Services, Toni. <Sync id="L276"/>The reason why we added this -- I think it's page 3 of our supplemental material -- is to try and explain that a couple of steps. <Sync id="L277"/>The first one is that of the services that we report, there's a portion, about 85% of all of the services that we report is directly tied to the installed base. <Sync id="L278"/>There is a smaller portion of our services business that is not related to installed base and more related to when we sell a device.  <Sync id="L279"/>A perfect example would be an Apple Care agreement that you purchase at the time of the sale of the device.  
+<Sync id="L280"/>And then we are showing that on that portion of installed base-driven services business, there is a part that is related to -- where we recognize revenue in terms of the full transaction value.  <Sync id="L281"/>And then there are transactions, like for example, App Store sales, where a portion of the transaction does not get recognized by Apple, but it goes to the developer.  
+<Sync id="L282"/>So when you look at it from a purchase value standpoint, actually in the December quarter, we grew 24%, and for the FY15, we grew at 23%. <Sync id="L283"/>So we are growing at very, very healthy levels.  <Sync id="L284"/>And to reconfirm the growth of the installed base, yes, it was over 25%. 
+<Sync id="L285"/>To the question around the channel inventory for iPhone, we grew channel inventory by 3.3 million units during the course of the December quarter.  <Sync id="L286"/>Keep in mind, we started in acquisition where we were below our targeted range. <Sync id="L287"/>We were significantly short at the beginning of the quarter. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L288"/>Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L289"/>Thank you, Toni.  <Sync id="L290"/>Could we have the next question, please?   
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L291"/>From Cross Research, Shannon Cross. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L292"/>Thank you very much. <Sync id="L293"/>I had a question about gross margin. <Sync id="L294"/>Luca, you got gross margins of 39% to 39.5% in your guidance, and that includes hedging.  <Sync id="L295"/>So I'm curious about the puts or takes in there.  
+<Sync id="L296"/>And then can you clarify if within the gross margin this quarter, that had the IP licensing contribution, as well?  <Sync id="L297"/>Any color you can give, both on this quarter's gross margin puts and takes, and then also the March quarter.  <Sync id="L298"/>And then I have a follow-up. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L299"/>Yes.  <Sync id="L300"/>So Shannon, let me start with Q1. <Sync id="L301"/>I think when you say IP licensing, you mean this patent dispute that was resolved. <Sync id="L302"/>Yes, it was included in the gross margins.  <Sync id="L303"/>And it was worth 40 basis points in the 40.1% that we reported for Q1. 
+<Sync id="L304"/>For the second quarter, the puts and takes are actually quite simple.  <Sync id="L305"/>From an FX standpoint, the negative impact on a sequential basis from the December quarter is 50 basis points. 
+<Sync id="L306"/>Then of course, I would say by far the largest impact on margins for the quarter is the loss of leverage, because that's part of our seasonal pattern, which gets offset by a favorable commodity environment that we've seen for a number of quarters now.  <Sync id="L307"/>And in a way, it's the other side of the coin of the foreign exchange situation. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L308"/>Okay.  <Sync id="L309"/>Thanks.  <Sync id="L310"/>And then Tim, can you talk a bit about -- and I apologize, I sort of lost my voice here -- can you talk a bit about leverage within the model? <Sync id="L311"/>I know you said you want to invest while there's great opportunity in China and all of that.  <Sync id="L312"/>But given some of the pressures you're seeing, how do you think about where you spend that incremental SG&A dollar and that R&D dollar, and how should we think about it, given you're running $6 billion a quarter? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L313"/>Yes, on the R&D, Shannon, we're continuing to invest without pause. <Sync id="L314"/>We have some great things in the pipeline and we very much believe strongly in investing through downturns, such as the one that everyone is going through. 
+<Sync id="L315"/>In terms of SG&A, we obviously seek to throttle expenditures in SG&A to the business level, with the exception of where we're investing in new stores and, for example, our expansion plans in China have not changed. <Sync id="L316"/>We are maintaining our investment profile and plans there. <Sync id="L317"/>We are also continuing to invest in markets where we believe they are great places for Apple for the long term, like India, as an example of that one.  
+<Sync id="L318"/>And finally, even in the markets where today, grantedly, it looks fairly bleak, from Russia and Brazil and some of the other economies that are very much tied to our oil-based economies. <Sync id="L319"/>We do believe that this, too, shall pass and that these countries will be great places and we want to serve customers in there, and so we're not retrenching. <Sync id="L320"/>That's not -- we don't believe in that. <Sync id="L321"/>We are fortunately strong enough to continue investing, and we think it's in Apple's best long-term interest to do so. 
+<Sync id="L322"/>Obviously, from a cost point of view, the downside of economic stress is that some asset prices get cheaper, commodity prices get cheaper, and that sort of thing.  <Sync id="L323"/>And so I think this is exactly the period that you want to invest and do so confidently. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L324"/>Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L325"/>Thank you, Shannon.  <Sync id="L326"/>Could we have the next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L327"/>We'll hear from Steve Milunovich with UBS. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L328"/>Steve, are you there? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L329"/>Steve? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L330"/>Let's go on to the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L331"/>And we'll hear from Brian White with Drexel. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian White,  Drexel Hamilton - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L332"/>Tim, could you talk a little bit about the next leg of growth in China?  <Sync id="L333"/>Obviously, Apple's done a phenomenal job there.  <Sync id="L334"/>But where do we see the next leg coming from?  
+<Sync id="L335"/>And also, you mentioned investing in India. <Sync id="L336"/>Where do you see that over the next two to three years?  <Sync id="L337"/>I think there's 1 billion mobile subscribers there, almost the size of China. <Sync id="L338"/>Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L339"/>Brian, good question. <Sync id="L340"/>In terms of China, the LTE penetration as of the end of last October, which is the last data I've got, was in the mid 20s.  <Sync id="L341"/>And so there's an enormous upgrade cycle there for people that are still running on 3G handsets. 
+<Sync id="L342"/>Also, I've talked about this before, but I think it's worth mentioning again, because it's easy to lose perspective with some of the things you read every day, is that the middle class in China was less than 50 million people in 2010, and by 2020, it's projected to be about half a billion.  <Sync id="L343"/>And so there's just an enormous number of people moving into the middle class.  <Sync id="L344"/>And we think this provides us a great opportunity to win over some of those customers into the Apple ecosystem.  
+<Sync id="L345"/>And so I think the demographics are great. <Sync id="L346"/>We're continuing to invest in retail stores. <Sync id="L347"/>Angela and her team have been on this very aggressive rollout plan. <Sync id="L348"/>We now have 28 stores in Greater China and we are on target to have 40 in the summertime of this year.  <Sync id="L349"/>And so we're continuing on distribution. 
+<Sync id="L350"/>Obviously, we've got product things in mind and are crafting our products and services with China heavily in mind. <Sync id="L351"/>We remain very bullish on China and don't subscribe to the doom and gloom kind of predictions, frankly. 
+<Sync id="L352"/>In India, India is also incredibly exciting. <Sync id="L353"/>India's growth, as you know, is very good. <Sync id="L354"/>It's quickly becoming the fastest growing BRIC country. <Sync id="L355"/>It's the third largest smartphone market in the world, behind China and the United States. 
+<Sync id="L356"/>The population of India is incredibly young. <Sync id="L357"/>The median age there is 27. <Sync id="L358"/>I think of the China age being young, at 36, 37.  <Sync id="L359"/>And so 27 is unbelievable. <Sync id="L360"/>Almost half the people in India are below 25.  <Sync id="L361"/>And so I see the demographics there also being incredibly great for a consumer brand and for people that really want the best products.  
+<Sync id="L362"/>And as you know, we've been putting increasingly more energy in India. <Sync id="L363"/>India revenue for us in Q1 was up 38%.  <Sync id="L364"/>We also had currency issues in India, as everybody else did.   <Sync id="L365"/>Constant currency growth was 48%.  <Sync id="L366"/>And so it's a very rapidly expanding country.  <Sync id="L367"/>And I think the government there is very interested economic reforms and so forth that I think all speak to a really good business environment for the future. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian White,  Drexel Hamilton - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L368"/>Okay.  <Sync id="L369"/>Great.  <Sync id="L370"/>Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L371"/>Thank you, Brian.  <Sync id="L372"/>Could we have the next question, please?  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L373"/>We'll hear from Kulbinder Garcha with Credit Suisse. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulbinder Garcha,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L374"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L375"/>My question's for Tim on the iPhone business. <Sync id="L376"/>You talk a lot about the macroeconomic weakness weighing on units, but is some of the issue just that last year replacement got accelerated and this year it's kind of normalizing, and that's kind of a one-time headwind in terms of the unit growth that you see in that business.  <Sync id="L377"/>Is any of that going on,  or is that not material, in your view?  
+<Sync id="L378"/>And the other follow-up I had was that you've mentioned in recent calls, helpfully, the percent of the base, prior to when the 6 came out, that were now on the larger screen phones.  <Sync id="L379"/>Can you give us an update on what that number is?  <Sync id="L380"/>I think the last time it was in the low 30s.  <Sync id="L381"/>Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L382"/>Last question first. <Sync id="L383"/>The number of people who had an iPhone prior to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus announcements -- and so this was in September of 2014 -- that have not yet upgraded to a 6, 6 Plus or 6s or 6s Plus is now 60%.  <Sync id="L384"/>So another way to think about that is 40% have, 60% have not. 
+<Sync id="L385"/>In terms of your initial question about is there some of the compare issue that are people that ran out quickly to buy a 6 and 6 Plus and sort of accelerated?  <Sync id="L386"/>There is no doubt that we had an unbelievable year last year, and the Q2 was particularly really, really strong because of the pent-up demand that left from Q1 in addition to Q2.  <Sync id="L387"/>And so there's no doubt about that. 
+<Sync id="L388"/>However, I think you can tell from the numbers that Luca is talking about just on the currency side,  and that's before thinking through the affect that price increases can sometimes have on the business over a period of time, it's clear that the economic piece is large. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulbinder Garcha,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L389"/>Thank you.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L390"/>Thank you, Kulbinder.  <Sync id="L391"/>Could we have the next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L392"/>And next we'll hear from Steve Milunovich with UBS. <Sync id="L393"/>Mr. Milunovich, you may want to check your mute button.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L394"/>Steve, are you there? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L395"/>Okay.  <Sync id="L396"/>Let's try the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L397"/>And we'll hear from Mark Moskowitz with Barclays. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Moskowitz,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L398"/>Yes.  <Sync id="L399"/>Thank you.  <Sync id="L400"/>Good afternoon. <Sync id="L401"/>A question and a follow-up. <Sync id="L402"/>As far as the question, Tim, I wanted to get a better sense from you in terms of what is the overarching message of introducing a little more details here around services. <Sync id="L403"/>Is this really to just reinforce the power of the franchise or the platform at Apple in terms of to really navigate tougher macro times in terms of the higher level recurring revenue, or is it a stepping stone to much more in terms of Apple service, i.e. <Sync id="L404"/>I think of all the stuff you do on the data center side.  <Sync id="L405"/>Could we eventually have seen, with the help of IBM and Cisco, that you eventually move more into the cloud services for the enterprise? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L406"/>So good question. <Sync id="L407"/>We started breaking out Services, as you know, in the beginning of FY15.  <Sync id="L408"/>And as that business has grown and as it became clear to us that the investors and analysts wanted more visibility into that business, we've now elected to break it out and show the full size, scope, growth, and make comments on the profitability of it from a transparency point of view. 
+<Sync id="L409"/>I do think that the assets that we have in this area are huge, and I do think that it's probably something that the investment community would want to and should focus more on. <Sync id="L410"/>In terms of our future plans, I wouldn't want to comment about any particular thing, but obviously, with breaking this out, we wouldn't be breaking it out if it wasn't an area that was very important to us in the future. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Moskowitz,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L411"/>Okay.  <Sync id="L412"/>Thank you.  <Sync id="L413"/>And I wanted to follow-up on the upgrade advance program dynamics. <Sync id="L414"/>Can you talk a little more about what you're seeing in terms of in-store at the Apple Stores? <Sync id="L415"/>Are you seeing any sort of dislocation in terms of folks who are moving to the upgrade or finance program, are they moving more toward Apple versus maybe the in-store percentage that used to be related to the carriers?  <Sync id="L416"/>In other words, are folks just going with Apple now, instead of the carriers, when they buy their phone, as part of these upgrade programs? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L417"/>Honestly, this has nothing to do with wanting to move customers from one person to another. <Sync id="L418"/>This has to do with wanting to provide customers a very simple way to upgrade.  <Sync id="L419"/>Because we serve a significant number of customers in the Apple Store who want the iPhone when it's new and when it comes out, and so we've designed a program that made it simple and easy to do that. <Sync id="L420"/>I have no idea over time how the percentage of the sales will vary between carriers and the Apple retail store, but that's not our overriding objective. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Moskowitz,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L421"/>Okay.  <Sync id="L422"/>Thank you.  <Sync id="L423"/>Good afternoon. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L424"/>Thank you, Mark.  <Sync id="L425"/>We have time for one more question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L426"/>And your final question will come from Jim Suva with Citi. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup - Analyst    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L427"/>Thank you very much.  <Sync id="L428"/>A question for Tim and then a detail follow-up for Luca. <Sync id="L429"/>Tim, with the macro situation changing, a lot of CEOs view that and their strategy is very different go-to-market strategy. <Sync id="L430"/>Some change the way they go to market. <Sync id="L431"/>Some change their products.  
+<Sync id="L432"/>In the past, Apple's been very known in always having a premium product.  <Sync id="L433"/>With the slowdown in the macro FX and also GDP revision, is Apple's strategy go-to-market still always at premium product, or is there a need to go to more also a middle market or lower price point to attract more customers?  <Sync id="L434"/>Just because it seems like growing that installed base and services, as you pointed out, really economically could really help out Apple in the long term.  
+<Sync id="L435"/>And then the financial question for Luca is on that patent litigation, Luca, when you gave guidance three months ago, did you have a view that that was coming in?  <Sync id="L436"/>And if so, was that included in the guidance or not, or was that post the quarter guidance?  <Sync id="L437"/>And I assume it's all one-time this quarter you recorded it, it's all gross margin, and we don't cause that to reoccur again going forward. <Sync id="L438"/>Thank you very much. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L439"/>Our strategy is always to make the best products.  <Sync id="L440"/>And that, for the smartphone market, that we are able to provide, though, several different price points for our customers. <Sync id="L441"/>We have the premium part of our line is the 6s and the 6s Plus.  <Sync id="L442"/>We also have a mid price point, with the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus.  <Sync id="L443"/>And we continue to offer the iPhone 5s in the market and it continues to do quite well.  <Sync id="L444"/>And so we offer all of those, and I don't see us deviating from that approach. 
+<Sync id="L445"/>We always want to offer somebody the -- we don't design to a certain price point.  <Sync id="L446"/>We design a great product and we make it priced at a great value.  <Sync id="L447"/>And today, we're able to offer all three of those different iPhone options. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L448"/>And Jim, on the patent question, yes, obviously this is a one-off item that affected the December quarter. <Sync id="L449"/>As I said earlier, it's worth 40 basis points.  <Sync id="L450"/>So without it, our gross margin would have been 39.7%.  <Sync id="L451"/>It will not repeat going forward. 
+<Sync id="L452"/>To your question around was it included in the guidance, yes, the probability of receiving the amount was incorporated in the development of the guidance range. <Sync id="L453"/>If you remember, we guided to 39% to 40%, and that number was included within the range. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup - Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L454"/>Thank you very much, gentlemen. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L455"/>Thank you, Jim. <Sync id="L456"/>A replay of today's call will be available for two weeks, podcast on the iTunes store, webcast on Apple.com/Investor, and via telephone.  <Sync id="L457"/>And the numbers for the telephone replay are 888-203-1112 or 719-457-0820 and please enter confirmation code 7349088. <Sync id="L458"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5:00 PM Pacific Time today.  <Sync id="L459"/>And members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huget at 408-974-2414.  <Sync id="L460"/>Financial analysts can contact Joan Hooper or me with additional questions.  <Sync id="L461"/>Joan is at 408-974-4570, and I'm at 408-974-5420. <Sync id="L462"/>Thanks again for joining us. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L463"/>Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. <Sync id="L464"/>We do thank everyone for your participation. 
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2016-Jul-26-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,636 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2016 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 26, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO
+ * Tim Cook
+   Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO 
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Katy Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Gene Munster
+   Barclays Capital - Analyst
+ * Mark Moskowitz
+   Barclays Capital - Analyst
+ * Kulbinder Garcha
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * Shannon Cross
+   Cross Research - Analyst
+ * Toni Sacconaghi
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Steve Milunovich
+   UBS - Analyst
+ * Simona Jankowski
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 3Q16 revenues of $42.4b, net income of $7.8b and diluted EPS of $1.42. Expects 4Q16 revenues to be $45.5-47.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 3Q16 revenue = $42.4b.
+    2. 3Q16 net income = $7.8b. 
+    3. 3Q16 diluted EPS = $1.42. 
+    4. 3Q16 GM = 38%.
+    5. 3Q16 CapEx = $4.2b.
+    6. 3Q16-end cash plus marketable securities = $231.5b.
+    7. 3Q16 share repurchases = 41.2m for $4b.
+    8. 4Q16 revenue guidance = $45.5-47.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. Annotation (N.P)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Detail:
+          1. Installed-base related purchases metric is non-GAAP measure.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 3Q16 Review (T.C.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Overview:
+          1. Results reflect stronger customer demand and business performance than anticipated 90 days ago and includes several encouraging signs.
+          2. Revenue $42.4b, near high-end of guidance range.
+          3. GM 38%, at top of guidance range.
+               1. Achieved these results while reducing channel inventory by about $3.6b, significantly more than $2b inventory reduction expected.
+               2. Sell-through was markedly greater than sell-in.
+               3. iPhone accounted for vast majority of channel inventory reduction.
+          4. iPhone units sell-through down 8% YonY, greater YoverY improvement than predicted.
+               1. Expects Sept. qtr. sell-through comparison to improve further.
+          5. Believes channel inventory levels position Co. well for months ahead.
+          6. Had successful global launch of iPhone SE and demand outstripped supply throughout qtr.
+               1. Brought on additional capacity and able to achieve supply demand balance as Co. entered Sept. qtr.
+               2. At its launch, stated that addition of iPhone SE to iPhone lineup placed Co. in better position to meet needs of customers through love of four-inch phone and to attract even more customers into its ecosystem.
+                    1. In both cases, this strategy is working.
+               3. Initial sales data shows iPhone SE is popular in developed and emerging markets.
+               4. Percentage of iPhone SE sales going to customers who are new to iPhone is greater than seen in first weeks of availability for other iPhones launched in last several years.
+          7. Overall, added millions of first time smartphone buyers in June qtr. and switchers accounted for highest percentage of quarterly iPhone sales ever measured.
+               1. YTD iPhone sales to switchers are greatest seen in any nine-month period.
+               2. Co.'s active installed base of iPhones up strong double digits YoverY.
+     2. Services:
+          1. Businesses grew 19% to June qtr. record at $6b.
+               1. Broad based growth with App Store revenue up 37% to a new all-time high in addition to strong increases in:
+                    1. Music.
+                    2. iCloud.
+                    3. AppleCare.
+          2. In last 12 months, revenue grew almost $4b YonY to $23.1b.
+               1. Expects it to be size of Fortune 100 co. next year.
+          3. Most of Co.'s terrific services performance was fueled by active installed-base of devices with installed-base related purchases of $10.3b accelerating to 29% growth YonY.
+               1. Had best iPad compare in 10 quarters, with revenue growing 7% due to roll out of 9.7-inch iPad Pro.
+               2. Surveys show that about half of iPad Pro purchases are buying them for work.
+               3. iPad Pro is ultimate upgrade for existing iPad users and ultimate replacement device for customers switching from PC notebooks.
+     3. Apple Watch:
+          1. Continues to be best-selling smart watch in the world.
+               1. Just this month, J.D. Power ranked it highest in customer satisfaction among all smart watches.
+               2. watchOS 3 coming this fall.
+               3. Getting started with Apple Watch.
+     4. Growth Prospects:
+          1. Encouraged about growth prospects in China and India.
+          2. Remains optimistic about long-term opportunities in Greater China; investing there.
+               1. Opened 41st Greater China retail store during qtr.
+                    1. Made $1b investment in Didi Chuxing.
+               2. Switchers and first-time smartphone buyers represented lion's share of iPhone sales.
+               3. Installed-base of iPhones in China grown 34% YoverY.
+               4. According to China Mobile, there are more iPhones on their network than any other brand with iPhone users ranking 1st regarding:
+                    1. Customer loyalty.
+                    2. Data usage.
+                    3. ARPU.
+               5. By far, largest portion of global channel inventory reduction was in Greater China.
+                    1. Underlying business is stronger than results imply.
+               6. Faced some challenges in Greater China as economic environment slowed down since beginning of the year.
+                    1. Reflected in consumer confidence and regional spending.
+               7. Chinese yuan depreciated by 7% relative to US dollar since Aug. 2015.
+               8. Hong Kong's tourism and retail businesses continue to be significantly impacted by stronger Hong Kong dollar relative to other Asian currencies.
+                    1. Combining this backdrop with tough comparison to last year when revenue grew 112% and channel inventory reduction this year, reporting a decline in revenue in 3Q16.
+               9. In first three quarters of FY16, total revenue from Greater China was almost $40b.
+                    1. Up 55% from same time frame two years ago, while iPhone units grew 47%.
+          3. India is now one of Co.'s fastest growing markets.
+               1. In first three quarters of FY16, iPhone sales grew 51% YonY.
+               2. Announced a first of its kind design and development accelerator to support Indian developers creating innovative applications for iOS.
+                    1. Opened a new office in Hyderabad to accelerate Maps development.
+               3. Looking forward to opening retail stores in India down the road.
+                    1. Sees huge potential.
+     5. New Products:
+          1. Looking forward to the fall, thrilled by customers' response to software and services previewed at Worldwide Developers Conference last month; biggest WWDC ever.
+               1. For first time, has four innovative Apple platforms for developers' apps:
+                    1. iOS.
+                    2. macOS.
+                    3. watchOS.
+                    4. tvOS.
+               2. iOS 10 will be biggest release ever for iOS.
+          2. There is a major update with macOS Sierra, with new features like Siri and Apple Pay that make Mac smarter more helpful than ever and even a stronger continuity features across all Apple devices.
+     6. Artificial Intelligence:
+          1. Focused Co.'s AI efforts on features that best enhance customer experience.
+               1. Machine learning enables Siri to understand words and intent behind them.
+                    1. To make Siri an even smarter assistant, opening service to developers.
+                    2. This fall, Siri will be available across Co.'s entire product line.
+               2. Using machine learning in many other ways across products and services.
+                    1. Machine learning is improving facial and image recognition at photos, predicting word choice while typing in messages and mail and providing context awareness in maps for better directions.
+               3. Most of AI processing takes place on device rather than being sent to cloud.
+          2. Starting this fall, will be using sophisticated technology called differential privacy.
+          3. This fall, will bring Apple Pay to Safari.
+               1. Tens of millions of users worldwide are enjoying Apple Pay today at stores and in app, with estimated monthly active users up more than 450% YonY last month.
+          4. Leading financial partners tell that three out of four contactless payments in US are made with Apple Pay.
+               1. There are more than 11m contactless ready locations in countries where Apple Pay is available today, including 3m locations now accepting Apple Pay in US.
+               2. With launch of France, Switzerland and Hong Kong this month, Apple Pay is now live in nine markets, including six of Top 10.
+               3. Adoption outside US has been explosive, with over half of transaction volume now coming from non-US markets.
+          5. With latest OS releases, unparalleled continuity across Apple devices will become even more powerful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+III. 3Q16 Financials (L.M.) 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Results:
+          1. Revenue $42.4b, near high-end of guidance range vs. 3Q15's $49.6b.
+               1. Customer demand for products and services were stronger than anticipated at beginning of qtr.
+               2. Reduced overall channel inventories by roughly $3.6b.
+               3. Geographically, revenue grew strongly in Japan to a new June qtr. record.
+               4. Experienced healthy growth in a number of other important markets, including:
+                    1. Russia.
+                    2. Brazil.
+                    3. Turkey.
+                    4. India.
+                    5. Canada.
+          2. GM 38%, at top of guidance range.
+          3. Operating margin 23.9% of revenue.
+          4. Net income $7.8b.
+          5. Diluted EPS $1.42.
+          6. Cash flow from operations $10.6b.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 40.4m iPhones.
+          2. Reduced channel inventory by over 4m units vs. about 0.5m units a year ago.
+               1. Sell-through down 8%.
+               2. Exited qtr. near low-end of 5-7 week target range for channel inventory.
+          3. Roll-out of new entry level iPhone SE concurrent with channel reduction of more than 4m higher-end iPhones resulted in lower-than-usual iPhone ASP of $595.
+               1. Expects ASPs to improve this qtr.
+          4. Experienced strong iPhone growth in many markets, with sales in Russia more than doubling YoverY and double-digit growth in many other key countries including:
+               1. Japan.
+               2. Turkey.
+               3. Brazil.
+               4. India.
+               5. Canada.
+               6. Sweden.
+          5. Showing great momentum in business markets.
+               1. Recent survey by 451 Research, founded among US corporate buyers planning to purchase smartphones in Sept. qtr. 75% planned to purchase iPhones.
+                    1. Highest corporate purchase intent ever measured by survey for Sept. qtr.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $6b.
+               1. Up 19% YoverY.
+               2. Sets new record for customers transacting on iTunes Stores and among customers who purchased apps and content, avg. amount spent per customer was highest that Co. ever measured.
+          2. App Store's growth rate accelerated for four consecutive quarters, reaching 37% in 3Q.
+               1. According to App Annie, generated 100% more global revenue than Google Play in June qtr., widening lead from March qtr.
+               2. Because of this continued growth for first nine months of FY16, services increased from 8% of total revenue a year ago to 11% this year.
+                    1. Represents an even higher percentage of profitability.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Sold 4.3m Macs vs. 4.8m last year.
+               1. Challenging qtr. for personal computer sales across industry with IDC estimating 4% global contraction.
+               2. In addition to overall market slowdown, faced difficult YoverY when Co. introduced a new MacBook Pro and a new iMac.
+               3. Despite these challenges, Mac gaining high percentage of new customers.
+               4. Mac installed base grown to new all-time high at June qtr.-end.
+                    1. Ended qtr. below 4-5 week target range for Mac channel inventory.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Revenue grew 7%.
+          2. ASP $490 vs. 3Q15's $415, with increase driven by iPad Pro.
+          3. Sold 10m iPads vs. 3Q15's 10.9m.
+               1. Reduced channel inventory by about 500,000 units.
+               2. Exited qtr. within 5-7 week target range.
+          4. In segments of tablet market, where Co. competes, continues to be highly successful regarding market share and customer metrics.
+               1. Recent data from NPD indicates iPad gained share in overall US tablet market in June qtr. and has 84% share of tablets priced above $200.
+               2. In May, 451 Research measured 96% consumer satisfaction rate for iPad mini and 95% rate for iPad Air.
+               3. Among US consumers planning to purchase a tablet within next six months, 63% plan to purchase an iPad, almost four times purchase intention rate of next highest brand measured, with iPad Pro top choice for planned purchases.
+               4. Corporate buyers reported 94% satisfaction rate for iPad in purchase intent of 71% for Sept. qtr.
+                    1. One recent example of iPad business adoption is Sberbank, Russia's largest bank, which is adding 22,000 iPads to more than 10,000 purchased last year to deploy corporate mobility solutions across organization and enable its consultants to serve customers in more engaging and more efficient way.
+                    2. Making great progress with enterprise initiatives.
+                    3. Sees strong growth opportunities ahead.
+          5. In May, announced a global strategic partnership with SAP to reimagine business processes with native iOS apps.
+               1. SAP is the world's largest enterprise software provider with more than 130m potential users among its 300,000 global customers.
+               2. Estimated 76% of global business transactions [touch on] SAP system.
+               3. Partnership will deliver [NSDK to fast-track] iOS projects for SAP environments and iOS academy to enable 2.5m SAP developers worldwide to build great native iOS apps and portfolio of industry-specific apps to accelerate mobile transformation in enterprise.
+          6. Last month, announced first three solutions from Cisco partnership.
+               1. Dramatically improved network performance of iOS traffic running on Cisco networks and one that will bring desk phone to 21st century by integrating iPhone Wi-Fi calling into Cisco Spark.
+     6. Cash Position:
+          1. 3Q16-end cash plus marketable securities $231.5b.
+               1. Sequentially decreased $1.4b.
+               2. $214.8b of this cash or 93% of total was outside US.
+          2. Issued $2.4b of debt in Taiwan and Australia, while retiring $2.5b in US debt, leaving Co. with $72b in term debt at qtr.-end, essentially unchanged from last qtr.
+          3. Returned over $13b to investors.
+               1. Paid $3.2b in dividends and equivalent.
+               2. Spent $4b on repurchases of 41.2m Co. shares through open market transactions.
+               3. Launched a new $6b ASR, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 48.2m shares.
+                    1. Completed six accelerated share repurchase program, retiring additional in 8.7m shares.
+          4. Completed almost $177b of current $250b capital return program including $127b in share purchases.
+          5. Spent $1b on minority investment in Didi Chuxing in China.
+               1. Completed three acquisitions.
+               2. Incurred $4.2b in CapEx.
+     7. 4Q16 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $45.5-47.5b.
+          2. GM 37.5-38.0%.
+          3. OpEx $6.05-6.15b.
+          4. OI&E about $350m.
+          5. Tax rate about 25.5%.
+          6. On 07/26/16, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.57 per share of common stock payable on 08/11/16 to shareholders of record as of 08/08/16.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) 
+Your first question comes from Shannon Cross with Cross Research. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much for the question. Tim, can you talk a little bit about your thoughts on investments? You made the Didi investment this quarter.  
+Obviously you continue to make acquisitions over time. We just saw -- you invested in buying some of the carpool karaoke. I'm just curious as to how you're thinking about where you're putting your investment dollars for more of an acquisition or a potential equity stake standpoint as you look at overall capital allocation? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon, we obviously invest a ton of capital in our business itself to support research and development and the production of our products and that's the main source of our capital.  However, we're constantly looking on the outside for great talent and great intellectual property, and we have been buying companies on average every three to four weeks or so.  We continue to do that, and we think we've made some really great choices there. 
+In terms of the investment in Didi, it was a unusual investment in that as you know, we don't have a long history of doing a lot of these.  But, we have done some before. We invested in ARM in the early days.  
+We invested in Akamai and a few other companies so it wasn't the first. From a Didi point of view, we see that as one, a great financial investment.  Two, we think that there's some strategic things that the Companies can do together over time.  
+And, three, we think that we'll learn a lot about the business in the Chinese market even beyond what we currently know, and Didi has an incredible team there.  That's the rationale for why we did that. Would we do more investments? 
+Yes, but it's not something that you'll see a whole string of from us, but we will constantly look for things that are smart to do. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great, thank you.  And then, just as a follow-up for Luca.  If you could talk a little bit about the gross margin puts and takes for guidance at 37% to 38%.  How are we thinking about commodity pricing and mix of the new products and that just as you look to how you guided gross margin? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, Shannon. Let me correct you, but it's 37.5% to 38%. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Oh, sorry.  I had that written down, but I said the wrong thing. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+For the September quarter.  So, it's essentially, we are guiding GM flat to slightly down sequentially. 
+On the positive side, we are going to have leverage because we are guiding to a sequential increase in revenue, and we expect to have positive mix as we get into the September quarter.  This positive is being offset more or less by what we call product transition costs which are typical of this time of the year for us. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon, on the commodity side and for the September quarter, we see NAND being pretty much in balance while DRAM and LCDs and other major commodities remain in an oversupply situation.  And so, overall commodity prices we expect to decline at, at least historical rates 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you Shannon. Next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From UBS, we'll hear from Steve Milunovich. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great.  Thank you very much. 
+Regarding your revenue guidance for September, it's up about 10% sequentially which is clearly at the high end historically.  So, what can you tell us about the timing of the new iPhone model?  Is that affecting this?  You mentioned the 451 is finding business interest in phones, but their survey on consumers actually finds the lowest level of expectation for purchases in the next three months since 2008. 
+You've seen the upgrade numbers from the carriers are quite low so it seems like it's still a very tough demand environment.  So, where is the strength coming from in the September quarter? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve, we aren't going to get into products or product transitions.  However, we've taken what we've learned from last quarter, and we did see a number of encouraging signs. Luca talked about the number of countries that we saw double-digit growth in during the quarter from Japan to Brazil to India.  
+Some even stronger numbers than that in Russia.  So, there's a number of countries that we saw strong signals from that perspective. We also are very happy with the switcher rate that we saw.  
+Our highest ever recorded, and the number of switchers through the nine months or the highest absolute numbers that we've ever had.  And so, when we look at that and then we look at the things going on in our other products and services, and we think services will continue to grow very briskly.  We've made our best estimate of where we think we'll come in, and that's $45.5 billion to $47.5 billion. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay, fair enough.  As a follow-up, I wanted to ask you about your platform strategy.  You talk about the four operating systems essentially as platforms which I agree with.  And, it's just interesting to me because Apple has such control over the vertical integration of your products, and yet you've somehow been able to grasp the openness that's required for platforms.  
+And, I think that's reflected in WWDC as you pointed out.  Opening up APIs and so forth on messaging, and you made the case there for Apps versus messaging and the anti-bot argument. 
+Just curious is that the way -- am I characterizing this roughly correctly in term of how you think about the business?  And, how are you managing that internally in terms of having this vertically integrated somewhat closed view of the hardware and yet this pretty open platform where the value is created externally? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, we think to have a great platform you have to have a really healthy ecosystem, and so we're really proud of the developer community and the fact that developers are earning a lot more money in writing for iOS than other apps. We think that the best experience for users include apps, and so we want to do everything that we can do to continue building that. 
+We now have over 2 million apps in the app store and are more focused these days on discovery and other things to bring more great apps to the service because there's so many out there.  So, that's what we're doing. The TV and the -- you didn't mention CarPlay, but these are trying to provide our users a seamless experience across all of the different things that they do in their lives.  
+And so, that's the rationale for CarPlay. It's the rationale for why we're putting huge investment in the home.  Making -- really bringing home automation to life for people in a very simple and elegant way. 
+It's the reason for Apple TV and what we are doing in the living room.  All these things together are all about user experience and making people's daily lives better. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Steve. Next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Luca, as it relates to gross margin, the guidance today is very similar to what you've provided over the last five years in terms of gross margin guidance in September versus June.  And, the variances that you walked through in response to Shannon's questions are very similar to the dynamics that you see in any September quarter, but there's an added factor this time around which is you don't have the $4 million of high ASP, high margin inventory drain in September like you did in the June quarter.  
+So, I guess I'd just pushback and ask why gross margin guidance wouldn't be even better?  Is it the more balanced NAND environment that Tim spoke to?  Or, is there something else impacting the guidance? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, Katy, I've talked about these elements at a broad level.  Of course, there are degrees of positive impact, right.  We, for example, on the mix front every cycle is slightly different on our product mix, and so that clearly has an impact on gross margin.  
+The other thing that we need to keep in mind as we step back for a second and now we have gone through a couple of cycles where the US dollar has strengthened.  As you know, we work with our hedging program where we get protection from FX fluctuations in the short term, when these hedges roll off over time, we end up replacing them with new hedging contracts at the spot rate.  
+And so, versus September of 2014, for example, the US dollar is now strengthened on average against international currencies by about 15%.  I think we need to accept and now we are living in this stronger US dollar environment.  We've taken a lot of actions on the cost side, on the pricing side, and obviously with hedges.  But, we need to deal with the situation, and that's where we are right now. 
+We feel that 37.5% to 38% given the new FX environment, I think, says a lot about all the work that we've done on the cost side to get there.  Just to give you a sense on a year-over-year basis when I look at foreign exchange, that has an impact of almost 300 basis points on our margins. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay.  Thank you.  Tim, can you speak to how you envision the upgrade rate of the iPhone installed base to play out over the next quarter or the next year?  
+Somebody mentioned that US carriers have reported really weak upgrade rates, not necessarily for iPhone but across their installed base.  The press is discussing only modest technology upgrades in your next iPhone cycle.  
+So, those data points would lead investors to believe that the upgrade rate will be low.  But, curious if you have a different view?  Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I don't want to talk about new phones that aren't announced.  And so that aside, what we have seen in the past tense or current tense on the upgrade rate is that the iPhone upgrade rate for the 6s is very similar to the 5s.  And, I guess in retrospect maybe that was a predictable thing although we didn't predict it at the beginning.  
+It took a little time to realize that. The iPhone 6 was significantly higher than that, and so it likely accelerated upgrades that would have been in the current year ahead of those.  And so, what the future holds we'll see, but I'm very optimistic about the future because I see so many signs that are positive. 
+I see an installed base that has gotten incredibly large. I see a switcher rate that is the highest ever. I see the Smartphone itself, lead by iPhone, becoming even more instrumental and important to peoples lives.  
+It's becoming essential, and all of the things that are coming both in the fall.  The things that we've announced that you can see with iOS 10 hopefully you're running by now with the beta and other things make it even more instrumental and AI even makes it more and more. As the phone becomes more and more your assistant, it's one of those that you aren't going to leave without it.  
+And so, I see all of those things as vectors that are incredibly positive. I also really like what I've seen with the iPhone SE, and the fact that it's opening the door to customers that we weren't reaching before and likely convincing some people to upgrade that wanted a smaller form factor but wanted to stay with iPhone.  And so, they were waiting for the iPhone SE.  
+I see lots of positive things so that's how I look at it. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Katy.  Next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, thank you. You commented about the significant inventory drawdown in the quarter -- $3.6 billion on the revenue side.  So, sell-through was $46 billion effectively. Over 4 million iPhones, suggesting that sell-through iPhone sales were $45 million. 
+When I look to your guidance for Q4, I actually have the opposite question of a previous question which is in light of the true sell-through rate which seems to reflect better than normal seasonality in Q3.  Likely some contribution and elasticity from the SE.  When I look at Q4, it looks like you're guiding for iPhone unit on a sell-through basis to be flat or potentially down?  
+And, for total Company revenues to be only fractionally up and below the kind of seasonality we see in Q4. So, I guess my question is are you expecting any drawdowns in channel inventory in fiscal Q4?  Or, are my inferences around sell-through rate incorrect?  
+Or, given the business momentum that you spoke about in response to an earlier question and the hopefulness that you expressed in your prepared remarks, Tim.  I'm actually surprised the guidance isn't a bit stronger on the top line. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni, let me take it. Starting with your comments on the June quarter, just want to point out that when we talk about a $3.6 billion channel inventory reduction, that is not entirely related to iPhone. IPhone is the vast majority of that, but we did reduce channel inventory on all other products as well.  So, that probably leads you to different conclusions to the math that you just expressed. 
+On the September quarter when I look at the sequential increase for iPhone units that we are expecting, I would say that it is even with the sell-through adjustment that you've talked about, it's still pretty much in line with what we've seen in the past. As you know, we do not provide guidance for channel inventory, but I would say in general, it's important to keep in mind that if we look around the world, we do see a lot of positive signs.  
+But, we also know that the macroeconomic environment is slowing down in a number of places around the world, and that needs to be taken into account in our guidance. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca, I did understand the $3.6 billion, but you said over 4 million iPhones were drawn down. I added that to the $40.4 million so that would suggest close to $45 million on a sell-through basis, so that was the basis for my observation. I was wondering if we could, if I could direct one at Tim. 
+You talked about the upgrade cycle and how it  is elongated relative to the iPhone 6, and that it's similar to what you saw with the 5s. My belief is that one of the bigger longer term concerns for Apple is that the replacement cycle could just structurally elongate over time particularly as your installed base of customers becomes less affluent and more international.  So, I guess my question is you have a mechanism which is the Apple upgrade program which takes replacement cycle out of the equation and puts people on buying the phone as a service.  
+I'd welcome any comments on how that program is doing?  And then, just more broadly, is Apple thinking about ways to sell not only the iPhone, but more of its products on a monthly-type subscription basis perhaps in a more bundled fashion so that you can add more predictability to what is now largely a transactional revenue model?  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The iPhone demand is made up, as you know, of upgraders, switchers, and new to Smartphone.  And so, if you take it in the reverse order for a minute and look at the new to Smartphone, the penetration around -- Smartphone penetration right now around the world at the end of December was 42%.  So, there is quite a bit of room there. 
+It is true that a lot of those are in emerging markets, but we have done -- we've had reasonable business success in several emerging markets.  So, we don't enter into those with no experience although we will enter into them humbly. 
+On the switcher side, we really like what we're seeing, and we think that from a user point of view, as the Smartphone itself becomes more and more essential to people's daily lives which is a part of what I had talked about before.  A part of bringing it into the home in a bigger way and in the car and at work and so forth.  
+We think people will put more and more focus on what they're buying, and the thing that Apple does best which is provide this killer experience.  A killer user experience that's integrated across their lives, I think, becomes more important, and I think that really plays to our advantage. 
+I also think that the deployment of AI technology is something that we will excel at because of our focus on user experience and so I like that. From an upgrade point of view, there are pluses and minuses as I see it. A plus is that more and more people have already joined upgrade programs. 
+Some of these programs like the one that you referenced that we've done replaces the iPhone every year. There are also carriers that have similar kind of plans where they also replace or change out the iPhone every year. Others have an 18-month clock.  
+Some have a 24-month clock, and there are even some that have a 30-month clock  So, there's various time schedules there.  As of today, there are obviously a lot more people on those programs than ever before because they just started and really got underway in a big way last year, in a smaller way two years ago.  We'll see more of those this coming fall. 
+The minus side is that the bifurcation of the Smartphone from the service itself has a plus and a minus into it. The subsidy, the lack of that -- and this is more of a US phenomenon than the rest of the world.  Some of that can be a shock for people that we're used to paying $199 for their Smartphone and they come back in and pay less for the service but they pay more for their Smartphone.  
+There's lots of pluses and minuses on this.  But, overall, as I look at this for Apple -- and this is not a statement on the industry itself -- but for Apple, I'm very optimistic. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Toni. Next question please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Goldman Sachs, Simona Jankowski. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Tim, as you mentioned, you traveled to China during the quarter.  While you certainly sound encouraged on China and highlighted the Didi investment, there are some of the key services for Apple like iBooks and iTunes, movies that are still banned, and some of the local vendors appear to be gaining share.  
+So, can you just give us your perspective on the market?  Your expectations around getting those services back up and also regaining share? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, for books and movies, we currently have those stores off as you mentioned. To put this in some context, those two stores for the months that we have been operational, which is several months, the revenue was less than $1 million.  And so, it's not a revenue-related issue. 
+From our point of view, this is a service we want to provide our customers.  So, we are working very closely with the appropriate government agencies, and we hope to make books and movies available again to our customers there.  We'll see how that goes, but we're optimistic there. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And, in terms of just regaining share in the market more broadly? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think we've always had a -- if you look at our share over time, our share in China tends to peak during launch windows. There's a higher high and a lower low there. There's a bigger difference between those two.  
+What we have to do and what we are doing is innovating like crazy and delivering the best Smartphone to our customers there.  And, if we do a really great job of that, which we will, then I'm confident that we'll do well. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster with Piper Jaffrey. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Good afternoon,  Tim, you gave some nice data points around Apple Pay. Can you remind us is this a business that ultimately impacts the services line in any measurable way?  Or, is Apple Pay generally about selling iPhones?  
+And, separately is that, when you just take a step back and look at the proof point that augmented reality theme has had with this whole Pokemon phenomenon.  How does it impact how you think about the future? I assume you think about it.  
+I'm curious what goes on in your mind when you see all of that?  Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, on the Apple pay side, the revenues from Apple pay are in the services line. The growth is astronomical, but the base is very small.  So, for today, Apple pay is very much about a great feature for our customers so that they can pay in a very simple, private, and secure way. 
+In terms of AR and the Pokemon phenomenon, it's incredible what has happened there. I think it's a testament to what happens with innovative Apps and the whole ecosystem and the power of being a developer being able to press a button, so to speak, and offer their product around the world.  This certain developer has elected not to go worldwide yet because of the pressure on their servers, et cetera, because of the demand.  
+But, I'm sure that they will over time. It also does show, as you point out, that AR can be really great, and we have been and continue to invest a lot in this. We are high on AR for the long run. 
+We think there's great things for customers and a great commercial opportunity, and so we're investing and the number one thing is to make sure our products work well with other developers' kind of products like Pokemon.  That's the reason you see so many of the iPhones out in the wild right now chasing Pokemon. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Would you say there's going to be a computing shift to AR longer term? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I know there's people that want to call it a new computer platform, and we will see. There's a tendency in this industry to call everything new the next computer platform.  However, that said, I think AR can be huge. So, we'll see whether it's the next platform, but regardless, it will be huge. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Gene.  Next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Mark Moskowitz with Barclays. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Moskowitz,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, thank you. Good afternoon. Just want to follow-up, Tim, if I could related to the R&D pace of growth. 
+Clearly, a lot of momentum there over the last couple of years, but we're just trying to figure out how much of that is dedicated to existing products and services versus what's next?  And, can you give us a sense in terms of when investors should think about the ROI coming back to them from the R&D perspective?  And, corollary to that, does that -- is it really restricted just to products and services currently?  
+Or, can we see more of a cloud services apparatus evolve over time where you do more and more in the Enterprise just given the core chips with SAP and Cisco and IBM?  And then, my follow-up for Luca is around ASPs for the iPhone.  
+We keep getting a lot of questions around SE in terms of how cannibalistic could it be to the core iPhone franchise?  Are you seeing any moderation in terms of the ASP pressures there? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+On the R&D growth, we do continue to invest significantly in R&D. The growth rates are still large on a year-over-year basis and Luca can share the exact ones, but I think the recent quarter was in the [mid-20s] for R&D. The balance of the Company, we're managing more flattish from a year-over-year point of view. 
+The products that are in R&D -- there is quite a bit of investment in there for products and services that are not currently shipping or derivations of what is currently shipping.  And so, I don't want to talk about the exact split of it, but you can look at the growth rate and conclude that there's a lot of stuff that we're doing beyond the current products. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark, on the ASP question.  Talked about $595 in Q3.  It's down $65 on a year-over-year basis.  
+Keep in mind about $20 of that $65 is foreign exchange.  So, during the quarter, we had this combination of starting with no SE units in channel inventory so we had to do at least a partial channel [sale] that obviously had an impact on ASPs.  And then, the other element was the fact that we've reduced more than 4 million units of channel inventory on the high end.  
+So, the combination of these two things, obviously, had an impact on ASPs.  But, I think as I said or Tim said during the prepared remarks, we do expect iPhone ASP to improve sequentially as we move into the September quarter because these two factors that I just mentioned.  I'm not going to repeat.  
+On cannibalization, of course, we've got limited experience because the phone has been in the market just for a few weeks.  But, when we look at our survey data on iPhone SE, as Tim was saying, we believe that the SE is doing exactly what it was intended which is we are seeing a higher rate of new-to-iPhone customers which is obviously very important to us as we bring new people into the iOS ecosystem.  And, we see a higher rate of previous iPhone owners that really prefer the four-inch phone factor. 
+We have not seen clear evidence of cannibalization from iPhone 6s or 6s plus.  Of course, there's always going to be some level of cannibalization, but really to us what is much more relevant is the much bigger opportunity to bring more people into the iOS ecosystem. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Mark. Next question, please? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Credit Suisse, we'll hear from Kulbinder Garcha.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulbinder Garcha,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks.  Just a couple of questions. Luca, I want to clarify that last point on ASPs and iPhone?  
+In the last quarter, it seemed that you were quite clear that was a negative driver to the gross margin of the Company.  So, I understand there is other drivers going into the September quarter, but just to be clear, the 4 million or so units that you didn't sell-through that were depleted out of channel inventory, those are relatively high gross margin as well.  That's just a clarification.  
+And then, for Tim, on the services side.  As Apple has spoken more and more loudly I guess over the last three or four quarters, I just think about some of the comments you've made about the TV market and how its still been in the '60s and '70s and the experience hasn't changed.  I understand you have the Apple TV box out, but in terms of driving actual video-on-demand services, is that something that Apple wants to do themselves?  
+Do you want to partner?  Could you even build content?  How do you think about that as an actual business opportunity as opposed to here is an Apple box and we sell some units, but it's not that meaningful to the overall Company in terms of size.  I'm just curious given the installed base and users you have?   Many thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CFO    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+On your question on iPhone ASP, I'm not sure if I understood it correctly.  But clearly, the iPhone SE has a downward impact on iPhone ASP, of course, because it comes at the low end of the range. From a gross margin perspective, it is slightly dilutive to Company margins, but the impact is not particularly large. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulbinder Garcha,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+On the Apple TV question.  The introduction of Apple TV and TV OS in last October and the subsequent OS releases and what's coming out this fall -- think of that as building the foundation for what we believe can be a broader business over time. 
+So, I don't want to be more precise than that, but you shouldn't look at what's there today and think we've done what we want to do. We've built a foundation that we can do something bigger off of. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulbinder Garcha,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay, thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Computer, Inc. - CEO     [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you for the question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Computer, Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Kulbinder. A replay of today's call will be available for two weeks as a podcast on the iTunes store, the Webcast on www.Apple.com/investor, and via telephone.  The numbers for the telephone replay are 888-203-1112 or 719-457-0820. Please enter confirmation code 4944387. 
+These replays will be available by approximately 5.00 PM Pacific Time today, and members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at 408-974-2414.  Financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions.  Joan is at 408-974-4570, and I'm at 408-974-5420. Thanks again for joining us. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation.  We do thank everyone for your participation. 
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2016-Oct-25-AAPL.txt

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+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2016 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 25, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO
+ * Tim Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+ * Katy Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Gene Munster
+   Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst
+ * Rod  Hall
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Shannon Cross
+   Cross Research - Analyst
+ * Toni Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst
+ * Simona Jankowski
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Steve Milunovich
+   UBS - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 4Q16 revenue of $46.9b, net income of $9b and diluted EPS of $1.67. Expects 1Q17 revenue to be $76-78b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 4Q16 revenue = $46.9b.
+    2. 4Q16 net income = $9b.
+    3. 4Q16 diluted EPS = $1.67.
+    4. 4Q16 GM = 38%.
+    5. 2016 CapEx = $12.8b.
+    6. 4Q16 CapEx = $3.6b.
+    7. 4Q16-end cash plus marketable securities = $237.6b.
+    8. 4Q16 share repurchase = 28.6m AAPL shares for $3b.
+    9. 1Q17 revenue guidance = $76-78b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 4Q16 Business Review (T.C.) 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Results for Sept. qtr. were strong.
+          2. Revenue $46.9b.
+               1. Towards high end of guidance.
+          3. GM 38%.
+               1. At the very top of range.
+          4. Sold 45.5m iPhones, reflecting continued improvement in YoverY performance vs. last two quarters as forecasted in Jan.
+               1. iPhone sales up YoverY in 33 of Top 40 markets.
+          5. FY16 saw more customers switch from Android to iPhone than ever before.
+               1. This is due to superior customer experience Co. delivers with its products and it's something no other co. can match.
+     2. Services:
+          1. Record-setting qtr. for services.
+               1. Revenue $6.3b.
+                    1. Growth accelerated to 24%.
+               2. App Store revenue continues to skyrocket.
+               3. Music revenue grew 22% due to growing popularity of Apple Music.
+               4. J.D. Power recently announced that Apple Music enjoys highest customer satisfaction rating in streaming music market.
+          2. In Japan, Apple Pay went live on 10/24/16.
+               1. Expects strong response and rapid adoption of Apple Pay.
+          3. Around the world, seeing strong growth in transaction volume through Apple Pay, which also launched in Russia and New Zealand, this month.
+               1. Coming to Spain in next few months.
+          4. Apple Pay transactions up nearly 500% YonY for Sept. qtr.
+               1. Completed more transactions in Sept. than Co. did across all of FY15.
+               2. With Apple Pay support now built into Safari, hundreds of thousands of websites are bringing Apple Pay to their customers.
+               3. Co.'s major partners state that Apple Pay shows highest conversion rate of any digital wallet.
+          5. Remains confident about future of services business given unmatched level of engagement, satisfaction and loyalty of growing installed base.
+          6. Almost doubled the size of services revenue in last four years.
+               1. As stated before, expected to be the size of a Fortune 100 co. in FY17.
+          7. Thrilled with customer response to iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus.
+               1. These are the best phones Co. has ever made with breakthrough camera systems, immersive stereo speakers and best iPhone performance and battery life ever due to custom-designed Apple A10 Fusion chip.
+               2. Demand continues to outstrip supply.
+                    1. Working hard to get them into customers' hands as quickly as possible.
+          8. Off to a great start with Apple Watch Series 2, next generation of world's most popular smart watch packed with new features including built-in GPS, water resistance, dramatically brighter display and a powerful dual-core processor.
+               1. Individuals and businesses alike are recognizing potential of Apple Watch to help people stay healthy, motivated and connected.
+               2. Aetna has announced a new initiative to revolutionize its members' healthy experience by subsidizing Apple Watch for individual customers and select large employers.
+               3. Aetna is providing Apple Watch to nearly 50,000 of its own employees to encourage them to live a healthier day.
+     3. Key Details:
+          1. Just rolled out new versions of iOS, macOS and watchOS.
+               1. New features including Siri on Mac, enhanced health and fitness capabilities for Apple Watch and new way to experience photos on iOS with a feature called Memories.
+               2. Has made massive advances in messages, making them more expressive and fun than ever with powerful animations, invisible ink and hand written notes.
+               3. Seeing great offerings from developers in all-new App Store for messages.
+                    1. There has been a marked increase in monthly active users.
+          2. One of the great new features of iOS 10 is Home app, which is making home automation easy to set up and intuitive to use.
+               1. Customers can easily setup and securely control all their HomeKit accessories from lights and cameras to garage doors and air conditioners, all from their favorite iOS devices.
+               2. Expects over 100 HomeKit compatible products to be on market by end of this year, all reviewed and approved by AAPL to help ensure customer security when using them.
+          3. With latest operating systems, machine learning is making products and services smarter, more intuitive and even more personal.
+               1. Has been using these technologies for years to create better user experiences.
+               2. Has been invested heavily through R&D and acquisitions.
+               3. Today, machine learning drives improvements in countless features across products.
+                    1. It enables proactive features in iOS 10 which offers suggestions on which app one might want to use or which context one might want to include in an email.
+               4. Camera and photo software uses advanced face recognition to help one take better pictures and object and scene recognition to make them easier to sort and find.
+               5. Machine learning makes fitness features of Apple Watch more accurate; even helps extend battery life across products.
+               6. Machine learning continually help Siri get even smarter in areas like understanding natural language.
+                    1. Extended Siri to work in many new ways by opening it to developers and most recently by making Siri available to Mac users in Mac OS Sierra.
+               7. Already seeing great momentum in just first few weeks from developers leveraging Siri and Speech APIs.
+          4. Looking ahead, seeing some exciting developments in India.
+               1. Reliance Jio is rolling out a first of its kind all-IP network in India with 4G coverage in 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages across the country.
+                    1. They're offering a free year of service to purchasers of new iPhones; partnering with them to ensure great iPhone performance on their network.
+          5. iPhone sales in India up over 50% in FY16 vs. prior year.
+               1. Believes Co. is just beginning to scratch service of this large and growing market opportunity.
+          6. Progress of enterprise market initiatives continue to expand.
+               1. Just last month, announced a partnership with Deloitte to help companies quickly and easily transform the way they work by maximizing power, ease of use and security of iOS platform.
+               2. Deloitte is creating a unique [AAPL practice] with over 5,000 strategic advisors focused on helping businesses transform work in functions across the enterprise.
+               3. Collaborating on development of Enterprise Next, new Deloitte consulting service designed to help clients across more than 20 industries takes full advantage of iOS ecosystem and quickly develop custom solutions through rapid prototyping.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 4Q16 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $46.9b.
+               1. Towards high end of guidance.
+               2. Revenue grew strongly in many emerging markets including Russia, Turkey, Middle East, Thailand and Vietnam.
+               3. Continues to see solid growth in Japan and in Latin America.
+          2. GM 38%.
+               1. At the top of guidance due to favorable cost performance.
+          3. Operating margin 25.1% of revenue.
+          4. Net income $9b.
+          5. Diluted EPS $1.67.
+          6. Cash flow from operations $16.1b.
+               1. New record for Sept. qtr.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 45.5m iPhones due to successful launch of iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus and continued strong demand for other iPhones, including 2.7m iPhones that were in transit at qtr.-end.
+          2. Increased channel inventory by [2.5m units].
+               1. Exited qtr. well below 5-7 week target range of channel inventory.
+          3. Experienced strong iPhone from growth in many markets around the world, including Canada, Latin America, Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, India and South Asia.
+          4. Sales in Greater China declined.
+               1. Initial customer response to iPhone 7 and 7 plus gives confidence that Dec. qtr. performance in China will be significantly better on a YoverY basis than Sept. qtr. results even as Co. laps all-time record period from a year ago.
+          5. Worldwide demand for iPhone 7 and 7 Plus significantly outpaced supply, particularly on iPhone 7 Plus.
+               1. Working hard to get new iPhones into hands of customers as quickly as possible.
+          6. ASP increased to $619 in Sept. qtr.
+               1. Above expectations.
+               2. Up from $595 in June qtr. when Co. launched iPhone SE and it had a significant channel inventory reduction.
+               3. Expects iPhone ASP to increase markedly on a sequential basis to a level similar to ASP in Dec. qtr. last year.
+          7. Customer interest and satisfaction with iPhone remains extremely strong.
+               1. In US, latest survey fielded by 451 Research found that among consumers planning to purchase a smartphone within 90 days, 65% plan to purchase iPhone with current iPhone owners reporting a 97% customer satisfaction rate.
+          8. Among corporate smartphone buyers, latest survey measures 95% iPhone customer satisfaction rating and found that of those planning to purchase phones in Dec. qtr. 79% plan to purchase iPhone.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $6.3b.
+               1. All-time record.
+               2. Up 24% YoverY.
+          2. App Store growth rate has now accelerated for five consecutive quarters reaching 43% in Sept. qtr.
+               1. App Store remains preferred destination for customers and developers.
+               2. App Annie, it generated 100% more global revenue than Google Play in Sept. qtr.
+          3. In addition to great performance from apps, saw strong double-digit revenue growth in several other service categories.
+               1. Apple Pay transaction volume has grown dramatically as Tim stated.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Sold 4.9m, facing a difficult YoverY compare, given launch of new Macs in spring 2015.
+               1. Despite this, Mac installed base reached a new all-time high at end of Sept. qtr.
+          2. Ended the qtr. below 4-5 week target range for Mac channel inventory.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Flat revenue YoverY.
+          2. ASP $459.
+               1. $26 higher YoverY with increase driven by new iPad Pro line.
+          3. Sold 9.3m iPads.
+          4. Reduced channel inventory by about 80,000 units, exiting qtr. below 5-7 week target.
+          5. Continues to be highly successful in terms of market share and customer metrics in segments of tablet market, where Co. competes.
+          6. Recent data from NPD indicates that iPad gained share in US tablet market in Sept. qtr.
+               1. Had 82% share of tablets priced above $200.
+          7. In Aug., 451 Research measured 96% consumer satisfaction rate for iPad Mini, 95% rate for iPad Air and 93% rate for iPad Pro.
+          8. Among US consumers planning to purchase a tablet within the next six months, 73% plan to purchase an iPad.
+               1. More than eight times purchase intention rate of next highest brand measured, with iPad Pro once again the top choice for planned purchases.
+          9. Corporate buyers reported 94% satisfaction rate for iPad.
+               1. Purchase intent 68% for Dec. qtr.
+          10. In enterprise market, seeing some great examples of iPad and Mac deployment.
+          11. Mobility partner program continues to grow stronger with over 120 partners around the world, offering tailored solutions to businesses of all sizes.
+          12. Revel Systems, a leading iPad point of sale solution partner, recently announced a global agreement which Shell Retail to implement Revel's iPad-based POS system services at 34,000 Shell locations worldwide including support for Apple Pay in countries where Apple Pay is available.
+          13. IBM has just released new data on great results of its Mac roll out.
+          14. With more employees choosing Mac than ever before, there are now more than 90,000 Macs across the organization in addition to 48,000 iPads and 81,000 iPhones.
+          15. IBM reports PCs are three times cost to manage, drive twice the number of support calls and are five times more likely to require a follow-up appointment to resolve an issues than Macs.
+               1. Due to much lower support cost and significantly higher residual value, co. saving as much as $535 per computer when comparing the total cost of Mac ownership to a PC over a full year life cycle.
+     6. Cash Position:
+          1. 4Q16-end cash plus marketable securities $237.6b, sequential increase of $6.1b.
+               1. $216b of this flow or 91% of the total was outside the US.
+          2. Issued $7b of debt in July, leading Co. with $79b in term debt at qtr.-end.
+          3. Returned over $9b to investors during the Sept. qtr.
+               1. Paid $3.1b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. Spent $3b on repurchases of 28.6m AAPL shares through open market transactions.
+               3. Launched new $3b ASR, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 22.5m shares.
+          4. Completed seventh accelerate share repurchase program, retiring additional 12.3m shares.
+               1. Total buyback activity reduced share count by 1.5%.
+          5. Has now completed $186b of current $250b capital return, including $133b share repurchases.
+     7. Key Details:
+          1. During Sept. qtr., completed four acquisitions and incurred $3.6b in CapEx.
+               1. Total CapEx for year $12.8b.
+          2. Effective tax rate 26%.
+               1. Slightly higher than 25.5% guided to because of a different geographic mix of earnings relative to original expectations.
+          3. Tax rate for full FY 25.6%.
+     8. Dec. Qtr. Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $76-78b.
+               1. This represents a return to growth over all-time revenue record set in Dec. qtr. a year ago.
+          2. GM 38.0-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx $6.9-7.0b.
+          4. OI&E about $400m.
+          5. Tax rate about 26%.
+     9. Other Details:
+          1. On 10/25/16, Board of Directors has declared cash dividend of $0.57 per share of common stock, payable on 11/10/16 to shareholders of record as of 11/07/16.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) 
+First we'll hear from Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Good afternoon and congratulations. Tim, now that we're a month in the iPhone 7, are you seeing anything measurable in terms of the growing trend of annual upgrades?   Second is, historically in terms of new product categories, you have always looked for you unique advantage before getting into a segment.  And, I'm curious about the car. There are a lot of rumors out there and would like your perspective on how you think about an advantage that Apple could add in the auto space?  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+In terms of iPhone 7, Gene, the carriers that had upgrade plans, the information that we have from them is that the demand is very robust. But, from a worldwide point of view, the truth is that demand is outstripping supply in the vast majority of places, particularly on the iPhone 7 Plus. And so, it's -- we're in a situation at the moment, it's difficult in the early weeks to be able to differentiate. But, on an anecdotal basis, it's clear the upgrade programs are a win. 
+I can't speak about rumors, but as you know, we look for ways that we can improve the experience and the customers' experience on different sets of products, and we're always looking at new things.  The car space, in general, is an area that it's clear that there's a lot of technologies that will either become available or will be able to revolutionize the car experience. So, it's interesting from that point of view, but certainly nothing to announce today. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Just one quick follow-up in terms of the supply. Do you think we'll be at equilibrium by the end of the quarter, for iPhone supply? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+It's hard to say. I believe that on iPhone 7, we will. On iPhone 7 Plus, I'm not sure. I wouldn't say yes at this point because the underlying demand looks extremely strong on both products, but particularly on the iPhone 7 Plus versus our forecast going into the product launch. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Gene. Can we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks. Good afternoon.  Luca, can you help us understand what's embedded in revenue guidance for the extra week as well as any rebuilding of channel inventory, given all the major products are running below target. Just trying to get at whether you see revenue, and in particular, iPhone growth year on year on more of a sell-out basis when you adjust for those two factors. And then, I have a follow-up. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Let me say a few things on the 14th week and revenue outlook for the December quarter. Keep in mind that the December quarter a year ago for us was an all-time quarterly revenue record. 
+We think we can grow this year. As Tim said, the interest from customers on iPhone 7 and 7 Plus is very strong. The strength of our services business, you've seen we've grown 24% in September. We think we can continue to grow very well into the December quarter. 
+You mentioned the 14th week and the few extra days do help us this quarter, but I think it's important to keep in mind that there are other factors that go and offset these extra few days. As you know, the launch timing of the new iPhone is different this year. We had the first nine days of sales this year hit Q4. There were only two days last year. So, the cadence has moved more towards Q4 this year versus Q1 last year. As you know, we increased iPhone channel inventory by 3.3 million units in the first quarter of 2016. 
+As Tim said, we are very supply-constrained on iPhone 7 Plus this year. We are simply more supply-constrained this year than we were a year ago. And then, keep in mind there were a couple of things that affected compare as well, which is the fact that a year ago we had an award for a patent infringement of $548 million which is obviously a one-off item that is not going to repeat this year.  And, also, the foreign exchange environment remains difficult, and we expect FX to be about $650 million headwind on a year-over-year basis into the December quarter. 
+So, I hope that gives you a bit of a sense that when you take into account all these factors, we believe that this is a good guidance for the December quarter. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That's great color. Thank you for that. Follow-up for Tim. What should we read into the fact that R&D has more than doubled over the past three years, while sales growth was one-fifth of that. Are R&D investments just less efficient than they were in the Company's history?  Or, should we think about that as incremental spend for products that haven't yet come to market? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+There's clearly some amount of R&D that are on products that today are in the development phase that have not reached the market. And so, that's a part of it. 
+We feel really great about the things that we've got. We've also put a lot of emphasis on our services business as well and on making the ecosystem even better. And so, we're very much -- we're confidently investing in the future, and that's the reason you see the R&D spend increasing. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Katy. Could we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Cross Research, Shannon Cross. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. A couple of questions. The first, Tim, can you talk a bit more about China?  Just how you're thinking about it?  Where you're seeing pressure? I know you mentioned that you expect to see a significant rebound during the first quarter.  But, what are your customers telling you about the demand in China? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+It's a good question, Shannon. So, to back up from our results for the quarter, the 90-day clock and look at the full year of 2016.  We were down 17% compared to the FY15 which was up 84% from the previous year. So, if you look at 2014 to 2016, the revenue grew 52%, and the CAGR was 23% which really are pretty good results. 
+Also, as you probably know, the FY16 performance was hurt by the devaluation of the currency which affected it about 3%. So, the underlying business performance was 14% down.  And so, why was it down? There's lots of reasons, but the largest one in our view is that when you look at what happened in 2015 in China, we had a surge of upgraders that came into the market for the iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus, and the upgrade rate increased relatively more in Greater China than elsewhere around the world. 
+And so, when that upgrade rate in FY16 returned to a more normal upgrade rate, which would be akin to what we saw with the iPhone 5S [as a point], it had further to fall. So, that's the main reason in our view that you see a difference. 
+Now, that spun or created another issue for us because we didn't forecast that accurately. So, in Q1 of last year, we put in too much channel inventory and had been resetting the channel inventory over the few quarters that came beyond it or came after it. So, those two issues, which really the main one is really the first one and the second one was a symptom of it, are in our views the main issue. 
+Now, looking forward, the response to the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus has been very positive. It's very hard to gauge demand, as you know, when you're selling everything you're making. And so, we'll find out more through the quarter, but we're confident enough to give you guidance that we're returning to growth this quarter which obviously feels very good for us. 
+And, from a longer term point of view, out of the 90-day clocks and so forth, we are very bullish on China. We continue to see a middle class that is booming there. There might be some sort of a new normal in the economy, but a new normal there is still a good growth rate. And so, with the number of middle class -- people growing into the middle class and the LTE adoption rate being still fairly low, around 45%, 50% or so, then I think we continue to have a really good opportunity there. And so, we continue to focus significantly in China. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thank you. And then, can you talk a bit about acquisitions. I don't mean like the smaller ones that you've done at a normal cadence, but there was clearly a fairly large one announced at least this week in the content world.  And, especially if you find a way to have [cash] repatriation of some of the cash at a low tax rate possibly with the next administration.  So, just if you can give an overall view of how you think about acquisitions that might be a little bit larger than normal?  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We're open to acquisitions of any size that are of strategic value where we can deliver better products to our customers and innovate more. And so, we look at a whole variety of companies, and based on that, we choose whether to move forward or not. But, we're definitely open, and we definitely look. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Shannon. Could we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, thank you. I have a question and a follow-up, please. I guess a cynic could say Apple is benefiting from an extra week this quarter and is benefiting from Samsung being in complete disarray.  And yet, from your guidance, it's unclear that iPhone unit growth will be up or certainly not up more than low single digits implied from your guidance. And, I appreciate some of the issues around channel inventory build and the timing of the launch. 
+But, if I just stand back from that and say you have terrific new products.  Your major competitor is laying down.  You have an enormous -- you have a significant contribution from an extra week, arguably, 7% or 8%, and yet the iPhone growth is sort of flattish.  What does that really say about how investors should think about iPhone on a sustained basis growing forward?  And, is it reasonable to think that this is an ongoing, growing business for the Company? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni, let me take this one. I think you mentioned a number of the things that are affecting us in the December quarter, and I went through them with Katy just a few minutes ago. 
+You're right.  We've got an extra few days. You know very well the launch timing is different. You know that we increased iPhone channel inventory by 3.3 million units a year ago. I mentioned two issues that affect us, the one-timer from a year ago that you obviously need to exclude from the compare and the FX that is the reality of our business right now. 
+But, maybe the most important element of this is the fact that we are supply-constrained on 7 and 7 Plus. And so, when you talk about other competitors, it's not particularly relevant to us right now because we are selling everything that we can produce. And so, when we look at all these things in its totality, we think that for the total Company, of course, we believe that revenue is going to grow.  You know that we don't get into specific product from a unit standpoint giving guidance. And so, we feel very confident about the trajectory for the Company and for iPhone going forward. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim, if I could ask you one, please. You've talked in the past about television being an area of intense interest. I was wondering if you could reaffirm that statement? Is that still the case? 
+And then, additionally, given what's happening with acquisitions, how broadly you think about the role of content?  Apple has started creating on a very limited scale some of its own content, and whether you think content creation and ownership is important to Apple?  Or, whether Apple ultimately sees its place in the value chain as being more around ecosystem and distribution? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I would confirm that television has intense interest with me and many other people here. In terms of owning content and creating content, we have started with focusing on some original content as you point out. We've got a few things going there that we talked about. And, I think it's a great opportunity for us, both from a creation point of view and an ownership point of view. And so, it is an area that we're focused on. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Toni.  Could we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Goldman Sachs, Simona Jankowski. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. I have a question for Luca, and then one for Tim as well. Luca, I wanted to dig into the services business a bit more. As you pointed out, it accelerated again to 24%. How does that compare to the pace of growth of the installed base, just to help us decouple how much of it is consumption-driven on a per-user basis versus the base as a whole? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona, the installed base number is something that we talk about periodically. Last time we talked about it was in the January call. It is growing. Our installed base is growing very well which is very important for us. It's growing on all major products, and it's growing, of course, in total. 
+When you look at our services revenue, the growth of the services revenues has been accelerating during the course of the year. During a period when, as you know, our revenue came down slightly. So, what that means in practice is that what we are seeing with our customers that consume our services is that the people that are actually taking advantage of our services, over time, they tend to spend more and more on our services. 
+We've got customers who are very engaged with our products. They're very loyal, and so you see this upward trajectory of our services business. It's not only with the App store but several categories that are growing very well for us. Tim mentioned Apple Music, but we've got other parts of the business that continue to do well. Even as I said, during a period of time when our sales have come down a bit. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. And then, Tim, we've seen an increasing focus on artificial intelligence both in smartphones like the new Pixel from Google, but also in some of the home assistants like the Amazon Echo.  And, you have obviously had Siri for a while as well. But, I just am curious how you think about balancing AI with your focus on privacy. Also, how important it is to have a dedicated home assistant versus just having the phone as the home assistant?  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think that, to answer your second question first, I think that most people would like an assistant with them all the time. And, we live in a mobile society. People are constantly moving from home to work and to other things that they may be doing. And so, the advantage of having an assistant on your phone is it's with you all the time. That doesn't say that there's not a nice market for a home one. I'm not making that point. 
+I'm just saying on a balanced point of view I think the usage of one on the phone will likely be much greater. In fact, you can just look at Siri today, and this is now accelerating with iOS 10 and the Mac. But, we've been getting 2 billion requests a week for Siri. 
+And so, it's very large, and to the best of our knowledge, we've shipped more assisted, enabled devices than probably anyone out there. Our focus is on this worldwide. And so, it's not only a US focus, but we want to deliver a great experience around the world and deliver globally.  So, we've put a lot of the energy into doing that. 
+In terms of the balance between privacy and AI, this is a long conversation.  But, at a high level, I think it's a false tradeoff that people would like you to believe that you have to give up privacy in order to have AI do something for you. We don't buy that. It may take a different kind of work. It might take more thinking. But, I don't think we should throw our privacy away. 
+It's like the age-old argument about privacy versus security. We should have both. It shouldn't be making a choice. And so, that at a high level is how we see it. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Simona. Could we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Steve Milunovich with UBS. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. Luca, I wanted to ask you about the total deferred revenue, which was down about $1.3 billion in June, and down I think another $400 million in September. Those are rather large declines even given the fact that your units are coming down, and you had the accounting change back in September. Could you talk about some of the drivers of that, and what you might expect going forward? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve, you mentioned by far the largest driver. The largest driver is the fact that we made the change, an accounting change to our ESPs exactly a year ago. So, we are lapping the year where you see the effect. I think you're not going to see the same thing going forward. 
+And then, we tend to defer some revenue on some other categories like, for example, gift cards or some AppleCare. But, in general, by far the largest element is the change in ESPs. I don't think you're going to see the same impact going forward. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thank you. And then Tim, some investors are antsy that Apple has not acquired new profit pools or introduced a financially material new product in recent years. The question is, A, does Apple today have a grand strategy for what you want to do?  I know you won't tell us what it is. But, do you know what you want to do over the next three to maybe five years?  Or, is it more a read the market and quickly react? 
+B, do you have any sense, we're kind of in a gap period where the technology and arguably what we've called the next job to be done haven't yet aligned?  So, maybe in a couple years, we will see this flurry of new products, and it will sort of match what people want to do but it's not quite here yet?  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We have the strongest pipeline that we've ever had, and we're really confident about the things in it. But, as usual, we're not going to talk about what's in it. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+But, in terms of your approach, I guess, to new products.  Do you have a strong sense of where technology is going?  Where you're going to play?  Or, is it still enough up in the air that you're willing to react fairly quickly which arguably your organization allows you to do for the size of the Company you are. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We have a strong sense of where things go, and we're very agile to shift as we need to. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Steve. Can we are have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Bank of America, Wamsi Mohan. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. So, Tim and Luca, you saw that you could raise the ASP on the iPhone 7 Plus by $20, and you're completely sold out. So, clearly this device plays a central role in our lives, so much that owners probably look at that incremental cost as a great tradeoff to get the best device out there. 
+As you see more and more features being added into iPhones, do you conceptually expect that you're anywhere close to the point where raising ASPs further would be net-disruptive to demand?  Or, do you see more room to raise ASPs over time as you add incremental features.  And, I have a follow-up. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+With the iPhone 7 Plus, we've put an incredible amount of innovation into the camera and the overall photo experience, and customers are obviously using that and have discovered that they love it. So, we're getting an incredible amount of feedback there. We also get incredible feedback on the iPhone 7. 
+But, the mix that we projected on an iPhone 7 Plus is short of what the reality is. So, we are chasing supply there. In terms of the ASP, the way we think about it is we want to charge a fair price. And so, we don't want to charge more than that, and we think it's worth being fair. And so, that's how we look at it. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+If I can add, Wamsi, keep in mind that in a lot of countries around the world the reality is that our customers have seen some significant price increases because of the FX situation, right. And, that's something that we need to keep in mind as well. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thanks for the clarification. And, Tim, this year, we saw carrier incentives come back to force, post the launch of the iPhone 7, 7 Plus.  Two years ago, there was a giant upgrade cycle from the iPhone 6, 6 Plus. 
+Do you think every couple of years we are likely to see carrier incentives come back into play given worries around customer churn?  Thereby, making the phone even more affordable?  Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We clearly saw that this year. There's a lot of competition for customers in the US which I think is the market that you're talking about. Whether that will happen every two years, I don't know. But, I suspect that any time there are large numbers of customers that have a phone that's in that two-year kind of range that it tends to be a sweet spot, and I think you probably will see a lot of people trying to recruit those customers. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Tim. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Can we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva with Citi. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup - Analyst    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. A strategy question for Tim and then more of a financial question for Luca. Tim, you had mentioned in your prepared comments a little bit about India, and we've been doing a lot of work talking about the opportunities in India. And, we get a lot of pushback talking about disposable income metrics and lots of things like that, yet the population being so large. 
+Can you talk a little about, do you see that India could at some point be as [big] of an opportunity as China, and it appears that the legal rules have prevented you from going in a lot.  But, it looks like that's changing. Can you give us a little more clarity on India?  
+And then, Tim, for the clarification questions.  Is it fair to say that the OpEx has a disproportionate more expense side with the 14th week that we should think of maybe as we go forward, that we shouldn't expect the OpEx to be chugging along at that high rate?  Or, is it just kind of the rate of investing that you're going?  Thank you very much, gentlemen. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for the question. I'll let Luca talk about the OpEx piece of it. On India, I think it's important to look not only at per-capita income, which may be what you're looking at, but sort of look at the number of people that are or will move into the middle class over the next decade. And, the age of the population, if you look at India, almost 50% of the population is under 25. So, you have a very, very young population. The smartphone has not done as well in India in general. 
+However, one of the key reasons for that is the infrastructure hasn't been there. But, this year, or this year and next year, there are enormous investments going in on 4G, and we couldn't be more excited about that because it really takes a great network working with iPhones to produce that great experience for people. 
+And so, I see a lot of the factors moving in the right direction there. I also think the government is much more focused on the infrastructure and on creating jobs, which is fantastic, because you really need the infrastructure and the technology to do that. 
+Will it be as big as China? I think it's clear that the population of India will exceed China sometime in the -- probably the next decade or so, maybe less than that. I think it will take longer for the GDP to rival it. 
+But, that's not critical for us to have a great success there. The truth is, there's going to be a lot of people there and a lot of people in the middle class that will really want a smartphone. And, I think we can compete well for some percentage of those.  And, given our starting point, even though we've been growing a lot, there's a lot of headroom there in our mind. And so, we're working very hard to realize that opportunity. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And, Jim, on OpEx, our approach to OpEx is quite clear and quite simple. We want to continue to invest in the business in all the areas where we think it's critical for us to invest. 
+So, you see that we make significant investments in R&D. You've seen the growth rates over the last couple of years. We are making important investments in data centers because we want to support our services business. We continue to open retail stores around the world. We continue to invest in marketing and advertising. 
+At the same time, we want to continue to be efficient and lean. It's something that we've done very well over the years. We want to continue to do that. So, what you've seen, for example, in FY16, you've seen investments in R&D growing at 25% and then our SG&A expenses to be about flat. This is kind of the approach that we want to take and continue to take going forward. 
+If you step back for a second and you look at our implied guidance for the December quarter, we've got an expense-to-revenue ratio of 9%. This is extremely competitive in our industry, and I would I say in general. So, we want to continue to have this balance. Make the right investments and remain efficient. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup - Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you and congratulations, and thanks for the details, gentlemen. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Jim. Can we have the next question, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Rod Hall with JPMorgan. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod  Hall,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi.   Thanks for the question. I had one for Luca and then a follow-up for Tim. So, Luca, I wanted to ask about the gross margin guidance?  I think that the Street and we were expecting something a little bit higher, and I guess that's about 50 basis points lower.  The Street -- it was 70 basis points lower. I'm just curious, do you think that people are mis-modeling that?  Or, is there something going on with pricing or mix there that you could provide us more color on? That's my first question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod, let me give you some details both on a sequential basis, and I'll give you also something on a year-over-year basis because maybe that's where the disconnect comes from looking at last year's gross margins in the December quarter. 
+On a sequential basis, we're essentially guiding to some improvement in gross margins. We had 38% both in the June quarter and in the September quarter. We're guiding slightly higher for the December quarter because on the positive we're going to have, of course, better leverage and the mix in the December quarter tends to be better. But, we need to keep into account the fact that these positives are going to be partially offset by the cost structures of the new products that we are launching now, and we launched already a few during the September quarter and that will have an impact on our December-quarter results. 
+On a year-over-year basis, keep in mind that last year we did in Q1 we did 40%, around 40%, 41%.  But, there's a couple of things that I think need to be considered before doing a year-over-year compare. And, it's a fact that last year we had this award for a patent infringement of $548 million that is at the gross margin level is 40 Bps. 
+And then, we've got the FX situation which I mentioned before which is worth another 60, 70 Bps. And so, you're left with less than 100 basis points deterioration on a year-over-year basis where, again, we have the reality of new cost structures into our products. 
+It is very, very important, I think, for investors to understand that what's happened during the last two years. During the last two years the US dollar has appreciated by 15% over the basket of currencies where we do business. And, we are a Company that generates two-thirds of our revenues outside the United States. 15% appreciation of the US dollar. So, on a year-over-year basis, just 2016 over 2015, was 340 Bps impact from foreign exchange. 
+This is something that we have offset almost entirely through a number of initiatives going from pricing actions to cost initiatives to our hedging program.  But, at some point, the strong dollar becomes the new normal, and we need to work with that.  And, I think over the years, we have made very good tradeoffs, and our gross margins have been quite stable over time. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod  Hall,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Great. Thanks, Luca. And then, Tim, I wanted to ask you, this question comes up once in a while.  But, I just wanted to ask you if you could talk to us a little bit about the arguments on both sides of the dividend question. 
+Apple seems to be perpetually undervalued. It's a very large Company.  It is getting harder and harder to grow. Your payout ratio is significantly below the S&P 500. I know you can't tell us what your intentions are here, but if you could help us understand how that thinking around the dividend works it would be great. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We review the capital return annually, and we've established a cadence now to announce our thinking on that every April. So, we have a robust discussion around the dividend and the buyback. 
+We very much believe that Apple is very undervalued, and so we're investing with confidence in the Company that we know really well. And so, that thinking has I think proven out over time, and I think been very good for our shareholders. And, in addition to that, we know that some shareholders really like a dividend and some ongoing income, and so we provided an amount that we think is a good amount and have a good track record of raising it annually. And so, we'll be able to say more on that I'm sure in April of next year. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Rod  Hall,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A replay of today's call will be available for two weeks as a podcast on the iTunes store, as a webcast on www.apple.com/investor, and by telephone.  The numbers for the telephone replay are 888-203-1112 or 719-457-0820.  Use our confirmation code 2017273. These replays will be available by approximately 5 PM Pacific Time today. Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at 408-974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions.  Joan is at 408-974-4570, and I'm at 408-974-5420. Thanks again for joining us. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That does conclude today's presentation. We do thank everyone for your participation. 
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2017-Aug-01-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,504 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2017 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+AUGUST 01, 2017 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Steven Mark Milunovich
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst
+ * Kulbinder S. Garcha
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Brian John White
+   Drexel Hamilton, LLC, Research Division - Global Head of Technology Hardware and Software, and Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 3Q17 revenue of $45.4b, net income of $8.7b and diluted EPS of $1.67. Expects 4Q17 revenues to be $49-52b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 3Q17 revenue = $45.4b.
+    2. 3Q17 net income = $8.7b.
+    3. 3Q17 diluted EPS = $1.67.
+    4. 3Q17 YoverY revenue growth = 7%.
+    5. 3Q17 GM = 38.5%.
+    6. 3Q17-end cash plus marketable securities = $261.5b.
+    7. 3Q17 share repurchase = 30.4m AAPL shares for $4.5b.
+    8. 4Q17 revenue guidance = $49-52b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 3Q17 Review (T.C.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Unit and revenue grew in all product categories.
+          2. June Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) was biggest and best ever.
+          3. Total revenue $45.4b.
+               1. At high-end of guidance range.
+               2. Up 7% YoverY.
+               3. Growth rate has accelerated in three successive quarters this FY.
+          4. GM was at high-end of guidance.
+          5. EPS grew 17%.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Results were impressive with especially strong demand at high-end of lineup.
+          2. iPhone 7 was most popular iPhone.
+          3. iPhone 7 Plus sales up dramatically vs. 6s Plus in 3Q16.
+          4. Combined iPhone 7 and 7 Plus family was up strong double digits YoverY.
+          5. One decade after initial iPhone launch, now surpassed 1.2b cumulative iPhones sold.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $7.3b; all-time quarterly record.
+               1. Grew 22% YoverY.
+          2. Seeing great performance worldwide, with double-digit growth in each geographic segments.
+          3. Over last 12 months, Services business has become the size of a Fortune 100 co.
+               1. Milestone Co. has reached even sooner than expected.
+     4. iPad:
+          1. Has positive results with broad-based growth in units, revenue and market share.
+          2. Sales up 15% YoverY and grew across all geographic segments.
+          3. Achieved highest global market share in over four years, based on IDC's latest estimate of tablet market results for June qtr.
+          4. In markets like China and Japan, over half of iPads sold were to people buying their first iPad.
+          5. Product lineup is stronger than ever.
+          6. Launched new iPad in March.
+          7. All-new 10.5-inch iPad Pro launched in June features world's most advanced display with ProMotion technology and is more powerful than most PC desktops.
+          8. Perfect tool for teaching new and compelling ways.
+               1. iPad results were especially strong in US education market, where sales up 32% YoverY to over 1m units.
+               2. Over 1.2m students of all ages are now using iPad and Swift Playgrounds to learn fundamentals of coding and over 1,000 K-12 Schools across US plan to use Co.'s Everyone Can Code in their curricula this fall.
+               3. For high school and community college students, who want to pursue careers in fast-growing app economy, Co. announced App Development with Swift, innovative full-year curriculum designed by AAPL engineers and educators, and provided free to schools to teach students to code and design fully functional apps, gaining critical job skills in software development and IT.
+     5. Mac:
+          1. Gained global unit market share.
+          2. Reached new June qtr. unit sales records in mainland China and Japan.
+          3. Revenue grew 7% YoverY, driven by strength of MacBook Pro and iMac, despite IDC's latest estimate of 4% unit contraction in global PC market.
+          4. With refresh of almost Co.'s entire Mac lineup in June, off to great start for back-to-school season.
+     6. Apple Watch:
+          1. Sales up over 50%.
+          2. Number 1 selling smartwatch in the world by a wide margin.
+          3. With features like built-in GPS and waterproofing, Apple Watch Series 2 is perfect companion for hiking, running and swimming.
+     7. AirPods:
+          1. Customer satisfaction based on Creative Strategies survey, 98%.
+          2. Increased production capacity and working hard to get them to customers as quickly as Co. can.
+               1. Still not able to meet strong level of demand.
+     8. Recent Announcements:
+          1. Launched new investment in future through Advanced Manufacturing Fund.
+               1. Earmarked at least $1b for this program, aimed at helping manufacturing partners develop innovative production capabilities and create high school jobs in US.
+                    1. Believes this can lay foundation for new era of technology-driven manufacturing in US.
+               2. First $200m from the fund has been committed to Corning to support R&D, capital equipment needs and state-of-the-art glass processing.
+          2. In fall, has advances in iOS 11, Mac OS High Sierra and watchOS 4.
+               1. iOS 11 will make iPhone better-than-ever with Apple Pay peer-to-peer payments and even more intelligent and natural Siri, new expressive messages with full screen effects, richer and more powerful maps, enhanced live photos, memories and portrait mode effects, and much more.
+               2. iOS 11 will take iPad experience to a whole new level, with features like customizable dock, multi-touch drag and drop, powerful new multitasking, more efficient QuickType, great new markup and scanning capabilities.
+          3. In WWDC, introduced ARKit.
+               1. New set of tools for developers to create augmented reality apps.
+               2. With hundreds of millions of people actively using iPhone and iPad today, iOS will become the world's biggest augmented reality probe platform as soon as iOS 11 ships.
+          4. With iOS 11, bringing power of machine learning to all Co. developers with Core ML, enabling capabilities like face detection, object tracking and natural language interpretation.
+               1. Core ML lets developers incorporate machine learning technologies into their apps with all processing done on device, so it respects customers' data and privacy.
+          5. Mac:
+               1. Provided a peek at immersive gaming 3D and virtual reality experiences made possible with upcoming release of macOS High Sierra and powerful new iMac Pro.
+          6. Apple Watch:
+               1. Will become more intelligent than ever this fall with watchOS 4 featuring proactive Siri watch face, personalize activity coaching and entirely new music experience.
+               2. WatchOS 4 introduces GymKit, groundbreaking technology platform to connect workouts with cardio equipment.
+          7. HomePod:
+               1. Previewed breakthrough wireless speaker for home that delivers amazing audio quality and uses spatial awareness to sense its location in the room and adjust audio automatically.
+               2. Designed to work with Apple Music subscriptions.
+               3. Intelligent home assistant.
+               4. Great way to send messages, set timer, get updates on news, sports and weather, or control [smart HomeKit devices by simply asking Siri to turn on lights, close shades or activate a theme].
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 3Q17 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $45.4b.
+               1. Up 7% YoverY; acceleration to growth rate Co. reported during 1H17.
+               2. Achieved this result despite 200 BP negative impact from FX YoverY, as currency movements, especially in Europe and China, affected reported results.
+               3. Performance was strong across Board, with growth in all product categories and almost every market globally.
+               4. Achieved double-digit revenue growth in many developed markets, including US, Canada, Germany, Spain, Australia and Korea, and emerging markets outside of Greater China grew 19% YoverY.
+          2. GM 38.5%.
+               1. At high-end of guidance range.
+          3. Operating margin 23.7% of revenue.
+          4. Net income $8.7b.
+          5. Diluted EPS $1.67.
+               1. Up 17% YoverY.
+          6. Cash flow from operations $8.4b.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 41m.
+               1. Reduced iPhone channel inventory by 3.3m units, leaving Co. with lowest level of channel inventory in 2.5 years and well within 5-7 week target inventory range.
+               2. Sales up YoverY in most markets Co. tracks, with many markets in Asia, Latin America and Middle East growing unit sales by more than 25%.
+               3. Pleased with iPhone results, especially considering tough comparison to 3Q16 when Co. launched iPhone SE.
+          2. ASP $606.
+               1. Up from 3Q16's $595, due to strong demand for iPhone 7 Plus, which represented higher percentage of iPhone mix vs. Plus model a year ago.
+               2. Impact of stronger mix on ASP was partially offset by negative FX YoverY and reduction in channel inventory, which took place entirely at high-end of portfolio.
+          3. Customer interest and satisfaction with iPhone are strong with consumers and business users.
+               1. In US, latest data from 451 Research on consumers indicates 95% customer satisfaction rating for iPhone 7 and 99% for iPhone 7 Plus.
+                    1. Among consumers planning to buy a smartphone, purchase intention for iPhone was nearly three times the rate of closest competitor.
+               2. Among corporate smartphone buyers, iOS customer satisfaction was 94%.
+                    1. Of those planning to purchase smartphones in Sept. qtr., 78% plan to purchase iPhone.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Set all-time quarterly record of $7.3b.
+               1. Up 22% YoverY.
+               2. App Store was major driver of this performance.
+               3. According to App Annie's latest report, it continues to be by a wide margin, preferred destination for customer purchases, generating nearly twice the revenue of Google Play.
+          2. Revenue from Apple Music streaming service and from iCloud storage grew strongly.
+          3. Across all Services offerings, number of paid subscriptions reached over 185m; up almost 20m in last 90 days alone.
+          4. Apple Pay:
+               1. Reach, usage and functionality of Apple Pay continue to grow.
+               2. Launched in Italy in May.
+               3. UAE, Denmark, Finland and Sweden are scheduled to go live before this calendar year end.
+               4. By far the Number 1 NFC payment service on mobile devices, with nearly 90% of all transactions globally.
+                    1. Momentum is strongest in international markets, where infrastructure for mobile payments has developed faster than in US.
+                    2. Three out of four Apple Pay transactions happen outside US.
+               5. With launch of iOS 11 this fall, users in US will be able to make and receive person-to-person payments quickly, easily and securely.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Due to great performance from new MacBook Pro, generated 7% revenue growth YoverY and gained share in global PC market based on latest data from IDC.
+          2. Customer satisfaction is strong at 97% in most recent survey from 451 Research.
+          3. Active installed base has grown double digits YoverY.
+          4. Ended 3Q17 within 4-5 week target range for channel inventory.
+          5. Has great lineup of Macs for customers heading into busy back-to-school season.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Sold 11.4m units.
+               1. Up 15% YoverY.
+          2. Grew in each geographic segment, with strong double-digit increases in key markets like US, Japan, Germany, France and Greater China.
+          3. Exited 3Q17 within 5-7 week target range for channel inventory.
+          4. NPD indicates that iPad had 55% share of US tablet market in June, including eight of 10 best-selling tablets.
+               1. Up from 46% share a year ago.
+               2. Among tablets priced over $200, iPad's share was 89%.
+          5. Most recent survey from 451 Research measured business and consumer satisfaction rates ranging 95-99% across iPad models.
+               1. Among those planning to buy tablets, purchase intent for iPad was over 70%.
+          6. Enterprise business continues to expand.
+               1. Customers are transforming the way work gets done with iOS and iPad.
+               2. Walmart will be deploying more than 19,000 iPads for employee training across 50 states with projections of over 225,000 associates trained on iPad by year-end.
+          7. Initial response from businesses to iOS 11 and new iPad Pro has been amazing.
+               1. Companies, including Bank of America, Medtronic and Panera, will be rolling out 10.5-inch iPad Pro throughout key areas of their organizations.
+          8. Seeing real traction with enterprise partners.
+               1. Last month, unveiled next set of technology enhancements in partnership with Cisco.
+               2. New way adds whole new category of security features designed to help enterprises and employees defend growing cyber threats.
+               3. Believes this investment in joint security solutions for iOS will make cyber insurance even more attainable for businesses.
+          9. SAP is making great strides since launching SAP cloud platform SDK for iOS in March with pipeline of hundreds of global opportunities.
+               1. SAP released SuccessFactors mobile, its first native iOS app for human resources, which will support 47m iPhone and iPad users worldwide across multiple industries.
+          10. Partnership with Deloitte has recently expanded to several more European countries.
+               1. Helping clients transform their businesses with iOS.
+               2. Jointly develops programs like Connected Store, pop up version of retail environment, demonstrating iOS tools for sales and demand generation, and tailored apps for sales associates, store management and customers.
+          11. iPad in education up 32% YoverY.
+               1. Following launch of new iPad in March and update to Classroom app, and continued enhancements to iOS, make managing iPads in classroom even easier.
+               2. Saint Paul Public School District in Minnesota is renewing its One to One program by deploying over 40,000 iPads across every student and teacher in the district.
+               3. Shawnee Mission School District outside Kansas City recently purchased 19,000 iPads, extending its One to One program started in 2014 due to iPad's intuitive interface, superior reliability and expansive ecosystem of iOS tools for education.
+     6. Retail & Online Stores:
+          1. Collectively welcomed over 300m visitors.
+          2. Opened first stores in Singapore and Taiwan.
+               1. Expanded total store footprint to 497 stores.
+          3. In May, kicked off Today at Apple.
+               1. Stores collectively hosted 87,000 sessions during qtr.
+          4. Entered new chapter in retail with unique and rewarding experience for customers and some stunning new stores coming in near future.
+     7. Cash:
+          1. 3Q17-end cash plus marketable securities $261.5b.
+               1. Increased $4.7b sequentially.
+               2. $246b of this cash, 94% of total, was outside US.
+          2. Retired $3.5b of debt.
+               1. Issued equivalent of $10.8b in new euro and US dollar denominated debt, including second green bond.
+                    1. Term debt $96.4b.
+                    2. Commercial paper outstanding $12b.
+          3. Returned $11.7b to investors.
+          4. Paid $3.4b in dividends and equivalents.
+          5. Spent $4.5b on repurchases of 30.4m Co. shares through open market transactions.
+          6. Launched new $3b ASR program, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 15.6m shares.
+               1. Retired 3.4m shares upon completion of 10th ASR.
+          7. Now completed $222.9b of $300b capital return program, including $158.5b in share repurchases.
+     8. 4Q17 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $49-52b.
+          2. GM 37.5-38.0%.
+          3. OpEx $6.7-6.8b.
+          4. OI&E about $500m.
+          5. Tax rate about 25.5%.
+     9. Dividends:
+          1. On 08/01/17, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.63 per share of common stock payable on 08/17/17 to shareholders of record as of 08/14/17.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L152"time="00:25:00"/>And that question will come from Katy Huberty of Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L153"time="00:25:09"/>Luca, first question for you. <Sync id="L154"time="00:25:11"/>Gross margin guidance is strong, but it did tick down from your June quarter guidance. <Sync id="L155"time="00:25:16"/>And you also narrowed the range to 50 basis points. <Sync id="L156"time="00:25:19"/>I wonder if you could just address, what is the driver of the sequential downtick, and what gives you confidence that you have more visibility than you did 3 months ago?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L157"time="00:25:31"/>Katy, sequentially from 38.5% that we just reported, typically, we have product transition costs during the September quarter. <Sync id="L158"time="00:25:43"/>That's the primary driver. <Sync id="L159"time="00:25:46"/>This happens fairly regularly for us. <Sync id="L160"time="00:25:48"/>We also have a more difficult memory pricing environment this year than a year ago. <Sync id="L161"time="00:25:54"/>And we think that we're going to be able to partially offset this with a positive leverage. <Sync id="L162"time="00:25:59"/>As you've seen, we've guided up sequentially in revenue. <Sync id="L163"time="00:26:04"/>So those are the major puts and takes. <Sync id="L164"time="00:26:11"/>In terms of the range that we use for gross margins, we have a fairly good understanding on where we are with our hedging program, and that allows us to mitigate some of the volatility there. <Sync id="L165"time="00:26:25"/>So we felt we could guide to a slightly narrowed range, which we've done occasionally in the past.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L166"time="00:26:36"/>And maybe a question for both Tim and Luca. <Sync id="L167"time="00:26:39"/>As you outlined on this call and at the developer conference in June, there is an unprecedented number of products that either ramped to volume or launched in the back half of this year. <Sync id="L168"time="00:26:50"/>So appreciating you only formally guide a quarter out, I wonder if there's any qualitative commentary you can provide to help us think about the back half of this calendar year and how all those new products that come into the model could impact either revenue seasonality versus past years or could impact just the costs associated with ramping that many products all at once.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L169"time="00:27:21"/>Katy, as Luca mentioned, we did assume some transitional costs in our guidance for the quarter as is typically the case. <Sync id="L170"time="00:27:35"/>And we're looking very much forward to the product rollouts.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L171"time="00:27:45"/>We'll go to Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L172"time="00:27:52"/>Tim, could you talk a bit about what you're seeing in China? <Sync id="L173"time="00:27:58"/>I think obviously, there's -- continues to be strong demand for smartphones but perhaps mix shift, I think you brought back the iPhone 6 this quarter to be a bit more price aggressive. <Sync id="L174"time="00:28:07"/>And then can you just talk a bit about how you see that market developing with the growth of WeChat and some of the other developments that are happening there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L175"time="00:28:18"/>Yes. <Sync id="L176"time="00:28:19"/>Thanks, Shannon. <Sync id="L177"time="00:28:21"/>We were very encouraged by the results this quarter. <Sync id="L178"time="00:28:25"/>We improved, as we thought we would, from the previous quarters a little more than I thought we would. <Sync id="L179"time="00:28:35"/>If you look underneath the numbers, Mainland China was actually flat year-over-year during Q3. <Sync id="L180"time="00:28:45"/>And in constant-currency terms, we were actually up 6% in Mainland China. <Sync id="L181"time="00:28:52"/>And so we're very encouraged by that. <Sync id="L182"time="00:28:56"/>iPad grew dramatically more than the market. <Sync id="L183"time="00:29:01"/>The Mac grew much more than the market. <Sync id="L184"time="00:29:06"/>iPhone was relatively flat year-on-year as the same sort of -- similar as the market was. <Sync id="L185"time="00:29:15"/>And so we see all of those as very encouraging signs. <Sync id="L186"time="00:29:19"/>On top of that, Services grew extremely strongly during the quarter. <Sync id="L187"time="00:29:28"/>The -- Hong Kong continued to drag down the total Greater China segment. <Sync id="L188"time="00:29:36"/>And -- but on a sequential basis, we're probably sort of at the trough of that, which is nice. <Sync id="L189"time="00:29:50"/>With the peg to the dollar there, from a currency point of view and tourism being what it is, I don't really know when that market will come back. <Sync id="L190"time="00:29:59"/>But what I -- what we see in the mainland is definitely much more encouraging. <Sync id="L191"time="00:30:08"/>It's interesting to note that upgraders through -- both for the quarter and actually for the full fiscal year to date was our highest ever. <Sync id="L192"time="00:30:22"/>And so that we felt very good about. <Sync id="L193"time="00:30:28"/>In terms of WeChat, the way that I look at this is because our share -- because iOS share is not nearly a majority of the market in China, the fact that a lot of people use that, it makes the switching opportunity even greater. <Sync id="L194"time="00:30:52"/>And I think that's more the case than the risk that a lot of folks have pointed out. <Sync id="L195"time="00:31:00"/>And so I see Tencent as one of our biggest and best developers. <Sync id="L196"time="00:31:07"/>They've done a great job of implementing a lot of iOS features in their apps. <Sync id="L197"time="00:31:12"/>And we're looking forward to working with them even more to build even greater experiences for our mutual users in China.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L198"time="00:31:23"/>Great. <Sync id="L199"time="00:31:23"/>And then can you talk a bit about the composition of the installed base of iPhones at this point as obviously, we're getting close to a refresh? <Sync id="L200"time="00:31:32"/>Just you brought in the iPhone SE. <Sync id="L201"time="00:31:36"/>You've obviously had strength at the high end. <Sync id="L202"time="00:31:37"/>I'm just trying to think about like what percent do you think have upgraded in the prior generation? <Sync id="L203"time="00:31:42"/>Any color you can give us on that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L204"time="00:31:45"/>The -- from an absolute quantity point of view, the upgrades for this fiscal year are the highest that we've seen and so we feel good about that. <Sync id="L205"time="00:32:02"/>However, if you look at it from an upgrade rate point of view instead of the absolute number, the rate is similar to what we saw with the previous iPhones, except for iPhone 6, which as we've called out in the past, had an abnormally high upgrade rate. <Sync id="L206"time="00:32:25"/>We do think that based on the amount of rumors and the volume of them, that there's some pause in our current numbers. <Sync id="L207"time="00:32:38"/>And so where that affects us in the short term, even though we had great results, it probably bodes well later on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L208"time="00:32:53"/>Steve Milunovich of UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L209"time="00:32:57"/>I wonder if you wanted to make any comments about switching this quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L210"time="00:33:05"/>Sure. <Sync id="L211"time="00:33:06"/>Switching outside of China was up year-on-year and so we're happy with that. <Sync id="L212"time="00:33:14"/>We continue to see people moving over to iOS, and it helped with us making the results that Luca announced earlier, including the channel inventory reduction.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L213"time="00:33:35"/>Okay. <Sync id="L214"time="00:33:36"/>And then a government question. <Sync id="L215"time="00:33:38"/>First of all, the President suggested that you may build 3 big beautiful plants. <Sync id="L216"time="00:33:43"/>I wonder if you'd comment on if that's a possibility, either directly or indirectly. <Sync id="L217"time="00:33:48"/>And then in China, I think we all understand that you have to work within the regulations, but maybe you could comment a bit on how you feel your working relationship is with the government and if there's certain lines that you can't cross.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L218"time="00:34:02"/>Sure. <Sync id="L219"time="00:34:03"/>Starting with the U.S. -- and let me just take this question from what are we doing to increase jobs, which I think is probably where it's rooted. <Sync id="L220"time="00:34:16"/>There's -- we've created 2 million jobs in the U.S. and we're incredibly proud of that. <Sync id="L221"time="00:34:22"/>We do view that we have a responsibility in the U.S. to increase economic activity, including increasing jobs because Apple could have only been created here. <Sync id="L222"time="00:34:36"/>And so as we look at that 2 million, there are 3 main categories of that, and we have actions going on in each of them to further build on that momentum. <Sync id="L223"time="00:34:49"/>The first category is app development, about 3/4 of the 2 million are app developers. <Sync id="L224"time="00:34:55"/>And we're doing an enormous amount of things to deliver curriculum to both K-12 with Swift Playgrounds and the K-6 area; other curriculum, as you proceed beyond Grade 6, under the Everyone Can Code area. <Sync id="L225"time="00:35:17"/>And just a couple of months ago, we announced a new curriculum that's focused on community schools and community colleges, junior colleges, technical colleges for kids that did not have coding in their elementary and high school years. <Sync id="L226"time="00:35:38"/>And so we're excited about that because we think it could increase the diversity of the developer community and the quantity. <Sync id="L227"time="00:35:46"/>And I think this area, in general and all the things we do for the developer community, will be the largest contribution that Apple can make because this is the fastest-growing job segment in the country, and I think will be for quite some time. <Sync id="L228"time="00:36:03"/>If you look at the second area, it's -- we have purchased or we purchased last year about $50 billion worth of goods and services from U.S.-based suppliers. <Sync id="L229"time="00:36:19"/>Some significant portion of those are manufacturing-related, and so we've asked ourselves, what can we do to increase this? <Sync id="L230"time="00:36:27"/>And you may have seen that at the beginning of the quarter, sometime in April, I believe, we announced a fund, an advanced manufacturing fund that we're initially placing $1 billion in. <Sync id="L231"time="00:36:44"/>And we've already deployed $200 million of that. <Sync id="L232"time="00:36:47"/>And the first recipient is Corning in Kentucky and they'll be using that money to expand the plant to make very innovative glass. <Sync id="L233"time="00:36:59"/>And we purchase that glass and essentially export it to the world with iPhones and iPads. <Sync id="L234"time="00:37:07"/>We think there's more of these that we can do. <Sync id="L235"time="00:37:10"/>I think there's probably several plants that can benefit from having some investment to grow or expand or even maybe set up shop in the U.S. for the first time. <Sync id="L236"time="00:37:27"/>So we're very excited about that. <Sync id="L237"time="00:37:29"/>And then the third area is we have about 2/3 or so of our total employee base is in the U.S. despite only 1/3 of our revenues being here. <Sync id="L238"time="00:37:40"/>And we'll have some things that we'll say about that later in the year. <Sync id="L239"time="00:37:47"/>And so that's what we're doing from a job growth point of view and we're very, very proud of that. <Sync id="L240"time="00:37:54"/>If you -- now turning to China. <Sync id="L241"time="00:38:00"/>Let me sort of comment on what I assumed is at the root of your question about this VPN kind of issue. <Sync id="L242"time="00:38:08"/>Let me just address that head on. <Sync id="L243"time="00:38:13"/>The central government in China, back in 2015, started tightening the regulations associated with VPN apps. <Sync id="L244"time="00:38:23"/>And we have a number of those on our store. <Sync id="L245"time="00:38:30"/>The -- essentially, as a requirement to -- for someone to operate a VPN, they have to have a license from the government there. <Sync id="L246"time="00:38:44"/>Earlier this year, they began a renewed effort to enforce that policy, and we were required by the government to remove some of the VPN apps from the App Store that don't meet these new regulations. <Sync id="L247"time="00:39:01"/>We understand that those same requirements are on other app stores, and as we checked through that, that is the case. <Sync id="L248"time="00:39:10"/>Today, there's actually still hundreds of VPN apps on the App Store, including hundreds by developers that are outside China. <Sync id="L249"time="00:39:19"/>And so there continues to be VPN apps available. <Sync id="L250"time="00:39:23"/>We would obviously rather not remove the apps, but we -- like we do in other countries, we follow the law wherever we do business. <Sync id="L251"time="00:39:33"/>And we strongly believe that participating in markets and bringing benefits to customers is in the best interest of the folks there and in other countries as well. <Sync id="L252"time="00:39:48"/>And so we believe in engaging with governments even when we disagree. <Sync id="L253"time="00:39:53"/>And in this particular case, now back to commenting on this one, we're hopeful that over time, the restrictions that we're seeing are loosened because innovation really requires freedom to collaborate and communicate. <Sync id="L254"time="00:40:09"/>And I know that, that is a major focus there. <Sync id="L255"time="00:40:13"/>And so that's sort of what we're seeing from that point of view. <Sync id="L256"time="00:40:21"/>Some folks have tried to link it to the U.S. situation last year and they're very different. <Sync id="L257"time="00:40:30"/>In the case of the U.S., the law in the U.S. supported us. <Sync id="L258"time="00:40:37"/>It was very clear. <Sync id="L259"time="00:40:40"/>In the case of China, the law is also very clear there. <Sync id="L260"time="00:40:46"/>And like we would if the U.S. changed the law here, we'd have to abide by them in both cases. <Sync id="L261"time="00:40:53"/>That doesn't mean that we don't state our point of view in the appropriate way; we always do that. <Sync id="L262"time="00:41:05"/>And so hopefully, that's a little bit probably more than you wanted to know but I wanted to tell you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L263"time="00:41:19"/>We'll hear from Kulbinder Garcha with Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulbinder S. Garcha,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L264"time="00:41:26"/>A question for Tim maybe on the iPhone installed base. <Sync id="L265"time="00:41:30"/>At various points in the past, you've told us the rate at which that was growing. <Sync id="L266"time="00:41:34"/>At the end of the first half, what is that up year-on-year? <Sync id="L267"time="00:41:36"/>What rate is it growing? <Sync id="L268"time="00:41:36"/>Could you give us some sense of that? <Sync id="L269"time="00:41:38"/>And on upgrade rates over the longer term, there's lots of moving parts and I get that there's, I guess, geographic mix shift on your base. <Sync id="L270"time="00:41:45"/>There's any new phones that you may or may not bring out and how carriers promote your products. <Sync id="L271"time="00:41:51"/>But do you think this rate of upgrade is sustainable? <Sync id="L272"time="00:41:53"/>Do you think it gets faster over time? <Sync id="L273"time="00:41:55"/>How should we think about the major drivers as you foresee see for it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L274"time="00:41:58"/>I think the upgrade rate is a function of many, many different things, from the size of the installed base, the age of the installed base, the product that is new at the time, the regional distribution, the upgrade plans that are in various markets around the world. <Sync id="L275"time="00:42:32"/>And so I think there's many, many factors in that it's not a simple thing that you can apply a set formula to -- or one variable or a couple of variable formula, in my opinion. <Sync id="L276"time="00:42:49"/>And -- but I think in general, because our installed base is -- was up strong double digit once again, there's a lot of factors that are very positive for us. <Sync id="L277"time="00:43:05"/>And between the upgraders and the switchers that we see and still -- the first-time buyer category is still out here, too, in several countries, including some that you may not think there is, there is still sizable base in some. <Sync id="L278"time="00:43:31"/>Between those 3 areas, I think we have a lot of opportunity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L279"time="00:43:45"/>Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L280"time="00:43:46"/>I have one for Luca and one for Tim, please. <Sync id="L281"time="00:43:51"/>Luca, typically, in the fiscal Q4, Apple builds considerable iPhone channel inventory like 2 million or 3 million units. <Sync id="L282"time="00:44:04"/>You're starting from a very low point at the end of fiscal Q3 as you mentioned on the call with the drawdown. <Sync id="L283"time="00:44:11"/>As we think about what's embedded in your guidance for fiscal Q4 for channel inventory for iPhone, should we be expecting a sort of normal seasonal build? <Sync id="L284"time="00:44:22"/>Or is it likely to be significantly higher, given the very low starting point?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L285"time="00:44:30"/>As you know, Toni, we do not guide on channel inventory. <Sync id="L286"time="00:44:34"/>We've never done that. <Sync id="L287"time="00:44:36"/>We are providing a fairly wide range from a revenue standpoint, so obviously, that also has an impact on potential channel inventory levels. <Sync id="L288"time="00:44:51"/>One thing that I would tell you is that we feel very good about the performance of the business right now. <Sync id="L289"time="00:44:58"/>We think that our Services business will continue to grow well. <Sync id="L290"time="00:45:02"/>We've got a lot of momentum on iPad and Mac because we refreshed the lineups of those products. <Sync id="L291"time="00:45:09"/>Watch and AirPods are doing incredibly well. <Sync id="L292"time="00:45:12"/>We're getting a lot of positive customer feedback. <Sync id="L293"time="00:45:16"/>And I think in general, even the performance in China, Tim has mentioned it, we think that the performance will continue to improve. <Sync id="L294"time="00:45:24"/>So those are the drivers of our guidance range for the quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L295"time="00:45:32"/>Okay. <Sync id="L296"time="00:45:34"/>Tim, I was wondering if you could maybe talk a little bit about 2 things that you mentioned in public before. <Sync id="L297"time="00:45:42"/>One is television, which you have described as an area of intense interest. <Sync id="L298"time="00:45:46"/>But I don't even think there was an update on Apple TV on this call, so perhaps you can talk to us about how you're thinking about content. <Sync id="L299"time="00:45:57"/>I know you're doing some original content creation and how that area is evolving and your thinking. <Sync id="L300"time="00:46:05"/>And then recently, you talked about how Apple is focusing on autonomous systems for automobiles. <Sync id="L301"time="00:46:14"/>And there's been press reports that Apple's been testing autonomous vehicles for potentially up to a year. <Sync id="L302"time="00:46:21"/>I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about Apple's interest in autonomous vehicles and whether self-driving is really likely to be Apple's principal focus in the near to medium term.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L303"time="00:46:37"/>On the first part of your question about original content, we have done some original content. <Sync id="L304"time="00:46:50"/>It's focused on Apple Music. <Sync id="L305"time="00:46:54"/>Currently, we have some more that's launching in a week or so that will be made available on Apple Music. <Sync id="L306"time="00:47:03"/>The objective of this is really twofold. <Sync id="L307"time="00:47:07"/>The one is for our own learning, given that we're new in the video space in terms of creation; and two is to give the Apple Music subscribers some exclusive content and hopefully grow our subscriber base. <Sync id="L308"time="00:47:24"/>And we've recently hired 2 great folks with lots of experience in creating content like Breaking Bad and The Crown and some really top-notch content. <Sync id="L309"time="00:47:43"/>And so we'll see how this area goes, but it's still an area of great interest. <Sync id="L310"time="00:47:52"/>In terms of autonomous systems, what we've said is that we are very focused on autonomous systems from a core technology point of view. <Sync id="L311"time="00:48:02"/>We do have a large project going and are making a big investment in this. <Sync id="L312"time="00:48:10"/>From our point of view, autonomy is sort of the mother of all AI projects. <Sync id="L313"time="00:48:17"/>And the autonomous systems can be used in a variety of ways, and a vehicle is only one, but there are many different areas of it. <Sync id="L314"time="00:48:29"/>And I don't want to go any further with that. <Sync id="L315"time="00:48:33"/>But thank you for the question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L316"time="00:48:35"/>That comes from Mike Olson with Piper Jaffray.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L317"time="00:48:43"/>I just have one question for Tim. <Sync id="L318"time="00:48:46"/>This may be a hard question to answer in a condensed way, but how would you describe what you expect the most near-term applications will be for developers to target using ARKit? <Sync id="L319"time="00:48:54"/>Will it be consumer iPhone and iPad applications, enterprise applications or I guess some combination of the 2? <Sync id="L320"time="00:49:01"/>And basically, how does this come to market in the most significant way in the next few quarters as Apple becomes the largest global platform for AR as you talked about?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L321"time="00:49:11"/>Mike, that is a great question. <Sync id="L322"time="00:49:14"/>Since we -- and I could not be more excited about AR and what we're seeing with ARKit and the early going. <Sync id="L323"time="00:49:22"/>And to answer a question about what category it starts in, just take a look at what's already on the web in terms of what people are doing and it is all over the place. <Sync id="L324"time="00:49:35"/>From entertainment to gaming, I've seen what I would call more small business solutions. <Sync id="L325"time="00:49:42"/>I've seen consumer solutions. <Sync id="L326"time="00:49:43"/>I've seen enterprise solutions. <Sync id="L327"time="00:49:46"/>I think AR is big and profound. <Sync id="L328"time="00:49:49"/>And this is one of those huge things that we'll look back at and marvel on the start of it. <Sync id="L329"time="00:49:59"/>So I think that customers are going to see it in a variety of ways. <Sync id="L330"time="00:50:05"/>Enterprise, it takes a little longer sometimes to get going, but I can already tell you, there's lots of excitement in there, and I think we'll start to see some applications there as well. <Sync id="L331"time="00:50:19"/>And it feels great to get this thing going at a level that can sort of get all of the developers behind it. <Sync id="L332"time="00:50:31"/>So I couldn't be more excited about it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L333"time="00:50:38"/>We'll go to Amit Daryanani.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L334"time="00:50:46"/>I guess to start off with, on your Services segment, your revenues actually, I think, accelerated by [400] basis points to worse than what you guys had in the first half this year. <Sync id="L335"time="00:50:56"/>Could you just help us understand what's driving this? <Sync id="L336"time="00:50:58"/>Is there a way to think about ARPU in the traditional manner within that Services business versus the installed base growing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L337"time="00:51:07"/>Amit, Luca. <Sync id="L338"time="00:51:09"/>Our Services business is very broad. <Sync id="L339"time="00:51:12"/>We got multiple categories in the Services business, so it's difficult to talk about ARPU in general. <Sync id="L340"time="00:51:21"/>It doesn't make a lot of sense. <Sync id="L341"time="00:51:26"/>The reason for the acceleration also here is multiple factors. <Sync id="L342"time="00:51:31"/>One that is very, very important for us is the fact that the App Store, which is the largest of our Services categories, is seeing an increasingly larger amount of paying accounts. <Sync id="L343"time="00:51:49"/>On a year-over-year basis, the number of accounts that are actually transacting and paying on the App Store is growing very, very well. <Sync id="L344"time="00:51:58"/>It is happening for a variety of reasons. <Sync id="L345"time="00:51:59"/>One of them, for example, is the fact that we are making it easier for customers to pay on the App Store. <Sync id="L346"time="00:52:06"/>Outside the United States, in many markets, not every form of payment is accepted. <Sync id="L347"time="00:52:14"/>We're making it easier all the time. <Sync id="L348"time="00:52:17"/>We launched on Alipay, for example, in China during the December quarter. <Sync id="L349"time="00:52:21"/>That has obviously helped a lot with the growth in the number of paid accounts. <Sync id="L350"time="00:52:26"/>And we continue to bring more and more forms of payment in the App Store around the world. <Sync id="L351"time="00:52:34"/>That's a big reason for that. <Sync id="L352"time="00:52:36"/>The other reason why the number of paying accounts is growing is the fact that the quality and the quantity of content continues to improve, and so there's many more ways of experiencing games and entertainment and other apps on the store. <Sync id="L353"time="00:52:54"/>We have other businesses like the Apple Music streaming service, which is growing very fast because we just started it a couple of years ago, so we are getting a lot of new subscribers there. <Sync id="L354"time="00:53:07"/>Our iCloud storage business continues to grow very, very fast. <Sync id="L355"time="00:53:12"/>So it's multiple services. <Sync id="L356"time="00:53:15"/>The number of people transacting on our stores continues to grow. <Sync id="L357"time="00:53:20"/>In terms of ARPU, and maybe I can make a comment on ARPU specifically related to the App Store. <Sync id="L358"time="00:53:26"/>What we're seeing and we've seen over a long period of time as we keep track of these cohorts of customers, we see that as customers get on the App Store and start spending on it, we see this profile, spending profile is very similar across generations of customers. <Sync id="L359"time="00:53:46"/>People tend to spend more over time. <Sync id="L360"time="00:53:49"/>Obviously, you have different spending profiles in different geographies around the world, but in general, you see that trend across the board.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L361"time="00:53:57"/>Got it, that's really helpful. <Sync id="L362"time="00:54:00"/>And if I could just follow up. <Sync id="L363"time="00:54:03"/>On the iPhone side, there's been a large amount of discussion, I guess, in blogs and among your component suppliers that the timing this time may be somewhat different and delayed versus past. <Sync id="L364"time="00:54:13"/>Your guide almost seems you're more excited about this iPhone launch versus historically if the sequential growth is better. <Sync id="L365"time="00:54:18"/>So I guess beyond the fact we probably shouldn't read every blog and believe every blog, what do you think is different with this product launch or product availability through the cycle versus what you've seen historically?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L366"time="00:54:32"/>We have no comment on anything that's unannounced.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L367"time="00:54:45"/>That'll come from Brian White with Drexel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian John White,  Drexel Hamilton, LLC, Research Division - Global Head of Technology Hardware and Software, and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L368"time="00:54:49"/>Tim, growth in the smartphone market is now crawling along at about a low single-digit percentage. <Sync id="L369"time="00:54:56"/>I know iPhone grew about 2% year-over-year this quarter, and it looks like you had about a mid-teens market share in units in 2016. <Sync id="L370"time="00:55:04"/>So as we look forward, maybe 3 to 4 years, do you think Apple can expand its unit market share? <Sync id="L371"time="00:55:12"/>And if so, what will the drivers be? <Sync id="L372"time="00:55:15"/>And my second question is just about India, general thoughts around India in the quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L373"time="00:55:20"/>The answer to your first question is yes, I do think that we can grow both in units and market share. <Sync id="L374"time="00:55:33"/>We don't predict those things. <Sync id="L375"time="00:55:34"/>But yes, if you ask me what I think, that's what I think. <Sync id="L376"time="00:55:39"/>And so what are the drivers? <Sync id="L377"time="00:55:42"/>The installed base is growing. <Sync id="L378"time="00:55:44"/>It's still growing very strongly. <Sync id="L379"time="00:55:52"/>That will generate more upgrades over time. <Sync id="L380"time="00:55:57"/>I feel good about our ability to convince people to switch. <Sync id="L381"time="00:56:04"/>And where the developed markets, the first-time buyer rates are down other than places like Japan perhaps. <Sync id="L382"time="00:56:13"/>The emerging markets, we haven't even got started yet really. <Sync id="L383"time="00:56:20"/>And from a revenue point of view, we had very strong growth there on emerging markets ex China, we're up like 18% year-on-year. <Sync id="L384"time="00:56:32"/>It was a record for us. <Sync id="L385"time="00:56:34"/>So we see a lot of opportunity in these markets. <Sync id="L386"time="00:56:38"/>We are investing in India. <Sync id="L387"time="00:56:40"/>As you mentioned in your second point, we've already launched an app accelerator center, that's on top of working with the channel and looking at expanding our go-to-market in general. <Sync id="L388"time="00:56:57"/>And we've began to produce the iPhone SE there during the quarter, and we're really happy with how that's going, and so we're bringing all of our energies to bear there. <Sync id="L389"time="00:57:11"/>I see a lot of similarities where China was several years ago. <Sync id="L390"time="00:57:18"/>And so I'm very, very bullish and very, very optimistic about India.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L391"time="00:57:24"/>Thanks very much, Brian. <Sync id="L392"time="00:57:30"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks as a podcast on the iTunes Store, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L393"time="00:57:38"/>And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L394"time="00:57:47"/>Please enter confirmation code 6376964. <Sync id="L395"time="00:57:49"/>And these replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L396"time="00:57:54"/>Pacific Time today. <Sync id="L397"time="00:57:55"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L398"time="00:58:05"/>Joan is at (408) 974-4570 and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L399"time="00:58:14"/>Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L400"time="00:58:15"/>Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. <Sync id="L401"time="00:58:19"/>We do thank everyone for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2017-Jan-31-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,543 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2017 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 31, 2017 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR
+ * Tim Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Amit Daryanani
+   RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Shannon Cross
+   Cross Research - Analyst
+ * Katy Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Brian White
+   Drexel Hamilton - Analyst
+ * Steve Milunovich
+   UBS - Analyst
+ * Toni Sacconaghi
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Simona Jankowski
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 1Q17 revenues of $78.4b, net income of $17.9b and diluted EPS of $3.36. Expects 2Q17 revenues to be $51.5-53.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 1Q17 revenue = $78.4b.
+    2. 1Q17 net income = $17.9b.
+    3. 1Q17 diluted EPS = $3.36.
+    4. 1Q17 GM = 38.5%.
+    5. 1Q17-end cash plus marketable securities = $246.1b.
+    6. 1Q17 share repurchase = 44.3m AAPL shares for $5b.
+    7. 2Q17 revenue guidance = $51.5-53.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 1Q17 Review (T.C.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Overview:
+          1. Generated highest quarterly revenue in Co.'s history, along with all-time:
+               1. Unit and revenue records for iPhone and Apple Watch.
+               2. Revenue records for Services and Mac.
+               3. Revenue records for four out of five geographic segments.
+          2. Strong business performance produced all-time record EPS.
+          3. Revenue $78.4b.
+               1. Above top of guidance range.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Had tremendous qtr. due to exceptional demand that beat Co.'s own internal expectations.
+          2. While iPhone 7 is Co.'s most popular model, saw especially strong demand for iPhone 7 Plus, which was a higher portion of new product mix than Co. has ever seen with Plus models in past.
+          3. iPhone 7 Plus:
+               1. Demand exceeded supply throughout qtr.
+                    1. Came into supply-demand balance in Jan.
+               2. Earned rave reviews for its advanced new features, especially dual camera system.
+                    1. This is uniquely AAPL feature.
+          4. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus are empowering customers to be more productive, more engaged and more expressive than ever by integrating hardware, software and services to create experiences that only Co. can deliver.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Best qtr. ever.
+          2. Revenue almost $7.2b.
+          3. App Store customers broke all-time records, including $3b in purchases in Dec. alone making it the App Store's single best month ever.
+          4. Innovative and vibrant developer community has created over 2.2m apps.
+               1. Co.'s developer community has now earned over $60b, including over $20b in 2016 alone.
+          5. Music business revenue grew for third qtr. in a row.
+          6. AppleCare and iCloud storage services had all-time record results.
+          7. Apple Pay continued its strong momentum, with number of users more than tripling over past year, and hundreds of millions of transactions and billions of dollars in purchases in Dec. qtr. alone.
+               1. Transaction volume up over 500% YoverY as Co. expanded to four new countries including Japan, Russia, New Zealand and Spain, bringing AAPL into a total of 13 markets.
+          8. Apple Pay on web is delivering partners great results.
+               1. Nearly 2m small businesses are accepting invoice payments with Apple Pay through Intuit QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks and other billing partners.
+               2. Beginning this qtr., Comcast customers can pay their monthly bill in single touch with Apple Pay.
+          9. Services are becoming a larger part of business.
+               1. Expects revenues to be the size of Fortune 100 co. this year.
+          10. Services offerings are now driving over 150m paid customer subscriptions.
+               1. Includes Co.'s own services and third-party content AAPL offers on stores.
+          11. Goal is to double the size of Services business in next four years.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Returned to growth.
+          2. Generated its highest quarterly revenue ever.
+          3. Latest data shows that most Mac customers are buying their first Mac with vast majority of them coming from Windows PC.
+          4. New MacBook Touch with Touch Bar is an example of innovation made possible by integrating world-class hardware and software.
+          5. Co. was supply constraint for new MacBook Pro throughout Dec. qtr. and just now coming into supply-demand balance.
+     5. Others:
+          1. Best qtr. ever for Apple Watch, units and revenues, with holiday demand so strong that Co. couldn't make enough.
+               1. Apple Watch is best-selling smartwatch in the world and most loved with highest customer satisfaction in its category by a wide margin.
+               2. Apple Watch is ultimate device for healthy life and it's gold standard for smartwatches.
+          2. Thrilled with response to AirPod.
+               1. They are far ahead of anything else on market today.
+               2. Working hard to catch up with incredible demand.
+          3. Ecosystem is broadening to more areas where people spend their time; at gym, on the go, in home and on job.
+               1. Every major automaker is committed to supporting CarPlay with over 200 different models announced, including five of top 10 selling models in US.
+                    1. There are well over 1m people using CarPlay now and this continues to grow rapidly.
+               2. Leading the industry by being first to integrate home automation into a major platform with iOS 10.
+                    1. With Siri and new Home app in iOS 10, everywhere one goes, one can easily and securely control all home accessories with iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch.
+                    2. Number of home kit compatible accessories continues to grow rapidly with many solutions announced this month, including video cameras, motion detectors and sensors for doors, windows and water leaks.
+                    3. Co. is unmatched when it comes to securing home with HomeKit enabled door locks, garage doors and alarm systems.
+          4. Making great progress in enterprise market alongside major partners.
+               1. Combination of iOS and Cisco technology is giving companies everywhere the opportunity to vastly improve user experience for their mobile employees.
+               2. With enhanced networking performance up to eight times faster roaming, better reliability for apps and native voice experience, excited about how much more productive the workforce will be with these great capabilities.
+               3. Total number of joint customer opportunities has grown over 70% since last qtr.
+               4. Enterprises are using IBM's new Mobile at Scale design and development model to deploying multiple iOS apps with speed and efficiency.
+               5. Finnair is transforming aircraft maintenance and [FIMIX] is revamping activities from attracting new client to invoicing to after sales support.
+               6. Later this spring, SAP will be rolling out its SDK for iOS providing its community of more than 2.5m developers the tools to build powerful native iOS apps that leverage SAP HANA Cloud Platform.
+               7. These partnerships are making it even easier for enterprise customers to transform how work gets done with iOS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 1Q17 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $78.4b.
+               1. Highest quarterly revenue in Co.'s history.
+               2. Above guidance range.
+          2. Strength of results was broad based as Co. set new revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch.
+          3. Established new all-time revenue records in most developed and emerging markets with strong growth rates in many countries, including US, Japan, Canada, France, Australia, Brazil, India, Turkey and Russia.
+               1. Accomplished all this despite challenging FX environment due to continued strength of US dollar.
+          4. As expected, YoverY performance in Greater China improved significantly relative to Sept. qtr.
+               1. Total Greater China segment revenue down 12%, but revenue from mainland China was even with all-time record results from a year ago and grew in constant-currency terms.
+          5. In all other geographic segments, generated all-time quarterly record results.
+          6. Has benefit of 14th week, but this was offset by four factors.
+               1. This year, grew channel inventory significantly less than a year ago.
+               2. iPhone 7 launched earlier in Sept. qtr. vs. iPhone 6s launch the previous year, creating more difficult comparison for Dec. qtr. this year.
+               3. Stronger US dollar affected total revenue growth this year by 100 BP.
+               4. Year ago revenue included benefit of one-off $548m patent infringement payment.
+          7. Strong customer interest left Co. in supply-demand imbalance for several products throughout qtr. this year.
+          8. GM 38.5%.
+               1. At high-end of guidance range.
+          9. Operating margin 29.8% of revenue.
+          10. Net income $17.9b.
+          11. Diluted EPS $3.36.
+               1. New all-time record.
+          12. Cash flow from operations $27.1b.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 78.3m units.
+               1. New all-time record.
+               2. Up 5% YoverY.
+          2. Customer demand was even higher than reported results, as iPhone unit sell-through up 8%.
+          3. Saw double-digit iPhone growth in US, Canada, Western Europe, Japan and Australia, and even stronger growth in many emerging markets, including Brazil, Turkey, Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, and Vietnam.
+          4. ASP increased to $695 in Dec. qtr. from $619 in Sept. qtr., driven by strong product mix and success of iPhone 7 Plus.
+          5. Despite stronger demand than last year, added 1.2m units of iPhone channel inventory across the qtr.
+               1. Significantly less than increase of 3.3m units a year ago.
+               2. Exited qtr. near low-end of 5-7 week target channel inventory range.
+          6. Customer interest and satisfaction with iPhone are exceptional with consumers and business users.
+               1. In US, latest data from 451 Research on consumers indicates 97% customer satisfaction rating among all iPhone owners and 99% satisfaction rating for owners of iPhone 7 Plus.
+               2. Among corporate smartphone buyers, iPhone customer satisfaction rating was 94% and of those planning to purchase smartphones in March qtr., 78% plan to purchase iPhone.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $7.2b; all-time record.
+               1. Up 18% YoverY.
+          2. Run rate growth was actually higher when taking into account two discrete items.
+               1. 14th week added to services revenue this Dec. qtr.
+               2. That benefit was more than offset by comparison to one-off $548m patent infringement payment included in Services revenue a year ago.
+          3. App Store:
+               1. Continued its impressive run, breaking all previous revenue records.
+               2. YoverY revenue growth was 43% through first 13 weeks of qtr.
+               3. Avg. revenue per paying account and number of paying accounts grew strongly.
+               4. According to (inaudible) latest report, App Store revenue continues to outpace industry overall with more than double the revenue of Google Play in calendar 2016.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Sold 5.4m Macs.
+               1. Generated highest-ever quarterly Mac revenue.
+          2. Reported double-digit unit growth in several countries, including Japan, mainland China, India, The Netherlands and Sweden, and in US education market.
+          3. Ended qtr. at low-end of 4-5 week target range for Mac channel inventory.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Sold 13.1m units.
+               1. Ahead of expectations.
+               2. Posted double-digit growth in mainland China and India as Co. has expanded distribution channels in those countries and continues to attract high percentage of first-time tablet buyers.
+          2. Reduced channel inventory by about 700,000 units as opposed to an increase of 900,000 units last year.
+               1. Exited qtr. near low-end of 5-7 week target range.
+          3. iPad is incredibly successful in segments of tablet market where Co. competes, in terms of market share and customer metrics.
+          4. Recent data from NPD indicates that iPad had 85% share of US market for tablets priced above $200.
+          5. In Nov., 451 Research measured 94% consumer satisfaction rate for iPad mini and 97% rate for iPad Air and 96% for iPad Pro.
+          6. Among US consumers planning to purchase a tablet within next six months, purchase intention for iPad is more than four times higher than any other brand measured with iPad Pro once again top choice for planned purchases.
+          7. Corporate buyers reported 96% satisfaction rate and purchase intent of 66% for March qtr.
+          8. Businesses of all sizes are choosing iPad and iPhone to help them reimagining their everyday activities.
+          9. Seeing strong momentum in sectors like retail, where iOS solutions are being deployed for everything from product development to logistics to mobile point-of-sale.
+          10. Companies like Toys "R" Us, Coach and Kate Spade are using iOS and Co.'s Mobility Partner solutions to dramatically transform customer and employee experiences.
+          11. Retail stores experienced strong double-digit growth in visitors and revenue.
+               1. Expanding global presence with plans to open first store in Singapore and second store in Dubai soon.
+               2. Continually updating stores and adding new exciting outreach programs to educate kids on Co.'s products, entertain community with fresh light music, teach future Swift developers to code and empower entrepreneurs to start, grow and evolve their businesses.
+     6. Cash Position:
+          1. 1Q17-end cash plus marketable securities $246.1b, sequential increase of $8.5b.
+               1. $230.2b of this cash or 94% of total was outside US.
+          2. Had $77.1b in term debt and $10.5b in commercial paper outstanding at qtr.-end.
+          3. Returned almost $15b to investors for capital return activities.
+               1. Paid $3.1b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. Spent $5b on repurchases of 44.3m AAPL shares through open market transactions.
+               3. Launched new $6b ASR, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 44.8m shares.
+               4. Completed eighth accelerated share repurchase program, retiring additional 4.4m shares.
+               5. This led to net diluted share count reduction of 65.3m shares.
+          4. Now completed $201b of current $250b capital return program, including $144b in share repurchases.
+          5. Effective tax rate 26%, as expected.
+     7. March Qtr. Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $51.5-53.5b.
+               1. Includes $1.2b YoverY headwind from FX.
+          2. GM 38-39%.
+               1. Includes 80 BP sequential headwind from FX.
+          3. OpEx $6.5-6.6b.
+          4. OI&E about $400m.
+          5. Tax rate about 26%.
+     8. Others:
+          1. On 01/31/17, Board of Directors has declared cash dividend of $0.57 per share of common stock, payable on 02/16/17 to shareholders of record as of 02/13/17.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L147"/>(Operator Instructions)
+<Sync id="L148"/>Katy Huberty, Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L149"/>Yes, thank you. <Sync id="L150"/>First, Luca, what are the factors that caused you to widen the gross margin guidance for the March quarter, and what are the one or two factors that put you at the low end versus the tailwinds that might put you at the high end of that range? <Sync id="L151"/>Then I have a follow-up, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L152"/>Sure, Katy, well if you look back at our history, 100 basis points range for gross margin is not unusual. <Sync id="L153"/>Clearly during a period when foreign exchange is very volatile we think it's more prudent to broaden the range, to broaden the range a bit. <Sync id="L154"/>I've mentioned that we expect, assuming that rates don't move too much, we expect foreign exchange to be a major negative as we move from the December to the March quarter. <Sync id="L155"/>You know that the dollar appreciated significantly towards the end of the December quarter, and so we got 80 basis points of sequential headwind from foreign exchange.
+<Sync id="L156"/>We also have the sequential loss of leverage which is typical of our seasonality, but we expect to offset these two impacts with cost efficiencies and also with our mix of products and services. <Sync id="L157"/>So obviously if the dollar is a little less strong than it is today, we could do a bit better on gross margins. <Sync id="L158"/>Obviously we continue to work very hard on our cost efficiency, so we'll see where we land.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy Huberty,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L159"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L160"/>And Tim, there's a reasonable probability that you may get access to the $200 billion plus of cash that's been locked overseas. <Sync id="L161"/>So I think it would be helpful to just get an update on your views around potentially larger M&A and some of the areas of interest that you've noted in the past, like owning more original content to penetrate more of the TV opportunity that the company has long talked about addressing. <Sync id="L162"/>Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L163"/>Yes, Katy, I am optimistic given what I'm hearing that there would likely be some sort of tax reform this year, and it does seem like there's people in both parties that would favor a repatriation as a part of that. <Sync id="L164"/>So I think that's very good for the country and good for Apple. <Sync id="L165"/>What we would do with it, let's wait and see exactly what it is, but as I've said before we are always looking at acquisitions. <Sync id="L166"/>We acquired 15-20 companies per year for the last four years, and we look for companies of all sizes, and there's not a size that we would not do based on just the size of it. <Sync id="L167"/>It's more about the strategic value of it.
+<Sync id="L168"/>In terms of original content, we put our toe in the water, we have put our toe in the water with doing some original content for Apple Music, and that will be rolling out through the year. <Sync id="L169"/>We are learning from that and we'll go from there. <Sync id="L170"/>The way that we participate in the sort of the changes that are going on in the media industry that I fully expect to accelerate from sort of the cable bundle beginning to break down is one, we started the new Apple TV a year ago, and we're pleased with how that platform has come along. <Sync id="L171"/>We had more things planned for but it's come a long way in a year and it gives us a clear platform to build off of.
+<Sync id="L172"/>Two, embedded in the 150 million paid subscriptions that I mentioned in my opening comments, there are a number of third party services that are a part of that where we participate economically in some of that by offering our platform and selling and distributing. <Sync id="L173"/>And then thirdly, we are obviously with our toe in the water we're learning a lot about the original content business and thinking about ways that we could play in that. <Sync id="L174"/>Thanks for the question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L175"/>Thanks, Katy. <Sync id="L176"/>Could we have the next question please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L177"/>Amit Daryanani, RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L178"/>Thanks a lot, good afternoon, guys. <Sync id="L179"/>First question, really appreciate the information you guys are providing around your Services business which was up 18% year-over-year. <Sync id="L180"/>Could you just talk about how much of that do you think is growth in your install base versus increased monetization on a per iOS [device] spaces? <Sync id="L181"/>It's weird to think about those in two separate terms.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L182"/>I think you're absolutely right, Amit. <Sync id="L183"/>We look at it, those are the two key elements for us. <Sync id="L184"/>And what is particularly interesting to us is to see that the number of people that are transacting on our stores is increasing strong double digits, and we're also seeing that the ARPU per paying customer is increasing double digits, right? <Sync id="L185"/>So it's a combination of the two, obviously the quality and the quantity of content that we make available in our Services improves all the time. <Sync id="L186"/>And we also see that as people getting to the platform and start transacting on the platform, and we keep track of their behavior over time, we actually see that they tend to spend more and more over time. <Sync id="L187"/>And that's why we are excited about the future of the Services business and that's why as Tim said, we have a goal that it's already become a very large business. <Sync id="L188"/>It's going to be a Fortune 100 company this year, but we have a goal to double it over the next four years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L189"/>Perfect. <Sync id="L190"/>If I could just switch gears on a follow-up. <Sync id="L191"/>There's been a fair amount of discussions around your market share in China and what's happening over there. <Sync id="L192"/>Your numbers actually look fairly impressive in Greater China, China specifically. <Sync id="L193"/>So could you talk about what are the demand trends you're seeing there on the ground, and how do you see that transpire through the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L194"/>I'll take this one. <Sync id="L195"/>If you look at how we did in the quarter, as I think Luca shared, our Greater China revenue was down 12% and about four points of that was currency related. <Sync id="L196"/>So it's an eight-point decline in constant currency. <Sync id="L197"/>And then within Greater China if you look at the PRC, our revenue was flat year-over-year, and that was against the all-time record quarter. <Sync id="L198"/>And if you look at that on a constant currency basis it was actually up six. <Sync id="L199"/>So it's a significantly better performance on sort of every way you look at it, versus what we had experienced the prior three quarters.
+<Sync id="L200"/>Underneath that, what we've seen is that iPhone 7 was the best selling smartphone in China during the quarter, according to Kantar. <Sync id="L201"/>Singles Day which is a huge day in China as you know, we were the most popular US brand on Alibaba. <Sync id="L202"/>We set a new record for Services in China as the company did. <Sync id="L203"/>And Mac revenue was up double digit year-over-year. <Sync id="L204"/>iPad units were also up double digit in Mainland China which was obviously different than the trend that we saw in the balance of the world. <Sync id="L205"/>We also saw 50% of our iPhone sales in China were to switchers and first time buyers, which is a very high number that we're pleased with. <Sync id="L206"/>And then obviously our total install base continues to grow there in the strong double digits.
+<Sync id="L207"/>That said, the challenges that are there, one, the currency has devalued 6% year-over-year, and two, Hong Kong remains a very, very difficult market. <Sync id="L208"/>And so I look at it and I'm encouraged with the significant improvement, but we're not without challenges there and I wouldn't want to imply that, although I do like many, many things that I've seen and how broad-based the pluses were across our product line.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L209"/>Thank you, Amit. <Sync id="L210"/>Can we have the next question please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L211"/>Shannon Cross, Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L212"/>Thank you very much for taking my question. <Sync id="L213"/>Can you talk a bit more about the Services business? <Sync id="L214"/>And what I'm trying to figure out is I think the number was you're going to be doubling within the next four years, or at least that's your expectation. <Sync id="L215"/>So what gets you there? <Sync id="L216"/>Maybe if you talk about geographies and how penetrated you are in certain geographies? <Sync id="L217"/>And then as you grow your Services business, is there anything we should keep in mind from a margin perspective? <Sync id="L218"/>Would these be lower-margin services or similar, just so we can think about the trajectory and the contribution to bottom line?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L219"/>Yes, Shannon, I'll take it. <Sync id="L220"/>Obviously within the Services business we have a number of categories. <Sync id="L221"/>The App Store is the one that is driving significant growth right now. <Sync id="L222"/>I said in my opening comments that we grew 43%, 13 weeks, over 13 weeks we grew own more for the quarter, right? <Sync id="L223"/>And what we like about the App Store is that it's truly a global platform, so we are seeing significant growth not only in the developed markets where you expect to see a lot of transaction volume, but we see great growth in places like China for example.
+<Sync id="L224"/>And we know that there are parts of the world where we can do better. <Sync id="L225"/>We can grow, for example, our developer community in a number of emerging markets. <Sync id="L226"/>And so as we look, as I was explaining earlier, as we look at the number of people that transact growing double digits, we see the amount spent per paid account growing so well, we think that the App Store is going to be a significant driver of growth.
+<Sync id="L227"/>On the music front, we are the market leader in digital music and obviously now by having the combination of the download business with the streaming service, which we didn't have until recently, we've been able to bring our music business back to growth, we've grown over the last three quarters, and we feel very good about that.
+<Sync id="L228"/>Tim has talked about original content. <Sync id="L229"/>We've had very good success with exclusives, so we know that it's another business that we can grow. <Sync id="L230"/>Our iCloud storage business is growing very quickly, and so that is a business that also at the geographic level we can continue to grow significantly. <Sync id="L231"/>Our AppleCare business is growing very well.
+<Sync id="L232"/>A lot of it comes from the fact that our install base of devices around the world continues to grow very well, from double digits and as we've explained in the past, the vast majority of the service that we provide is not driven by what we sell during the last 90 days. <Sync id="L233"/>It's much more driven by the install base and that gives us a tail wind.
+<Sync id="L234"/>We're also opening up several new markets because we're accepting new forms of payment and therefore it's easier for, particularly for international customers to take advantage of our services.
+<Sync id="L235"/>You were asking about the margin profile. <Sync id="L236"/>We said it many times, in aggregate, our Services business tends to have margins that are above company averages. <Sync id="L237"/>They are accretive so they help us quite a bit from a margin standpoint. <Sync id="L238"/>Within the Services business, we have very different margin profiles also because as you know we account for some of these services in different ways. <Sync id="L239"/>In some cases we transact on a buy-sell basis, in other cases we perform as agents, for example, to our developers, right? <Sync id="L240"/>And that drives different margin percentages.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Cross,  Cross Research - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L241"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L242"/>And then my follow-up is in terms of elasticity of demand and some of the moves from a currency perspective. <Sync id="L243"/>I think in the past there was some concern in some of the emerging markets that you were basically not able to -- you weren't getting the volumes because you had to raise ASPs given currency, but you talked a lot about the emerging markets actually doing pretty well this quarter. <Sync id="L244"/>So I'm just curious, you raised the price on the iPhone 7 Plus, and what are you seeing and what are your customers saying in terms of willingness to pay up?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L245"/>Well Shannon, I was looking back since June of 2014, so we're talking about two and a half years ago, the dollar has strengthened 25% against the basket of currencies where we do business. <Sync id="L246"/>And so obviously it is a difficult situation for us. <Sync id="L247"/>I mentioned that foreign exchange is a significant headwind for us, both at the revenue level and at the gross margin level.
+<Sync id="L248"/>In emerging markets, it's incredible. <Sync id="L249"/>The level of interest for our products continues to be phenomenal. <Sync id="L250"/>The brand continues to be very aspirational. <Sync id="L251"/>There's more and more people that can afford our products around the world. <Sync id="L252"/>The middle class is growing in places like China, India, Brazil, but certainly strong dollar doesn't help us and therefore when we make pricing decisions, we need to be very careful. <Sync id="L253"/>We always want to find the optimal balance between units, revenue, and margin, and it becomes more difficult as the dollar appreciates.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L254"/>Thank you, Shannon. <Sync id="L255"/>Could we have the next question please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L256"/>Brian White, Drexel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian White,  Drexel Hamilton - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L257"/>Yes, Luca, I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about gross margins. <Sync id="L258"/>Sales obviously beat the high end of your revenue range, it looks like gross margins was dead down the middle. <Sync id="L259"/>Can you talk about the puts and takes in gross margins in the quarter please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L260"/>Sure. <Sync id="L261"/>We were actually at the high end of the range for gross margins. <Sync id="L262"/>We had guided 38 to 38.5, and we came in at 38.5 exactly. <Sync id="L263"/>And really, the slight improvement over the mid point of the guidance range was due to the fact that our revenue was ahead of our expectations. <Sync id="L264"/>And so we got a bit more leverage out of the increased revenue levels. <Sync id="L265"/>We feel very good about the gross margins for the quarter. <Sync id="L266"/>Again keep in mind the strong dollar that doesn't help us on that front.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian White,  Drexel Hamilton - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L267"/>Okay. <Sync id="L268"/>And Tim, I didn't hear much mention about India. <Sync id="L269"/>How did India perform with the iPhone, and how should we think about it for 2017 especially with the 4G network going up?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L270"/>That's a really good question. <Sync id="L271"/>Despite the demonetization move in India that created lots of economic pressure there last quarter, despite that, we had all-time record revenue results. <Sync id="L272"/>And so we were very happy about that. <Sync id="L273"/>The demonetization impact has not worked its way through yet. <Sync id="L274"/>It's still definitely having some overhang, but I think in the longer term it's a great move and I feel really good about how we're doing there. <Sync id="L275"/>We are in discussions on a number of things including retail stores, and fully intend to invest significantly in the country and believe it's a great place to be.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L276"/>Thank you, Brian. <Sync id="L277"/>Could we have the next question please?\
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L278"/>Simona Jankowski, Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L279"/>Hi, thank you. <Sync id="L280"/>I wanted to dig in a little bit more into the iPhone upside in the quarter, with record revenues in every region except for Greater China. <Sync id="L281"/>I think it touched on the percent of switchers in China, but can you give a little more color on the split of upgrades and switchers in some of the other regions, and overall as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L282"/>Yes, Simona, it's Tim. <Sync id="L283"/>We did have an exceptional quarter with iPhone, and that was with the back drop of not predicting the demand very well in the iPhone 7 Plus and therefore being in constraint on it through the quarter. <Sync id="L284"/>If you look at the absolute number of upgraders, it was the highest that we've seen in any quarter. <Sync id="L285"/>And if you look at the switcher number, it's the highest that we've seen in any quarter. <Sync id="L286"/>If you look at the upgrade rate, it's similar to last year. <Sync id="L287"/>However, I think the big asterisk, and I share all this with you for transparency's sake, but I would tell you that the way we look at this is, in a quarter where you have a supply constraint, it's difficult to draw too many conclusions from it, but I wanted to share that with you anyway so you have the back drop.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L288"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L289"/>And then just one follow-up on China specifically. <Sync id="L290"/>As your comps get easier this year, I was curious if you think you're going to be returning to growth in that region? <Sync id="L291"/>And then just to give us the context I know you talked about the 6% constant currency increase in revenue in Mainland China, but curious if you strip out the double digit increase in iPad and MacBook and potentially the mix shift to the 7 Plus, curious what underlying iPhone units did in Mainland China?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L292"/>That's a big question. <Sync id="L293"/>I don't have the answer in front of me. <Sync id="L294"/>If you look at 7 Plus, it was the most popular Plus model that we've ever had. <Sync id="L295"/>It set a unit record, so that I can share. <Sync id="L296"/>In terms of how are we going to do, we don't provide guidance at the segment level, but sitting here today for Q2 I wouldn't expect the year-over-year performance to be dramatically different than the year-over-year performance in Q1. <Sync id="L297"/>The real comp really begins in the following quarter to a more significant degree, and we'll have to see how that plays out as we get closer to it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L298"/>Thank you, Simona. <Sync id="L299"/>Can we have the next question please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L300"/>Toni Sacconaghi, Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L301"/>Yes, thank you. <Sync id="L302"/>I just wanted to better understand the upgrade rate dynamics. <Sync id="L303"/>So I think iPhone units on a sell-through basis were up about 8%. <Sync id="L304"/>You had an extra week which gave you about 8%. <Sync id="L305"/>I understand there were differences of the timing of the launch. <Sync id="L306"/>So making all those adjustments it looks like iPhone units were probably up low single digits. <Sync id="L307"/>But Luca, you alluded to the fact your install base is growing double digits. <Sync id="L308"/>So that would suggest to me that the upgrade rate, the upgrade percentage is actually declining. <Sync id="L309"/>And more specifically, I'd just like your broader perspective on how investors should think about upgrade rates. <Sync id="L310"/>It looked like they peaked in the iPhone 6 cycle, and it looks like they've been extending, going lower, replacement cycles have been extending over the last couple of years. <Sync id="L311"/>I think some of the US carriers alluded to that as well.
+<Sync id="L312"/>So I'm wondering if you could step back and just talk a little bit more broadly about how investors should think about -- or what the trajectory's been over the last two years, and how investors should think going forward? <Sync id="L313"/>Do you believe there are opportunities for that upgrade rate to improve, or replacement cycles to accelerate going forward? <Sync id="L314"/>And what are some of the considerations we should think about?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L315"/>Well it's a good question. <Sync id="L316"/>A number of points that I want to make, starting with the growth in the install base of iPhones. <Sync id="L317"/>Yes, it's growing strong double digits and that's very good for us for a number of reasons, including the fact that it's a big driver for our Services business.
+<Sync id="L318"/>When we look at it geographically, I think we see different developments. <Sync id="L319"/>For example, we felt very, very good about the unit growth that we had in many markets around the world. <Sync id="L320"/>You've been quoting an overall total company growth rate, but when we look at it on a country specific level, there were a lot of countries, I would say the majority of the countries, where iPhone units grew strong double digits, starting here in the United States where, for example, the fact that annual upgrade programs are becoming more and more popular is proving to be a positive for us.
+<Sync id="L321"/>Same happened in a number of countries around the world starting with Canada and Australia, but also many places in Western Europe as well. <Sync id="L322"/>Japan grew double digits in terms of units. <Sync id="L323"/>So I think geographically, we are seeing very, very good performance, and the point that I think I need to make when you think about upgrade rates, clearly this issue of the strong dollar doesn't help us. <Sync id="L324"/>Could we sell significantly more or significantly faster from an upgrade cycle standpoint in places outside the United States where we've had, we've been forced to increase prices by up to 20%, 30%, 40% in certain countries? <Sync id="L325"/>When you think about the impact that this is having on local demand, obviously, that doesn't help us. <Sync id="L326"/>But overall, I would say as Tim said, when we look at the upgrade rate for -- and we look at it from the standpoint of the new phones, the new generation of phones, the upgrade rate, the percentage of people that have upgraded to the new phone has been very similar to what we've seen last year. <Sync id="L327"/>The 6 cycle was certainly a phenomenal cycle. <Sync id="L328"/>There was pent-up demand for the larger screen phones. <Sync id="L329"/>And certainly as we look ahead, we have a role to play. <Sync id="L330"/>The more we're able to innovate with new generations of products, clearly that plays a role in the upgrade rate.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni Sacconaghi,  Bernstein - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L331"/>Okay, thank you. <Sync id="L332"/>Tim, I have a question for you. <Sync id="L333"/>Back in April 2012, you said on one of these earnings calls that, I've always hated litigation and I continue to hate it, and I highly prefer to settle versus battle. <Sync id="L334"/>Yet you recently decided to initiate a lawsuit against Qualcomm. <Sync id="L335"/>I'm wondering if you can comment on the ostensible change or departure from this viewpoint, and what would be a successful end result of this litigation, and whether you can confirm whether there's any potential gross margin risk in the future as a result of this litigation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L336"/>I feel the same way I did in April of 2012. <Sync id="L337"/>I don't like litigation and view it as a last resort. <Sync id="L338"/>And so you should take from our filing that we viewed it as we didn't see another way forward. <Sync id="L339"/>They were insisting on charging royalties for technologies that they had nothing to do with. <Sync id="L340"/>And so we were in a situation where the more we innovated with unique features like Touch ID or advanced displays or cameras, just to name a few, the more money Qualcomm would collect for no reason, and the more expensive it would be therefore for us to innovate. <Sync id="L341"/>And so it's somewhat like buying a sofa, and you charge somebody a different price depending upon the price of the house that it goes into. <Sync id="L342"/>From our point of view, this doesn't make sense and we don't believe it will pass muster in the courts.
+<Sync id="L343"/>In addition to that, as a part of their increasingly radical steps they were taking to try to hold up that model, they withheld a billion dollars in payments that they owed us. <Sync id="L344"/>And so we felt like we had no choice was the net of it. <Sync id="L345"/>In terms of where it goes, we'll see. <Sync id="L346"/>I don't like litigation and so if there's another way, then that would be great. <Sync id="L347"/>But at this point, I don't see it. <Sync id="L348"/>I fully expect at this point in time that it will take some time, but in the end, I think common sense will prevail and the courts will see it for what it is. <Sync id="L349"/>And so that's the way I see it. <Sync id="L350"/>Thanks for your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L351"/>Thank you, Toni. <Sync id="L352"/>Can we have the next question please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L353"/>Steve Milunovich, UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L354"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L355"/>First I wanted to ask about the iPad. <Sync id="L356"/>It looked like it was about to turn possibly even positive, and you said it was above your plan, but I think it was pretty well below the street's expectations. <Sync id="L357"/>And the ASP deteriorated pretty significantly, I don't know if it's a mix shift. <Sync id="L358"/>But maybe you can talk about the iPad and what you see going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L359"/>The iPad, Steve, we had a 1.6 million unit swing on channel inventory between the years. <Sync id="L360"/>In the year ago quarter, we increased by 900. <Sync id="L361"/>In this quarter we decreased by 700. <Sync id="L362"/>On top of that, and from an ASP point of view, in the year ago quarter we launched the iPad Pro 13 Edge. <Sync id="L363"/>That would be the iPad with obviously the highest price on it. <Sync id="L364"/>We would have done the channel fill plus the launch of the product, and so that would have bolstered the ASPs in that particular quarter. <Sync id="L365"/>In addition to all of that, we did under call the number of iPads that would be in demand for the quarter, and that compounded a shortage issue that we had with one of our suppliers. <Sync id="L366"/>And so all in all, there was quite a few things going on there.
+<Sync id="L367"/>If I sort of zoom out of the 90 day clock and look at it, we've got some exciting things coming on iPad. <Sync id="L368"/>I still feel very optimistic about where we can take the product. <Sync id="L369"/>When we look at the number of people buying iPads for the first time, which is a good thing to look at from a point of view of whether things are reaching penetration point or not, the numbers indicate that it's not close to that kind of thing. <Sync id="L370"/>The customer sat numbers are through the roof. <Sync id="L371"/>Literally the customer sat for the iPad Pro is 99%. <Sync id="L372"/>It's stunning. <Sync id="L373"/>And so I see a lot of good things and hope for better results, but we are still currently in this shortage issue now, and I'm not projecting to get out of that totally during the quarter. <Sync id="L374"/>And so it will damper this quarter somewhat. <Sync id="L375"/>But again, beyond the 90 day clock, I'm very bullish on iPad.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich,  UBS - Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L376"/>Okay, that's great, thank you. <Sync id="L377"/>And then, Tim, investors tend to think of the iPhone as mature and technology improvement is incremental, yet I believe you think there's plenty of runway left in terms of appealing new features. <Sync id="L378"/>Do you think there are future enhancements coming that will be viewed by material by users, and particularly changes beyond foreign factor, beyond the way the phone looks? <Sync id="L379"/>Are there functional things coming over time that you think could surprise people?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L380"/>I think the smartphone is still in the early innings of the game. <Sync id="L381"/>I think there's lots more to do. <Sync id="L382"/>I think its become -- every year it becomes more important to people's lives, and there's more things people are doing with it. <Sync id="L383"/>I talked a little bit about home automation, but I could have talked about health, I could have talked more about CarPlay, the use of it in the enterprise is growing significantly. <Sync id="L384"/>And so when I look at all of these things, usage going up, app developers still innovating, we've got some exciting things in the pipeline, I feel really, really good about it. <Sync id="L385"/>So this is one -- we think different about a bunch of things, so maybe this is just one more.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L386"/>Thank you, Steve. <Sync id="L387"/>A replay of today's call will be available for two weeks as a podcast on the iTunes Store, the webcast on Apple.com/investor, and via telephone. <Sync id="L388"/>The numbers for the telephone replay are 888-203-1112 or 719-457-0820. <Sync id="L389"/>Please enter confirmation code 3378275. <Sync id="L390"/>And these replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L391"/>Pacific Time today.
+<Sync id="L392"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at 408-974-2414 and financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L393"/>Joan is at 408-974-4570, and I'm at 408-974-5420. <Sync id="L394"/>Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L395"/>Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. <Sync id="L396"/>We do thank everyone for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcripts/AAPL/2017-May-02-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,528 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2017 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+MAY 02, 2017 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO and SVP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO and Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Steven Mark Milunovich
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst
+ * Simona Kiritsov Jankowski
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst
+ * Roderick B. Hall
+   JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - VP and Senior Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 2Q17 revenue of $52.9b, net income of $11b and diluted EPS of $2.10. Expects 3Q17 revenue to be $43.5-45.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 2Q17 revenue = $52.9b.
+    2. 2Q17 net income = $11b.
+    3. 2Q17 diluted EPS = $2.10.
+    4. 2Q17 GM = 38.9%.
+    5. 2Q17-end cash plus marketable securities = $256.8b.
+    6. 2Q17 share repurchases = 31.1m AAPL shares for $4b.
+    7. 3Q17 revenue guidance = $43.5-45.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 2Q17 Business Review (T.C.) 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Reported strong results, with accelerating revenue growth and EPS up 10% YoverY.
+          2. Revenue $52.9b.
+               1. Near high-end of guidance range.
+               2. Global revenue up 5% YonY.
+                    1. Growth accelerated from Dec. qtr. performance, despite $1b YoverY revenue headwind from FX in March qtr. and larger iPhone channel inventory reduction this year vs. last year.
+               3. iPhone sales were in line with expectations.
+                    1. Active installed base of iPhones grew by double digits YoverY.
+                    2. Based on latest data from IDC, gained market share in nearly every country Co. tracks.
+          3. Late in qtr., released a stunning (PRODUCT)RED Special Edition versions of iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in recognition of 10 years of partnership with RED.
+     2. Services:
+          1. For second qtr. in a row, revenue topped $7b.
+               1. Well on the way to being size of Fortune 100 co.
+          2. App Store momentum is terrific.
+               1. Revenue grew 40% YoverY to all-time quarterly record.
+               2. Number of developers offering apps for sale on store up 26% over last year.
+          3. Saw double-digit revenue growth from Apple Music subscriptions and iCloud storage.
+               1. Overall, strong growth in total number of paid subscriptions for own services and third-party content Co. offers on stores.
+          4. Paid subscriptions now exceed 165m.
+          5. Apple Pay is experiencing phenomenal traction.
+               1. With launch of Taiwan and Ireland in March qtr., Apple Pay is now live in 15 markets with more than 20m contactless ready locations, including more than 4.5m locations accepting Apple Pay in US alone.
+               2. Seeing strong growing usage, as points of acceptance expand, with transaction volume up 450% over the last 12 months.
+                    1. In UK, points of acceptance have grown by 44% in last year, while monthly Apple Pay transactions have grown by nearly 300%.
+                    2. In Japan, where Apple Pay launched last Oct., more than 0.5m transit users are completing 20m Apple Pay transactions per month.
+          6. Seeing great momentum from powerful advances in Messages.
+               1. During Super Bowl in Feb., customers were sending 380,000 messages per second, more than double the previous year.
+          7. A few weeks ago, introduced Clips.
+     3. Mac:
+          1. Revenue grew 14% to new March qtr. record.
+          2. Gained market share due to strong demand for new MacBook Pros.
+          3. Generated over $25b in revenue over past four quarters.
+          4. Updated most popular sized iPad with brighter Retina display and best-in-class performance at most affordable price ever.
+               1. iPad results were ahead of expectation.
+               2. Believes Co. gained share during March qtr. in a number of major markets including:
+                    1. US.
+                    2. Japan.
+                    3. Australia.
+     4. Apple Watch:
+          1. Building on momentum from holiday qtr., sales nearly doubled YoverY.
+          2. Seeing great response to AirPods, with 98% customer satisfaction rating based on recent Creative Strategies survey.
+               1. Demand for AirPods significantly exceeds supply.
+          3. Growth in Beats products has been strong.
+          4. When Co. combines Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats headphones, revenue from wearable products in last four quarters was size of Fortune 500 co.
+     5. Greater China:
+          1. Saw strong double-digit revenue growth from:
+               1. Mac.
+               2. Services.
+          2. Had great results from retail stores in Mainland China, with total store revenue up 27% YoverY and comp store revenue up 7%.
+               1. These results contributed to improving performance in Greater China.
+          3. Through first two quarters of FY17, YoverY comparisons improved significantly over last two quarters of FY16.
+          4. 1H revenue down 13% YoverY.
+               1. About a third of which was attributable to FX.
+               2. Revenue declined 32% in 2H of last year.
+          5. March qtr. results were in line with expectations.
+               1. Similar to YoverY performance experienced in Dec. qtr.
+     6. India:
+          1. Set a new March qtr. record.
+          2. Revenue grew by strong double digits.
+          3. Continues to strengthen local presence across entire ecosystem.
+     7. Other Details:
+          1. With opening of newest store in Dubai this past weekend, now has 495 retail locations worldwide.
+               1. New [Apple] Dubai Mall is a truly international store, with employees who collectively speak 45 languages.
+          2. Capital return program:
+               1. Given strong confidence in future, increasing program size by $50b, bringing total to $300b.
+               2. Extending time frame through March 2019.
+               3. Adding to share repurchase authorization and increasing dividend for fifth time in less than five years.
+          3. Upcoming conference:
+               1. Worldwide Developers Conference taking place in San Jose next month.
+          4. Recently released 10th annual environmental responsibility report, reflecting amazing progress.
+          5. In 2016, 96% of electricity used at Co.'s global facilities came from renewable sources of energy, reducing carbon emissions by nearly 585,000 metric tons.
+               1. Co. is now 100% renewable in 24 countries, including all of Co.'s data centers.
+          6. Moving into new corporate headquarters, Apple Park, new center for innovation.
+               1. Main building on Apple Park is designed to house 13,000 employees under one roof in an environment that fosters even greater collaboration among incredibly talented teams.
+          7. Through innovative products and success of business, incredibly proud to support more than 2m jobs in all 50 states and Co. expects to create even more.
+          8. Last FY, spent more than $50b in United States with American suppliers, developers and partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 2Q17 Financials (L.M.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $52.9b.
+               1. Achieved double-digit growth in:
+                    1. US.
+                    2. Canada.
+                    3. Australia.
+                    4. Germany.
+                    5. Netherlands.
+                    6. Turkey.
+                    7. Russia.
+                    8. Mexico.
+               2. Growth rates were even higher, over 20%, in many other markets, including:
+                    1. Brazil.
+                    2. Scandinavia.
+                    3. Middle East.
+                    4. Central and Eastern Europe.
+                    5. India.
+                    6. Korea.
+                    7. Thailand.
+          2. GM 38.9%.
+               1. At high-end of guidance range.
+               2. Increased sequentially from 38.5% in Dec. quarter, which is particularly impressive, given seasonal loss of leverage, sequential FX headwinds of 100 BP and cost pressures on certain commodities.
+          3. Operating margin 26.7% of revenue.
+          4. Net income $11b.
+          5. Diluted EPS $2.10.
+               1. Increased 10% YoverY.
+          6. Cash flow from operations $12.5b; strong.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 50.8m.
+          2. Reduced iPhone channel inventory by 1.2m units vs. reduction of about 450,000 a year ago.
+               1. Performance was slightly better than last year on a sell-through basis.
+          3. Had solid iPhone growth in four of five operating segments.
+               1. Experienced especially strong results in Western Europe, the Middle East and rest of Asia Pacific segment, all areas of the world where iPhone sales were up double digits.
+          4. ASP $655.
+               1. Up from $642 a year ago due to strong mix of iPhone 7 Plus, despite unfavorable FX rates.
+          5. Exited March qtr. within 5-7 week target channel inventory range.
+          6. In US, latest data from 451 Research on consumers indicates 96% customer satisfaction rating among iPhone 7 owners and 98% for iPhone 7 Plus.
+          7. Among corporate smartphone buyers, iPhone customer satisfaction was 95%.
+               1. Of those planning to purchase smartphones in June quarter, 79% plan to purchase iPhone.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $7b.
+               1. Up 18% YoverY.
+               2. Best results ever for a [13-week] qtr.
+               3. Saw strong level of growth, especially given tough compare to last year as busy week between Christmas and New Year's fell within March qtr. a year ago but was included in Dec. qtr. this year.
+          2. Goal is to double the size of business by 2020.
+          3. App Store established new all-time revenue record.
+               1. Grew 40% YoverY.
+               2. Continues to see growth in avg. revenue per paying account and number of paying accounts across content stores during qtr.
+                    1. Quarterly increase in number of paying accounts was the largest that Co. has ever experienced.
+               3. According to App Annie's latest report, App Store continues to be the preferred destination for customer purchases, generating twice the revenue of Google Play during March qtr.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Revenue up 14% YoverY.
+               1. New March qtr. record.
+          2. Sold 4.2m Macs.
+               1. Up 4% YoverY vs. zero growth in PC market, according to IDC's latest forecast.
+          3. Demand for MacBook Pro was strong, helping to drive overall portables growth of 10%, twice the growth of portables margin.
+          4. Ended qtr. at low-end of 4-5 week target range for Mac channel inventory.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Sold 8.9m units.
+               1. Ahead of expectations, despite supply constraints throughout qtr.
+          2. Saw growth in US and revenue growth worldwide for 9.7-inch and larger iPads over last four quarters.
+          3. Channel inventory was essentially flat from beginning to end of qtr.
+               1. Exited just below 5-7 week target range.
+          4. Successful in segment of tablet market where Co. competes.
+          5. Recent data from NPD indicates that iPad had 81% share of US market for tablets priced above $200.
+          6. In February, 451 Research measured consumer satisfaction rates for iPad that ranged from 95% for 9.7-inch iPad Pro to 100% for the 12.9-inch version.
+          7. Among US consumers planning to purchase a tablet within next six months, purchase intention for iPad was 69%.
+               1. Corporate buyers reported 96% satisfaction rate and a purchase intent of 68% for June qtr.
+          8. All products continue to be popular and drive mobile transformation in enterprise market.
+               1. Set a new enterprise revenue record for March qtr.
+                    1. Expects this momentum to continue for remainder of the year.
+     6. Other Details:
+          1. Recently, Volkswagen selected iPhone as their corporate standard smartphone.
+               1. 620,000 employees around the world had the opportunity to enjoy best-in-class mobile experience that iPhone offers.
+          2. Capital One has reimagined customer banking experience by empowering their associates with Mac and Apple Watch and over 40 native iOS applications now running on nearly 30,000 iPhones and iPads.
+          3. Seeing strong momentum with enterprise partners who are helping deliver long-lasting innovation and differentiation for iOS vs. competing platforms.
+          4. Deloitte partnership is off to great start, with more than 115 customer opportunities in pipeline across 15 different industries.
+          5. SAP released SAP cloud platform, SDK for iOS at March-end, and over 3m SAP developers now have an even better means to develop powerful iOS native apps for enterprise.
+          6. Partnership with Cisco enables optimized performance of iOS devices over their networks and is generating a large and growing pipeline of sales opportunities across multiple verticals, including health care and financial services.
+          7. Partnership with IBM continues to drive greater productivity and innovation with IBM MobileFirst for iOS apps now in more than 3,300 client engagements.
+               1. With its Mobile at Scale offering, IBM recently closed an agreement to deploy 11,000 iOS devices at Santander Bank to drive digital transformation.
+     7. Retail & Online Stores:
+          1. Produced great results, with strong revenue growth in all geographic segments and 18% growth overall.
+          2. Visitors to retail and online stores up 16% YoverY.
+          3. Added four new stores during March qtr.
+          4. With opening of store in Dubai last week, Co. is now at 495 stores in 18 countries.
+     8. Cash:
+          1. 2Q17-end cash plus marketable securities $256.8b.
+               1. Increased $10.8b sequentially.
+               2. $239.6b of this cash, or 93% of total was outside US.
+          2. Issued $11b in debt.
+               1. Term debt $88.5b.
+               2. Commercial paper outstanding [$10b].
+          3. Returned over $10b to investors during the qtr.
+               1. Paid $3b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. Spent $4b on repurchases of 31.1m Co. shares through open market transactions.
+          4. Launched a new $3b ASR, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 17.5m shares.
+               1. Retired 6.3m shares upon the completion of ninth accelerated share repurchase program in February.
+          5. All aforementioned activities contributed to net diluted share count reduction of 66.3m shares.
+          6. Now completed $211.2b of $250b capital return program, including $151b in share repurchases.
+     9. Program Update:
+          1. Extending by four quarters through March 2019 and increasing size to total of $300b.
+          2. Given strong confidence in Co.'s future and value it sees in its stock, allocating majority of program expansion to share repurchases.
+               1. Board has increased share repurchase authorization by $35b, raising it from current $175b level to $210b.
+               2. Will continue to [net share settle vesting employees'] restricted stock units.
+          3. Raising dividend for fifth time in less than five years.
+               1. Quarterly dividend will grow from $0.57 per share to $0.63 per share.
+                    1. Up 10.5%.
+                    2. This is effective with next dividend, which the Board has declared on [05/02/17], payable on 05/18/17 to shareholders of record as of 05/15/17.
+               2. With over $12b in annual dividend payments, proud to be one of the largest dividend payers in the world.
+                    1. Continues to plan for annual dividend increases going forward.
+          4. With this updated program, during next eight quarters, expects to return $89b to investors.
+               1. Represents about 12% of market cap at current stock price.
+               2. Expects to continue to fund capital return program with current US cash, future US cash generation and borrowing from domestic and international debt markets.
+          5. Will continue to review capital allocation regularly, taking into account the needs of business, investment opportunities and financial outlook.
+     10. 3Q17 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $43.5-45.5b.
+          2. GM 37.5-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx $6.6-6.7b.
+          4. OI&E about $450m.
+          5. Tax rate about 25.5%.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L168"time="00:25:48"/>(Operator Instructions) First, we'll hear from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L169"time="00:25:54"/>My first question is for Luca around gross margin. <Sync id="L170"time="00:25:57"/>How were you able to expand gross margin sequentially and guide rather seasonally for the June quarter in light of what's going on in the memory market? <Sync id="L171"time="00:26:08"/>And maybe if you can comment, in particular, whether the holdback of payments to Qualcomm is benefiting you at all on gross margins year-on-year, and also whether your contracts around commodity prices is likely to hit gross margins by more in the back half of this calendar year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO and SVP    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L172"time="00:26:30"/>Thank you, Katy, a lot of questions. <Sync id="L173"time="00:26:32"/>Let me take one by one. <Sync id="L174"time="00:26:34"/>Let me start with our performance for the March quarter, which we were very happy with. <Sync id="L175"time="00:26:40"/>As you said, we were up 40 basis points sequentially, and this is in spite of the fact, as you know, that we lose leverage as we go from the December quarter to the March quarter. <Sync id="L176"time="00:26:50"/>The foreign exchange headwind on a sequential basis was 100 basis points. <Sync id="L177"time="00:26:55"/>Obviously, that was also a negative. <Sync id="L178"time="00:26:57"/>And as you said, we started to experience some level of cost pressure on the memory side, particularly on NAND and DRAM. <Sync id="L179"time="00:27:08"/>To offset that and actually do better than that, we had very good cost performance on other commodities. <Sync id="L180"time="00:27:16"/>And the fact that our Services mix increases as we go through the year, that is, of course, also helping given the profile of our gross margin for Services. <Sync id="L181"time="00:27:28"/>So that answers the question around Q2.
+<Sync id="L182"time="00:27:32"/>As we move into the June quarter, as you know, we tend to have some level of gross margin compression as we go from the March quarter to the June quarter. <Sync id="L183"time="00:27:46"/>Again, the majority of that comes from the sequential loss of leverage. <Sync id="L184"time="00:27:52"/>We also have a different mix of products as we move into the June quarter. <Sync id="L185"time="00:27:59"/>And the cost pressures on memory will remain. <Sync id="L186"time="00:28:06"/>We expect to offset partially these impacts with other cost efficiencies and again, with a mix shift towards Services. <Sync id="L187"time="00:28:20"/>Yet, the impact on NAND and DRAM will continue to be there, and we expect it to be there. <Sync id="L188"time="00:28:25"/>You know we don't guide past the June quarter, but we expect it to be there for the time being.
+<Sync id="L189"time="00:28:32"/>On Qualcomm, I just want to make it very, very clear that we are accruing. <Sync id="L190"time="00:28:42"/>We do not expect to be paying more than what we are accruing right now. <Sync id="L191"time="00:28:46"/>So we didn't get any benefit in our P&L, in our margins during the March quarter, and we're not getting any benefit during the June quarter either.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L192"time="00:29:03"/>And just a follow-up for Tim. <Sync id="L193"time="00:29:05"/>As you noted in your remarks, the iPhone 7 Plus demand it's selling incredibly well, and this is a product that was pretty severely supply constrained in the December quarter. <Sync id="L194"time="00:29:18"/>And I just wonder whether there are any lessons learned as you go forward into future product launches around how you manage the timing of announcing a product when there's supply constraints and how you might work with the supply chain differently around ramping some of these components that have particular difficulties around the yields early on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L195"time="00:29:44"/>Yes. <Sync id="L196"time="00:29:44"/>Katy, one of the things that we did not get right was the mix between the iPhone 7 and the iPhone 7 Plus. <Sync id="L197"time="00:29:55"/>There was -- wound up the demand was much stronger to the 7 Plus than we had predicted. <Sync id="L198"time="00:30:03"/>And so it took us a little while to adjust all the way back through the supply chain and to bring iPhone 7 Plus into balance, which occurred in this early -- this past quarter. <Sync id="L199"time="00:30:19"/>What did we learn from it? <Sync id="L200"time="00:30:21"/>Every time we go through a launch, we learn something. <Sync id="L201"time="00:30:25"/>And you can bet that we're brushing up our models, and we'll apply everything we learned to the next time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L202"time="00:30:40"/>We'll go to Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L203"time="00:30:45"/>Tim, can you talk a bit about what's going on in China and give us some more color, especially as you're going through the year? <Sync id="L204"time="00:30:54"/>And then obviously, you won't talk about the next product launch. <Sync id="L205"time="00:30:57"/>But just are there any shifts in demand with Greater China down 14%? <Sync id="L206"time="00:31:01"/>Was it all iPhone or mix? <Sync id="L207"time="00:31:04"/>Anything you can provide, and then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L208"time="00:31:07"/>Yes. <Sync id="L209"time="00:31:07"/>Thanks for the question, Shannon. <Sync id="L210"time="00:31:09"/>We saw in Q2 the -- a performance that, combined with Q1 and that formed the first half of the year, was much better than what we experienced in the second half of last year. <Sync id="L211"time="00:31:24"/>And if you look at what was driving that, iPhone 7 Plus, we sold the highest number of Plus models in the first half than ever before compared to 6s Plus or compared to the 6 Plus. <Sync id="L212"time="00:31:44"/>We -- also the Mac business did extremely well. <Sync id="L213"time="00:31:48"/>The Mac revenue growth was up 20% in China, and we had extremely strong Services growth during the quarter in China. <Sync id="L214"time="00:32:00"/>As I've mentioned in the -- in my comments, our retail and online stores did well overall, and in China they grew by 21%, which is an acceleration from what we had seen in the previous quarter.
+<Sync id="L215"time="00:32:19"/>And traffic, which, for us, is incredibly important in the retail stores because we do a lot more than sell, traffic was up 27% year-on-year. <Sync id="L216"time="00:32:33"/>And now 7 of our top 10 highest traffic stores in the world are in Greater China. <Sync id="L217"time="00:32:41"/>And so that's the set of things that sort of went in our direction, so to speak.
+<Sync id="L218"time="00:32:48"/>On the flip side, currency devalued by 5%, and so that's not an insignificant headwind. <Sync id="L219"time="00:33:00"/>And our performance continued to be weak in Hong Kong, which has been hit a bit harder as the tourism market continues to slump. <Sync id="L220"time="00:33:15"/>Also where the iPhone 7 Plus did well, we didn't perform as well on some of the previous generation iPhones. <Sync id="L221"time="00:33:24"/>And so that's sort of the set of things on the plus and minus side. <Sync id="L222"time="00:33:32"/>We did perform about where I thought we would. <Sync id="L223"time="00:33:35"/>In fact, I thought it would be similar to the previous quarter and it was. <Sync id="L224"time="00:33:38"/>What I now believe is that we'll improve a bit more during this current quarter, not back to growth but improve -- but make more progress. <Sync id="L225"time="00:33:52"/>And we continue to believe that there's an enormous opportunity there. <Sync id="L226"time="00:34:00"/>And in the scheme of things, our business is pretty large there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L227"time="00:34:08"/>And then just -- I don't know if Luca wants to take this or -- but thoughts on cash usage, you increased your program, but you still have, I think, $160 billion of net cash and obviously continue to generate cash. <Sync id="L228"time="00:34:18"/>So I'm curious as to -- given some of the commentary that's come out of the administration, which I think most companies were expecting some sort of return, how do you generally think about what you need to run the business from a cash perspective, how you think about the balance sheet from a, I don't know, strength perspective, just as we look forward to what hopefully will come through?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO and SVP    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L229"time="00:34:44"/>Well, Shannon, you know how we run our capital return program. <Sync id="L230"time="00:34:48"/>We've been pretty consistent during the last 5 years. <Sync id="L231"time="00:34:51"/>Essentially for the last 5 years, the way we've run the company is essentially to return our free cash flow to our investors. <Sync id="L232"time="00:35:00"/>That's what we've done with the program until now, and the expansion of the program that we've announced today goes in the same direction, right? <Sync id="L233"time="00:35:09"/>We know how much we need to invest in the business. <Sync id="L234"time="00:35:13"/>We will never under-invest in the business. <Sync id="L235"time="00:35:15"/>We're in a very fortunate position that we generate cash beyond the needs that we have. <Sync id="L236"time="00:35:21"/>And given the current capital structure that we have, we decided that until now we return about 100% of the free cash flow to investors. <Sync id="L237"time="00:35:33"/>It's difficult for us to speculate about what might or might not happen. <Sync id="L238"time="00:35:37"/>The program that we're announcing today reflects the current tax legislation in this country. <Sync id="L239"time="00:35:43"/>And there's a lot that still needs to happen there, and we'll see. <Sync id="L240"time="00:35:49"/>Obviously, we will reassess our situation if things change.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L241"time="00:35:58"/>From JPMorgan, Rod Hall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Roderick B. Hall,  JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - VP and Senior Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L242"time="00:36:04"/>I wanted to start off just going back to the 165 million subscriptions and ask Tim or Luca if you could comment on the unique number of users there. <Sync id="L243"time="00:36:14"/>And I think you had made a comment, Tim, in your prepared remarks that the average revenue per user is up, or maybe that was you, Luca. <Sync id="L244"time="00:36:20"/>But if you guys could just talk about any more color around that average revenue per user, it would be interesting to us. <Sync id="L245"time="00:36:27"/>And then I have one follow-up to that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO and SVP    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L246"time="00:36:30"/>Yes. <Sync id="L247"time="00:36:31"/>I'll take it, Rod. <Sync id="L248"time="00:36:32"/>We don't disclose into this number of subscriptions. <Sync id="L249"time="00:36:36"/>Of course, we're just giving you the total count of subscriptions that are out there. <Sync id="L250"time="00:36:40"/>Of course, there are several customers that subscribe to more than one of our services. <Sync id="L251"time="00:36:47"/>There is some level of overlap, but the total number of subscribers is very, very large, obviously less than 165 million. <Sync id="L252"time="00:36:58"/>But it's very good for us to see the breadth of subscriptions that we offer and that customers are interested in. <Sync id="L253"time="00:37:07"/>It's a large number.
+<Sync id="L254"time="00:37:08"/>And if you remember, we quoted the same number a quarter ago, and we talked about 150 million. <Sync id="L255"time="00:37:14"/>So when you think about a sequential increase of 15 million subscriptions from the December quarter to the March quarter, it really gives you a sense for the momentum that we have on our content stores, right? <Sync id="L256"time="00:37:27"/>It's quite impressive to add 15 million subscriptions in 90 days. <Sync id="L257"time="00:37:33"/>On -- as we look at the dynamics that are happening on our content stores and particularly on the App Store, which is the largest, we see fairly consistently 2 things. <Sync id="L258"time="00:37:46"/>We see that the number of paying accounts is growing a lot. <Sync id="L259"time="00:37:51"/>And I mentioned the increase in number of paying accounts that we've had during these last 90 days is the largest that we've ever had. <Sync id="L260"time="00:38:00"/>So there's a very large number of people coming into the ecosystem, experiencing the ecosystem, which is obviously improving all the time in quality and quantity, and then start paying and transacting on the -- on our stores. <Sync id="L261"time="00:38:15"/>And that number is growing very, very strongly, strong double digits.
+<Sync id="L262"time="00:38:19"/>What we're also seeing, as we look at the people that start paying on our stores, we see a pretty common trend over time, and we keep track of that across cohorts of customers, that as people come into the ecosystem and start paying on the ecosystem, we see a spending profile that is very similar around the world. <Sync id="L263"time="00:38:44"/>People start at a certain level, and then they tend to spend more over time. <Sync id="L264"time="00:38:49"/>And so obviously, the combination of people spending more over time and adding more people that are now actually spending on the stores contributes to this 40% growth that Tim mentioned for the App Store on a year-over-year basis.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Roderick B. Hall,  JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - VP and Senior Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L265"time="00:39:07"/>And then I had a follow-up for Tim. <Sync id="L266"time="00:39:10"/>Tim, I wanted to just ask -- the Services revenue keeps growing, and of course, the profit contribution from that is growing. <Sync id="L267"time="00:39:17"/>And we've also, at the same time, I think, seen you maybe a little more aggressive than Apple has been historically in pricing certain key technologies, let's call them, that maybe you want to penetrate the market with. <Sync id="L268"time="00:39:29"/>And I just wonder if you could just comment a little bit on your strategy there in terms of the usage of that extra profit contribution from that Services business, how you intend to apply it to the rest of the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L269"time="00:39:41"/>Rod, the way that we think about pricing is we come up with a price that we think is a good value for the product that we're delivering, and we do that on the hardware side as well as on the Services side. <Sync id="L270"time="00:40:03"/>And so that's how we think about it. <Sync id="L271"time="00:40:06"/>We're really not thinking about taking profits from one to subsidize the other or vice versa.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L272"time="00:40:17"/>From UBS, Steve Milunovich.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L273"time="00:40:25"/>Tim, could you comment on the opportunity in wearables? <Sync id="L274"time="00:40:29"/>The Watch, some people consider disappointing. <Sync id="L275"time="00:40:31"/>It had what seems to be a very good quarter, and ironically, the competition almost seems to be fading in that part of the market right now. <Sync id="L276"time="00:40:37"/>The AirPods, of course, are doing well. <Sync id="L277"time="00:40:40"/>Do you see wearables, a, expanding over time into a broader product line; and b, increasingly being independent of the iPhone longer term?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L278"time="00:40:51"/>Thanks for the question. <Sync id="L279"time="00:40:53"/>We have seen the Watch as a really key product category for us since before we launched it. <Sync id="L280"time="00:41:01"/>And we took our time to get it right, and we've made it even better with the Series 2 offering. <Sync id="L281"time="00:41:12"/>And we're really proud of the growth of the business. <Sync id="L282"time="00:41:18"/>The Watch units more than doubled in 6 of our top 10 markets, which is phenomenal growth, particularly in a non-holiday quarter. <Sync id="L283"time="00:41:30"/>And so we couldn't be more satisfied with it. <Sync id="L284"time="00:41:34"/>When -- as some people are doing, when you begin to combine that -- combine the Watch revenues with the revenues for AirPods, this was the first -- as you know, this is the first full quarter of shipments for AirPods, but it's still very much in the ramping mode. <Sync id="L285"time="00:41:55"/>And we're not coming close to satisfying the demand.
+<Sync id="L286"time="00:41:58"/>And then add the Beats products that our -- a group of our customers really enjoy as well and look on the trailing 12 months. <Sync id="L287"time="00:42:09"/>So this is not a forecast. <Sync id="L288"time="00:42:11"/>That business was well into the Fortune 500. <Sync id="L289"time="00:42:18"/>And so as I look at that, that's pretty fast to come that far. <Sync id="L290"time="00:42:24"/>The Watch hasn't been out very long, and AirPods have been out there for 3, 4 months. <Sync id="L291"time="00:42:31"/>And so we feel really great about it.
+<Sync id="L292"time="00:42:34"/>Where does it go? <Sync id="L293"time="00:42:35"/>I wouldn't want to comment on that, but we do have a really great pipeline here. <Sync id="L294"time="00:42:47"/>And I think in terms of competition falling out and so forth, it's -- the watch area is really hard. <Sync id="L295"time="00:42:58"/>It, in essence, from an engineering point of view, is similar to a phone in terms of the intricacies and so forth. <Sync id="L296"time="00:43:11"/>And so it's not -- I'm not very surprised that some people are falling out of it. <Sync id="L297"time="00:43:17"/>But we're very committed to it and believe that -- it's already a big business and believe over time it will be even larger.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L298"time="00:43:30"/>And then there was a -- you mentioned a 451 Research survey. <Sync id="L299"time="00:43:33"/>They did have a couple of findings that were kind of interesting. <Sync id="L300"time="00:43:36"/>One is a 9-year low in iPhone purchase intent, and that might just be where you are in the cycle. <Sync id="L301"time="00:43:41"/>And the other was a declining retention rate in the U.S. toward 80%. <Sync id="L302"time="00:43:46"/>Any comment on either of those and whether you're concerned?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L303"time="00:43:50"/>I only glanced at it, and so I haven't had time to study it. <Sync id="L304"time="00:43:54"/>But in general, what we are seeing, we're seeing what we believe to be a pause in purchases on iPhone, which we believe are due to the earlier and much more frequent reports about future iPhones. <Sync id="L305"time="00:44:18"/>And so that part is clearly going on, and it could be what's behind the data. <Sync id="L306"time="00:44:28"/>I don't know, but we are seeing that in full transparency.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L307"time="00:44:36"/>From Bernstein, we'll go to Toni Sacconaghi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L308"time="00:44:43"/>I have 2 as well. <Sync id="L309"time="00:44:45"/>First, Tim, I'm wondering if you can comment on your recent decision and the rationale for withholding royalty payments to Qualcomm. <Sync id="L310"time="00:44:56"/>And really specifically, I wonder what you believe is the risk that Qualcomm could have a detrimental response such as withholding modem chip sales or potentially even getting an injunction on iPhones in select geographies around the world. <Sync id="L311"time="00:45:21"/>And I'd like to understand your perspective on whether either of those are real risks to any degree and why would Apple potentially take on those risks just in advance of what will arguably be your most significant and largest product launch in history.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L312"time="00:45:48"/>The -- anyone that has a standards-essential patent has a responsibility to offer it to everyone that would like it under what is -- are called FRAND terms. <Sync id="L313"time="00:46:06"/>FRAND stands for fair, reasonable and nondiscriminatory terms. <Sync id="L314"time="00:46:13"/>That's both the price and the business terms. <Sync id="L315"time="00:46:17"/>Qualcomm has not made such an offer to Apple, and so I don't believe that a -- I don't believe anyone's going to decide to enjoin the iPhone based on that. <Sync id="L316"time="00:46:32"/>I think that there's plenty of case law around that subject. <Sync id="L317"time="00:46:38"/>But we shall see.
+<Sync id="L318"time="00:46:41"/>In terms of why we're withholding royalties, you can't pay something when there's a dispute about the amount. <Sync id="L319"time="00:46:52"/>You don't know how much to pay. <Sync id="L320"time="00:46:54"/>And so they think we owe some amount. <Sync id="L321"time="00:47:00"/>We think we owe a different amount. <Sync id="L322"time="00:47:02"/>And there hasn't been a meeting of the minds there, and so at this point, we need the courts to decide that unless we are able to, over time, settle between us on some amount. <Sync id="L323"time="00:47:19"/>But right now we're depending upon the courts to do that, and so that is the thinking.
+<Sync id="L324"time="00:47:26"/>The reason that we're pursuing this is that Qualcomm's trying to charge Apple a percentage of the total iPhone value, and they do some really great work around standards-essential patents, but it's one small part of what an iPhone is. <Sync id="L325"time="00:47:49"/>It's not -- it has nothing to do with the display or the Touch ID or a gazillion other innovations that Apple has done. <Sync id="L326"time="00:47:59"/>And so we don't think that's right. <Sync id="L327"time="00:48:01"/>And so we're taking a principled stand on it, and we strongly believe we're in the right. <Sync id="L328"time="00:48:08"/>And I'm sure they believe that they are, and that's what courts are for. <Sync id="L329"time="00:48:13"/>And we'll let it go with that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L330"time="00:48:20"/>I was wondering if you -- if I could just follow up a little bit on iPhone demand. <Sync id="L331"time="00:48:28"/>If I try and adjust for the drawdown in inventory and the extra week last quarter, I think sequentially, iPhones declined about 27% if I make those adjustments. <Sync id="L332"time="00:48:41"/>And that's actually quite a bit lower than the normal seasonality we would see from Q1 to Q2, which is typically closer to 20%. <Sync id="L333"time="00:48:51"/>I understand your comments around China, but your comparison was 40 points easier this quarter relative to last quarter, and the growth rate improved only marginally, I think, when you adjust for the extra week.
+<Sync id="L334"time="00:49:05"/>So -- and then you made a final comment around a pause on iPhones. <Sync id="L335"time="00:49:12"/>So I'm wondering if you could maybe elaborate on was the below sequential, at least by my calculation, growth rate in Q2 attributable to a pause. <Sync id="L336"time="00:49:27"/>And can you characterize what you think upgrade rates are doing, perhaps broadly by geography, to help us better understand what might be happening or whether there are competitive dynamics that also are at play here that, again, might be contributing to that pause and that sequential decline that I referenced?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L337"time="00:49:54"/>A lot of questions there. <Sync id="L338"time="00:49:59"/>Let me give you some color as I see it. <Sync id="L339"time="00:50:06"/>In this quarter, we reduced channel inventory by 1.2 million units. <Sync id="L340"time="00:50:12"/>And so if you look on a year-over-year basis, which is primarily what we look at from a unit point of view because it would have the seasonality embedded in that, we grew sell-through on a year-over-year basis. <Sync id="L341"time="00:50:33"/>Last quarter, I'm sure other folks remember, was a 14-week quarter, and so you sort of have to adjust the rates last quarter to get at what the underlying sell-through growth was. <Sync id="L342"time="00:50:52"/>And so I think that when you do that, you're going to find that, actually, the year-over-year performance is similar between the quarters.
+<Sync id="L343"time="00:51:04"/>In terms of upgraders, we saw the largest absolute number of upgraders ever in any 6-month period in the first half of this year, first half of this fiscal year to be precise. <Sync id="L344"time="00:51:22"/>And we saw the largest absolute number of switchers outside of Greater China in the same period that we've ever seen. <Sync id="L345"time="00:51:33"/>And so in 4 of the 5 operating segments, as I think Luca mentioned in his comments, we had very good growth, and it was really propelled by the demand for iPhone 7 Plus, which is growing incredibly fast around the world. <Sync id="L346"time="00:51:59"/>And so that's kind of the color I would add there, and hopefully, some of that are -- is useful for you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L347"time="00:52:12"/>We'll go to Simona Jankowski with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Kiritsov Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L348"time="00:52:16"/>Had a question for Luca first. <Sync id="L349"time="00:52:18"/>Last year, you had a 4-million-unit channel inventory reduction for the iPhone in the June quarter. <Sync id="L350"time="00:52:24"/>So just curious what you're expecting for this year just so we have an apple-to-apple comparison as we think about your guidance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO and SVP    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L351"time="00:52:31"/>As you know, Simona, we do not provide guidance around units and around channel inventory reduction, but our goal is always to have the right amount of weeks of inventory in the channel. <Sync id="L352"time="00:52:47"/>And if you look at our history over the last several years, we have fairly consistently reduced channel inventory in the June quarter, so I think it's a fair expectation to have.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Simona Kiritsov Jankowski,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L353"time="00:53:01"/>And then just for Tim. <Sync id="L354"time="00:53:03"/>Tim, you've been excited about the India market for some time and have made strides in establishing a retail, manufacturing and R&D presence there. <Sync id="L355"time="00:53:12"/>So just curious as you look at that market and the rollout of 4G there, is it reasonable for us to assume that Apple can sell something on the order of 10 million to 20 million iPhones there next year and then grow from there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L356"time="00:53:26"/>We make it a point not to forecast by geo. <Sync id="L357"time="00:53:30"/>We just provide a current quarter forecast. <Sync id="L358"time="00:53:34"/>But as hopefully you've seen, as we began to give you more information about India, we've been investing quite a bit. <Sync id="L359"time="00:53:45"/>We have a ton of energy going into the country on a number of fronts. <Sync id="L360"time="00:53:54"/>And it is the third-largest smartphone market in the world today behind the -- China and the United States. <Sync id="L361"time="00:54:04"/>And so we believe, particularly now that a -- the 4G infrastructure is going in the country and it's continuing to be expanded, there is a huge opportunity for Apple there. <Sync id="L362"time="00:54:23"/>And so that's -- that and the demographics of the country is why we're putting so much energy there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L363"time="00:54:41"/>Jim Suva with Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L364"time="00:54:42"/>Congratulations on returning to growth consistently.  <Sync id="L365"time="00:54:46"/>That's great. <Sync id="L366"time="00:54:47"/>I believe, Tim, in your prepared comments, you mentioned India was growing double digit, which is great. <Sync id="L367"time="00:54:53"/>But I believe if we look at geographic information, India is really underpenetrated from an Apple reception perceptive, but yet they have LTE. <Sync id="L368"time="00:55:03"/>You have the iPhone SE, your lower-priced iPhone. <Sync id="L369"time="00:55:07"/>Do you think that, say, this next 12, 18 months is going to be a turning point? <Sync id="L370"time="00:55:11"/>Or is it more you need to work with the government to have Apple-owned stores or production there? <Sync id="L371"time="00:55:17"/>Or what's it really going to take to get India going along because we think it's just truly a great opportunity?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO and Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L372"time="00:55:24"/>Well, we think it's a great opportunity too, and so we're bringing all the things that we've brought to bear in other markets that we've eventually done well in. <Sync id="L373"time="00:55:41"/>And that's from channel to stores to our ecosystem and so forth. <Sync id="L374"time="00:55:51"/>Phil was just over there opening a developer center last quarter. <Sync id="L375"time="00:55:59"/>And so there's a -- there are a ton of things going on there. <Sync id="L376"time="00:56:04"/>And we agree that we are underpenetrated there. <Sync id="L377"time="00:56:10"/>Our growth rates are good, really good in -- by most people's expectations. <Sync id="L378"time="00:56:19"/>Maybe not mine as much. <Sync id="L379"time="00:56:24"/>And so we're putting a lot of energy in it, just like we have in other geos that eventually wound up producing more and more. <Sync id="L380"time="00:56:34"/>And so I'm very excited about it. <Sync id="L381"time="00:56:39"/>The 4G network investment really began rolling in, in a significant way toward the last quarter of last year, as you know, and -- but they are moving fast. <Sync id="L382"time="00:56:51"/>They're moving at a speed that I have not seen in any other country in the world once they were started. <Sync id="L383"time="00:57:00"/>And it is truly impressive.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L384"time="00:57:12"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks as a podcast on the iTunes Store, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L385"time="00:57:21"/>And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L386"time="00:57:31"/>Please enter confirmation code 3540172. <Sync id="L387"time="00:57:35"/>And these replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L388"time="00:57:38"/>Pacific Time today. <Sync id="L389"time="00:57:39"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L390"time="00:57:51"/>Joan is at (408) 974-4570, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L391"time="00:57:58"/>And thank you again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L392"time="00:58:02"/>Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. <Sync id="L393"time="00:58:05"/>We do thank everyone for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2017-Nov-02-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,486 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2017 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+NOVEMBER 02, 2017 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Steven Mark Milunovich
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Brian John White
+   Drexel Hamilton, LLC, Research Division - Global Head of Technology Hardware and Software, and Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+AAPL reported 4Q17 revenues of $52.6b and net income of $10.7b or $2.07 per diluted share. Expects 1Q18 revenue to be $84-87b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 4Q17 revenue = $52.6b.
+    2. 4Q17 net income = $10.7b.
+    3. 4Q17 diluted EPS = $2.07.
+    4. 4Q17 YoverY revenue growth = 12%.
+    5. 4Q17 GM = 37.9%.
+    6. 4Q17-end cash plus marketable securities = $268.9b.
+    7. 4Q17 share repurchase = 29.1m shares for $4.5b.
+    8. 1Q18 revenue guidance = $84-87b. 
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 4Q17 Review (T.C.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Biggest year ever in most parts of world, with all-time record revenue in:
+               1. US.
+               2. Western Europe.
+               3. Japan.
+               4. Korea.
+               5. Middle East.
+               6. Africa.
+               7. Central and Eastern Europe.
+               8. Asia.
+          2. Had particularly strong finish this year.
+               1. Generated highest Sept. qtr. revenue ever as YoverY growth accelerated for fourth consecutive qtr.
+          3. Revenue $52.6b.
+               1. Above high-end of guidance range.
+               2. Up 12% YoverY.
+               3. Generated revenue growth across all product categories.
+                    1. Showed all-time record results for Services business.
+          4. As expected, returned to growth in Greater China with unit growth and market share gains for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
+               1. All-time record qtr. for Mac sales in mainland China and all-time high for Services revenue.
+          5. Revenue from emerging markets outside of Greater China was up 40% with great momentum in India, where revenue doubled YoverY.
+          6. Had great results in enterprise and education with double-digit growth in worldwide customer purchases of iPad and Mac in both markets.
+          7. GM in Sept. qtr. was at high-end of guidance range.
+          8. Record EPS, $2.07.
+               1. Up 24% YoverY.
+     2. IPhone:
+          1. Sales exceeded expectations.
+          2. In last week and a half of Sept., Co. began shipping iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus to customers in more than 50 countries.
+               1. They instantly became Co.'s two most popular iPhone models and have been every week since then.
+          3. Launch of iPhone 10 is now underway as stores open across Australia and Asia.
+               1. iPhone is 10 packed with innovative new technologies that chart Co.'s path for next decades.
+               2. Orders have already been very strong.
+                    1. Working to get iPhone 10 into customers' hands as quickly as possible.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue reached an all-time quarterly record of $8.5b in Sept. qtr.
+               1. Few quarters ago, Co. established a goal of doubling FY16 revenue of $24b by 2020.
+                    1. Well on way to meeting that goal.
+          2. In FY17, reached $30b, making Services business already the size of a Fortune 100 co.
+     4. iPad:
+          1. Second consecutive qtr. of double-digit unit growth.
+               1. Customers responded positively to new iPad lineup.
+     5. iOS:
+          1. Launch of iOS 11 made iOS world's largest platform for augmented reality (AR).
+               1. Believes AR is going to change the way one uses technology forever.
+          2. iOS 11 is allowing developers to integrate machine learning models into apps with Core ML.
+     6. Mac:
+          1. Had best year ever with highest annual Mac revenue in Co. history.
+               1. Best Sept. qtr. ever with 25% Mac revenue growth, driven by notebook refreshes Co. launched in June and a strong back-to-school season.
+          2. Mac experience has become even better since Sept. launch of Mac OS High Sierra with new technologies to make Mac more reliable, capable and responsive and lay foundation for future innovation.
+     7. Apple Watch:
+          1. Unit growth over 50% for third consecutive qtr.
+               1. Continues to be best-selling and most loved smart watch in world.
+          2. Began shipping Apple Watch Series 3 just six weeks ago.
+               1. Customers love new freedom of cellular.
+          3. Excited about upcoming Apple Heart Study, which will use data from Apple Watch to identify irregular heart rhythms and notify users when unusual patterns are detected.
+          4. Earlier this week, introduced watchOS 4.1, bringing 40m songs through Apple Music.
+               1. Thrilled with the momentum of these products.
+          5. Entire wearables business was up 75% YoverY in 4Q.
+               1. In FY17, already generated annual revenue of a Fortune 400 co.
+     8. Apple TV:
+          1. Late in Sept. qtr., launched Apple TV 4K, delivering a stunning cinematic experience at home.
+     9. Other Details:
+          1. Apple Michigan Avenue:
+               1. Opened two weeks ago on Chicago's Riverfront.
+               2. First store that brings together Co.'s complete vision for future of Apple retail, providing a welcoming place for everyone to experience products, services and inspiring educational programs right in heart of their city.
+               3. In addition to popular Today at Apple programing, which is available in all Apple Stores around world, Apple Michigan Avenue is partnering with local non-profits and creative organizations to make an ongoing positive impact in that community.
+          2. Swift Curriculum:
+               1. Expanded free app development with Swift curriculum to more than 30 community colleges across country.
+               2. Excited about this initiative and thrilled by momentum Co. is seeing.
+                    1. Schools Co. launched with summer are just beginning.
+          3. As Co. approaches holiday season, expects it to be Co.'s biggest qtr. ever.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 4Q17 Financials (L.M.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Sept. qtr. revenue $52.6b; record.
+               1. Up 12% YoverY.
+          2. Growth rate accelerated in every qtr. of FY17.
+               1. Terrific qtr. performance was broad based with:
+                    1. Revenue growth in all product categories for second qtr. in a row.
+                    2. New Sept. qtr. revenue records in Americas, Europe and the Rest of Asia Pacific segments.
+               2. Grew double-digits in US, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Korea and several other developed markets.
+               3. Returned to growth in Greater China.
+                    1. Revenue up 12% YoverY.
+               4. With momentum in India, revenue doubled YoverY.
+               5. Grew more than 30% in Mexico, Middle East, Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe.
+          3. Aforementioned results helped to fuel overall growth of over 20% from emerging markets.
+          4. GM 37.9%, at high-end of guidance range.
+          5. Operating margin, 25% of revenue.
+          6. Net income $10.7b.
+          7. Diluted EPS $2.07; new Sept. qtr. record.
+               1. Up 24% YoverY.
+          8. Cash flow from operations $15.7b; strong.
+     2. iPhones:
+          1. Sold 46.7m, up 3% YoverY.
+          2. Saw double-digit iPhone growth in many emerging markets including mainland China, Middle East, Central and Europe, India and Mexico.
+               1. Gained shares also in Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Sweden and Singapore based on latest estimates from IDC.
+          3. Channel inventory increased 1.3m units sequentially to support launch of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, significantly less than increase in Sept. qtr. year ago.
+          4. In US, latest data from 451 Research on consumers indicates a customer satisfaction rating of 97% or higher across all iPhone models.
+               1. Among consumers planning to buy a smartphone in next 90 days, purchase intension for iPhone was 69%, more than five times rate of closest competitor with a loyalty rate for current iPhone owners of 95% vs. 53% for next highest brand.
+               2. For corporate smartphone buyers, iOS customer satisfaction was 95% and of those planning to purchase smartphones in Dec. qtr., 80% plan to purchase iPhone; highest score for iPhone in history of survey.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Set all-time quarterly record of $8.5b, up 34% YoverY.
+          2. Results included favorable one-time revenue adjustment of $640m.
+               1. On run-rate basis, excluding adjustments, services growth of 24% was terrific and highest that Co. has experienced this year.
+          3. App Store set a new all-time record.
+               1. According to App Annie's latest report, it continues to be preferred destination for customer purchases by a wide and growing margin, generating nearly twice the revenue of Google Play.
+               2. Getting great response to App Store's new design in iOS 11 from customers and developers.
+                    1. Seeing increases in frequency of customer visits, amount of time they spend in store and number of apps they download.
+          4. Success of Apple Music continues to build.
+               1. Seeing highest conversion rates from customers trying the service.
+               2. Revenue grew strongly in Sept. qtr.
+               3. Number of paid subscribers was up over 75% YoverY.
+          5. Saw great performance from iCloud business, with strong double-digit growth in monthly avg. users and revenue.
+          6. Across all services offerings, number of paid subscriptions reached over 210m at end of Sept. qtr., an increase of 25m in last 90 days.
+          7. Apple Pay:
+               1. Expanded to Denmark, Finland, Sweden and UAE last month.
+                    1. Continues to grow rapidly.
+               2. Over past year, active users have more than doubled and annual transactions are up 330%.
+               3. In US, 70% of leading grocery chains are now accepting Apple Pay with recent launch of Safeway.
+                    1. Over 5m US merchant locations will be Apple Pay enabled by end of this year.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Set a new all-time revenue record of $25.8b in FY17.
+          2. Sold 5.4m Macs during Sept. qtr., up 10% YoverY.
+          3. Gained significant market share as global market contracted 1% based on IDC's latest estimate.
+               1. Performance was fueled primarily by greater demand for MacBook Pro.
+          4. Revenue grew 25% to new Sept. qtr. record.
+          5. Had outstanding results all around the world with each geographic segment growing Mac revenue by 20% or more.
+          6. Happy with success of Mac in education market.
+               1. Customer purchases grew double digits YoverY.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Sold 10.3m units.
+               1. Up 11% YoverY with strong demand for iPad and iPad Pro.
+          2. Revenue grew 14%.
+          3. Saw iPad unit and revenue growth in all geographic segments and strong results in emerging markets, including Greater China, where iPad unit sales were up 25% YoverY and India, which grew 39%.
+          4. NPD indicates iPad had 54% share of US tablet market in Sept. qtr., including 7 of 10 best-selling tablets.
+               1. Up from 47% share a year ago.
+          5. Most recent surveys from 451 Research measured customer satisfaction rates of 97% across iPad models and among people planning to buy tablets purchase intent for iPad was over 70% for consumers and businesses.
+     6. Enterprise Market:
+          1. Seeing great momentum with enterprise initiatives.
+          2. During Sept. qtr., announced new partnership with Accenture, who is creating a dedicated iOS practice in select locations around world.
+               1. Experts from Co. are collocating with this team.
+                    1. Together they will be launching new tools and services that have enterprise clients transform how they engage with customers using iPhone and iPad.
+          3. Last month, announced a partnership with GE to reinvent the way industrial companies work by bringing GE's industrial IoT platform to iOS.
+               1. Prefix SDK for IOS will enable developers to build native apps to drive industrial operations with more efficiency and speed than ever before.
+               2. GE is also standardizing on iPhone and iPad for its global workforce of more than 330,000 employees.
+                    1. Working with Co., GE is developing iOS apps for internal and external audiences to bring predictive data and analytics to workers across broad range of industries.
+          4. Seeing great traction for Mac in enterprise market with all-time record customer purchases in FY17.
+     7. Stores:
+          1. Sept. qtr. was strong for retail and online stores, which welcomed 418m visitors.
+               1. Traffic was particularly heavy during week of new product announcements, up 19% over last year.
+          2. Retail ran a successful back-to-school promotion in Americas, Europe, China and Singapore with sales of Mac and iPad Pro up strong double-digits vs. last year's program.
+               1. Around the world, stores conducted over 200,000 Today at Apple sessions during qtr.
+     8. Cash Position:
+          1. 4Q17-end cash plus marketable securities, $268.9b.
+               1. Up $7.4b sequentially.
+               2. $252.3 of cash, 94% for total, was outside US.
+          2. Issued $7b in new Canadian and US dollar denominated debt during qtr., bringing Co. to $104b in term debt and $12b in commercial paper outstanding.
+          3. Returned $11b to investors during qtr.
+               1. Paid $3.3b in dividends and equivalents and spent $4.5b on repurchases of 29.1m shares through open market transactions.
+               2. Launched new $3b ASR program, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 15.1m shares.
+                    1. Retired 4.5m shares upon completion of 11th ASR during qtr.
+               3. Completed almost $234b of $300b capital return program, including $166b in share repurchases.
+     9. Dec. Qtr. Outlook:
+          1. Dec. qtr. in FY17 spanned 14 weeks.
+               1. Dec. qtr. this year will include usual 15 weeks.
+          2. Revenue $84-87b.
+          3. GM 38.0-38.5%.
+          4. OpEx 7.65-7.75b.
+          5. OI&E about 600m.
+          6. Tax rate about 25.5%.
+     10. Others:
+          1. On 11/02/17, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.63 per share of common stock, payable on 11/16/17 to shareholders of record as of 11/15/17.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) First, we'll hear from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca, when do you expect to catch up with iPhone X demand? And given it's likely to be not in the December quarter, should we think about March as a better-than-seasonal revenue quarter because of that iPhone X ramp? And then, I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I'll take that, Katy. It's Tim. The ramp for iPhone X is going well, especially considering that iPhone X is the most advanced iPhone we've ever created and it has lots of new technologies in it. And so we're really happy that we're able to increase week-by-week what we're outputting, and we're going to get as many of them as possible to the customers as soon as possible. And so it's -- I can't predict at this point when that balance will happen. We -- and on -- in terms of March, we obviously don't give -- we don't give guidance beyond the current quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. And in China, growth returned to strong double digits, 12% up. You've talked historically about that region being more sensitive than others to form factor changes and the new iPhone X form factor was not available in September. And so, should we assume that growth in that region only accelerates from here as that new product gets pushed into the market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Let me talk a little bit about Q4 in China to give you a little bit of color on the results. The -- we increased market share for iPhone, Mac and iPad during the quarter. We hit all-time revenue records for services and for Mac in the -- for the PRC during the quarter. We had very strong iPad revenue growth. We had double-digit unit growth in iPhone, and both the upgraders and Android switchers were both up on a year-over-year basis during the quarter. And so, the results were broad based. They were pretty much across the board, as I indicated. The other thing that happened is that the decline that we've been experiencing in Hong Kong moderated. And so it's still down year-over-year, but less so than it was. And part of that is the compare is an easier compare. And then, finally, in terms of another headwind that is a little less than it was, currency has been affecting us more significantly last quarter in China. It affected us 1 percentage point. And so the sum of all that, I feel great about the results. We don't obviously provide geographic-specific guidance, but you can see from our overall guidance, we think we're going to have a really strong quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Piper Jaffray, Mike Olson.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Is there any information you can provide on how iPhone X preorders compare to what you saw with iPhone 8 preorders? And then, I have a follow-up as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael, we never go through mix. But I would share with you that the iPhone X orders are very strong for both direct customers and for our channel partners, which as you know, are lots of carrier throughout the world. And we couldn't be more excited to get underway. And I think as of a few minutes ago, the first sales started in Australia. And I'm told we had several hundred people waiting at the store in Sydney and I'm getting similar reports from across that region.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And we're excited about augmented reality. And from your perspective and maybe from our perspective on the outside looking in, how do we gauge the success of AR? And what are some of the applications of the technology that you're most excited about today?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, it's a great question.  The reason I'm so excited about AR is I view that it amplifies human performance instead of isolates humans. And so, as you know, it's the mix of the virtual and the physical world. And so it should be a help for humanity, not an isolation kind of thing for humanity. As I go through different countries, as I've been traveling lately and looking at things, some things in the market, other things that are coming, the very cool thing is they're all over the place. I see things that the consumer's going to love because it's going to change shopping. I see things that consumers will love on the gaming side and the entertainment side. I see business-related AR apps as well that are going to be great for productivity and between small and large business. And I see apps that makes me want to go back to K-12 again and repeat my schooling because I think it changes the game in the classroom a lot. And so the real beauty here is that it's mainstream. And of course, Apple is the only company that could have brought this, because it requires both hardware and software integration and it requires sort of making a lot of -- or giving the operating system update to many people at once. And we -- and the software team worked really hard to make that go back several versions of iPhone so that we sort of have hundreds of millions of enabled devices overnight. And so there's 1,000-plus in the App Store right now. I think this is very much like in 2008, when we fired the gun in the overall App Store. And so, that's what it feels like to me, and I think it will just get bigger from here.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Cross Research, Shannon Cross.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A couple questions. The first, Tim, can you talk a bit about how you're thinking in terms of the lineup? You go from $340 -- and this is for iPhone. You go from $349 to above $1,000, and it appears that you probably sold a fair amount of the lower end, perhaps that was just some of the switchers in China and maybe drove some of the growth in China in terms of market share. But how are you sort of thinking about what went into the guidance for the December quarter? Are you seeing really strong demand at the low end? And obviously, expected benefit from the X at the high-end. I'm just trying to understand, because you have such a broader lineup than you've had in prior years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, in terms of what we saw in Q4, you can probably tell from the ASP, we had good success, I would say, through the different iPhones. And we've tried hard to have an iPhone that is as affordable as possible for people that really want an iPhone that may have a more limited budget, and we've got some iPhones that are really great for that market. And then, we've got 3 new iPhones, and people will look at these and decide which one they want. And so we -- this is the first time we've ever been in the position that we've had 3 new iPhones at once like this at the top end of the line. And it's the first time we've had a staggered launch. And so, we're going to see what happens. But we've put our absolutely best thinking that we have here in the guidance that Luca presented. And you can tell from that, that we're bullish.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal and Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. And then, in terms of services, $8.5 billion, up 34%. Can you talk about some of the portions of that, that outperformed? How sustainable? You mentioned China in terms of significant growth in services. But I'm just curious, it's a pretty remarkable number, so I'm curious what the drivers were.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, Shannon, it's Luca. As I mentioned in the prepared remarks, there was a $640 million adjustment. There was a one-off change. And it's important to call it out because, of course, it's a one-off. And so, the underlying growth rate for services in the quarter was fantastic, was 24%, the highest growth rate that we've had for services during fiscal '17. So the business is going incredibly well. I would highlight maybe 3 of these businesses within services. The App Store set a new all-time record. It's growing incredibly well. The number of paying accounts continues to grow very strongly, and that's very, very important to us for the App Store business. Apple Music was up -- subscriptions were up 75% year-over-year. We're getting the highest conversion rates that we've had since the launch of the service. And so we turned the corner in music. You remember that a few years ago, we were actually declining in music; now with the streaming service in addition to the download business, the business is growing again. And that really helps the growth rate for the entire Services business. iCloud is a service that continues to grow very strong double digits, and that's also helping. So we already become the size of a Fortune 100 company. We set a goal for ourselves to double what we did in fiscal '16 and the trajectory is actually quite positive.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steve Milunovich with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I wanted to try to push a little bit more on the mix. Could you comment whether the 8 Plus outsold the 8 in the quarter? There seems to be some data that suggests that. And the 451 Research survey that you're alluding to also finds that over the next 90 days, those buying an iPhone, 43% are planning on buying the X. Could you comment upon your expectations in terms of the mix going forward? And if you won't do that, perhaps you could comment a bit about you're thinking in terms of pushing price elasticity. I think a couple of years ago, no one would have imagined selling a phone at this price. And obviously, you're pretty confident that you can do it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Obviously, I'm not going to talk about mix. It's not something that we've done in the past. If you look at the 8 and 8 Plus, when we launched them, they instantly became our top 2 selling products. If you look at 8 Plus in particular, to provide a little color there, 8 Plus for that -- for the period of time that we can measure to date, has gotten off to the fastest start of any Plus model. That, for us, was a bit of a surprise, and it's a positive surprise, obviously. And so we'll see what happens next. As I've mentioned before, we've never had 3 products, and it's only today that the first customers can certainly look at all 3 of those. And I'm sure there's been some people that wanted to do that before deciding even which one. And so we'll see what happens there. But in terms of price elasticity, I think it's important to remember that a large number of people pay for the phone by month. And so if you were to go out on the -- just the U.S., since that tends to be more the focus of this call. If you look at the U.S. carriers, I think you would find -- you could buy an iPhone X for $33 a month. And so if you think about that, that's a few coffees a week. It's less than a coffee a day at one of these nice coffee places.  The other thing to keep in mind is that many people are now trading in their current iPhone on the next iPhone. And the residual value for iPhone tends to be the highest in the industry and many people pick up $300, $350 or so for their iPhone. And so that even reduces the monthly payment less. And then, obviously some carriers also have promotional things going on. And so I do think it's important to try to place it in that context. In terms of the way we price, we price to the sort of the value that we're providing. We're not trying to charge the highest price we could get or anything like that. We're just trying to price it for what we're delivering. And iPhone X has a lot of great new technologies in there that are leading the industry, and it is a fabulous product and we can't wait for people to start getting it in their hands.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And then, I wanted to ask. The Street historically has been a little skeptical about continued innovation, and you suggested there is more to grow. Historically, you weren't first to large screens. You weren't first to OLED. Now, though, you're leading in AR. You're leading with Face ID, which [the all-in a year ago, as some of your guys had suggested, was kind of very reminiscent of the aggressive Apple. Is it possible going forward that you could accelerate share gains from Android because you're now in a stronger competitive position?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think, Steve, we've been in a competitive position. And so, I probably -- maybe have a different view than you do or the folks that you're quoting. There's always doubting Thomases out there. I've been hearing those for the 20 years I've been here and suspect I'll hear about them until I retire. And so, I don't really listen to that too much. There's lots of fantastic people here and they're doing unbelievable things. And yes, I view AR as profound. Not today, not the apps that you'll see on the App Store today, but what it will be, what it can be, I think its profound and I think Apple is in a really unique position to lead in this area.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Just following up a little bit on that question, Tim. You talked a bit about providing a lot of value and that Apple sets its prices according to value. And I think, given the uniqueness of the product you have with the iPhone X in particular, that makes a lot of sense. I guess, the question is, given the uniqueness of the value that you have in the marketplace, why shouldn't we -- should we or why shouldn't we expect gross margins to improve this cycle versus previous ones? And perhaps, you can talk a little bit about how you think about pricing in the context of gross margin. And I have a follow-up, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toni, I'll take that one. When -- you said, we price our products for the value that we deliver.  We also said that every time we launch new products, the cost structures of the new products tend to be higher than the products that they replace. It's inevitable. We are adding new technologies, new features. And therefore, the cost structures go up. We have a very good track record of taking those cost structures and, over the life cycle of the product, we are able to bring them down. There are a lot of elements in the gross margin line that we have good control over and we -- there are also elements that we don't control. Take for example, foreign exchange, which has been a significant headwind for the company for the last 3 years now. Also, the mix of products that we sell into the market tends to change over time. And that also has an impact on the overall gross margin for the company. There are situations where the commodities markets are in good shape. There are situations where commodity markets can be a bit out of balance. We have a case right now around memory pricing, which is a headwind for the time being. So there's many puts and takes. The fact that our Services business is growing should be a positive because our services margins tend to be accretive to company margin. So there's many puts and takes that we tend to think about maximizing gross margin dollars. And -- because we think that's the most important thing for investors at the end of the day.  When we look at our track record over years, I think we found a good balance between unit growth and gross margins and revenue, and we will continue to do that as we go forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. And then, I wanted to revisit this notion of supply and demand. And I realize it's very early and you can't make predictions. I think, a common investor question is the iPhone X was made available for sale; it quickly had pushed out availability levels to unprecedented levels versus history. And so I think the really significant question is, is that initial pushout really a function of uniquely strong demand versus history? Or is that pushout in availability really a function of much weaker supply versus history? So it would be really helpful.  You have in the past commented on first 24-hour orders for which there were 4 million-plus for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. You have, very often on this call, talked about targeting when you think you could reach supply-demand balance. So it'd be really helpful if you could provide some context in terms of what you know either about initial orders or about the supplies versus history that can help investors try and better understand the little data points that they're seeing in terms of availability of the device.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That truth is, we don't know. We've put our best estimate into the guidance. And you can see from the guidance that we're very bullish. And so, we feel really great about our -- about the product lineup. We're -- just sold the first units minutes ago. And so we'll see how things go. Until you get all of them out there, where customers have the ability to demo and so forth, I think it's -- I think any kind of mix discussion is very much estimating. And so we put our best estimates in but granted, we've never done this before. So there's no comparison here, with either the 3 iPhones nor the staggered launch. And so, we're going to learn something.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We go to Jim Suva with Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And I'll ask my original question and follow-up at the same time because they're slightly different topics. But you had mentioned great success in India, I believe, Tim.  In your prepared comments, you mentioned, I think, India had doubled year-over-year. Based upon market analysis, it looks like Apple is still just a relatively small sliver of the pie there. So Tim, what would it take to be even more successful in India? Is it a manufacturing footprint there with your partners? Is it more physical stores? Is it lower price points? Is it the bandwidth that has now caught up to many other countries? Or how should we think about that? And then, the follow-up question is on the AR/VR, when will it really show up in your income statement? Are you hoping more for hardware sales or services to the apps or where the excitement will then be monetized within Apple?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+In terms of India, many of the things that you mentioned are correct. Growing a market like India is a result of all of those things and doing them all well. And so, it's analogous to the many years that we put into China. It's building stores. It's building channels. It's building markets. It's building the developer ecosystem. It's having the right product lineup for the market. And I feel like we're making good progress there and are gaining understanding of the market, but we still have a long way to go. I don't -- which I sort of see as an opportunity instead of a problem. And I do feel great about the growth rate. And so, that's India. I think it's all of those things. As you know, we -- as I've said, I think we talked about before, we started manufacturing the iPhone SE there 6, 9 months ago. So -- and the majority of iPhone SEs that we sold in the domestic market last quarter were manufactured there. And so we also have that going and are hoping that, that winds up saving some amount of money over time and avoiding some of the compounding of taxes, et cetera. The bandwidth issue has also been an issue, but as you point out, it is being addressed. And between the large carriers there with Bharti and now Jio investing the way they are, the service in India is materially better than it was just 12 months ago. So there's been a sea change there in a short period of time. So I feel good about all that, but we have a long way to go. In terms of the monetization question on AR/VR, we tend to focus first and foremost on customer experience. And so we're all about making sure the experience is great. And we think that if we get the experience right, that revenues and profits will be a result of getting that right. And so we're much -- we're very much focused on the experience right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will come from Amit Daryanani with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I have 2 as well. I guess, maybe to start with on gross margins. Luca, year-over-year, revenues are going to be up high single-digits at the midpoint, gross margins will be down a little. Could you just talk about what other puts and takes on that.  And are yield and efficiencies broadly much more severe this time versus what you've seen historically?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, Amit. So we're guiding 38% to 38.5%. That's up 35 bps sequentially. Obviously, we're getting the leverage from the larger volumes. As I mentioned, I think, to Toni, we have higher cost structures every time we launch new products. So that is going to be the offset. And I mentioned, particularly the impact from the memory pricing environment, which is a headwind at this point. Just to size it for you, the impact of memory on our gross margin is 40 bps sequentially and 110 bps on a year-over-year basis. So they are meaningful impacts. And I think that is what, I think, probably you're referring to.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. That's really helpful. And I guess, if I could just follow up on the services line. You just talked about it a fair amount earlier, but even if I exclude the onetime gain, it looks like the back half of '17 accelerated by 500 basis points in fiscal '17 versus the first half of '17. Qualitatively or quantitatively, is there a way to think about how much of this is from expanding the installed base, which is 1 of the 3 things you mentioned, I think, versus more dollar per iOS device that you're seeing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, I think it's both. As I mentioned, particularly on the App Store, which is very important to us, the number of paying accounts has grown a lot. It's grown a lot because, as you said, the installed base has grown, but also because we have made a number of changes that have made it easier for our customers around the world to participate on the App Store and be able to transact on the Apps Store. We are accepting, for example, more forms of payment today than we were 12 months ago or even 6 months ago. So that's been very important. We also see that there is a typical spending curve for our customers when they start transacting on the store. They start at a certain level and they tend, over time, to get more familiar with the store and they start to spend more. We're also now very recently made some changes, as you probably have seen, to the design of the App Store. And I was mentioning during the prepared remarks that these changes have been received very favorably. And so, people now are spending more time on the store, they download more apps and then, over time, translates into monetization. But we also have other businesses that are growing very, very fast and actually accelerating. I mentioned Music; I mentioned iCloud. And so it all adds up. And as you correctly point out, our growth rate is accelerating.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Drexel, we'll hear from Brian White.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian John White,  Drexel Hamilton, LLC, Research Division - Global Head of Technology Hardware and Software, and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, Tim, wondering if we take a look at mainland China and we think about iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus, they've been on sale for a while now. What has been the -- just general response to those 2 new iPhones? And also, preorders around the iPhone X in mainland China.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian, I hate to repeat this, but we don't really disclose mix. We view it as competitive information that we want to hold tightly ourselves. In terms of the way the preorder process works in China in the channel, so not in our direct channel, but in the broader carrier channel and channel, they generally take indications of interest versus something that I would label a preorder. And so, I would hesitate to even quote a number for fear it could be misconstrued. And we'll find out what the demand and where the supply and demand meets sometime in the future. I don't know when yet. But we're really excited to get going to find out.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian John White,  Drexel Hamilton, LLC, Research Division - Global Head of Technology Hardware and Software, and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And Tim, it's interesting that sales grew 16% sequentially. If you look at the past 5 years, sales were up 7% in the September quarter. So that's an average. Yet you didn't have all your iPhones in the market. So if you had to -- what would you attribute that to? It's a pretty big disconnect, 16% versus an average of 7%.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our emerging market performance during the quarter was very strong. Not -- and if you take China out, it's even stronger. But you can see the -- that China rebounded. And as I've indicated before, the China rebound was broad-based across the products. And so we just had a phenomenal quarter on iPad, on the Mac, on Services, on Apple Watch, on iPhone. I mean, we're literally, we're firing on all cylinders. And so that's what -- that and our new products give us great confidence headed into this holiday season that this is going to be the best holiday season yet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Brian. A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple podcast as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820, and please enter confirmation code 2484260. These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. Pacific Time today. Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Joan Hoover or me with additional questions. Joan is at (408) 974-4570 and I'm at (408) 974-5420. Thank you again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. We do thank everyone for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2018-Feb-01-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,554 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2018 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+FEBRUARY 01, 2018 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Anne Martin
+   Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Steven Mark Milunovich
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Former MD and IT Hardware & EMS Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 1Q18 revenue of $88.3b, net income of $20.1b and diluted EPS of $3.89. Expects 2Q18 revenue to be $60-62b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 1Q18 revenue = $88.3b. 
+    2. 1Q18 net income =$20.1b.
+    3. 1Q18 diluted EPS = $3.89. 
+    4. 1Q18 YoverY revenue growth = 13%.
+    5. 1Q18 GM = 38.4%. 
+    6. 1Q18-end cash plus marketable securities = $285.1b. 
+    7. 1Q18 share repurchase = spent $5.1b on repurchases of 30.2m Co. shares through open market transactions.
+    8. 2Q18 revenue guidance = $60-62b. 
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. Annotation (N.P.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Note:
+          1. 1Q18 included 13 weeks.
+          2. 1Q17 included 14 weeks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 1Q18 Review (T.C.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Active installed base reached 1.3b devices in Jan.
+               1. All-time high for all major products.
+               2. Represents 30% growth in just two years.
+               3. Fueling tremendous growth in Services business.
+          2. Biggest qtr. ever.
+               1. Set new all-time records in revenue and earnings.
+          3. Revenue $88.3b.
+               1. Above high-end of guidance range.
+               2. Up almost $10b or 13% over previous all-time record Co. set a year ago.
+               3. Fifth consecutive qtr. of accelerating revenue growth with double-digit growth in each geographic segment worldwide.
+               4. 1Q18 13 weeks long.
+                    1. 1Q17 14 weeks.
+               5. Avg. revenue per week vs. last year, 21% growth.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Growth was broad-based.
+               1. Key driver was iPhone, which generated highest revenue ever.
+          2. iPhone X bestselling smartphone in world according to Canalys.
+               1. Has been top selling phone every week since launch.
+          3. iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus rounded out Top 3 iPhones.
+               1. Revenue for newly launched iPhones was highest of any line up in history, driving total Co. revenue about guidance range.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $8.5b.
+               1. Up 18% YoverY.
+               2. On pace to achieve goal of doubling 2016 revenue by 2020.
+          2. Number of paid subscriptions across Services offerings passed 240m by 1Q18 end.
+               1. Increased 30m in last 90 days.
+               2. Largest quarterly growth ever.
+          3. All-time record qtr. for App Store with best holiday season ever.
+               1. Customers now enjoying over 2,000 ARKit-enabled apps spanning every category in App Store.
+               2. In Dec. when Pokemon GO released new augmented reality features built with ARKit, it jumped to top of App Store charts.
+          4. Four months after ARKit launched to public, Co. has released ARKit 1.5 in beta to developers around world.
+               1. Tremendous response.
+          5. Several other services had biggest qtr. ever including Apple Music, iCloud and Apple Pay, all of which saw growth in active users and revenue.
+               1. Apple Pay reached important milestone in US.
+                    1. Due to 50% YoverY growth in merchant adoption, now accepted at more than half of all American retail locations which includes more than two-thirds of country's Top 100 retailers.
+                    2. Now available in 20 markets, global Apple Pay purchase volume more than tripled YoverY.
+                    3. Expanding to Brazil in coming months.
+                    4. In US, launched Apple Pay Cash in Dec. and off to terrific start; millions of people already using it.
+     4. Apple Watch:
+          1. Best qtr. ever.
+          2. Over 50% growth in revenue and units for fourth qtr. in a row and strong double-digit growth in every geographic segment.
+          3. Sales of Apple Watch Series 3 models more than twice the volume of Series 2 a year ago.
+          4. Most popular smartwatch in world.
+          5. Gained market share based on latest estimates from IDC.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Third consecutive qtr. of growth for iPad revenue, due to strength of iPad and iPad Pro.
+          2. Based on latest data from IDC, Co. gained share in nearly every market Co. tracks with strong outperformance in emerging markets.
+          3. Worldwide, almost half of iPad sales were first time tablet buyers or those switching to AAPL.
+               1. True in some of Co.'s most developed markets including Japan and France.
+               2. In China, new and switching users made up over 70% of all iPad sales.
+     6. Mac:
+          1. Launched all new iMac Pro in mid-Dec.
+               1. Fastest and most powerful Mac ever, delivering incredible computational power.
+          2. Worldwide, 60% of Mac sales were first time buyers and switchers.
+               1. In China, almost 90%.
+          3. Looking forward to getting HomePod in customers' hands beginning next week.
+     7. New Initiatives:
+          1. Strengthened commitment and investment into initiatives like Everyone Can Code.
+               1. App Development with Swift curriculum which is available free on iBooks has been downloaded more than 1.2m times worldwide.
+                    1. Almost half of those came from US.
+               2. Announced that program was expanding to more than 70 colleges and universities in Europe.
+                    1. Millions of students around world will have opportunity to add Swift to their coding vocabulary.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+III. 1Q18 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Results:
+          1. Set new all-time records for revenue, operating income, net income and EPS.
+          2. Revenue $88.3b; all-time record.
+               1. Up nearly $10b or 13% over prior record set last year.
+               2. Fifth consecutive qtr. of accelerating revenue growth.
+               3. Dec. qtr. year ago spanned 14 weeks vs. 13 weeks this year.
+                    1. Looking at avg. revenue per week, growth rate even higher at 21% with growth across all product categories for third consecutive qtr.
+          3. Double-digit revenue growth in all geographic segments and all-time quarterly record in vast majority of markets Co. tracks including US, Western Europe, Japan, Canada, Australia, Korea, Mainland China, Latin America, Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and India.
+               1. In Greater China, generated double-digit revenue growth for second qtr. in a row.
+               2. In emerging markets outside of Greater China, saw 25% YoverY growth.
+          4. GM 38.4%.
+               1. High-end of guidance range.
+          5. Operating margin 29.8% of revenue.
+          6. Net income $20.1b; all-time record.
+               1. Up $2.2b over last year.
+          7. Diluted EPS $3.89.
+               1. All-time record.
+          8. Cash flow operations $28.3b; strong.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Sold 77.3m iPhones.
+               1. Highest number ever for 13-week qtr.
+               2. Avg. weekly iPhone sales up 6% YoverY, with growth in every region of world, despite staggered launch of iPhone X.
+          2. Established all-time iPhone revenue records in nearly every market Co. tracks with double-digit growth in all geographic segments.
+          3. iPhone ASP increased to $796 from $695 year ago, driven primarily by launch of iPhone X and success of iPhone 8 and 8 Plus.
+          4. Exited Dec. qtr. towards lower-end of target range of 5-7 weeks of iPhone channel inventory with less than 1m more iPhones in channel YoverY.
+               1. In line with growth in avg. weekly unit sales.
+          5. Customer interest and satisfaction with iPhone strong for consumers and business users.
+               1. Latest data from 451 Research indicates US customer satisfaction ratings of 96% or higher across iPhone models.
+               2. Combining iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X, consumers reported 99% satisfaction rating.
+               3. Among business customers planning to purchase smartphones in next qtr., 77% plan to purchase iPhone.
+               4. Kantar's latest US research reflected 96% iPhone loyalty rate, highest ever measured.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $8.5b.
+               1. Up 18% YoverY.
+               2. Up 27% in terms of avg. revenue per week, acceleration to 24% growth run rate that Co. experienced in Sept. qtr.
+          2. App Store set new all-time revenue record.
+               1. Store's all new design is off to fantastic start, with quarterly store visitors, transacting accounts and paying accounts reaching new all-time highs.
+               2. During week beginning Dec. 24, record number of customers made purchase or downloaded apps from App Store spending over $890m in seven-day period, followed by $300m in purchases on New Year's Day.
+               3. According to App Annie's latest report, App Store continues to build preferred destination for customer purchases by wide margin, generating nearly twice revenue of Google Play.
+          3. Across all Services offerings, paid subscriptions reached 240m, with growth of 58% over last year.
+               1. Major contributor to overall strong growth in revenue.
+     4. Apple Watch:
+          1. Best qtr. ever.
+          2. Adding results from Beats and AirPods, total revenue from wearables up almost 70% YoverY.
+          3. Wearables second largest contributor to revenue growth after iPhone.
+               1. Started only three years ago.
+          4. In total, other products category set new all-time record with quarterly revenue exceeding $5b for first time.
+     5. Mac:
+          1. Sold 5.1m Macs.
+               1. Translates to 2% YoverY increase in avg. sales per week.
+          2. Performance particularly strong in emerging markets with unit sales up 13% YoverY and with all-time records in Latin America, India, Turkey and Central and Eastern Europe.
+          3. Worldwide, active installed base of Macs up double digits YoverY to new record.
+     6. iPad:
+          1. Growth qtr.
+          2. Sold 13.2m units.
+               1. Avg. iPad sales per week [up 8%] over last year's Dec. qtr.
+          3. Sales grew strong double digits in many emerging markets including Latin America, Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and India, and developed markets including Japan, Australia and Korea.
+          4. Active installed base of iPad has grown every qtr. since launch in 2010.
+               1. Reached new all-time high in Dec. due to high customer loyalty and large numbers of first time iPad users.
+          5. NPD indicates that iPad had 46% share of US tablet market in Dec. qtr.
+               1. Up from 36% share year ago.
+          6. Most recent survey from 451 Research found that among customers planning to purchase tablets within 90 days, 72% of consumers and 68% of business users plan to purchase iPad.
+          7. Customer satisfaction high with businesses reporting 99% satisfaction rating.
+     7. Enterprise:
+          1. Seeing great traction, as businesses across industries and around world standardize on iOS.
+          2. Intesa Sanpaolo has chosen iOS as mobile standard for its entire 70,000 employee base in Italy.
+          3. LensCrafters will be using over 7,000 iPad Pros to enable digital eye exams and digital optical measurements in personalized and interactive experience.
+          4. Rolling out new initiative called Apple at Work to help businesses implement employee choice programs more easily and offer AAPL products co.-wide.
+               1. Resources from AAPL and channel partners will enable enterprise IT and procurement teams to buy or lease Co. products more efficiently, streamline set up of iPhone, iPad and Mac and deliver seamless onboarding experience for employees.
+               2. Launched program with CDW in US last week.
+               3. Will be expanding to more channels and regions later this year.
+     8. Stores:
+          1. Busy qtr. for retail and online stores, which welcomed 538m visitors.
+          2. Strong traffic during four weeks following launch of iPhone X, up 46% YoverY.
+          3. Across qtr., stores conducted over 200,000 Today at Apple sessions.
+          4. Last weekend, opened first store in [Seoul, Korea].
+               1. Looking forward to opening first store in Austria in a few weeks.
+               2. Newest openings will mark expansion of retail store presence to 21 countries.
+     9. Cash Position:
+          1. 1Q18-end cash plus marketable securities $285.1b.
+               1. Sequential increase of $16.2b.
+               2. $269b of this cash or 94% of total was outside US.
+          2. Issued $7b in debt, bringing Co. to $110b in term debt and $12b in commercial paper outstanding.
+               1. 1Q18-end total net cash position $163b.
+          3. Returned $14.5b to investors.
+               1. Paid $3.3b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. Spent $5.1b on repurchases of 30.2m Co. shares through open market transactions.
+          4. Launched new $5b ASR program, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 23.6m shares.
+               1. Retired 3.8m shares upon completion of 12th ASR.
+               2. Has now completed over $248b of $300b capital return program including $176b in share repurchases against announced $210b buyback program with $34b remaining under current authorization.
+     10. Taxes:
+          1. Due to recently enacted legislation in US, estimates making corporate income tax payment of approx. $38b to US government on [cumulative passed foreign earnings].
+               1. This amount is similar to what Co. has been accruing on those earnings in financial results through FY17.
+               2. Including $38b payment, Co. will have paid over $110b of corporate income tax on total domestic and foreign earnings during last 10 years for cash tax rate of about 26%.
+          2. Tax rate 25.8%.
+               1. Close to guidance of 25.5% as lower US statutory rate from new legislation was effectively offset by remeasurement of deferred tax balances.
+     11. 2Q18 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $60-62b.
+          2. GM 38.0-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx $7.6-7.7b.
+          4. OI&E about $300m.
+          5. Tax rate about 15%.
+          6. Tax reform will allow Co. to pursue more optimal capital structure for Co.
+               1. Current net cash position is $163b.
+               2. Given increased financial and operational flexibility from access to foreign cash, Co. is targeting to become approx. net cash neutral over time.
+          7. On 02/01/18, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.63 per share of common stock, payable on 02/15/18 to shareholders of record as of 02/12/18.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L162"time="00:26:46"/>Our first question will come from Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L163"time="00:26:54"/>Luca, wanted to talk a little bit about -- more about your comments on capital structure. <Sync id="L164"time="00:26:57"/>I realize you don't want to give us any specifics about what you're actually going to return and the timing, but just maybe if you can talk about how much cash you -- I guess, you think you need to have to run the business. <Sync id="L165"time="00:27:08"/>And then in terms of ongoing cash flow, since the overseas cash will no longer be encumbered, does that change sort of your thought process in general? <Sync id="L166"time="00:27:21"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L167"time="00:27:25"/>Sure, Shannon. <Sync id="L168"time="00:27:25"/>Of course, we've been talking about the importance of tax reform over the years because we believe it's really beneficial to the U.S. economy. <Sync id="L169"time="00:27:35"/>What it means to us as a company, of course, is that we have additional flexibility right now from the access to the foreign cash. <Sync id="L170"time="00:27:45"/>And in the past, we've been addressing this issue by having to raise debt as the cash was overseas, the majority of the cash was overseas. <Sync id="L171"time="00:27:57"/>And so we are now in a position where we have $285 billion of cash. <Sync id="L172"time="00:28:04"/>We've got $122 billion of debt for a net cash of $163 billion. <Sync id="L173"time="00:28:11"/>And we have now the flexibility to deploy this capital. <Sync id="L174"time="00:28:17"/>We will do that over time because the amount is very large. <Sync id="L175"time="00:28:23"/>As I said earlier, we will be discussing capital allocation plans when we review our March quarter results. <Sync id="L176"time="00:28:32"/>And when you look at our track record of what we've done over the last several years, you've seen that effectively, we were returning to our investors essentially about 100% of our free cash flow. <Sync id="L177"time="00:28:50"/>And so that is the approach that we're going to be taking. <Sync id="L178"time="00:28:55"/>We're going to be very thoughtful and deliberate about it. <Sync id="L179"time="00:28:59"/>Obviously, we want to make the right decisions in the best interest of our long-term shareholders.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L180"time="00:29:06"/>Great. <Sync id="L181"time="00:29:06"/>And then Tim, maybe could you talk a little bit more about what you're hearing from customers in terms of the iPhone demand? <Sync id="L182"time="00:29:13"/>How you're thinking about the potential decay rate, for a lack of a better term, with the high-end phones and the over $1,000 phones versus balancing that with now your ability to [shift] phones down below $400 because you'd expanded the product line so much when you launched your phones in 2017?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L183"time="00:29:34"/>Yes, thank you, Shannon, for the question. <Sync id="L184"time="00:29:40"/>The revenue growth from iPhone across all the geographic segments was in the double digits. <Sync id="L185"time="00:29:49"/>And I think as Luca said earlier, when you change that to an average weekly sales basis, it's actually 22%, and so it was a stellar quarter for iPhone. <Sync id="L186"time="00:30:02"/>The iPhone X was the most popular, and that's particularly noteworthy, given that we didn't start shipping until early November and were constrained for a while. <Sync id="L187"time="00:30:16"/>The team did a great job of getting into supply-demand balance there in December. <Sync id="L188"time="00:30:22"/>And -- but since the launch of iPhone X, it has been the most popular iPhone every week, every week since. <Sync id="L189"time="00:30:32"/>And that is even through today -- actually, through January. <Sync id="L190"time="00:30:38"/>And so we feel fantastic about the results. <Sync id="L191"time="00:30:42"/>The most important thing for us isn't really the numbers though. <Sync id="L192"time="00:30:46"/>It's customer satisfaction, and customer satisfaction is literally off the charts on iPhone X. You think about the advances in technology that were a part of the iPhone X from -- we went from Touch ID to Face ID. <Sync id="L193"time="00:31:07"/>Face ID has been incredibly well received. <Sync id="L194"time="00:31:11"/>The wireless charging, the edge-to-edge Super Retina display and totally new gestures, the user experience is different. <Sync id="L195"time="00:31:22"/>And so it's great to get that kind of feedback. <Sync id="L196"time="00:31:28"/>Now if you look at the sort of the overall iPhone line, which gets to the essence of the question I think, I looked -- I reviewed the top mini markets. <Sync id="L197"time="00:31:39"/>I'll talk briefly about the top 4. In urban China and the U.S., the top 5 smartphones last quarter were all iPhones. <Sync id="L198"time="00:31:50"/>And in Japan and the U.K., 6 of the top 7 were iPhones. <Sync id="L199"time="00:32:00"/>And so in a market that is as large as the smartphone market is, people want some level of choice, and they're deciding which ones to buy. <Sync id="L200"time="00:32:17"/>But we feel fantastic particularly as it pertains to iPhone X.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L201"time="00:32:26"/>Next, we'll go to Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L202"time="00:32:34"/>Growing double digits off such a large revenue base is impressive in itself, but if I look at March quarter guidance, it does assume a slower average weekly growth in total revenue as well as, I think, on my math, iPhone shipments when you compare it to the December quarter. <Sync id="L203"time="00:32:53"/>So just how should we read into a modest slowdown in average weekly growth as it relates to the last question around the decay of demand around the higher-priced products? <Sync id="L204"time="00:33:07"/>Or any impact that you might be seeing from the lower-priced battery replacements or anything else in the market? <Sync id="L205"time="00:33:14"/>Then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L206"time="00:33:18"/>Katy, I'll take the question. <Sync id="L207"time="00:33:22"/>We are guiding to $60 billion to $62 billion. <Sync id="L208"time="00:33:24"/>It's strong double-digit growth, 13% to 17%. <Sync id="L209"time="00:33:31"/>In context, it's $7 billion to $9 billion above last year. <Sync id="L210"time="00:33:36"/>So when you put things in perspective and you add the $10 billion of growth that we had in the first quarter and the $7 billion to $9 billion that we're guiding to for the second quarter, you're talking about $17 billion to $19 billion of growth in 6 months. <Sync id="L211"time="00:33:53"/>This is at the macro level. <Sync id="L212"time="00:33:57"/>We typically don't go into this level of detail but I think it's important this quarter to give you additional color. <Sync id="L213"time="00:34:06"/>And maybe the 2 most important messages are that we believe iPhone revenue will grow double digits as compared to last year during the March quarter, and also and importantly, that iPhone sell-through growth on a year-over-year basis will be actually accelerating during the March quarter as compared to the December quarter. <Sync id="L214"time="00:34:31"/>Let me explain the factors that we took into consideration as we came up with our iPhone units and ASP that are embedded in our guidance. <Sync id="L215"time="00:34:43"/>Historically, because of the channel fill and the holiday season, our sell-in volume during the December quarter is generally higher than sell-through. <Sync id="L216"time="00:34:54"/>This year, the difference was further magnified because we shipped iPhone X in November rather than the September quarter. <Sync id="L217"time="00:35:04"/>We had a very successful product ramp. <Sync id="L218"time="00:35:07"/>We were able to reach supply-demand balance in December, which placed the entirety of our channel fill for iPhone X in Q1. <Sync id="L219"time="00:35:16"/>And this will have an effect on both units and ASP in Q2. <Sync id="L220"time="00:35:21"/>Now for units, there is a second point to consider. <Sync id="L221"time="00:35:24"/>We typically reduce channel inventory for our newest iPhones in Q2 because they enjoy very large demand in the initial weeks of sales, which are compounded by the holiday season in Q1. <Sync id="L222"time="00:35:38"/>So we anticipate doing that in Q2 this year as well. <Sync id="L223"time="00:35:42"/>For ASPs, there's also another element that we need to consider. <Sync id="L224"time="00:35:46"/>As you know, our newest products this year have higher ASPs than they had in the past. <Sync id="L225"time="00:35:52"/>And so as a result, as we reduce inventories of these newest products, the overall ASPs for iPhone in Q2 will naturally decline sequentially by a higher percentage than we have experienced historically. <Sync id="L226"time="00:36:07"/>So in summary, our guidance for iPhone, we got double-digit year-over-year growth and acceleration of sell-through growth on a year-over-year basis. <Sync id="L227"time="00:36:21"/>For the balance of the company, in the aggregate, we expect to grow strong double digits year-over-year and particularly very strong performance in service and in wearables like we've seen during the December quarter. <Sync id="L228"time="00:36:34"/>I hope this helps.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L229"time="00:36:37"/>Yes, that's great color. <Sync id="L230"time="00:36:39"/>Just a follow-up on gross margin. <Sync id="L231"time="00:36:42"/>Guidance for flat gross margin in March is pretty seasonal, but you do have the tailwind from currency. <Sync id="L232"time="00:36:49"/>And so if you can just comment on how you think that flows into the model over the next couple of quarters, the weaker dollar, and what your outlook might be around component costs in the near future.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L233"time="00:37:01"/>Yes, let me walk you through the sequential first. <Sync id="L234"time="00:37:05"/>So we're guiding about flat sequentially in spite of the loss of leverage, right? <Sync id="L235"time="00:37:12"/>That is the largest element that we need to take into account because of our typical seasonality. <Sync id="L236"time="00:37:17"/>And we expect to offset the seasonality impact with cost improvements and with mix. <Sync id="L237"time="00:37:25"/>FX, on a sequential basis, is fairly muted because as you know, we got a hedging program that protects us from the volatility of currencies in the short term. <Sync id="L238"time="00:37:39"/>Certainly, weaker dollar in the long term, if it holds, will be a positive, but it's not something that you're going to be seeing translate into gross margin tailwind quickly. <Sync id="L239"time="00:37:53"/>And so I think we need to keep that in mind. <Sync id="L240"time="00:37:56"/>We also need to keep in mind that we continue to experience a difficult memory pricing environment, which we think is going to start improving as we move into the second half of our fiscal year, but it still has a negative impact in the March quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L241"time="00:38:21"/>Mike Olson from Piper Jaffray has our next question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L242"time="00:38:27"/>I know you don't talk about future products, which is often a preface to questions about future products, and I'll give it a shot. <Sync id="L243"time="00:38:33"/>When you think conceptually about the path for iPhone X style devices going forward, is there any reason the road map wouldn't consist of multiple devices as we've seen with past iPhone upgrades? <Sync id="L244"time="00:38:43"/>In other words, the X was unique amongst recent iPhone launches because it's a singular device, potentially limiting the shots on goal for upgrades given limited options. <Sync id="L245"time="00:38:52"/>How do you think about that going forward? <Sync id="L246"time="00:38:53"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L247"time="00:38:57"/>Mike, you did a good job of answering your question, I think, at the beginning that we don't really comment on future products. <Sync id="L248"time="00:39:03"/>But I would tell you that we're thrilled with the reception of iPhone X. And as we said when we launched it, we were setting up the next decade. <Sync id="L249"time="00:39:17"/>And that is how we look at it, and so that's the reason it's chock-full of incredible innovation. <Sync id="L250"time="00:39:25"/>And so you can bet that we're pulling that string.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L251"time="00:39:28"/>All right. <Sync id="L252"time="00:39:31"/>And then how do you think about AR beyond iPhone? <Sync id="L253"time="00:39:34"/>You've created the world's largest AR platform. <Sync id="L254"time="00:39:36"/>You got developers generating a wide variety of apps. <Sync id="L255"time="00:39:39"/>I realize it's still early days, but do you see Apple as a provider of a larger ecosystem of AR-enabled device beyond iPhone and iPad in the coming years? <Sync id="L256"time="00:39:48"/>Or should investors focus on the opportunity within your existing device portfolio for at least the foreseeable future?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L257"time="00:39:57"/>I see AR as being profound. <Sync id="L258"time="00:40:00"/>I think it's -- AR has the ability to amplify human performance instead of isolating humans. <Sync id="L259"time="00:40:09"/>And so I am a huge, huge believer in AR. <Sync id="L260"time="00:40:14"/>We put a lot of energy on AR. <Sync id="L261"time="00:40:18"/>We're moving very fast. <Sync id="L262"time="00:40:19"/>We've gone from ARKit 1.0 to 1.5 in just a matter of months. <Sync id="L263"time="00:40:27"/>I couldn't be happier with the rate and pace of the developer community, how fast they're developing new things. <Sync id="L264"time="00:40:35"/>And I don't want to say what we may do, but I could not be happier with how things are going right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L265"time="00:40:46"/>And next, we'll go to Toni Sacconaghi from Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L266"time="00:40:53"/>I have a question and a follow-up. <Sync id="L267"time="00:40:56"/>You commented on how your installed base over the last couple of years has grown 30%. <Sync id="L268"time="00:41:03"/>And iPhone is clearly the largest component of that. <Sync id="L269"time="00:41:06"/>And so iPhone installed base is probably growing close to that number, perhaps less, call it 20% or 25%. <Sync id="L270"time="00:41:14"/>Yet if we look at iPhone unit growth for fiscal '18, sort of what's implied with your guidance, fiscal '17 and fiscal '16, it's been relatively flat. <Sync id="L271"time="00:41:24"/>So you have an installed base that's 20-plus percent higher and a unit growth that's relatively flat, which would suggest that your upgrade rate is going down or your replacement cycle is elongating. <Sync id="L272"time="00:41:42"/>And I'm wondering whether you agree with that and whether investors should be worried about that. <Sync id="L273"time="00:41:49"/>And maybe if I could just add one other wrinkle to potentially get your response on is given consumers' heightened awareness of their ability to replace batteries going forward as opposed to upgrade, isn't that also something that investors should potentially be concerned about in terms of its impact on upgrade rate going forward? <Sync id="L274"time="00:42:13"/>And then, believe it or not, I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L275"time="00:42:18"/>I think it's up to investors as to what things they would like to focus on, so I don't want to put myself in a position of that. <Sync id="L276"time="00:42:29"/>The way that I look at this, and I -- the numbers you quoted, I have a different view of them. <Sync id="L277"time="00:42:39"/>But generally, what we see with iPhone is the reliability of iPhone is fantastic. <Sync id="L278"time="00:42:47"/>The second -- or the previously owned market has expanded in units over the years. <Sync id="L279"time="00:42:56"/>And you see, in many cases, carriers and retailers having very vibrant programs around trading an iPhone in. <Sync id="L280"time="00:43:07"/>And because iPhone has the largest residual rate on it. <Sync id="L281"time="00:43:13"/>It acts as a buffer for the customer to buy a new one, and it winds up with another customer somewhere else that is perfectly fine with having a previously owned iPhone. <Sync id="L282"time="00:43:29"/>And so I view all of that to be incredibly positive. <Sync id="L283"time="00:43:34"/>It's more people on iPhones, the better. <Sync id="L284"time="00:43:40"/>I would like to point out that the -- every major product hit a high on the active installed base. <Sync id="L285"time="00:43:50"/>And so that's iPads, it's Mac, and those are huge numbers as well. <Sync id="L286"time="00:43:59"/>And so as we've always said, there's a large part of the -- or the vast majority of the services kind of are mapped to the installed base instead of the quarterly sales. <Sync id="L287"time="00:44:12"/>And there's -- this quarter is no different on that. <Sync id="L288"time="00:44:22"/>Toni -- on the battery, Toni, we did not consider in any way, shape or form what it would do to upgrade rates. <Sync id="L289"time="00:44:32"/>We did it because we thought it was the right thing to do for our customers. <Sync id="L290"time="00:44:37"/>And I -- sitting here today, I don't know what effect it will have. <Sync id="L291"time="00:44:44"/>And again, it's not -- was not in our thought process of deciding to do what we've done.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L292"time="00:44:53"/>Okay. <Sync id="L293"time="00:44:55"/>And just a follow-up, maybe I could clarify 2 little things. <Sync id="L294"time="00:45:00"/>One, Luca, on tax rate, you've talked about 15% for Q2. <Sync id="L295"time="00:45:05"/>Is that how we should think about the tax rate on an ongoing basis? <Sync id="L296"time="00:45:09"/>And then just back to you on your response, Tim. <Sync id="L297"time="00:45:12"/>I guess, maybe you could just comment on whether you believe the upgrade rate has decreased over the last couple of years. <Sync id="L298"time="00:45:22"/>Because again, just sort of mechanically, installed base is growing 20% and units are relatively flat over that period. <Sync id="L299"time="00:45:30"/>Isn't that telling me the installed base is -- excuse me, upgrade rate is going down? <Sync id="L300"time="00:45:39"/>Or am I not thinking about other considerations?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L301"time="00:45:44"/>Toni, on the tax rate, I will make 2 comments. <Sync id="L302"time="00:45:49"/>First of all, the new tax law in the United States is complex. <Sync id="L303"time="00:45:54"/>And I think we, as many other companies, are really trying to absorb what this all means. <Sync id="L304"time="00:46:01"/>And I think we're going to be receiving, over the next few months, implementation guidance. <Sync id="L305"time="00:46:06"/>So we've taken some provisional estimates in coming up with our tax entries for the quarter. <Sync id="L306"time="00:46:16"/>And we will have to do that as we go forward here during the year. <Sync id="L307"time="00:46:20"/>So it may be a bit bumpy in the short term as we understand the law in full and it actually gets explained in full. <Sync id="L308"time="00:46:29"/>But I would say that for the current fiscal year, the guidance that we provided for Q2 should be approximately what you should be seeing. <Sync id="L309"time="00:46:40"/>As we get into a new fiscal year, so many things change, and we need to take that into account, the geographic mix of our products and so on. <Sync id="L310"time="00:46:49"/>So -- but I would say for the remainder of the year, it's what we're guiding to.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L311"time="00:46:54"/>I think on the replacement cycle, Toni, the answers probably look different by geography. <Sync id="L312"time="00:47:04"/>In those geographies that had -- in the early days of the smartphone market, had very traditional subsidies where you paid the $199 out the door, $99 or whatever, I think it's accurate to say those types of markets, the replacement cycle is likely longer. <Sync id="L313"time="00:47:31"/>Where that isn't the case, I'm not nearly as sure on that. <Sync id="L314"time="00:47:38"/>I would point out that, that happened some time ago, and so it's very difficult currently to ever get a real-time handle on replacement rate because you're obviously not -- you don't know the replacement rate for the products you're currently selling. <Sync id="L315"time="00:47:56"/>You only know that in a historical sense. <Sync id="L316"time="00:48:01"/>So it's not something that we overly fixate on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L317"time="00:48:08"/>That question comes from Laura Martin from Needham.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L318"time="00:48:16"/>I love the 1.3 billion devices you gave us, updating from 2 years ago. <Sync id="L319"time="00:48:20"/>And I love the on-ramp as you spread out the pricing. <Sync id="L320"time="00:48:23"/>Do you get the sense that we have more unique users in that 1.3 billion than we had unique users back there in 2016?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L321"time="00:48:32"/>Laura, I'm sorry. <Sync id="L322"time="00:48:32"/>I missed the first part of that. <Sync id="L323"time="00:48:39"/>You broke up on the phone.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L324"time="00:48:42"/>Okay. <Sync id="L325"time="00:48:43"/>So we have 1.3 billion (inaudible) billion (inaudible) unique users are getting fewer products so we have a higher percent of unique [users] in the 1.3 billion devices than more in the  
+<Sync id="L326"time="00:48:57"/>[Audio Gap]
+<Sync id="L327"time="00:48:58"/>billion devices. <Sync id="L328"time="00:48:58"/>Is it a 
+<Sync id="L329"time="00:49:00"/>Audio Gap 
+<Sync id="L330"time="00:49:00"/>Are they 
+<Sync id="L331"time="00:49:01"/>Audio Gap
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L332"time="00:49:06"/>Laura, you're cutting in and out, but I'm going to take a swing at what I think you're asking. <Sync id="L333"time="00:49:11"/>I think you're asking, are there more active users today than there were 2 years ago when we had 1 billion active devices? <Sync id="L334"time="00:49:21"/>And the answer is absolutely. <Sync id="L335"time="00:49:24"/>There are many, many, many more.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L336"time="00:49:27"/>Yes, I was asking as a percent, the ownership. <Sync id="L337"time="00:49:32"/>It used to be 1.4 devices owned per person. <Sync id="L338"time="00:49:36"/>Do you think it's now 1.2 or 1.6?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L339"time="00:49:40"/>Well, that 1.4, I don't know where that came from. <Sync id="L340"time="00:49:43"/>It did not come from Apple. <Sync id="L341"time="00:49:46"/>And so that's one of those things that kind of flowed out there, and I want to divorce Apple from that number. <Sync id="L342"time="00:49:55"/>We're not releasing a user number because we think that the proper way to look at it is to look at active devices. <Sync id="L343"time="00:50:08"/>It's also the one that is the most accurate for us to measure. <Sync id="L344"time="00:50:16"/>And so that's our thinking behind that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L345"time="00:50:21"/>Okay. <Sync id="L346"time="00:50:22"/>Switchers in the quarter? <Sync id="L347"time="00:50:23"/>You often give us switchers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L348"time="00:50:27"/>It is so early on this product cycle, particularly with the iPhone X only starting in November that we do not feel we have data at this point that would be very meaningful to share. <Sync id="L349"time="00:50:45"/>And so I'll punt that question until next time around.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L350"time="00:50:55"/>Next, we'll go to Steve Milunovich from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Former MD and IT Hardware & EMS Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L351"time="00:50:59"/>Tim, you said you don't want to tell investors what to do, but the first point you made was talking about the size of the installed base. <Sync id="L352"time="00:51:05"/>Later, you talked about the importance of customer satisfaction. <Sync id="L353"time="00:51:09"/>Given that this doesn't look like a super cycle in terms of unit growth, are you nudging us to focus on the size of the installed base, the annuity opportunity here? <Sync id="L354"time="00:51:18"/>And do you have confidence that you can monetize that installed base through additional hardware and services?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L355"time="00:51:26"/>What I said on the investor part is I think every investor has to look at their own situation and conclude the things that they think are important. <Sync id="L356"time="00:51:34"/>What I think is important, I think the active devices are hugely important. <Sync id="L357"time="00:51:39"/>And that's the reason that we released the number 2 years ago and the reason that we're releasing that again today. <Sync id="L358"time="00:51:49"/>That number speaks to the strength of the product, the loyalty of the customer, the strength of the ecosystem. <Sync id="L359"time="00:51:57"/>And so I -- we do put a lot of weight behind that, and it obviously also fuels the services business. <Sync id="L360"time="00:52:06"/>So I have long believed that a 90-day clock on unit sales is a very surface way to view Apple. <Sync id="L361"time="00:52:17"/>I think that the far bigger thing is to look over a longer period of time. <Sync id="L362"time="00:52:25"/>And customer satisfaction and engagement and number of active devices are all a part of that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - Former MD and IT Hardware & EMS Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L363"time="00:52:34"/>And could you address the positioning of HomePod? <Sync id="L364"time="00:52:36"/>What category is it in? <Sync id="L365"time="00:52:38"/>Is it a music speaker? <Sync id="L366"time="00:52:39"/>Is it a home assistance? <Sync id="L367"time="00:52:40"/>Since people seem to be trying to position it versus Amazon and Google's offerings. <Sync id="L368"time="00:52:45"/>And is the target market primarily Apple Music users?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L369"time="00:52:51"/>HomePod is an incredible product that gives an unbelievable audio experience in a very small form factor with a super assistant -- digital assistant in Siri that knows an enormous amount about music but also can handle requests to -- like home automation to close your garage door, open your door, turn the light on, turn the fireplace on, change the thermostat, all of the things that you would like to do on home automation, that takes it further because you can do it right from the Home app and set up scenes. <Sync id="L370"time="00:53:35"/>So you can say, "Hey, Siri. <Sync id="L371"time="00:53:37"/>I'm reading." And your room will change to the things you would like happening in that particular room for when you read. <Sync id="L372"time="00:53:49"/>Maybe it's a particular light, maybe it's a type of light, maybe it's the fireplace, so on and so forth. <Sync id="L373"time="00:53:57"/>It also -- obviously, you can also do things with HomePod like use it as a speakerphone. <Sync id="L374"time="00:54:05"/>And so if you're talking to your parents or they're talking to their grandkids, it's unbelievable audio quality for speakerphone. <Sync id="L375"time="00:54:16"/>You can also have Siri call for you. <Sync id="L376"time="00:54:21"/>You can have -- you can send messages, you can get an Uber car or a Lyft car. <Sync id="L377"time="00:54:28"/>And so there's just a whole variety of things. <Sync id="L378"time="00:54:30"/>And so I think the use cases on this, much like our phones, will be broad-based. <Sync id="L379"time="00:54:37"/>Some people will use it significantly for music and others may use it significantly for -- as a digital assistant. <Sync id="L380"time="00:54:49"/>And I think the majority of people will likely use all of it and use all of the functionality of it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L381"time="00:55:00"/>Our next question will come from Amit Daryanani from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L382"time="00:55:04"/>I have 2 questions as well. <Sync id="L383"time="00:55:07"/>I guess, first one, could you just touch on what you're seeing in China in terms of underlying trends right now? <Sync id="L384"time="00:55:12"/>I think growth was up double-digit year-over-year but essentially in line with what you saw in September. <Sync id="L385"time="00:55:16"/>I would have thought it would have accelerated a little bit with iPhone X. Just the puts and takes in China will be great.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L386"time="00:55:23"/>Yes, Amit, it's Tim. <Sync id="L387"time="00:55:24"/>It's a good question. <Sync id="L388"time="00:55:26"/>Keep in mind that this year had 13 weeks, last year had 14 weeks. <Sync id="L389"time="00:55:33"/>And so even though we're recording a similar year-over-year growth for Greater China, if you change that reporting to an average weekly sales, which is probably a much better way to look at it, there was actually a really nice acceleration. <Sync id="L390"time="00:55:50"/>And specifically, the numbers this quarter, as reported, are 11% increase for Greater China year-over-year. <Sync id="L391"time="00:55:59"/>But on an average weekly revenue basis, it was -- we were up 19%. <Sync id="L392"time="00:56:06"/>Also mainland China, we had an all-time record for revenue in mainland China. <Sync id="L393"time="00:56:12"/>And of course, a key part of that was iPhone. <Sync id="L394"time="00:56:16"/>And as I've mentioned before, Kantar reported that the top 5 selling smartphones in urban China were all iPhones. <Sync id="L395"time="00:56:29"/>And so we could not be more pleased with how we're doing. <Sync id="L396"time="00:56:33"/>And if you look at the other -- we obviously grew share on -- for iPhone in the quarter, but we also grew share in iPad and Mac during the quarter. <Sync id="L397"time="00:56:46"/>And our -- and wearables were extremely strong there in the quarter. <Sync id="L398"time="00:56:52"/>And so everywhere I look, I feel really good about how we're doing in China.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L399"time="00:57:00"/>Got it. <Sync id="L400"time="00:57:00"/>That's really helpful. <Sync id="L401"time="00:57:01"/>I guess, Luca, maybe a question for you. <Sync id="L402"time="00:57:04"/>When you talk about reducing your Apple's net cash levels to 0 effectively over time, I think that implies the number goes from $163 billion today to something like 0. I guess, what does "over time" mean for Apple? <Sync id="L403"time="00:57:16"/>Is that 1 year, 3 years, 10 years? <Sync id="L404"time="00:57:18"/>Just how do you define "over time"? <Sync id="L405"time="00:57:20"/>And does this change your thoughts around M&A at all? <Sync id="L406"time="00:57:24"/>And is that one reason, you get that number from $163 billion to 0? <Sync id="L407"time="00:57:27"/>Does it change your M&A thought process?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L408"time="00:57:31"/>Let me answer, Amit, starting with M&A. <Sync id="L409"time="00:57:37"/>Our thought process around M&A has always been the same, and it really doesn't change. <Sync id="L410"time="00:57:45"/>We've been acquiring companies over the years. <Sync id="L411"time="00:57:49"/>During -- in calendar 2017, we've acquired 19 companies. <Sync id="L412"time="00:57:57"/>And the thought process is always to acquire something that allows us to either accelerate our product road maps, filling a gap in our portfolio, providing a new experience to customers. <Sync id="L413"time="00:58:15"/>So it's always the customer experience in mind, right, that we make acquisitions. <Sync id="L414"time="00:58:19"/>We look at all sizes, and we will continue to do so. <Sync id="L415"time="00:58:26"/>We have plenty of financial flexibility, of course. <Sync id="L416"time="00:58:31"/>We had that even prior to tax reform. <Sync id="L417"time="00:58:35"/>And as I said, we will talk about capital allocation plans when we report the March quarter, and that will include talking about time frames and pace and so on. <Sync id="L418"time="00:58:50"/>And as I said, we'll try to be very thoughtful. <Sync id="L419"time="00:58:54"/>As you said, $163 billion is a large amount, and there are even practical considerations around it. <Sync id="L420"time="00:59:02"/>So we'll see.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L421"time="00:59:03"/>Just for clarity, let me add one thing. <Sync id="L422"time="00:59:06"/>What Luca is saying is not cash equals 0. He's saying there's an equal amount of cash and debt, and that they balance to 0, just for clarity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L423"time="00:59:23"/>Thank you, Amit. <Sync id="L424"time="00:59:24"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple podcast, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L425"time="00:59:31"/>And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L426"time="00:59:42"/>And please enter confirmation code 4783460. <Sync id="L427"time="00:59:47"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L428"time="00:59:50"/>Pacific Time today. <Sync id="L429"time="00:59:52"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Matt Blake or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L430"time="01:00:04"/>Matt is at (408) 974-7406, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L431"time="01:00:13"/>And thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L432"time="01:00:17"/>That does conclude our conference for today. <Sync id="L433"time="01:00:18"/>Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2018-Jul-31-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,513 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2018 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 31, 2018 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Anne Martin
+   Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Brian John White
+   Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 3Q18 revenues of $53.3b, net income of $11.5b and diluted EPS of $2.34. Expects 4Q18 revenue to be $60-62b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 3Q18 revenues = $53.3b.
+    2. 3Q18 net income = $11.5b.
+    3. 3Q18 diluted EPS = $2.34.
+    4. 3Q18 YoverY revenues growth = 17%.
+    5. 3Q18 GM = 38.3%.
+    6. 3Q18-end cash plus marketable securities = $243.7b.
+    7. 3Q18-end term debt = $102.6b.
+    8. 3Q18 share repurchase = 112.8m shares for $20b.
+    9. 4Q18 revenue guidance = $60-62b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 3Q18 Review (T.C.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Best June qtr. revenue and earnings ever, due to strong performance of iPhone Services and Wearables.
+          2. Revenue $53.3b; new 3Q record.
+               1. Up 17% YoverY.
+               2. Seventh consecutive qtr. of accelerating growth.
+               3. Fourth consecutive qtr. of double-digit growth.
+               4. Strongest rate of growth in past 11 quarters.
+          3. EPS $2.34; record.
+               1. Up 40% YoverY.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue up 20% YoverY.
+          2. Active installed base grew by double-digits, driven by switchers, first-time smartphone buyers, and existing customers.
+          3. iPhone 10 was most popular iPhone once again.
+               1. Customer satisfaction score 98%, according to 451 Research.
+          4. Based on latest data from IDC, iPhone grew faster than global smartphone market, gaining share in many markets including:
+               1. US.
+               2. Greater China.
+               3. Canada.
+               4. Germany.
+               5. Australia.
+               6. Russia.
+               7. Mexico.
+               8. Middle East and Africa.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Had stellar qtr.
+          2. Revenue $9.5b; all-time record.
+               1. Fueled in part by double-digit growth in overall active installed base.
+               2. On target to reach goal of doubling FY16 Services revenue by 2020.
+          3. Paid subscriptions from Co. and third parties have now surpassed 300m.
+               1. Up more than 60% in past year alone.
+          4. Revenue from subscriptions accounts for significant and increasing percentage of overall Services business.
+          5. Number of apps offering subscriptions continued to grow.
+               1. There are almost 30,000 available in App Store today.
+          6. App Store:
+               1. Turned 10 years old this month.
+               2. Set new June qtr. revenue record.
+               3. Exceeded wireless expectations, igniting cultural and economic phenomenon that has changed people work, learn and play.
+               4. Based on third-party research estimates, App Store generated nearly twice revenue of Google Play so far in 2018.
+               5. App economy is thriving.
+                    1. App Store is generating jobs for tens of millions of people worldwide.
+                    2. Developers have earned over $100b from App Store since its launch.
+               6. Experienced rapid growth in App Store's [Search Ads service].
+                    1. As announced earlier this month, expanding geographic coverage to Japan, South Korea, France, Germany, Italy and Spain.
+     4. Other Products:
+          1. Seeing strong growth in many of other services as well.
+          2. Apple Music grew over 50% YoverY.
+          3. AppleCare revenue grew at its highest rate in 18 quarters, partly due to expanded distribution initiative.
+          4. Cloud Services revenue up over 50% YoverY.
+          5. Communications Services experiencing record usage.
+               1. Hit all-time highs for number of monthly active users of messages and number of face time calls made, with growth accelerating from March to June quarters.
+          6. Siri request have already exceeded 100b so far this FY.
+          7. Number of articles read on Apple News more than doubled YoverY.
+          8. Apple Pay continues to expand with well over 1b transactions last qtr.; tripled amount from just year ago, with growth accelerating from March qtr.
+               1. This past qtr. completed more total transactions than great companies like Square and more mobile transactions than PayPal.
+               2. Apple Pay is now live in 24 markets worldwide with over 4,900 bank partners.
+                    1. Looks forward to adding Germany later this year.
+               3. In US, eBay is beginning to enable its sellers to accept Apple Pay.
+               4. CVS Pharmacy and 7-Eleven will roll-out Apple Pay acceptance and locations nationwide this fall.
+          9. Transit is another important area of growth and Apple Pay can be used with iPhone and Apple Watch to quickly and conveniently ride public transit in 12 metropolitan areas.
+          10. Apple Pay Cash (peer-to-peer payment service) is already serving millions of customers across US less than eight months following its launch.
+     5. Wearables:
+          1. Outstanding qtr.
+          2. Comprises Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats.
+               1. Up over 60% YoverY with growth accelerating from March qtr.
+          3. Revenue exceeded $10b over last four quarters.
+               1. Truly remarkable accomplishment for set of products that has only been on market for few years.
+          4. Apple Watch delivered record June qtr. performance with growth in mid-40% range.
+          5. Thrilled to see so many customers enjoying AirPods.
+     6. HomePod:
+          1. Expanded distribution of HomePod [through] additional markets.
+               1. Added new immersive listening features with support for HomePod stereo pairs and new multi-room audio system.
+          2. In June, hosted extremely successful developers' conference that previewed many major advances coming this fall through four operating systems.
+               1. iOS.
+               2. macOS.
+               3. watchOS.
+               4. tvOS.
+          3. Has over 4m users participating in new OS beta programs.
+     7. iOS 12:
+          1. Starting with iOS 12, Siri will take major step forward with Siri Shortcuts, which delivers new much faster way to get things done and allow any app to work with Siri.
+               1. Believes this will make Siri even more useful and significantly expand its adoption.
+          2. Designed performance improvements across iOS 12 to make everyday tasks faster and more responsive.
+               1. Camera launches up to 70% faster, keyboard appears up to 50% faster and abscond launch up to twice as fast.
+          3. Adding tools to iOS 12 to help customers understand and take control of time they and their family spend interacting with their iOS devices.
+               1. Activity reports will provide information on amount and nature of time spent on iPhones and iPads and screen time will enable parents to monitor and limit their children's activity from their own iOS devices, using Family Sharing in iCloud.
+          4. Developers will be able to build even more intelligent apps with just few lines of code, using power of machine-learning with Core ML 2 and create ML.
+          5. Included third release of ARKit in only one year.
+               1. With ARKit 2, iOS 12 will provide even more powerful platform to make dynamic AR apps, integrating shared and persistent AR experiences, object detection and image tracking.
+               2. Believes AR can enable profound experiences.
+                    1. Co. is uniquely positioned to provide best AR experience because of seamless integration of hardware and software.
+               3. New capabilities of ARKit 2 will build on potential of thousands of AR apps already available in App Store that are changing way iPhone an iPad users see and experience world.
+     8. Mac:
+          1. Though iOS and macOS are different, they've shared common foundations from beginning.
+               1. Taken key frameworks from iOS and adapted them to specific Mac behaviors like using mouse or track pad, resizing windows, copy and paste and drag and drop.
+               2. Started with some own apps.
+                    1. So this fall, News, Stocks, Voice Memos and Home will be available on Mac for first time with macOS Mojave.
+                    2. Will be bringing these great new tools to developers next year.
+          2. This fall, Mac App Store is getting full redesign with rich editorial content to help customers discover great Mac apps from developers.
+     9. Additional Details:
+          1. Believes privacy is one of most important issues of 21st century.
+               1. Always working to make products more private and more secure for users.
+          2. As Co. announced at WWDC beginning this fall, so far it will prevent share buttons and comment widgets on web pages from tracking users without their permission.
+          3. Apple Watch:
+               1. Users will see significant expansion of features and functionality in watchOS 5.
+               2. Will become even stronger companion for fitness, communication and quick access to information with features including new workouts, activity sharing competitions, other workout detection, advanced running features, walkie talkie podcast and third-party apps on Siri watch face.
+               3. Apple TV:
+               4. Seen major growth in sales since introduction of Apple TV 4K last fall as video providers worldwide choose Apple TV 4K to deliver their subscription services.
+               5. Later this year, Charter Communications will begin offering Apple TV 4K to its customers in nearly 50m US households, providing access to live channels and tens of thousands of on-demand programs via Spectrum TV app on Apple TV 4K, iPhone and iPad.
+               6. tvOS will take cinematic experience of Apple TV 4K to next level this fall with support for Dolby Atmos audio and new features to easily find popular shows and movies.
+                    1. Apple TV 4K already offers customers largest collection of 4K HDR movies.
+                    2. This fall, iTunes will be home to largest collection of Dolby Atmos supported movies anywhere.
+          4. As part of commitment to address climate change and increased use of renewable energy in supply chain, recently announced first of its kind investment fund in China.
+               1. Initially 10 suppliers will join Co. in investing nearly $300m over next four years into China clean energy fund.
+                    1. Fund will invest in and develop clean energy projects, totaling more than 1-gigawatt of renewable energy in China; equivalent of powering nearly 1m homes.
+          5. Seeing great momentum in Everyone Can Code and Everyone Can Create initiatives.
+               1. More than 5,000 schools and community colleges are now teaching Everyone Can Code.
+               2. More than 350 schools have committed to incorporating Everyone Can Create into their curricular for upcoming school year.
+               3. Teaming up with leading educators for blind and deaf communities across US, who will start teaching Everyone Can Code this fall.
+     10. Summary:
+          1. Working with key partners and enterprise to change way work gets done with iOS and Mac.
+          2. Expanding reach into emerging markets and seeing strong-double digit growth and revenue.
+          3. Making great progress toward goal of significantly expanding Services business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 3Q18 Financials (L.M.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Best June qtr. ever.
+          2. As Co. has been in every qtr. this FY, set new quarterly records for revenue and EPS with:
+               1. Revenue up 17% YoverY and EPS up 40%.
+          3. Revenue $53.3b.
+               1. YoverY growth in all geographic segments.
+               2. New June qtr. records in Americas, Europe, Japan and Rest of Asia Pacific.
+               3. Grew in each of top 15 markets with especially strong performance in US, Hong Kong, Russia, Mexico, Middle East and Africa.
+                    1. All places, revenue was up more than 20%.
+          4. GM 38.3%.
+               1. Flat sequentially as cost improvements and FX offset seasonal loss of leverage.
+          5. Net income $11.5b.
+               1. Up $2.8b or 32% YoverY; new June qtr. record.
+          6. Diluted EPS $2.34.
+               1. Up 40%; new record for June qtr.
+          7. Cash flow from operations $14.5b; strong.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue grew 20% YoverY.
+          2. ASP increased to $724 from $606 a year ago, driven by strong performance of iPhone 10, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus worldwide.
+          3. Sold 41.3m iPhones with double-digit unit growth in several markets, including US, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Hong Kong, Russia, Middle East and Africa.
+          4. Performance from customer demand standpoint was stronger than reported results as Co. reduced iPhone channel inventory by 3.5m units.
+          5. Exited June qtr. towards lower-end of target range of 5-7 weeks of iPhone channel inventory.
+          6. Customer satisfaction continues to be outstanding and is highest in industry.
+               1. Latest survey of US consumers from 451 Research indicates that across all this iPhone models, customer satisfaction was 96%.
+                    1. Combining iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone 10, it was even higher at 98%.
+          7. Among business buyers, who plan to purchase smartphones in Sept. qtr., 81% plan to purchase iPhones.
+               1. Up 3 points from last survey.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $9.5b; all-time record.
+               1. Included favorable $236m one-time item in connection with final resolution of various lawsuits.
+                    1. Excluding this amount, revenue was still all-time record and underlying growth rate of Services business was terrific 28% YoverY.
+          2. Generated double-digit Services growth in all geographic segments.
+          3. App Store, AppleCare, Apple Music, Cloud Services and Apply Pay all set new June qtr. records.
+     4. Other Products:
+          1. Category set new record for June qtr.
+          2. Revenue $3.7b.
+               1. Up 37% YoverY with great states momentum for Apple Watch and AirPods.
+          3. Apple Watch continues to be best-selling smartwatch by wide margin.
+               1. Units and revenue grew dramatically.
+          4. AirPods continue to be runaway success.
+               1. Co. has been selling them as fast as, since their launch 1.5 years ago.
+     5. Mac:
+          1. Saw double-digit YoverY growth in active installed base to new all-time high with nearly 60% of purchases coming from customers who are new to Mac.
+               1. YoverY sales performance was impacted by different timing of MacBook Pro launch, which did not occur until early 4Q this year as opposed to June last year with subsequent channel [sale] during June qtr.
+          2. Even with difficult launch comparison, saw great momentum in many emerging markets with growth well into double-digits.
+               1. Established new June qtr. records for Mac sales in India, Turkey, Chile and Central and Eastern Europe.
+     6. iPad:
+          1. Unit sales grew for fifth consecutive qtr.
+          2. Gained significant share of global tablet market based on latest estimates from IDC.
+          3. Recorded double-digit unit growth old in Greater China and Rest of Asia Pacific segments with new June qtr. record for iPad sales in mainland China.
+               1. Almost half of iPad purchases were about customers new to iPad.
+               2. Active installed base of iPads reached new all-time high.
+          4. Overall YoverY performance was impacted by introduction of new iPad Pro models in June of last year, which resulted in different mix with higher ASPs and [channel sale] a year ago.
+          5. NPD indicates that iPad has 60% share of US tablet market in June qtr.
+               1. Up from 51% share year ago.
+               2. Most recent consumer survey from 451 Research measured iPad customer satisfaction ratings of 94%.
+               3. Among business customers, who plan to purchase tablets in Sept. qtr. 75% plan to purchase iPads.
+     7. Enterprise:
+          1. Continues to make great strides with enterprise customers across multiple industries.
+               1. Financial services institutions are increasingly using iPads to deploy digital signature solutions for customer consent, compliance requirements, new account openings and services transactions.
+               2. In railway industry businesses worldwide, are using iPhone and iPads to support operations, training, passenger engagement and maintenance activities.
+               3. Leading global automotive companies are deploying iPads in dealerships for sales enablement and end-to-end customer service management and are choosing iPhone as standard mobile device for their employees worldwide.
+               4. Enterprises including Salesforce and Capital One are deploying Macs based on employee preference.
+                    1. Salesforce, majority of their 35,000 employees are using Macs.
+          2. Seeing great interest in Business Chat; powerful new way for organizations to connect with customers.
+               1. Business Chat lets customers get answers to questions, resolve issues and complete transactions directly from within messages by starting conversation on their iPhone or iPad and even continue their conversation on their Mac or Apple Watch.
+               2. Citizens Bank Park, home of Philadelphia Phillies, (inaudible) Business Chat with Aramark to handle beverage orders during games.
+     8. Stores:
+          1. Retail and online stores had great qtr., due to strong growth from iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch and expansion of HomePod to Canada, France and Germany.
+          2. Stores hosted more than 250,000 of successful Today at Apple sessions.
+               1. Continues to add content across all Today at Apple topics, including popular new sessions, music and photography.
+          3. Opened 50th retail store in Greater China.
+               1. Just opened new store in Milan line this month, bringing number of stores located outside US to 46% of total.
+     9. Cash Position:
+          1. 3Q18-end:
+               1. Cash plus marketable securities, $243.7b.
+               2. Retired $6b of debt, leaving $102.6b in term debt.
+               3. Commercial paper outstanding $12b for net cash position of $129.1b.
+                    1. As stated in Feb., plans to reach net cash neutral position over time.
+          2. Returned almost $25b to investors.
+               1. Including $3.7b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. Repurchased $20b worth of Co. shares, of which $10b related to completion of previous $210b buyback program and $10b to beginning of the new $100b authorization announced three months ago.
+                    1. For total of 112.8m shares repurchased through open market transactions.
+     10. 4Q18 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $60-62b.
+               1. Sept. qtr. results last year included one-time favorable adjustment of $640m to Services revenue.
+                    1. Taking that adjustment into account, revenue guidance implies YoverY growth of about 16-19%.
+          2. GM 38.0-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx $7.95-8.05b.
+          4. OI&E about $300m.
+          5. Tax rate about 15% before discrete items.
+     11. Dividend:
+          1. On 07/31/18, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.73 per share of common stock, payable on 08/16/18 to shareholders of record as of 08/13/18.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L180"time="00:29:16"/>Our first question comes from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L181"time="00:29:22"/>I'll ask both my questions upfront. <Sync id="L182"time="00:29:24"/>First, for Tim, you're on track to hit your Services revenue target even earlier than planned. <Sync id="L183"time="00:29:31"/>So how are you thinking about the next legs of Services growth as you move into the next 3 to 5 years? <Sync id="L184"time="00:29:40"/>And then for you Luca, NAND prices are falling this year. <Sync id="L185"time="00:29:44"/>Services mix is rising. <Sync id="L186"time="00:29:46"/>Those should both positively influence gross margins. <Sync id="L187"time="00:29:49"/>And yet, we're seeing gross margin sort of hang out here at 38%. <Sync id="L188"time="00:29:54"/>What are the offsetting headwinds? <Sync id="L189"time="00:29:57"/>And is it possible that we could see the tailwinds start to overpower those headwinds in the next couple of quarters and see gross margins drift higher?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L190"time="00:30:10"/>Yes, Katy, thanks for your questions, it's Tim. <Sync id="L191"time="00:30:13"/>On the Services side, we're thrilled with the results. <Sync id="L192"time="00:30:18"/>They were very broad-based. <Sync id="L193"time="00:30:21"/>We had double-digit Services growth in all of the geographic segments. <Sync id="L194"time="00:30:27"/>And the App Store, AppleCare, Apple Music, cloud services, Apple Pay all set new June quarter records. <Sync id="L195"time="00:30:36"/>And then, of course, subscriptions have now passed 300 million as I've mentioned before. <Sync id="L196"time="00:30:42"/>And so we're -- we couldn't be happier with how things are going. <Sync id="L197"time="00:30:47"/>In terms of the next leg of this, we're -- given the momentum that we're seeing across the board, we feel great about our current services. <Sync id="L198"time="00:31:02"/>But obviously, we're also thrilled about our pipeline that have some new services in it as well. <Sync id="L199"time="00:31:10"/>And so with the combination of these, we feel great about hitting our objectives and maybe even doing a little better.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L200"time="00:31:21"/>Katy, for margins, let me tell you about the puts and takes for the June quarter, then I'll talk about the guidance for Q4 and make some general observations for the future. <Sync id="L201"time="00:31:37"/>Starting with the June quarter, typically, we see a decline in gross margin going from the March quarter to the June quarter. <Sync id="L202"time="00:31:46"/>Last year, we were down 40 bps, 2 years ago, we were down 140 bps. <Sync id="L203"time="00:31:51"/>This year, we were able to keep GM flat sequentially. <Sync id="L204"time="00:31:58"/>During the quarter, we always have some loss of leverage because of our typical seasonality. <Sync id="L205"time="00:32:03"/>This year, we were able to offset that with some cost improvements, and also we had some favorability in foreign exchange on a sequential basis. <Sync id="L206"time="00:32:12"/>Unfortunately, as you know, the U.S. dollar has already appreciated again recently, so we do not expect to see that favorability to repeat during the September quarter. <Sync id="L207"time="00:32:25"/>But those are the puts and takes for June, and we're very happy to see gross margin sequentially flat for June. <Sync id="L208"time="00:32:37"/>For September, we're also guiding about flat sequentially at the midpoint. <Sync id="L209"time="00:32:43"/>As you know, we typically have what we call product transition costs during the September quarter. <Sync id="L210"time="00:32:50"/>And this year, we also have about 30 bps of headwind from foreign exchange, again because the dollar has appreciated recently. <Sync id="L211"time="00:32:59"/>We expect those 2 factors to be offset by positive leverage because we've seen the revenue guidance that we provided and the mix to Services that you've actually mentioned during your question. <Sync id="L212"time="00:33:14"/>So we feel pretty good about most of the guidance for the fourth quarter. <Sync id="L213"time="00:33:20"/>Looking forward, you know we don't provide guidance beyond the current quarter, but I think we have a pretty good record over the last several years to make good business decisions, balancing units, revenue and margins. <Sync id="L214"time="00:33:37"/>As you know, foreign exchange has been a very significant headwind over the last 3-plus years, but we've been able to manage that. <Sync id="L215"time="00:33:51"/>On the memory front, it is true that prices have started to decline. <Sync id="L216"time="00:33:57"/>It has been a significant headwind for the last 12 to 18 months and still in the June quarter was negative. <Sync id="L217"time="00:34:07"/>We believe that we're going to start seeing some improvement from here on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L218"time="00:34:22"/>Our next question will come from Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L219"time="00:34:30"/>Tim, can you talk a bit about trends within your iPhone sales? <Sync id="L220"time="00:34:33"/>ASPs were above expectations. <Sync id="L221"time="00:34:37"/>And now that you've had -- and that was clearly better than some of the comments from some of your competitors. <Sync id="L222"time="00:34:42"/>Now that you've had about 9 months of experience with the high-end fully featured phone, can you talk a bit about what you think customers want, what the elasticity of demand is and how you're sort of thinking about your competitive position? <Sync id="L223"time="00:34:55"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L224"time="00:34:58"/>Yes. <Sync id="L225"time="00:34:58"/>Shannon, we feel great about the results on iPhone, up 20%. <Sync id="L226"time="00:35:03"/>And if you look for the cycle -- by the cycle, I mean Q1, Q2 and Q3, we've had, on an average weekly basis, growth in units of sort of mid-single-digit and ASP growth of double-digit. <Sync id="L227"time="00:35:21"/>And so if you -- and look at iPhone X in particular, it's the most innovative smartphone on the market. <Sync id="L228"time="00:35:31"/>We priced it at a level that represented the value of it, and we're really -- we could not be happier that it has been the top-selling iPhone since the launch, and so we feel terrific about iPhone X. If you look at the -- sort of the top of our line together, and by that I mean the iPhone X, the 8 and the 8 Plus, they are growing very nicely as you can probably tell from looking at the ASP, and we couldn't be happier with how that's gone. <Sync id="L229"time="00:36:16"/>And so I think in this cycle, we've learned that customers want innovative products. <Sync id="L230"time="00:36:25"/>And we sort of already knew that in other cycles and other points in times, but it just puts an exclamation point by that, I believe, with looking at the results. <Sync id="L231"time="00:36:36"/>On the -- at the unit level, the iPhone SE had a difficult comp to the year-ago quarter, and so -- when we changed some of the configurations -- the memory configurations in the year-ago quarter. <Sync id="L232"time="00:36:50"/>If you look at it on a geographic basis, the top 3 selling phones in urban China were iPhone, where iPhone X was #1 and has been for a couple of quarters. <Sync id="L233"time="00:37:05"/>And iPhones make up 3 of the top 5 smartphones in the U.S., U.K. and Japan. <Sync id="L234"time="00:37:14"/>And so it's difficult sometimes to get a read over exactly what's happening in the market. <Sync id="L235"time="00:37:24"/>But given the industry numbers that we've seen, it's clear that we picked up global market share and picked up market share in several countries, not only iPhone but iPad as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L236"time="00:37:44"/>Great. <Sync id="L237"time="00:37:44"/>And then can you talk a bit about China, up 19% -- Greater China, up 19% year-over-year during the quarter, I believe? <Sync id="L238"time="00:37:52"/>Obviously, iPhone doing well, but -- there was some concern that maybe some of what's going on in the trade world might have impacted, it doesn't seem like that. <Sync id="L239"time="00:38:00"/>So I'm just curious as to what you're seeing in China and how you're thinking about it as you look forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L240"time="00:38:05"/>Yes, it's a good question. <Sync id="L241"time="00:38:07"/>Thank you. <Sync id="L242"time="00:38:08"/>This is the fourth consecutive quarter that we've had double-digit growth in Greater China. <Sync id="L243"time="00:38:16"/>I mentioned how iPhone X and sort of the iPhones were selling. <Sync id="L244"time="00:38:21"/>We did pick up share in iPhone and iPad. <Sync id="L245"time="00:38:24"/>But if you look more holistically at our complete line, we had a double-digit growth from Services to iPad to iPhone and to our other product category, which the Watch did extremely well. <Sync id="L246"time="00:38:38"/>And so there are lots of good things happening there. <Sync id="L247"time="00:38:43"/>In terms of the tariffs themselves, maybe I could sort of take a step back because I'm sure that a lot -- some people have questions on this. <Sync id="L248"time="00:38:52"/>And our view on tariffs is that they show up as a tax on the consumer and wind up resulting in lower economic growth and -- sometimes can bring about significant risk of unintended consequences. <Sync id="L249"time="00:39:17"/>That said, the trade relationships and agreements that the U.S. has between -- between the U.S. and other major economies are very complex, and it's clear that several are in need of modernizing. <Sync id="L250"time="00:39:32"/>But we think that in the vast majority of situations that tariffs are not the approach to doing that, and so we're sort of encouraging dialogue and so forth. <Sync id="L251"time="00:39:46"/>In terms of the tariffs that have been imposed or have exited the comment period, I think that there's one that's exiting today, there have been 3 of those. <Sync id="L252"time="00:39:59"/>And maybe I could walk through those briefly just to make sure everybody's on the same page. <Sync id="L253"time="00:40:03"/>The first was the U.S. imposed a tariff on steel and aluminum that was -- many, many different countries, that started, I believe, at the beginning of June. <Sync id="L254"time="00:40:15"/>There have been 2 other tariffs that have totaled about $50 billion of goods from China that have either been implemented or are exiting the comment period in this month. <Sync id="L255"time="00:40:29"/>I think the latest one is today. <Sync id="L256"time="00:40:33"/>If you look at those 3 tariffs, none of our products were directly affected by the tariffs. <Sync id="L257"time="00:40:42"/>There is a fourth tariff, which includes goods valued at $200 billion, also focused on goods that are imported from China. <Sync id="L258"time="00:40:54"/>That one is out for public comment. <Sync id="L259"time="00:40:56"/>Probably like everyone else, we're evaluating that one, and we'll be sharing our views of it with the administration and so forth before the comment period for that one ends. <Sync id="L260"time="00:41:09"/>It's actually a tedious process in going through it because you not only have to analyze the revenue products, which are a bit more straightforward to analyze, but you also have to analyze the purchases that you're making through other companies that are not related to revenue. <Sync id="L261"time="00:41:28"/>Maybe they're related to data centers and this sort of thing. <Sync id="L262"time="00:41:32"/>And so we're going through that now, and we'll be sharing our results later on those and feeding back from the comment. <Sync id="L263"time="00:41:46"/>Of course, the risk associated with more of a macroeconomic issue, such as an economic slowdown in one or more countries or currency fluctuations that are related to tariffs is very difficult to quantify. <Sync id="L264"time="00:42:00"/>And so that -- and we're not even trying to quantify that, to be clear about it. <Sync id="L265"time="00:42:07"/>All of this said, we're optimistic, as I've been the whole time, that this will get sorted out because there's an inescapable mutuality with -- between the U.S. and China that sort of serves as a magnet to bring both countries together. <Sync id="L266"time="00:42:25"/>Each country can only prosper if the other does. <Sync id="L267"time="00:42:28"/>And of course, the world needs both U.S. and China to prosper, for the world to do well. <Sync id="L268"time="00:42:38"/>That said, I can't predict the future, but I am optimistic that the countries will get through this. <Sync id="L269"time="00:42:49"/>And we are hoping that calm heads prevail.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L270"time="00:43:00"/>And that will come from Brian White with Monness, Crespi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian John White,  Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L271"time="00:43:16"/>Yes. <Sync id="L272"time="00:43:17"/>Tim, I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the multiyear partnership with Oprah Winfrey and what that says about your original content strategy. <Sync id="L273"time="00:43:27"/>And also Apple Music, if you can give us a little more color, sort of an update maybe around paid subscribers or total subscribers around Apple Music and how you feel that's rolled out.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L274"time="00:43:38"/>Yes, sure, Brian. <Sync id="L275"time="00:43:38"/>Thanks for the question. <Sync id="L276"time="00:43:41"/>We're very excited to work with Oprah. <Sync id="L277"time="00:43:43"/>We think that her incomparable ability and talent to connect with audiences around the world are -- there's no match. <Sync id="L278"time="00:43:53"/>And we think that we can do some great original content together, and so we could not be happier in working with Oprah. <Sync id="L279"time="00:44:05"/>As you know, we hired 2 highly respected television executives last year, and they have been here now for several months and have been working on a project that we're not really ready to share the -- all the details about it yet. <Sync id="L280"time="00:44:27"/>But I couldn't be more excited about what's going on there. <Sync id="L281"time="00:44:33"/>And we've got great talent in the area that we've sourced from different places and feel really good about -- felt really good about what we will eventually offer. <Sync id="L282"time="00:44:49"/>In terms of the sort of the key catalysts and the changes -- the cord-cutting, in our view, is only going to accelerate and probably accelerate at a much faster rate than is widely thought. <Sync id="L283"time="00:45:07"/>We're seeing the things that we have on the periphery of this like Apple TV units and revenue grew by very strong double digits, very, very strong double digits in Q3. <Sync id="L284"time="00:45:23"/>As I mentioned in my opening comments, we're seeing different providers pick up the Apple TV and use it as their box to go to market with their subscription service. <Sync id="L285"time="00:45:40"/>There are -- within the 300 million-plus paid subscriptions, some of these are third-party video subscriptions, and we see the growth that is going on there. <Sync id="L286"time="00:45:53"/>It's like 100% year-over-year. <Sync id="L287"time="00:45:57"/>And so all the things from a -- all the forcing functions here from the outside all point to dramatic changes speeding up in the content industry. <Sync id="L288"time="00:46:15"/>And so we're really happy to be working on something but just not ready to talk about it in, in depth today. <Sync id="L289"time="00:46:25"/>In terms of Apple Music, we're well over 50 million listeners now when you add the -- our paid subscribers and the folks in the trial. <Sync id="L290"time="00:46:41"/>And so we're moving along at a very, very good rate. <Sync id="L291"time="00:46:47"/>It appears to us and what we've been told is that we took the leadership position in North America during the quarter, and we had leadership position in Japan. <Sync id="L292"time="00:47:05"/>And so in some of the markets that we've been in for a long period of time, we're doing quite well. <Sync id="L293"time="00:47:17"/>But really, the key thing in Music is not the competition between companies that are providing music, it's the -- the real challenge is to grow the market because if you add everyone up that's providing subscription music today or streaming music, it's -- outside of China, it's less than 200 million probably around the world. <Sync id="L294"time="00:47:45"/>And so it does seem to me, there's an extraordinary opportunity in that business to grow the market well. <Sync id="L295"time="00:47:54"/>And I think if we put our emphasis there, which we're doing, that -- we'll be a beneficiary of that as other people will as well. <Sync id="L296"time="00:48:07"/>But I like where we are. <Sync id="L297"time="00:48:10"/>Our revenues on Apple Music grew over 50%, as I'd mentioned earlier, during the quarter. <Sync id="L298"time="00:48:17"/>And so it's really, really strong, strong results. <Sync id="L299"time="00:48:26"/>Thanks for the question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L300"time="00:48:27"/>Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein has our next question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L301"time="00:48:36"/>I have one for Luca and one for Tim, please. <Sync id="L302"time="00:48:41"/>Luca, I'm wondering, as we think about modeling Q4, iPhone ASPs are typically up sequentially about 2% to 4%, sort of low single digits. <Sync id="L303"time="00:48:55"/>Perhaps you can help us think through how we should be thinking about Q4. <Sync id="L304"time="00:48:59"/>I know you provided some commentary last quarter on how we should be thinking about Q3 ASPs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L305"time="00:49:03"/>Toni, as you know, we do not provide guidance for either units or ASPs for any product category. <Sync id="L306"time="00:49:16"/>But of course, we provide a guidance on revenue. <Sync id="L307"time="00:49:18"/>And the guidance range implies growth of 16% to 19%. <Sync id="L308"time="00:49:25"/>We expect the growth to come from strong growth from iPhone, from Services and from Wearables, which has been a bit of our pattern during the course of the year. <Sync id="L309"time="00:49:38"/>On iPhone ASP, the only thing that I would point out is that, obviously, we're exiting the June quarter at a significantly higher level than in the past. <Sync id="L310"time="00:49:49"/>And so that, I think it's important to keep in mind -- as we move into the September quarter, it's important to keep in mind the type of revenue growth that we've implied in our guidance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L311"time="00:50:04"/>Okay. <Sync id="L312"time="00:50:05"/>Tim, I was wondering if you could just comment a little bit about the health of the smartphone market. <Sync id="L313"time="00:50:12"/>Apple's smartphone iPhone units have been relatively flat for 4 years. <Sync id="L314"time="00:50:19"/>And I think you've probably been a share gainer during the period, which would suggest, at least at the high end of the market, that is perhaps flat to down. <Sync id="L315"time="00:50:28"/>And I'm wondering if you can comment on, a, whether you believe that and what you think might be happening with replacement cycles and specifically also what impact, if any, you've seen from wider availability and less expensive replacement batteries for iPhones.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L316"time="00:50:52"/>I think the smartphone market is very healthy. <Sync id="L317"time="00:50:56"/>I think it's actually the best market in the world to be in for someone that is in the business that we're in. <Sync id="L318"time="00:51:05"/>So it's an enormous-sized market and whether it grows -- from our point of view, whether it grows 1% or 2% or 5% or 6% or 10% or shrinks 1% or 2%, it's a great market because it's just huge. <Sync id="L319"time="00:51:26"/>And so that's kind of the way that I view that. <Sync id="L320"time="00:51:30"/>iPhone revenues are up 20% for the quarter over last year. <Sync id="L321"time="00:51:38"/>We're really pleased with that. <Sync id="L322"time="00:51:39"/>And if you look at the sort of this cycle, which I'll define as Q1, Q2, Q3 for ease, you'll see that we've grown like mid-single digits and -- on an average weekly sales point of view and, of course, double-digit on ASP. <Sync id="L323"time="00:52:02"/>And so I think it's really healthy. <Sync id="L324"time="00:52:06"/>In terms of replacement cycles, as I've mentioned I think on a previous call, some replacement cycles are lengthening. <Sync id="L325"time="00:52:16"/>I think that the major catalyst for that was probably the subsidy plans becoming a much smaller percentage of total sales around the world than they were at one time. <Sync id="L326"time="00:52:36"/>And so I think that some are lengthening and -- but I think for us, the thing that we always have to do is come out with a really great innovative product. <Sync id="L327"time="00:52:47"/>And I think that iPhone X shows that when you deliver great innovative product, there's enough people there that would like that, and it can be a really good business. <Sync id="L328"time="00:52:59"/>And so that's how I look at that. <Sync id="L329"time="00:53:02"/>In terms of the -- our installed base, which is something very important for us as it is one of the key drivers of Services, our active installed base on iPhone grew double digits over last year during the quarter. <Sync id="L330"time="00:53:22"/>And so we're thrilled with that. <Sync id="L331"time="00:53:24"/>And you can see that carrying through to the Services line, in the -- and the growth that we have there. <Sync id="L332"time="00:53:31"/>In terms of batteries, we have never done an analysis internally about how many people decided to get a lower-priced battery than buy another phone because it was never about that for us. <Sync id="L333"time="00:53:46"/>It was always about doing something great for the user. <Sync id="L334"time="00:53:51"/>And I think if you treat the users and customers well, then you have a good business over time, and so that's how we look at that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L335"time="00:54:06"/>Next, we'll take a question from Laura Martin from Needham.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L336"time="00:54:08"/>Yes, can you hear me okay?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L337"time="00:54:15"/>Yes.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L338"time="00:54:16"/>Yes.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L339"time="00:54:16"/>Great, okay. <Sync id="L340"time="00:54:17"/>Super. <Sync id="L341"time="00:54:17"/>I'd like to focus on product road map and strategy. <Sync id="L342"time="00:54:20"/>There is a war going on for the home, the connected home, over the Internet of Things. <Sync id="L343"time="00:54:25"/>And with 2 products, the HomePod and Apple TV in the home, my question is, strategically, how do you feel about the importance of being in the home and whether it threatens your dominance outside the home, with your core business in the mobile devices, if you sort of lose that battle? <Sync id="L344"time="00:54:43"/>I'm just trying to figure out strategically, when you think about where the puck's going, how important is it for you to have a beachhead in the home as well as out of home?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L345"time="00:54:52"/>I think the home business, Laura, is bigger than the HomePod and Apple TV. <Sync id="L346"time="00:54:59"/>They're both important products clearly. <Sync id="L347"time="00:55:03"/>But everybody has their iPhone at home as well and everybody has their Mac at home and everyone has their iPad at home. <Sync id="L348"time="00:55:10"/>And so in terms of the -- Siri access points, there -- as you can tell from the 100 billion number I quoted in the script, there's an extraordinary amount of usage of these products that are used to perform home-related functions. <Sync id="L349"time="00:55:31"/>I do that every day with controlling all my home automation and so on and so forth. <Sync id="L350"time="00:55:36"/>Part of that is on HomePod, but part of it is with the Apple Watch and the iPhone and the iPad. <Sync id="L351"time="00:55:45"/>And so I think home is important. <Sync id="L352"time="00:55:47"/>Home is important. <Sync id="L353"time="00:55:48"/>Work is important. <Sync id="L354"time="00:55:49"/>The movement between the 2 are important. <Sync id="L355"time="00:55:54"/>Health is important. <Sync id="L356"time="00:55:56"/>So the smartphone has become the repository that goes across the whole of your life, not something that is just meant for a portion of it. <Sync id="L357"time="00:56:08"/>And so I think all of those are important, and we're focused on all of them. <Sync id="L358"time="00:56:13"/>Thanks for your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L359"time="00:56:17"/>That's helpful actually. <Sync id="L360"time="00:56:19"/>Yes, sort of. <Sync id="L361"time="00:56:20"/>I mean, I'll watch your product road map and be able to tell what the answer is. <Sync id="L362"time="00:56:24"/>The other thing, the thing I get in fights with investors about the most is this, and I'd love your insight on this. <Sync id="L363"time="00:56:30"/>I love the expansion of the new products. <Sync id="L364"time="00:56:32"/>The question I have is, are they actually on-ramped into the Apple ecosystem, the Beats, the Watch, the AirPods, subscriptions? <Sync id="L365"time="00:56:42"/>Are they on-ramped into the ecosystem? <Sync id="L366"time="00:56:45"/>Or is the on-ramp to the ecosystem the iPhone, and then these new products add revenue per member once you get somebody into the ecosystem via the iPhone?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L367"time="00:56:59"/>The -- a lot of people that buy Apple products buy for the whole ecosystem even though they might not currently use all the different products. <Sync id="L368"time="00:57:15"/>And so the way that I think about those products are they're products within the ecosystem itself. <Sync id="L369"time="00:57:22"/>And there's a -- the AirPods have really gone through the roof, and the Apple Watch has hit an air pocket and has gone to a whole different level, as I had mentioned earlier, with our overall Wearables revenue. <Sync id="L370"time="00:57:41"/>And so in my view, this is a part of the -- they are a core part of the ecosystem.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L371"time="00:57:47"/>And so they attract a new person to the ecosystem. <Sync id="L372"time="00:57:52"/>Or does the person have to have an iPhone first?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L373"time="00:57:55"/>It is -- well, but on your point though, it is clear from communications that I've had with users that some of them were attracted to iPhone because of the Apple Watch. <Sync id="L374"time="00:58:09"/>And so the Apple Watch led them to the iPhone. <Sync id="L375"time="00:58:12"/>The reverse of that is also true is that somebody got the iPhone and then decided, "I really want something to coach me in fitness and to curate some of the communications and so forth like the Watch does so well." And so it's not always a linear path. <Sync id="L376"time="00:58:35"/>I see these things as being somewhat fluid and different for each user.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Anne Martin,  Needham & Company, LLC, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L377"time="00:58:41"/>So they're complementary and self-reinforcing. <Sync id="L378"time="00:58:45"/>Okay, that makes sense. <Sync id="L379"time="00:58:46"/>All right.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L380"time="00:58:47"/>Exactly right. <Sync id="L381"time="00:58:48"/>Thank you for the questions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L382"time="00:58:51"/>Thank you, Laura. <Sync id="L383"time="00:58:52"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple podcast, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L384"time="00:59:01"/>And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L385"time="00:59:11"/>Please enter confirmation code 5838188. <Sync id="L386"time="00:59:15"/>And these replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L387"time="00:59:18"/>Pacific Time today.
+<Sync id="L388"time="00:59:20"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Josh Rosenstock at (408) 862-1142. <Sync id="L389"time="00:59:27"/>And financial analysts can contact Matt Blake or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L390"time="00:59:31"/>Matt is at (408) 974-7406, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L391"time="00:59:39"/>Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L392"time="00:59:42"/>That does conclude our conference for today. <Sync id="L393"time="00:59:45"/>Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcripts/AAPL/2018-May-01-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,511 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2018 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+MAY 01, 2018 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Steven Mark Milunovich
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director
+ * Brian John White
+   Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 2Q18 revenues of $61.1b, net income of $13.8b and diluted EPS of $2.73. Expects 3Q18 revenues to be $51.5-53.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 2Q18 revenues = $61.1b.
+    2. 2Q18 net income = $13.8b.
+    3. 2Q18 diluted EPS = $2.73.
+    4. 2Q18 YoverY revenues growth = 16%.
+    5. 2Q18 GM = 38.3%.
+    6. 2Q18-end cash plus marketable securities = $267.2b. 
+    7. 2Q18-end net cash = $145b.
+    8. 2Q18-end term debt = $110b.
+    9. 2Q18 share repurchase = 137m shares for $23.5b. 
+    10. 3Q18 revenue guidance = $51.5-53.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 2Q18 Review (T.C.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Results:
+          1. New March qtr. records for:
+               1. Revenue.
+               2. Earnings.
+          2. Revenues:
+               1. 2Q18, $61.1b.
+                    1. Up 16% YoverY.
+                    2. Sixth consecutive qtr. of accelerating revenue growth.
+               2. Broad-based performance with:
+                    1. iPhone up 14%.
+                    2. Services up 31%.
+                    3. Wearables up almost 50%.
+               3. Grew in each geographic segment.
+                    1. In Greater China and Japan, revenue up more than 20%.
+               4. iPhone's performance capped tremendous fiscal 1H, with $100b in iPhone revenue.
+                    1. Up $12b over last year, setting new 1H record.
+                    2. Highest 1H growth rate in three years.
+               5. iPhone gained share based on IDC's latest estimates for global smartphone market.
+                    1. Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in March qtr., just as they did following its launch in Dec. qtr.
+                    2. Since Co. split line with launch of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014, this is first cycle in which top-of-the-line iPhone model has been the most popular.
+               6. 2Q was best qtr. ever for services.
+                    1. Momentum continues to be strong.
+               7. Revenue topped $9b for first time; up more $2b over last year's March qtr.
+               8. Had all-time record revenue from App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Pay and more.
+          3. Across all services, paid subscription surpassed 270m; up over 100m from year ago and up 30m in last 90 days alone, contributing to overall increase in services revenue.
+          4. Apple Pay continues strong growth, with active users more than doubling and transactions tripling YoverY.
+               1. Believes availability of Apple Pay at major transit systems have been key driver of adoption among commuters.
+               2. In March, launched Express Transit with Apple Pay in Beijing and Shanghai, second and third largest transit systems in the world.
+               3. Apple Pay is already the most successful mobile transit payment system in Tokyo, which has busiest transit system of all.
+               4. With launch of Brazil in April, Apple Pay is now available in 21 markets.
+                    1. Expects Norway, Poland and Ukraine to launch in next several months.
+          5. Outstanding qtr. for wearables business, which includes Apple Watch, Beats and AirPods, with combined revenue of almost 50% YoverY.
+               1. Looking at revenue over last four quarters, wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 300 co.
+               2. Apple Watch had another great qtr., with revenue growing by strong double digits YoverY to new March qtr. record.
+                    1. Millions of customers are using Apple Watch to help them stay active help in connected and they have made it top-selling watch in the world.
+               3. Launched carrier support for Series 3 with cellular in mainland China, Hong Kong and Thailand, with more markets on the way.
+               4. With watchOS 4.2, there are more features than ever before.
+               5. AirPods:
+                    1. Working hard to meet incredible demand.
+          6. Started shipping HomePod in Feb.
+               1. It's widely recognized as having the best audio quality for its size and class.
+               2. Currently available in US, UK and Australia.
+               3. Looking forward to adding new features to HomePod and introducing it to more markets globally soon.
+          7. In March, announced new products for education community, including updating most popular iPad with support for Apple Pencil.
+               1. In addition to successful Everyone Can Code initiative, launched Everyone Can Create.
+          8. In March, released iOS 11.3, a major update offering new immersive augmented reality experiences, access to personal health records in Health app and more.
+               1. Update to ARkit came just six months after Co. launched the world's largest AR platform.
+               2. In iOS 11.3, patients in nearly 40 health systems, representing hundreds of hospitals and clinics can now consolidate their medical records from multiple sources and view them all in one place right from their iPhone.
+                    1. Consistent with long-term focus, privacy is key element of aforementioned initiatives for education and personal health.
+          9. Environmental initiatives recently passed important milestone, all of Co.'s global facilities across 43 countries are powered with 100% clean energy.
+               1. Works with communities worldwide to build clean power sources.
+               2. Has 25 renewable energy projects operational and 15 more under construction.
+          10. Driving supply chain to use clean energy.
+               1. As of last month, 23 of suppliers are committed to operating on 100% renewable energy.
+          11. Now halfway through FY18, with nearly $150b in revenue and double-digit growth in all geographic segments.
+               1. Generated almost $34b in earnings in six month; bullish on Co.'s future.
+          12. Has best pipeline of products and services Co. ever had.
+               1. Has huge installed base of active devices that is growing across all products.
+                    1. Has highest customer loyalty and satisfaction in industry.
+          13. Services business is growing dramatically.
+          14. Balance sheet and cash flow generation are strong.
+               1. Allows Co. to invest significantly in product roadmap and still return meaningful amount of capital to shareholders.
+          15. Recent corporate tax reform enables Co. to deploy global cash more efficiently.
+               1. In US, expects direct investment in economy to exceed $350b over next five years, including $30b in CapEx and Co. expects to create over 20,000 US jobs at AAPL over that time frame.
+          16. Narrowing site selection for new US campus.
+     2. Capital Return Program:
+          1. Tax reform makes it possible for Co. to execute program more efficiently through share repurchases and payment of dividend to tens of millions of investors, who own AAPL stock either directly or indirectly from large pension funds to individuals with retirement account.
+          2. Given strong confidence in Co.'s future, announcing significant update to capital return program.
+               1. Board of Directors approved a new $100b share repurchase authorization and 16% increase in quarterly dividend, effective with next dividend payable later this month.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 2Q18 Financials (L.M.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Results:
+          1. Record financial results, with:
+               1. 16% revenue growth.
+               2. EPS up 30%.
+          2. Revenue $61.1b.
+               1. Highest ever for March qtr.
+               2. Revenue grew in all geographic segments, setting new 2Q records in most countries Co. tracks.
+               3. Performance was strong in emerging markets where revenue was up 20%.
+                    1. Saw 21% YoverY growth in Greater China; strongest growth rate from that segment in 10 quarters.
+               4. Set 2Q revenue records in:
+                    1. Americas.
+                    2. Europe.
+                    3. Japan.
+          3. GM 38.3%.
+               1. Essentially flat sequentially as Co. offsets seasonal loss of leverage with cost improvement and shifting mix towards services.
+          4. Operating margin, 26% of revenue.
+          5. Net income $13.8b.
+               1. Up $2.8b YoverY.
+               2. March qtr. record.
+          6. Diluted EPS $2.73.
+               1. Up 30%.
+               2. New record for 2Q.
+          7. Cash flow from operations, strong at $15.1b.
+          8. iPhone revenue grew 14% YoverY, with iPhone ASP increasing to $728 from $655 a year ago, driven primarily by performance of iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus.
+               1. Sold 52.2m iPhones.
+                    1. Up 3% YoverY.
+                    2. Grew iPhone units by double digits in several markets, including Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, Central and Eastern Europe, Mexico and Vietnam.
+               2. Performance from customer demand standpoint was even stronger than reported results as Co. reduced iPhone channel inventory by 1.8m units; 600,000 units more than March qtr. reduction last year.
+               3. Exited March qtr. within target range of 5-7 weeks of iPhone channel inventory.
+               4. Latest survey of US consumers from 451 Research indicates that across all iPhone models, customer satisfaction rating was 95%, and combining iPhone 8, 8 Plus and iPhone X, customer satisfaction was even higher at 99%.
+          9. Among business buyers, who plan to purchase smartphones in June qtr., 78% plan to purchase iPhones.
+     2. Services:
+          1. Sensational qtr., with all-time record revenue of $9.2b; up more than $2b from last year; up 31% and double services revenue Co. generated in March qtr. just four years ago.
+          2. Growing at fast pace all around the world, with revenue up more than 25% YoverY in each of Co.'s five graphic segments.
+          3. App Store set new all-time revenue record.
+          4. Apple Music reached new record for revenue and paid subscribers, which have passed 40m.
+          5. iCloud storage revenue up over 50% YoverY to new all time.
+          6. AppleCare revenue grew at highest rate in five quarters, setting new March qtr. record.
+     3. Other Products:
+          1. Category set new record, with revenue of almost $4b.
+          2. Began shipping HomePod in Feb.
+          3. Unit sales of Apple Watch and AirPods reached new high for March qtr.
+               1. When combining all wearables and home products, they accounted for over 90% of total growth in other products category.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Set new March qtr. revenue record, including new records in Americas and Greater China.
+          2. Sold 4.1m Macs, generating YoverY growth in many emerging markets, including Latin America, Middle East and Africa, Central and Eastern Europe and India.
+          3. Saw double-digit growth in active installed base to new all-time high, with almost 60% of March qtr. purchases coming from customers who are new to Mac.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Grew units and revenue for fourth consecutive qtr.
+          2. Sold 9.1m iPads.
+               1. About half of purchases were by customers new to iPad.
+          3. Growth was particularly strong in Japan, Latin America, Middle East and Africa, and Central and Eastern Europe.
+               1. All markets were iPad sales up double digits vs. year ago.
+          4. Gained share of global tablet market based on latest estimates from IDC.
+               1. Active installed base of iPads reached all-time high.
+          5. NPD indicates that iPad has 53% of US tablet market in March qtr.; up from 40% share a year ago.
+               1. Most recent customer survey from 451 Research measured iPad customer satisfaction ratings of 95%.
+                    1. Among business customers who plan to purchase tablets in June qtr., 73% plan to purchase iPads.
+     6. Other Details:
+          1. Makes great strides in enterprise market.
+               1. In Feb., announced new cyber risk management solution for businesses with Cisco, Aon and Allianz.
+                    1. Combined approach is industry-first that integrates most secure technology from AAPL and Cisco, cyber resilience evaluation services from Aon and options for enhanced cyber insurance coverage from Allianz.
+               2. Able to better manage and protect from cyber risks associated with ransomware and other malware-related threats.
+          2. Insurance industry leaders recognize AAPL products provide superior security.
+          3. In March, announced two new services with IBM to bring more dynamic and intelligent insights into apps.
+               1. IBM Watson services for Core ML and IBM Cloud Developer Console for AAPL will enable developers to more easily build native iOS apps that bring together machine-learning with artificial intelligence and cloud services.
+     7. Healthcare:
+          1. iPhones are being used across leading health systems, including Cedars-Sinai, Mayo Clinic and HCA Healthcare with iOS apps to support clinical workflows, communications and care delivery.
+               1. HCA Healthcare recently announced they plan to deploy 100,000 iPhones across their hospital site within next three years.
+     8. Retail & Online Stores:
+          1. Produced highest March qtr. revenue ever.
+               1. YoverY growth was led by:
+                    1. iPhone.
+                    2. Strong performance from AirPods.
+                    3. Introduction of HomePod.
+          2. Stores hosted more than 250,000 of popular Today at Apple sessions, with particular emphasis on coding and app design.
+               1. During qtr., opened beautiful new stores in South Korea and in Austria, Co.'s first in both countries.
+                    1. Three weeks ago, opened newest store in Tokyo, bringing Co. to 502 stores across world today.
+     9. Cash Position:
+          1. 2Q18-end:
+               1. Cash plus marketable securities, $267.2b.
+               2. Term debt, $110b.
+               3. Commercial paper outstanding, $12b.
+               4. Net cash position $145b.
+          2. Returned nearly $27b to investors.
+               1. Paid $3.2b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. Spent $23.5b on repurchases of 137m AAPL shares through open market transactions.
+               3. Retired 5.7m shares upon completion of 13 ASR during qtr.
+          3. Completed over $275b of current $300b capital return program, including $200b in share repurchases against cumulative $210b buyback program.
+               1. Will complete $210b program during June qtr., three full qtr. sooner than initially planned.
+          4. Biggest priorities for cash have not changed over the years.
+               1. Wants to maintain cash Co. needs to fund day-to-day operations, to invest in future, and to provide flexibility, so that it can respond effectively to strategic opportunities AAPL encounters along the way.
+               2. As mentioned 90 days ago, new tax legislation enacted in Dec. gives Co. increased financial and operational flexibility from the access to its global cash.
+                    1. Allows Co. to invest for growth in US more efficiently.
+                    2. Provides opportunity to towards more optimal capital structure.
+               3. As mentioned in Feb., goal is to become approx. net cash neutral over time.
+          5. Board has authorized new $100b share repurchase program, which Co. will start executing during June qtr.
+               1. Considering unprecedented size of this new authorization, Co. wants to be particularly thoughtful and flexible in approach for repurchasing shares.
+                    1. Intention is to execute Co.'s program efficiently and at a fast pace.
+          6. Raising dividend for sixth time in less than six years.
+               1. Quarterly dividend will grow from $0.63 to $0.73 per share.
+                    1. Up 16%.
+                    2. Effective with next dividend, which Board declared on 05/01/18, payable on 05/17/18 to shareholders of record as of 05/14/18.
+               2. With over $13b in annual dividend payments, proud to be among the largest dividend payers in the world.
+                    1. Continues to plan for annual dividend increases going forward.
+               3. Expects to provide new update to capital allocation plans approx. 12 months from now.
+     10. 3Q18 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue, $51.5-53.5b.
+          2. GM, 38.0-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx, $7.7-7.8b.
+          4. OI&E, about $400m.
+          5. Tax rate, about 14.5%.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) Your first question will come from Shannon Cross of Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I wanted to ask about your thoughts on sort of iPhone and positioning. Now that we're a couple of quarters out from the launch of the iPhone X, given the $1,000 price point, it's clearly selling, but there's been a lot of questions in the market about sustainability of that price point and how you're thinking about it as you go look out sort of holistically across your lineup. So if you could talk a bit about what you're hearing from your customers on that and then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Shannon, it's Tim. As Luca mentioned earlier, our revenues are up 14% year-over-year on iPhone, and that's a combination of single-digit unit growth and ASP growth that is mainly driven by iPhone X. I think that our iPhone line shows that there's a variety of different customers in a market that is as large as the smartphone market, and so we're going to continue to provide different iPhones to -- for folks to meet their needs. On iPhone X specifically, I think it's important to maybe emphasize again one of the things I mentioned in my opening comments that customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each and every week in the March quarter just as they did following the -- following its launch in the December quarter. Also, since we split the line with the launch of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus back in 2014, this is the first cycle that we've ever had where the top of the line iPhone model has also been the most popular. And so with the customer sat that Luca referenced as well, the 99%, the iPhone X is a beloved product, and so it's -- I think that it's one of those things where like a team wins the Super Bowl. Maybe you want them to win by a few more points, but it's a Super Bowl winner. And that's how we feel about it. I could not be prouder of the product.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And then, Luca, can you talk about working capital, specifically inventory, which went up pretty significantly quarter-over-quarter? What's driving that? And how are you thinking about -- I mean, it's one of the uses of cash obviously. So how are you thinking about inventory and maybe working capital in general as you're going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Shannon, you know that we've always generated a significant amount of cash through working capital. We've got a negative cash conversion cycle, and we plan to continue to have that. Our inventory level has gone up. It's just a temporary event. We have decided to make some purchasing decision given current market conditions, and that should unwind over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So that was essentially component purchases?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Correct.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Morgan Stanley, Katy Huberty.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The Services growth acceleration is really the highlight this quarter in my mind. Can you talk about what the biggest driver is, whether it be products or regions that drove the acceleration? And do you think that we can continue to see growth north of 30%? Then, I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+It's Tim. The -- Services grew 31%. We hit an all-time record at $9.2 billion, first time we cleared $9 billion. The great news about it is it's not a single geo or a single service. If you look at it, each of the geos, the minimum was at 25%. So each of the geos were -- had -- did extremely well, and we set records from the App Store to the Apple Music, to iCloud, to Apple Pay and more. And underneath that, if you look at the subscriptions, the number of subscriptions, I think I mentioned this in my comments, paid subscriptions have moved up over 100 million on a year-over-year basis to over 270 million by the end of the quarter. And so it's very broad based in terms of type of service and geographic region. It's sort of exactly what we would like to see. In terms of forecasting moving forward, we've obviously made assumption for our guidance that Luca provided earlier, and in terms of longer term, we're on target to our 2020 goal of doubling the Services revenue of '16 as we had talked about previously.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And it doesn't look like the threat of a trade war with China slowed down that business. In fact, growth accelerated. But anything anecdotally that you see in the business in recent weeks that would suggest that, that is having an impact on demand? And any actions that Apple is taking as a company to preempt any risk of tariffs going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. I think my own view is that China and the U.S. have this unavoidable mutuality where China only wins if the U.S. wins and the U.S. only wins if China wins, and the world only wins if China and the U.S. win. And so I think there's lots of things that bind the countries together. And I'm actually very optimistic. I think history shows us that countries that embrace openness and diversity do much, much better than the ones that are closed. And so I'm a big believer that the 2 countries together can both win and grow the pie, not just allocate it differently. And so that's our focus, and I'm optimistic that -- I don't know every play by play that will happen, but over time, I think that view will prevail.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The next question will come from Mike Olson with Piper Jaffray.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Just following on the Services question. I'd be curious what the next drivers of Services revenue are? Will it be continued penetration of Music and Pay that you see as kind of the largest future categories of incremental growth? Or maybe when could augmented reality become a material part of Services? And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, Mike, it's Tim. The -- again, the great thing about Services is there are several services that make up the total that are growing nicely. And I think the other good news is that because our active installed base has -- is at such a level at -- last quarter, we said that we had exceeded $1.3 billion. This year, we're -- we're not going to release this number every quarter, but we've obviously grown again. And it's growing at a double-digit number on a year-over-year basis. And so with that kind of change in the installed base and with the services that we have now and others that we are working on, I think that this is just a huge opportunity for us and feel very good about the track that we're on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And then any potential tariff issues aside, what's working for Apple in China right now? You talked about it being the strongest year-over-year growth in 10 quarters. I guess, what's driving that? Is it iPhone X specifically or something else that's behind that improvement?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A good question. IPhone X was the most popular smartphone in all of China last quarter. And so iPhone X has done well there. In order to hit a number like 21% on the growth that you see on your data sheet there, there has to be several things working well. And the things that have huge growth rates there are the other products category, which is our Wearables business in China and the Services business, which you and I just spoke about. The iPhone obviously had to do extremely well to get a 21% number, and we gained share in the market for the Mac as well. And so there's actually several vectors there that are working well for us. We also -- more broadly on the iPhone, the iPhone was the top 3 selling phones in China. And so it's iPhone X was #1, but we had several in the top.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From RBC Capital Markets, Amit Daryanani.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Two questions from me as well. I guess, first one, just touching on the gross margin dynamics. If I look at the guidance for June on a year-over-year basis, I think sales are up double digit, but gross margins are still flat at the high end, maybe down 20 basis points at the midpoint. Can you just talk about what's driving the lack of leverage on the gross margin basis on a year-over-year basis for June?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Amit, it's Luca. We tend to look at the -- our gross margin dynamics on a sequential basis, and essentially, we're guiding to about flat on a sequential basis. On a year-over-year basis, it's less relevant for our business, but in general, I would say that this year we are seeing a more difficult cost environment. Particularly, we're still dealing with about 70 basis points of the impact from the memory pricing environment that we're working through.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. And if I could just follow up, Tim, you've been fairly vocal, I think, talking about the need for better privacy protection and well-crafted regulation over time. Could you just maybe help us understand how does Apple protect consumer data? And how does this ongoing debate around data protection translate into a positive for Apple over time?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We protect it by encrypting it, and we keep the bulk of information or a significant amount of information on the device so that the user is in control of it. We also collect much less overall than others do because our -- if you look at our model, if we can convince you to buy an iPhone or an iPad, we'll make a little bit of money. You're not our product, and so that's how we look at that. In terms of benefit, we don't really view it like that. We view that privacy is a fundamental human right and that it's an extremely complex situation if you're a user to understand a lot of the user agreements and so forth. And we've always viewed that part of our role was to sort of make things as simple as possible for the user and provide them a level of privacy and security. And so that's how we'd look at it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Steve Milunovich with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca, could you talk a bit more about the capital allocation? The dividend increase of 16% was relatively low relative to what you could have done. So are you really thinking the stock price is attractive here? And you said you would execute the buyback at a fast pace. Can you give us any time frame of that $100 billion? And how much debt do you think about in terms of net cash 0?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Let's start with the dividend. We're increasing it by 16%. This is the largest increase that we've done since we've reintroduced the dividend back in August of 2012. So we think it's a very meaningful increase for all the investors that value income. Obviously, when we come down to capital allocation decisions, we obviously also keep in mind that -- the opportunity for us to do some M&A activities, which we do in an ongoing basis. But when it comes down between dividends and buyback, our view is that for a variety of reasons, the -- we see a lot of value in the stock. We believe the stock is undervalued, and so we have a bias towards the buyback. So the dividend is a very large component of capital return because we're going to be returning more than $13 billion a year to investors through dividends. But we believe that given where we are with the valuation of the stock, we think that we continue to do the buyback primarily. We are not giving an end date to the program this time because the amount is very, very large. And so we will -- we would try to execute it. As you've seen from our track record during the last 5 years, we will do that at a very fast pace. But we also want to do it efficiently. We want to make sure that we buy back the stock at the right time. And so with that in mind, we have done $23.5 billion of repurchases during the March quarter. We will give you an update to our activities at the end of every quarter. And then 12 months from now we will actually talk about an update to the entire program. So you will be able to keep track of our progress every 90 days.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and IT Hardware and EMS Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And Tim, could you talk a bit about your health care opportunity? Is it merely selling watches over time? Or do you think more broadly about? Is there a services play? You're doing some things for your employees. Could that potentially broaden out? How do you think about the opportunity there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We think about it very broadly, and you can tell that a bit by some of the things that we've had going with ResearchKit and CareKit and most recently, the health records that I had referenced in my initial comments. And those all came out of getting significantly engaged in the Apple Watch and sort of pulling the strings so to speak. And we also have a Heart Study that is going on currently. And so I don't want to give too much away, but it's an area of great interest where we think we can make a big difference. And so it's a major strategic thrust of ours.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll go to Brian White with Monness, Crespi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian John White,  Monness, Crespi, Hardt & Co., Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Tim, I think there's -- China numbers were actually phenomenal in the quarter and third consecutive quarter of growth. I think there's been a lot of concerns, just Apple in China and maybe misinformation out there. But what do you see as the drivers for Apple in both Mainland China and Greater China over the next few years? And also, if you could just give us an update on what you're seeing in India.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, good question. Let me start with India, and then I'll talk more about China. India, we set a new first half record. So we continue to put great energy there and try to -- our objective over time is to go in there with all of our different initiatives from retail and everything else. And so we're working toward those things. It's a huge market, and it's clear that many people will be moving into the middle class over time as we've seen in other countries. China, I continue to believe is a phenomenal country with lots of opportunity from a market point of view but also lots of opportunity from an app developer point of view. We have almost 2 million application developers in China that are writing apps for iOS and the App Store, and they're doing unbelievably creative work and innovative work. And so we sort of -- we look at China holistically, not only as a market. On the market side, we've seen iPhone X, as I had mentioned before, as being the top-selling smartphone during the quarter. We gained share during the quarter. And I read some notes here and there about the market itself not being good. I think on -- in any kind of -- on a 90-day clock, lots of different things can happen, but my own personal view of China is that it's a great market. And I would -- I'm -- we are certainly looking far beyond 90 days and feel very bullish on the opportunity and the environment there. I would say that the market for us is more than iPhone. The Mac gained share there as well. The Watch is getting some traction there. Services is doing extremely well. And so it has several catalysts, and I'm very pleased with the results that we were able to show during the quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Next we'll hear from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim, can you comment on the price elasticity of demand at the high end for iPhones, if that was in line with your expectations? Do you have a preference for unit growth versus ASP growth when it comes to maximizing the gross profit dollar growth? And I have a follow-up for Luca, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We price for the value that we're delivering. And iPhone X is the most innovative product on the market, and as I've said a few times, we have -- they're sort of jam-packed with technologies that really set up the smartphone for the next decade. And so that's how we priced it. We were surprised somewhat that through all of this period of time that the iPhone X winds up at the most selling -- most popular for every week of the time since the launch, and so that's, I think, a powerful point. And it's #1 in China, which is another powerful point. And so obviously, at some point, if those technologies move to lower price points and that -- there's probably more unit demand. But the way we think about it is trying to price a reasonable price for the value that we deliver, and I feel that we did that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And Luca, your gross margins have been very robust despite the headwinds that you absorbed on commodities, which you quantified, and frankly, also from the FX hedges that are limiting some of the FX upside that a lot of other companies are seeing. So as you -- one, when do you expect these to turn into tailwinds? And when they do turn into tailwinds, do you -- would you consider reinvesting some of those into pricing? Or would you -- like should we think about you flowing those through to the bottom line?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, Wamsi, I think let me start with where we are right now. I think you're right. I think we've been able to navigate a difficult foreign exchange environment for a number of years. And now as you know, because we have this hedging program, as the dollar has weakened a bit in recent months, although during the last week, it actually started to turn the other way again, we've got the hedging program that works both ways. And also on the memory front, we feel that for NAND, we're going to be turning the corner very soon. For DRAM, we also think that we are near the peak, possibly at the end of this year. And so that should provide some level of stability. As I said earlier this year, I think we are experiencing in total a more difficult cost environment. And so hopefully, that can turn into a positive for us. At the same time, it's very difficult for me to give you an indication of what is going to happen in the future because every product cycle is different, and as you know, we don't provide guidance past the current quarter. There are some elements that we understand quite well and we tend to manage well over the course of the cycle, for example, our cost structures that we are able to manage during -- throughout the year. But there are also elements that are not entirely under our control like foreign exchange. And the mix of products and services that we sell to our customers also has an impact on the overall gross margin. Our primary consideration is always around maximizing gross margin dollars, and that is the approach that we take around, for example, pricing decisions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+From Citi, we'll hear from Jim Suva.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And I'll ask actually both my questions at the same time, one for Tim and one for Luca. Tim, strategically, when we talk to investors, they often say, "Oh, iPhone market is saturated. There's not much room for growth." Yet when we do our analysis, we kind of still see emerging markets like India and all those still a growth. When you think about India and those markets, do you kind of believe that some of those markets could get to much higher or a more normalized market share that you have in some of the developing countries over time? And can you talk a little bit about some of those efforts you may be doing? And then, Luca, the question for you is about the gross margin. When we think about if component prices start to stabilize, seeing how Apple Services have been so successful and accretive to margins, should we start to look for some potential margin -- gross margin upside, again, should components stabilize?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Jim, thanks for the question. In terms of the -- let me address the smartphone market a bit, and then I'll mention iPhone. In terms of the market in general, if you look at last year, which was the last data point we have on the full market, was -- there were still 0.5 billion feature phones sold in the world. Now many of those were sold into emerging markets, not all of them but many of them, and we still believe that, over time, every phone sold will be a smartphone. And so it seems to us that with that many feature phones being sold, that's a pretty big opportunity. In terms of the iPhone itself, even though we sell quite a few phones across the course of a year, our market share globally is low compared to the -- our sales are low compared to the full market of smartphones. And so the -- our task is to convince people that currently -- or have another type of phone to switch while really taking care of people that have an iPhone so that they choose, when they elect to buy another phone, that they buy another iPhone. And so we spend quite a bit of time on that as you might guess. I do think that India -- India is the third largest smartphone market in the world. There's obviously huge opportunities there for us, and we have extremely large share in that market overall. And so we're putting a lot of energy there and working with the carriers in that market. And they're investing enormously on the LTE networks, and the infrastructure has come quite a way since we began to put a lot of energy in there because of their leadership and so forth. And so I do think -- I don't buy the view that the market's saturated. I don't see that from a market point of view or -- and certainly not from an iPhone point of view. I think the smartphone market is sort of like the best market for a consumer product company in the history of the world. And so that's how I feel about it. It's a terrific market, and we're very happy to be a part of it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim, on the gross margin side, I think I'll repeat what I said earlier, but we -- you're right. Our Services business, and I've said it in the past, is accretive to company margins, and so as we're able to grow the Services business, that should provide a positive, a tailwind. At the same time, within the Services portfolio that we have, we have services that have different levels of profitability, so we also need to take into account the mix of services that we're going to be selling. At a macro level, because about 2/3 of our company is outside the United States, a weak dollar is a positive for our gross margins. A strong dollar, as it's been during the last 4 years, has been a bit of a headwind for the company. We try to make it more stable through the hedging program. And in general, when we look at our process to innovate our products, typically, when we launch a new product, that product tends to have a higher cost structure than the product it replaces. And so that is something that we need to work through every time we launch a new product, and we have a pretty good track record and history of taking those cost structures down over time. So we need to balance all these different elements. I think we've done a pretty remarkable job during the last several years at managing all these different variables and coming up with a level of gross margins that we think is really good for investors. And certainly, it is our plan to continue to manage them that way, but it's very difficult for me to give you a prediction of where gross margins are going to be 6 months or 12 months from now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple podcast as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820, and please enter confirmation code 5253762. These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. Pacific Time today.
+Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414. Financial analysts can contact Matt Blake or me with additional questions. Matt is at (408)  974-7406, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude today's presentation. We do thank everyone for your participation, and you may now disconnect.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2018-Nov-01-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,352 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2018 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+NOVEMBER 01, 2018 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
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+Operator    [1]
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+
+          Good day, and welcome to the Apple Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2018 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Nancy Paxton, Senior Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
+
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+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [2]
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+
+          Thank you. Good afternoon, and thanks to everyone for joining us. Speaking first today is Apple's CEO, Tim Cook; and he'll be followed by CFO, Luca Maestri. After that, we'll open the call to questions from analysts.
+Please note that some of the information you'll hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income and expense, taxes, capital allocation and future business outlook. Actual results or trends could differ materially from our forecast.
+For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in Apple's most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and the Form 8-K filed with the SEC today, along with the associated press release. Apple assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information which speak as of their respective dates.
+I'd now like to turn the call over to Tim for introductory remarks.
+
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+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
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+
+          Thank you, Nancy. Good afternoon, everyone, and thanks for joining us. I just got back from Brooklyn, where we marked our fourth major launch at the end of the year. In addition to being a great time, it put an exclamation point at the end of a remarkable fiscal 2018.
+This year, we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple's history. In fiscal year '18, our revenue grew by $36.4 billion. That's the equivalent of a Fortune 100 company in a single year. And we're capping all that off with our best September quarter ever.
+Revenue was $62.9 billion, ahead of our expectations. That's an increase of 20% over last year and our highest growth rate in 3 years. We also generated record Q4 earnings with 41% year-over-year growth in EPS. Record results from iPhone, Services and Wearables drove our momentum, and we produced strong double-digit revenue growth in all of our geographic segments.
+It was a big year and a big quarter for iPhone. Q4 revenue was up 29% over last year, an increase of over $8 billion to a new September quarter record, fueled by continued momentum for iPhone 8, 8 Plus and X and the very successful launch of iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max. These latest devices are our most advanced iPhones ever with the industry's first 7-nanometer A12 Bionic chip with an Apple-designed 8-core Neural Engine capable of executing an astounding 5 trillion operations per second.
+The A12 Bionic is many years in the making and a huge technological leap forward. It sets the iPhone experience far apart from the competition using real-time machine learning to transform the way we experience photo, gaming, augmented reality and more. It makes full use of the dual-camera system that shoots portrait mode photos with Smart HDR and dynamic depth of field, and Face ID is even faster.
+The response has been powerful. As one reviewer put it, "iPhone Xs and Xs Max are the perfect blend of design and craftsmanship as well as seamlessly intuitive user experience." We're not done yet. Just last week, we began shipping iPhone XR, bringing the latest iPhone breakthroughs to even more users. With an all-screen glass and aluminum design and the most advanced LCD in a smartphone, the product reviews had been overwhelmingly positive.
+iOS 12 has gotten off to an incredible start. It's been installed on more systems in its first month than any version of iOS ever. iOS 12 is delivering system-wide performance enhancements, Siri Shortcuts and new tools to help people reduce interruption and manage screen time for themselves and their kids.
+Siri Shortcuts, in particular, is already deeply integrated with some of the most popular apps out there. Whether you're tracking your workouts or rushing to catch a flight, you can be sure all of your most relevant apps are working together with Siri in the driver seat.
+iOS 12 also features ARKit 2, a major upgrade to our augmented reality engine. ARKit 2 makes possible simultaneous multi-user experiences and real-world object incorporation. Our developer community is really running with this technology. From gaming to shopping, we're seeing great new use cases emerge. iOS devices deliver the best AR experiences of any products in the market today, and with the announcement of our new iPad Pro this week, we've made that gap even wider.
+More powerful than the vast majority of PC laptops, the new iPad Pro is unrivaled in its versatility and performance. And paired with the beautifully refined Apple Pencil and a new streamlined full-size smart keyboard, iPad Pro will extend its lead as the ultimate creativity and productivity device. And finally, just this week, we delivered the hotly anticipated group FaceTime functionality to all FaceTime-enabled devices.
+For Services, it was our best quarter ever with revenue at $10 billion. Excluding the impact of a favorable onetime accounting adjustment of $640 million a year ago, our Services growth was 27%.
+We set new Q4 records in all of our geographic segments and new all-time revenue records for the App Store, cloud services, AppleCare, Apple Music and Apple Pay. We also continued to see strong growth in paid subscriptions, reaching over 330 million in our ecosystem.
+I want to spotlight the exceptional performance of Apple Pay, which is, by far, the #1 mobile contactless payment service worldwide. Transaction volume tripled year-over-year, and to put that into perspective, Apple Pay generated significantly more transactions than even PayPal mobile with over 4x the growth rate.
+As a testament to accelerating U.S. growth, Costco completed the rollout of Apple Pay to over 500 U.S. warehouses last quarter, while Neiman Marcus is now accepting Apple Pay at over 40 stores across the country. With these additions, 71 of the top 100 merchants and 60% of all U.S. retail locations support Apple Pay.
+We continue to invest in our strategy to replace the wallet with the recent launch of student ID passes at several major U.S. universities. And 10 months following its launch, Apple Pay Cash is the highest-rated mobile peer-to-peer service by Consumer Reports based on exceptional payment authentication and data privacy.
+We set an all-time quarterly record for Mac revenue, thanks to strong performance in MacBook Pro and the impact of the back-to-school season. In September, we delivered macOS Mojave, bringing powerful new features to Mac like dark mode, stack and a completely redesigned Mac App Store. Considered alongside the release of iOS 12, watchOS 5 and a new tvOS, macOS Mojave tells a powerful story of the seamless integration of world-class hardware, software and services that define the Apple ecosystem.
+As I mentioned at the beginning of the call, earlier this week, we announced exciting updates to the Mac lineup. The all-new MacBook Air brings a stunning Retina display, Touch ID, the latest processors and an even more portable design to the world's most beloved notebook. We also unveiled the biggest update ever to Mac mini, the small yet muscular desktop that powers everything from the music and sound effects of Broadway shows to the developers who build some of the most popular apps in the App Store. The new Mac mini boasts an amazing 5x faster performance than before.
+With revenue growth over 50%, it was another record quarter for Wearables, which includes Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats products. With the highest customer satisfaction in the industry, Apple Watch has become an essential part of people's lives. The customer response to the Apple Watch Series 4 has been overwhelmingly positive, driven by its all-new design, larger display, faster performance, fall detection, enhanced cellular reception and electrical heart sensor.
+Later this year, the ECG app will be available to Apple Watch Series 4 customers in the U.S., giving them the ability to take an electrocardiogram anytime right from their wrists. And for U.S. customers with Apple Watch Series 1 and later, watchOS will soon enable periodic checks for irregular heart rhythms that may be suggestive of AFib. These are unprecedented and potentially life changing features, showing how Apple Watch is not only an indispensable communication and fitness companion but also an intelligent guardian for your health. More broadly, we see this as just one further example of the kind of contribution we can make in the health space, and we look forward to making more in the future.
+We are proud to bring HomePod to new customers. I was in Spain last week as HomePod became available there and in Mexico. HomePod delivers the highest fidelity audio quality, working together with an Apple Music subscription to stream over 50 million songs into any room in your home.
+Our retail team posted record Q4 results to conclude their biggest year ever. They are transforming our stores into places where customers come to connect, learn and be inspired together with people from their community. Our Today at Apple sessions are a terrific example of what that looks like in practice. We hosted over 250,000 Today at Apple sessions this quarter, connecting aspiring creators with local photographers, illustrators and other experts who can help them get the most out of their devices. Apple Stores also hosted 74,000 kids at Apple Camp.
+The relationship Apple has with our customers is about more than just making a purchase. With the recent addition of beautiful new stores in Italy, Japan, China and in just a few weeks, Thailand, we will have 506 stores where we can further those relationships, almost half of which are outside United States.
+Before I turn the call over to Luca, I'd like to touch on 2 items that may not show up in our financial statement but are just as integral to Apple's mission and our commitment to making the world a better place. 
+First, education. More than 5,000 schools, community colleges and technical colleges worldwide are now using Everyone Can Code, our free coding curriculum. Ideas, creativity and passion for technology's potential aren't limited by ZIP code or country, and we don't think opportunity should be either. We're also excited that educators in more than 350 schools around the world have started working with Everyone Can Create, the free collection of tools and project guides we introduced this spring designed to help unleash kids' creativity throughout their school day with the help of iPad.
+Next is the environment. This was a milestone year for Apple's commitment to our planet. In April, we announced that 100% of our global operations are powered by renewable energy. We also made progress in doing the same in our supply chain. And just this week, we announced that the enclosures of new products like MacBook Air and iPad Pro will be made from 100% recycled aluminum, a strong, durable and beautiful new alloy designed by Apple.
+This is a great example of how a commitment to do right on the issues that matter can drive once unimaginable innovation, new ways of approaching old problems and beautiful solutions that set us apart. I'd like to thank all of our employees, customers, developers and business partners for helping us deliver outstanding results across our fiscal 2018. We are headed into the holidays with our strongest product lineup ever, and we could not be more bullish about Apple's future.
+And now Luca has more details to share with you on the September quarter. Luca?
+
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+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Tim. Good afternoon, everyone. We are extremely pleased to report record results for our September quarter, which capped a tremendously successful fiscal 2018, a year in which we saw double-digit revenue growth in every geographic segment and established new revenue and earnings records in every single quarter.
+Revenue in the fourth quarter was $62.9 billion, up 20% and more than $10 billion over last year with strong double-digit growth in each of our geographic segments and record Q4 revenue in the Americas, in Europe, Japan and rest of Asia Pacific. In fact, we set new revenue records in almost every market we track with especially strong growth in Germany, Italy, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan and Korea, all major markets where revenue growth was 25% or higher. We also set new fourth quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and new all-time records for Services and Mac.
+Gross margin was 38.3%, flat sequentially in line with our expectations as leverage from higher revenue offset seasonal transition costs. We set new September quarter records for net income, EPS and cash flow from operations. Net income was $14.1 billion, up $3.4 billion or 32% over last year. Diluted earnings per share were $2.91, up 41%. Cash flow from operations was $19.5 billion, up $3.8 billion from a year ago.
+iPhone revenue grew 29% with growth of more than 20% in every geographic segment. iPhone ASP was $793 compared to $618 a year ago, driven by strong performance of iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus as well as the successful launch of iPhone Xs and Xs Max in the September quarter this year, while we launched iPhone X in the December quarter last year.
+We sold 46.9 million iPhones during the quarter with growth of 20% or more in several markets, including Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Sweden, Norway, Chile and Vietnam. Customer satisfaction with iPhone continues to be outstanding and is the highest in the industry. The latest survey of U.S. consumers from 451 Research indicates customer satisfaction of 98% for iPhone X, 8 and 8 Plus combined. And among business buyers who plan to purchase smartphones in the December quarter, 80% plan to purchase iPhones.
+Turning to Services. It was our best quarter ever in total and virtually in every market around the world with revenue of $10 billion. A year ago, we had a onetime $640 million favorable impact to Services revenue due to an accounting adjustment, and taking that into account, our Services growth in Q4 this year was 27%. As Tim mentioned, we reached new all-time quarterly revenue records for many Services categories, and we are well on our way to achieve our goal to double our fiscal 2016 Services revenue by 2020.
+We now have over 330 million paid subscriptions on our platform, an increase of over 50% versus a year ago. We are very pleased not only with the growth but also with the breadth of our subscription business. In fact, 30,000 third-party subscription apps are available in the App Store today, and the largest of them all represents less than 0.3% of our total Services revenue.
+Next, I'd like to talk about the Mac. We saw great response to our new MacBook Pro models that we launched in July with strong double-digit revenue growth driving an all-time quarterly record for Mac revenue. We were especially pleased with Mac momentum in emerging markets with strong growth in Latin America, in India, the Middle East and Africa and Central and Eastern Europe. At over 100 million units, our active installed base of Macs is at an all-time high, and the majority of customer purchasing Macs in the September quarter were new to Mac.
+We sold 9.7 million iPads during the quarter, gaining share in nearly every market we track based on the latest estimates from IDC. We generated iPad growth in a number of key regions around the world, including Latin America, Europe, Japan, India and South Asia. Among customers around the world purchasing iPads during the quarter, nearly half were new to iPad, and our active installed base of iPads reached a new all-time high.
+NPD indicates that iPad had 58% share of the U.S. tablet market in the September quarter, up from 54% share a year ago. And the most recent consumer survey from 451 Research measured iPad customer satisfaction ratings of 96% for both iPad and iPad Pro. And among business customers who plan to purchase tablets in the December quarter, 74% plan to purchase iPads.
+Other products revenue grew 31% to a new September quarter record with an increase of over $1 billion compared to a year ago, thanks to Wearables growth of over 50% and the strong performance of Apple TV in addition to the introduction of HomePod earlier this year.
+As we look back across fiscal 2018, we have made great progress in the enterprise market, where iOS is transforming how business gets done across multiple industries. In fact, over 450 airlines and 47 of the top 50 around the world have adopted iOS to help pilots fly safer, more efficient flights. And many airlines are also using iOS to support better customer experiences and improve maintenance operations.
+We're also making great strides in the retail sector, where 9 of the top 10 global retailers use iOS devices to transform their customer and employee experiences. We are seeing industry-wide adoption of iOS at thousands of retailers from neighborhood boutiques to many of the best-known retailers in the world. Deployment of iOS devices is growing steadily as retailers replace their traditional point-of-sale systems and use custom iOS apps on iPhones and iPads to provide highly personalized shopping experiences.
+Our success in enterprise is supported by our key partnerships. Since launching our first strategic partnership with IBM, 240 large customers have signed MobileFirst for iOS deals. Additionally, earlier in the year, we introduced 2 new technology offerings: IBM Watson services for Core ML and the IBM Cloud Developer Console for Apple that are enabling businesses to combine machine learning and cloud for a new generation of dynamic smart apps made for iOS. Over 60 new signings across numerous industries have been added since launching these new tools.
+In our new partnership with Salesforce, we're excited to bring together the #1 customer relationship management platform and iOS. Together with Apple, Salesforce is redesigning its apps to embrace the native mobile platform with exclusive new features on iOS. The company can also provide tools and resources for millions of Salesforce developers to build their own native apps with a new Salesforce Mobile SDK for iOS.
+And finally, we recently announced Apple business manager, a new way for IT teams to deploy Apple devices at scale. The response from companies around the world has been tremendous with over 40,000 companies currently enrolled.
+Let me now turn to our cash position. We ended the quarter with $237.1 billion in cash plus marketable securities. We also had $102.5 billion in term debt and $12 billion in commercial paper outstanding for a net cash position of $122.6 billion. As explained earlier this year, it is our plan to reach a net cash neutral position over time. As part of this plan, we returned over $23 billion to investors during the quarter. We repurchased 92.5 million Apple shares for $19.4 billion through open market transactions, and we paid $3.5 billion in dividends and equivalents.
+For our fiscal year 2018, revenue grew over $36 billion to $265.6 billion, an all-time record. Every geographic segment grew double digits with new records in the Americas, Europe, Japan and rest of Asia Pacific. We also set new all-time records for net income, up 23% versus last year and EPS, up 29%. And we returned a total of almost $90 billion to our investors during the year, including almost $14 billion in dividends and equivalents and over $73 billion in share repurchases.
+Before we discuss our December quarter outlook, I'd like to describe a number of changes in our financial reporting that we're implementing as we enter our new fiscal year. First, given the increasing importance of our Services business and in order to provide additional transparency to our financial results, we will start reporting revenue as well as cost of sales for both total products and total services beginning this December quarter.
+Second, also beginning this December quarter, we're adopting the FASB's new standard for revenue recognition. This will not result in any change to our total revenue, but it will impact the way we report the classification of revenue between products and services. In particular, the revenue corresponding to the amortization of the deferred value of bundled services such as Maps, Siri and free iCloud services was previously reported in product revenue. After adopting the new standards, this revenue will now be reported in Services revenue.
+The change in classification between products and services will also apply to the costs that are associated with the delivery of such bundled services. After we file our 10-K, we will post a schedule to our Investor Relations website showing the reclassification of fiscal 2018 revenue from products to services in connection with the adoption of the new standard.
+The size of this reclassification amounts to less than 1% of total company revenues. And for clarity, this reclassification was not contemplated in our previously stated goal of doubling our fiscal '16 Services revenue by 2020. That goal remains unchanged and excludes the revenue that is now shifting from products to services over that time frame.
+Third, starting with the December quarter, we will no longer be providing unit sales data for iPhone, iPad and Mac. 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. 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. Furthermore, our unit of sale is less relevant for us today than it was in the past given the breadth of our portfolio and the wider sales price dispersion within any given product line.
+Fourth, starting with the December quarter, we will be renaming the other products category to wearables, home and accessories to provide a more accurate description of the items that are included in this product category.
+As we move ahead to the December quarter, I'd like to review our outlook, which includes the types of forward-looking information that Nancy referred to at the beginning of the call. We have the strongest lineup ever as we enter the holiday season, and we expect revenue to be between $89 billion and $93 billion, a new all-time record. This range reflects a number of factors to be considered: First, we consider the effect on Q4 and Q1 of the launch timing of our new iPhones this year versus last year; Second, we expect almost $2 billion of foreign exchange headwinds; Third, we had an unprecedented number of products ramping, and while our ramps are going fairly well, we have uncertainty around supply and demand balance; and fourth, we also face some macroeconomic uncertainty, particularly in emerging markets.
+We expect gross margin to be between 38% and 38.5%. We expect OpEx to be between $8.7 billion and $8.8 billion. We expect OI&E to be about $300 million. And we expect the tax rate to be about 16.5% before discrete items. Also, today, our Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of common stock payable on November 15, 2018, to shareholders of record as of November 12, 2018.
+With that, I'd like to open the call to questions.
+
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+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Luca. (Operator Instructions)
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
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+Operator    [1]
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+
+          Our first question will come from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
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+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [2]
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+
+          Tim, there has been some real deceleration in some of these emerging markets, partly driven by some concerns around some of the rules the administration is contemplating and partly driven by things that are more specific to China, for instance, like some of the regulations around gaming. So can you talk about how you see the trajectory there for the business and what you think of the initiatives of some companies like Netflix and Fortnite trying to bypass the App Store around subscriptions? And I have a follow-up.
+
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+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Great question. Starting with emerging markets. The emerging markets that we're seeing pressure in are markets like Turkey, India, Brazil, Russia, these are markets where currencies have weakened over the recent period. In some cases, that resulted in us raising prices, and those markets are not growing the way we would like to see. To give you a perspective in -- at some detail, our business at India in Q4 was flat. Obviously, we would like to see that be a huge growth. Brazil was down somewhat compared to the previous year. And so I think -- or at least the way that I see these is each one of the emerging markets has a bit of a different story. And I don't see it as some sort of issue that is common between those for the most part. In relation to China specifically, I would not put China in that category. Our business in China was very strong last quarter. We grew 16%, which we're very happy with. iPhone, in particular, was very strong double-digit growth there. Our other products category was also stronger, in fact, a bit stronger than even the company -- overall company number. The App Store in China, we have seen a slowdown or a moratorium to be more accurate on new game approvals. There is a new regulatory setup in China, and there's -- things are not moving the way they were moving previously. We did see a few games approved recently, but it's very far below the historic pace. And as you're probably seeing, some of the larger companies there that are public have talked about this as they've announced their earnings as well. We don't know exactly when this will -- the approvals will sort of return to a normal pace. So I would not want to predict that. I do not view, just to try -- for avoidance of doubt here, I don't view that, that issue has anything to do with the trade-related discussions between the countries. I think that is strictly a domestic issue in China. In terms of larger developers, if you sort of step back and look at the value proposition for people from the App Store, there are 2 key constituencies in that equation. There's the user, and there's the developer. If you start with the user, what the App Store provides people is sort of the best and safest place for users to get apps. And we put a -- we have a tremendous process and infrastructure around achieving that. And where it is not perfect, we wind up reviewing 100,000 -- over 100,000 apps a week between new apps and updates for existing apps and then work with developers quickly to fix the issues. And we also provide the user a one-payment model for purchasing apps and subscriptions and in-app purchases, et cetera, so that they are not in a position that they have to share their private information across many companies. And so that's sort of the proposition for the user. For the developer, we obviously provide developers a tremendous amount of developer tools, programs, compilers, languages, of course, the operating system APIs, SDKs and have a huge developer relations team. And we do a tremendous amount of marketing for developers, including the new Today editorial that we just started in the past few months, personal recommendations search, tools and so on and so forth. And so if -- there will be -- there's no doubt, in my mind, there have already been some large developers that concluded that they could do something on their own. We're fine with that. I think Luca mentioned in his comments that the largest -- if I look at the largest developer, they make up less than 0.3% of the Services revenue. So it's probably good to think about that in that context, and there are millions of apps on the store obviously and 30,000 or so subscription apps. And so the subscription business itself is nearly as broad as the App Store itself is. And so that's the value proposition, I think, that the vast majority of people are very happy with it and including the most important people of all, which is the user.
+
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+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Appreciate that response. If I could just ask you really quick on Apple's role in health care. It's been growing significantly since the early introduction on the Watch and then the various kits for developers, including HealthKit, CareKit, et cetera. And when you combine that with your very staunch advocacy for privacy, I see Apple could become a really large disintermediating force in all the friction in the health care industry today in the way medical information is shared and distributed. Is this the way that you see the future for Apple in health care? And do you see a means to also grow your Services business through the health care offerings that could become subscriptions to your customers?
+
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+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think Apple has a huge opportunity in the -- in health. And you can see from the -- our past several years that we have an intense interest in the space and are adding products and services, non-monetized services so far to that. And I don't want to talk about the future because I don't want to give away what we're doing. But this is an area of major interest to us.
+
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+Operator    [6]
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+
+          Shannon Cross from Cross Research has the next question.
+
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+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Given the $4 billion range in revenue that you're giving for the quarter and all of the -- all the things that are going on in the world right now, can you maybe give a little detail about the variables that you took into account when you were coming up with this, geopolitical trade, macro component costs, I don't know, if you can just give it some ideas as -- on what the puts and takes were?
+
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+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Shannon, I'll take this one. And at the revenue level, we started from the fact that we are very, very excited about the lineup of products and services that we have getting into the holiday season. It's the strongest lineup that we've ever had. And our guidance range, by the way, represents a new all-time quarterly revenue record, right? As I explained in my prepared remarks, there are a number of things that need to be considered as part of this guidance range, right? The first one is the fact that the launch timing of the new iPhones this year is essentially in reverse order versus last year. And that has had an effect on Q1 -- on Q4 and will have an effect on Q1. Last year, we launched the top end of our iPhone lineup, which was iPhone X during Q1, and placed the entirety of the channel fill for iPhone X in Q1. This year, we launched the top end of the lineup, which is the Xs and the Xs Max during Q4. Obviously, this resulted in a more pronounced ASP growth in Q4 of '18 and obviously a tougher compare for Q1. So I think it's important to keep that in mind as you look at the revenue guidance that we provided. The second point that needs to be kept in mind, it is a fact of life and we've dealt with it for a number of years now, is the fact that when I look at currencies around the world, virtually every foreign currency has depreciated against the U.S. dollar in the last 12 months. And when we look at the impact of foreign exchange on our revenue for the December quarter, we're looking at 200 basis points of headwinds, which translate, given our -- the size of our business, to almost $2 billion of headwind to our revenue. The third point that I think is important to keep in mind, and Tim has talked about this, we are launching -- in the last 6 weeks, we've launched an unprecedented number of new products. They're all ramping right now. The ramps are going fairly well, but obviously, we have some uncertainty around supply-demand balance for some of these products. And then finally, the last point that we've taken into account is what Tim's talked about in terms of some level of uncertainty at the macroeconomic level in some emerging markets, where, clearly, consumer confidence is not as high as it was 12 months ago. So take that into account, and that's how we got to the range.
+
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+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then I just want to talk a little bit about the pullback in terms of guidance from a unit perspective. I understand you don't want to give guidance because 90 days is a short period of time and can be -- fluctuate. But what kind of qualitative commentary do you think you'll be able to provide? Because it's -- obviously, investors have spent the last however many years going P times Q. So how should we think about what we can expect? And sort of how are you going to manage this process as we go through? I know it's all our job to forecast but...
+
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+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me walk you through the rationale that we've used, and then I'll talk about this qualitative commentary that you were mentioning. As I said, right, our objective is to make great products, provide the best customer experience and get our customers satisfied, engaged and loyal to our ecosystem. When you look at our financial performance in recent years, take the last 3 years, for example, the number of units sold during any quarter has not been necessarily representative of the underlying strength of our business. If you look at our revenue during the last 3 years, if you look at our net income during the last 3 years, if you look at our spot price during the last 3 years, there's no correlation to the units sold in any given period. As you know very well, in addition, our product ranges for all the major product categories have become wider over time, and therefore, a unit of sale is less relevant for us at this point compared to the past because we got this much wider sales price dispersion. So unit of sale per se becomes less relevant. As I know you're aware, by the way, our top competitors in smartphones, in tablets, in computers do not provide quarterly unit sales information either. But of course, we understand that this is something of interest. And when we believe that providing qualitative commentary on unit sales offers additional relevant information to investors, we will do so.
+
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+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me make one additional point there just for clarity, is that, Shannon, our intention is to continue to give revenue guidance at the company level and gross margin guidance in the other categories that we've been providing. And so the -- our guidance isn't changing. It's the actual report that changes.
+
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+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mike Olson with Piper Jaffray.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          With the staggered iPhone launch, were you able to discern any impact on the Xs and Xs Max from buyers potentially waiting for the XR? And what, if anything, can we take away from the December quarter guidance related to what you're seeing for early demand on the XR? And then I have a follow-up.
+
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+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Mike, it's Tim. The Xs and Xs Max got off to a really great start, and we've only been selling for a few weeks. The XR, we've only got out there for, I guess, 5 -- 5 days or so at this point and so that it's -- we have very, very little data there. Usually, there is some amount of wait until a product shows -- another product shows up in look, but in -- that -- in looking at the data, on the sales data for Xs and Xs Max, there's not obvious evidence of that in the data as I see it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And you mentioned record levels for various components of the Services business. As we look forward, if growth of Services is to maintain something close to the recent pace, what are the components of Services that you're particularly excited about that could drive that and be the strongest drivers? And maybe an offshoot to that, it seems like the news flow around augmented reality slowed a little bit in recent months. Is that potentially materially contributor to services in the near future?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Like as we said, during the September quarter, we set new records for many, many Services categories, right, from Apple Music to cloud services to the App Store to AppleCare and Apple Pay really has an exponential trajectory right now. When we look at our Services business, we think about the fact that we have a very large and growing installed base. The installed base of all our major product categories is at an all-time high and has been growing over the last several quarters. So the opportunity for us to monetize our Services business continues to grow over time. Of course, we are also improving the quality of the services that we provide, and if you look back during the last 3 years, we've added new services to our portfolio. We added Apple Pay. We added Apple Music. We added this advertising business on our App Store. And clearly, we will want to continue to offer new services over time. So there are a number of vectors that allow us to continue to grow the business over time. We have stated that we want to double the size of the Services business from the level that we had in fiscal '16 by 2020. We are well on pace to achieve that, and we feel very, very confident about the future of -- and the opportunities that we have in the Services space.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Mike, in terms of your question on AR, I have a different view than you do on this one. We -- just a year ago -- practically, a year ago, we came out with ARKit 1. 6 months or so after that, we came out with 1.5. We then recently came out with ARKit 2. The number of things that you can do are growing significantly. The number of developers that either have done something or even more the case that are working on things that I've seen are growing tremendously. There's a lot of interest out there. And the number of categories that I'm seeing from gaming to shopping to -- I was in China a few weeks ago and saw AR in the -- in an art sense, an art exhibit. I was in Berlin last week and saw it being used in a historical educational kind of sense. I'm seeing it sort of everywhere I go now. And so I think we are in the early days, and it'll keep getting better and better. But I'm really happy with where things are at the moment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next, we'll go to Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Tim, given the current trade negotiations and broader geopolitical risk, do you have any plans to consider diversifying the supply chain? And if you were to do that, either on your own or sort of forced, do you think it would have significant impact on the business or profitability?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Katy, if you look at the products that we've created and are manufacturing, they're really manufactured everywhere. We have significant content from the U.S. market. We have content from Japan to Korea to many countries, and we have great content from China as well. And so there are many hands in the products. The vast majority or almost all of the R&D is in the United States as well as a lot of the support organization. And I -- so as -- I think that, that basic model where you look around the world and find the best in different areas, I don't expect that model to go out of style so to speak. I think there's a reason why things have developed in that way, and I think it's great for all countries and citizens of countries that are involved in that. And I'm still of the mindset that I feel very optimistic and positive that the discussions that are going will be fruitful. The -- these relationships, these trade relationships are big and complex, and they clearly do need a level of focus and a level of updating and modernization. And so I'm optimistic of -- that the countries, the U.S. and China and the U.S. and Europe and so forth can work these things out and work for the benefit of everyone.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful color. And Luca, as a follow-up, NAND prices fell significantly during the September quarter. Why aren't we seeing that flow through to margin expansion to the overall company?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You're referring to the guidance that we provided for Q1, I imagine. And let me give you the puts and takes, Katy. You're correct, we are going to be getting some benefits from commodities in general and memory in particular. Memory, on a sequential basis, it's about 30 basis points favorable for us going into the December quarter. And obviously, we're going to be benefiting from the leverage, which is typical of our seasonality in the December quarter. On the other hand, as I mentioned before, currencies have weakened against the U.S. dollar. And the impact that we expect at the gross margin level from foreign exchange is a 90 basis points headwind sequentially. And of course, at this point in the cycle, we also have higher cost structures because, as I said, we've launched so many new products in the last 6 weeks. So those are the puts and takes, leverage and commodity savings on one side and FX and the new products on the other side.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next, we'll go to Jim Suva with Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          A question for Tim and a question for Luca, and I'll ask them at the same time, so you can decide to answer the first or second. But operationally, Tim, I think your company is at a disadvantage relative to others in India giving where items are produced versus shipped versus taxed versus installed as well as ability to own stores. So can you help us address that? Is India going to potentially be a big area as I think you've got about only 1% market share, but it sounded like things may be softened there? And then for Luca, there'd probably be a lot of pushback about not giving iPhone unit data. It sounds like you're still going to give revenue data if I heard that correctly. But some people may fear that this now means that the iPhone units are going to start going negative year-over-year because it's easy to talk about great things and not show the details of things that aren't so great.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. I'll start with India. We've had really great productive discussions with the Indian government, and I fully expect that, at some point, they will agree to allow us to bring our stores into the country. We've been in discussions with them, and the discussions are going quite well. There is -- as you point out, there are import duties in some or most of the product categories that we're in. In some cases, they compound. And this is an area that we're giving lots of feedback on. We do manufacture some of the entry iPhones in India, and that project has gone well. I am a big believer in India. I am very bullish on the country and the people and our ability to do well there. The currency weakness has been part of our challenge there as you can tell from just looking at the currency trend. But I sort of view these as speed bumps along a very long journey, though, in that the long term is -- I think is very, very strong there. There's a huge number of people that will move into the middle class. The government has really focused on reform in a major way and made some very bold moves, and I applaud them for doing that and sort of can't wait for the future there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And Jim, let me take the question on units. First of all, as Tim said, our approach to guidance -- providing guidance doesn't change at all, and we continue to provide the same metrics that we were providing before. In terms of reporting results, one of the things that we are doing, and it's new and it's an addition to the information that we provide to investors because we've heard some significant level of interest around this, is starting with the December quarter, for the first time, we're going to be providing information on revenue and cost of sales and therefore, gross margins for both products and services. And this will be the first time that we're going to provide gross margin information for our Services business, which we believe it is an important metric for our investors to follow. Given the rationale on why we do not believe that providing unit sales is particularly relevant for our company at this point, I can reassure you that it is our objective to grow unit sales for every product category that we have. But as I said earlier, a unit of sale is less relevant today than it was in the past. To give you an example, the unit sales of iPhone at the top end of the line have been very strong during the September quarter. And that's very important because we are attracting customers to the most recent technologies and features and innovation that we bring into the lineup, but you don't necessarily see that in the number that is reported. And so therefore, we will -- as I said, we'll provide the qualitative commentary when it is important and relevant, but at the end of the day, we make our decisions to -- from a financial standpoint, to try and optimize our revenue and our gross margin dollars. And that, we think, is the focus that is in the best interest of our investors.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Jim, let me just add a couple things to that for color. Our installed base is growing at double digit, and so there's no -- and that's probably a much more significant metric for us from an ecosystem point of view and customer loyalty, et cetera. The second thing is this is a little bit like if you go to the market and you push your cart up to the cashier and she says or he says, "How many units you have in there?", it sort of -- 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.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820, and please enter confirmation code 3699080. These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. Pacific Time today.
+Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Matt Blake or me with additional questions. Matt is at (408) 974-7406, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That does conclude our conference for today. Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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+content of the call has been transcribed accurately and in full.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2019-Apr-30-AAPL.txt

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+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2019 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 30, 2019 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Louis Rocco Miscioscia
+   Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Samik Chatterjee
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 2Q19 revenue of $58b, net income of $11.6b and diluted EPS of $2.46. Expects 3Q19 revenue to be $52.5-54.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 2Q19 revenue = $58b.
+    2. 2Q19 net income = $11.6b.
+    3. 2Q19 diluted EPS = $2.46.
+    4. 2Q19 YoverY revenue decline = 5%.
+    5. 2Q19 GM = 37.6%.
+    6. 2Q19-end cash plus marketable securities = $225b.
+    7. 2Q19-end term debt = $101b.
+    8. 2Q19 share repurchase = 71.7m AAPL shares for $12b through open market transactions.
+    9. 3Q19 revenue guidance = $52.5-54.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 2Q19 Review (T.C.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $58b, toward high-end of guidance range.
+               1. Sees this result as positive outcome in light of ongoing headwinds from weaker foreign currencies relative to US dollar.
+               2. In constant-currency, YoverY revenue performance would have been 200 BP better than reported results indicate.
+          2. Had great results in a number of areas across business.
+               1. Best qtr. ever for Services.
+                    1. Revenue $11.5b.
+               2. iPad revenue up 22% YoverY.
+                    1. Highest iPad revenue growth rate in six years.
+               3. Wearables growth near 50%.
+                    1. This business is now about the size of Fortune 200 co., amazing statistic considering it's only been four years since Co. delivered very first Apple Watch.
+          3. Grew YoverY in developed markets.
+               1. Record March qtr. results in a number of major markets, including US, Canada, UK and Japan.
+               2. Experienced revenue decline in emerging markets.
+                    1. Feels positive about trajectory.
+                    2. YoverY revenue performance in Greater China improved relative to Dec. qtr.
+                    3. Seen positive customer response to pricing actions taken in aforementioned market, trading and financing programs in retail stores, effects of government measures to stimulate economy and improved trade dialogue between US and China.
+                    4. App Store results are reflecting impact of slowdown in regulatory approval and gaming apps in China, but Co. is encouraged by recent increase in pace of approvals.
+                    5. Believes strongly in long-term opportunity in China due to robust ecosystem, talented developer community and country's growing population of tech savvy consumers who value best products and services.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Worldwide revenue down 17% YoverY.
+               1. Declines were significantly smaller in final weeks.
+          2. Looking back at past five months, Nov. and Dec. were most challenging.
+               1. This is encouraging trend.
+          3. Likes direction Co. is headed with iPhone.
+               1. Goal is to pick up the pace.
+          4. Active installed base of devices continues to grow in each geographic segment and set new all-time record for all major product categories.
+               1. Growing installed base is a reflection of satisfaction and loyalty of customers.
+                    1. Driving Services business to new heights.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Had best qtr. ever for App Store, Apple Music, Cloud Services and App Store Search Ad business.
+               1. Set new March qtr. revenue records for AppleCare and Apple Pay.
+          2. Apple Pay:
+               1. Transaction volume more than doubled YoverY.
+                    1. On track to reach 10b transactions this calendar year.
+               2. Available in 30 markets.
+                    1. Expects to be live in 40 markets by year-end.
+               3. More and more transit systems are accepting Apple Pay.
+                    1. New York's MTA system will begin rollout in early summer.
+               4. As seen in places like London, Tokyo and Shanghai, contactless entry into transit systems helps to spur broader Apple Pay adoption.
+                    1. Believes this will get even more people using Apple Pay in US.
+               5. Ticketmaster announced that they will be accepting Apple Pay for ticket purchases on web and through Ticketmaster app.
+                    1. Over 50 of their entertainment and sporting venues are launching contactless tickets this year, including vast majority of NFL stadiums.
+          3. Subscriptions are powerful driver of Services business.
+               1. Reached new high of over 390m paid subscriptions at March-end, up 30m in last qtr. alone.
+          4. Incredibly important qtr. for Services moving forward.
+               1. In March, previewed game-changing array of new services, each of them rooted in principles that are fundamentally AAPL.
+                    1. They're easy to use.
+                    2. They feature unmatched attention to detail.
+                    3. They put premium on user privacy and security.
+                    4. They are expertly curated, personalized and ready to be shared by everyone in family.
+                    5. These features are nice to have and help to eliminate boundary between hardware, software and service, creating singularly exceptional experience for users.
+          5. Apple News+:
+               1. Building on great momentum of Apple News, which is already Number 1 news app in US and UK, launched Apple News+.
+               2. Will bring together over 30 popular magazines, leading newspapers and digital publishers into beautiful, convenient and curated experience within Apple News app.
+               3. Builds on Co.'s commitment to supporting quality journalism from trusted sources, while providing best magazine and news reading experience ever for mobile devices.
+          6. Apple Card:
+               1. Advancing vision to replace Wallet, announced Apple Card, built on principles Co. stands for like:
+                    1. Transparency.
+                    2. Simplicity.
+                    3. Privacy.
+               2. Integrated into Wallet app.
+               3. Delivers all new experiences that only Co. can provide, integrating hardware, software and services in elegant solution that places customer at the center.
+               4. First card to encourage to pay less interest, eliminate fees and give daily cash on all purchases.
+                    1. Customer interest to-date has been terrific.
+          7. Apple Arcade:
+               1. Previewed Apple Arcade, world's first game subscription service for:
+                    1. Mobile.
+                    2. Desktop.
+                    3. Living room.
+               2. With over 100 new games, all with no ads or ad tracking, no additional purchases and respect for user privacy, created service for players of all ages, kids to teens to adults and one that families can enjoy together.
+               3. App Store is already world's biggest gaming platform.
+                    1. Thinks Apple Arcade is a great way to unleash creativity of game developer community with collection of new games not available on any other mobile platform or in any other subscription service.
+          8. Apple TV:
+               1. Beginning in mid-May, all new Apple TV app will bring together different ways to discover and watch shows, movies, sports news and more in one app across:
+                    1. iPhone.
+                    2. iPad.
+                    3. Apple TV.
+                    4. Mac.
+                    5. Smart TVs.
+                    6. Streaming devices.
+               2. Users can subscribe to and watch new Apple TV channels like HBO, Showtime and Stars, paying for services they want, all on-demand available online and offline.
+               3. Coming this fall, Apple TV+ will be new home for world's most creative story tellers, featuring exclusive:
+                    1. Original shows.
+                    2. Movies.
+                    3. Documentaries.
+     4. Several Major Product Introductions:
+          1. iMac:
+               1. Launched new more powerful iMac with dramatic increases in compute and graphics performance, making it great update for consumers and pros alike.
+               2. For Mac business overall, faced some processor constraints, leading to 5% revenue decline vs. last year.
+                    1. Believes that Mac revenue would have been up vs. last year without those constraints.
+                    2. Does not believe this challenge will have significant impact on 3Q results.
+          2. iPad:
+               1. Returned to growth in Greater China.
+                    1. Generated strong double-digit growth in each of Co.'s other geographic segments.
+               2. Great iPad results were driven primarily by strong customer response to iPad Pro.
+               3. Late in qtr., launched all-new iPad Air with ultra-thin design, Apple Pencil support and high-end performance powered by A12 Bionic chip.
+               4. Introduced new iPad Mini, major upgrade for iPad fans who love ultra-portable design.
+                    1. Like new iPad Air, it delivers power of A12 Bionic and support for Apple Pencil.
+          3. AirPods:
+               1. Last month, introduced new AirPods.
+                    1. Second generation of world's most popular wireless headphones.
+                    2. Demand has been incredible.
+               2. With new Co.-designed H1 chip, new AirPods deliver faster connect times, more talk time and convenience of hands-free Hey Siri.
+          4. Retail and online stores continue to be key point of innovation.
+               1. As Co. mentioned in Jan., has been working on initiative to make it simple to trade in phone in Co.'s store, finance purchase over time and get help transferring data from old phone to new phone.
+               2. As part of aforementioned initiative, rolled out new trade-in and financing programs in:
+                    1. US.
+                    2. China.
+                    3. UK.
+                    4. Spain.
+                    5. Italy.
+                    6. Australia.
+               3. Results have been striking.
+               4. Across Co.'s stores, had all-time record response to trade-in programs and with more than four times trade-in volume of March qtr. a year ago.
+          5. With each passing qtr., more inspired by impact products are having on people's fitness and health.
+               1. Brought ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 to Hong Kong and 19 European countries, including:
+                    1. France.
+                    2. Germany.
+                    3. Italy.
+                    4. Spain.
+                    5. UK.
+               2. Believes Co. is just beginning to tap into what it can do to help users actively manage their health and wellbeing.
+                    1. Last month, Stanford Medicine reported results of Apple Heart Study, the largest study ever of its kind, which enrolled over 400,000 participants from all 50 states in a span of eight months.
+                    2. Hundreds of institutions are supporting health records on iPhone with recent additions, including Michigan Medicine and UT Health Austin.
+                    3. In Feb., announced that Co. is working with US Department of Veterans Affairs to make health records on iPhone available to veterans.
+                    4. Aforementioned will be first record sharing platform of its kind available to VA, which is largest medical system in US providing service to more than 9m veterans across more than 1,200 facilities.
+          6. Innovation extends beyond impact Co. has in lives of customers to impact it leaves on world around it.
+               1. Recently marked Earth Day with several major announcements about Co.'s efforts to leave the world better than it founded.
+               2. Completed allocation of $2.5b green bond proceeds across 40 environmental initiatives worldwide to projects ranging from solar power generation to water conservation to development of custom alloys for Co.'s products made from 100% recycled aluminum.
+               3. Announced major expansion of recycling programs, including quadrupling number of locations where US customers can send their iPhones to be disassembled by Daisy, Co.'s recycling robot.
+                    1. Each Daisy can now disassemble 1.2m devices per year, allowing recovered materials to be recycled into manufacturing process.
+               4. Partnered with a record number of suppliers to follow Co.'s lead in transition to 100% clean energy.
+                    1. With help of these 44 suppliers, will exceed goal of bringing four gigawatts of renewable energy into Co.'s supply chain by 2020 with over one additional gigawatt projected within that time frame.
+                    2. In last calendar year alone, partners that have joined this effort have generated enough clean energy to power over 600,000 homes in US.
+                    3. Hopes Co.'s actions will inspire other businesses to do what they can to protect world that it shares.
+          7. Looking forward to sharing more information about future of four software platforms at Worldwide Developers Conference less than five weeks from now.
+     5. Capital Return Program:
+          1. In position of generating more cash than Co. needs to run business and invest confidently in future.
+               1. On 04/30/19, announced latest update to capital return program, including increase to:
+                    1. Share repurchase authorization.
+                    2. Quarterly dividend.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 2Q19 Financials (L.M.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $58b.
+               1. Near high-end of guidance range provided 90 days ago.
+               2. Down 5% YoverY.
+                    1. Decline reflects 200 BP of negative FX due to strength of US dollar.
+          2. Overall Products revenue declined 9%, driven primarily by iPhone.
+               1. Services revenue grew 16% to new all-time record.
+          3. Set new March qtr. record for Wearables, Home and Accessories.
+               1. Recorded best iPad growth rate in six years.
+          4. GM:
+               1. 37.6%, in line with guidance.
+               2. Products 31.2%, down about 310 BP sequentially due to:
+                    1. Seasonal loss of leverage.
+                    2. FX headwinds.
+               3. Services 63.8%, up 100 BP sequentially due to:
+                    1. Different mix.
+                    2. Leverage from higher revenue.
+          5. Net income $11.6b.
+          6. Diluted EPS $2.46.
+          7. Operating cash flow $11.2b.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $31.1b.
+          2. Seeing positive customer response to recent pricing actions in certain emerging markets and enhancements to trade-in and financing programs.
+          3. YoverY performance improved relative to Dec. qtr. results in:
+               1. Greater China.
+               2. Americas.
+               3. Japan.
+          4. Active installed base reached new all-time high at March-end.
+               1. Growing installed base reflects industry-leading satisfaction and loyalty of customers.
+               2. Latest survey of US consumers from 451 Research indicates customer satisfaction of 99% for iPhone XR, XS and XS Max combined.
+               3. Among business buyers who plan to purchase smartphones in June qtr., 81% plan to purchase iPhones.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $11.5b, up 16% YoverY.
+               1. Best qtr. ever.
+          2. Double-digit revenue growth across:
+               1. App Store.
+               2. Apple Music.
+               3. Cloud Services.
+               4. AppleCare.
+               5. Apple Pay.
+               6. App Store Search Ads business.
+          3. Set all-time Services revenue records in four of five geographic segments.
+          4. Services accounted for:
+               1. 20% of March qtr. revenue.
+               2. About one-third of gross profit dollars.
+          5. Customer engagement in ecosystem continues to grow.
+               1. Number of transacting accounts on digital content stores reached another new all-time high with number of paid accounts setting new all-time record and growing by strong double-digits over last year.
+          6. Has over 390m paid subscriptions across Services portfolio.
+               1. Up 120m vs. 12 months ago.
+               2. All subscription categories are growing strong double-digits.
+               3. Expects number of paid subscriptions to surpass 0.5b during 2020.
+          7. On App Store, subscription business is extremely diversified.
+               1. Growing strongly worldwide.
+               2. Number of paid third-party subscriptions increased over 40% YoverY in each geographic segment.
+               3. Across all third-party subscription apps, largest accounted for 0.3% of total Services revenue.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Revenue $5.5b vs. 2Q18's $5.8b.
+               1. Decline driven primarily by processor constraints on certain popular models.
+                    1. Despite this challenge, generated double-digit revenue growth in Japan and Korea, setting new all-time revenue records in both markets.
+          2. Globally, nearly half of customers purchasing Macs were new to Mac.
+               1. Active installed base of Macs reached new all-time high.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Revenue $4.9b.
+               1. Growth accelerating from Dec. qtr. to 22%.
+          2. Revenue grew in all five of geographic segments.
+               1. Return to growth in Greater China.
+               2. Strong double-digit growth in all other segments.
+          3. Best March qtr. ever for iPad in Japan.
+               1. Especially pleased by performance in Korea, Thailand and Mexico, where revenue more than doubled YoverY.
+          4. In total, over half of customers purchasing iPads during 2Q19 were new to iPad.
+               1. iPad active installed base reached new all-time high.
+          5. Revenue growth has been fueled primarily by great customer response to new iPad Pro.
+               1. This completely redesigned iPads with full screen Liquid Retina displays, Face ID, powerful A12X Bionic chip with Neural Engine and support for new Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard make iPad Pro perfect PC laptop replacement for consumers and professionals.
+               2. Most recent surveys from 451 Research measured 93% customer satisfaction rating for iPad overall.
+               3. Among customers who plan to purchase tablets, 77% of consumers and 75% of businesses plan to purchase iPads.
+     6. Wearables, Home & Accessories:
+          1. Set new March qtr. revenue record of $5.1b, fueled primarily by strong performance of Wearables business, which grew close to 50%.
+          2. Apple Watch is best-selling and most loved smartwatch in the world.
+               1. Produced best results ever for non-holiday qtr.
+               2. Reaching many new customers with 75% of purchases going to customers who have never owned Apple Watch before.
+          3. Interest in AirPods has been off the charts.
+               1. Working hard to catch up with incredible customer demand.
+     7. Retail & Online Stores:
+          1. Strong double-digit revenue growth from Apple Watch and iPad.
+          2. Announced 50 new Today at Apple sessions in three new and expanded formats, Skills, Walks and Labs, free at Co.'s stores worldwide.
+          3. Making important progress in enterprise market, helping transform major industries.
+          4. Building on Co.'s leading position in key functional areas to expand reach and share within large accounts.
+               1. Aviation is strong example of this strategy at work.
+                    1. Across 450 airlines, iPad is overwhelmingly preferred solutions for pilots' electronic flight bag.
+                    2. Making great progress expanding Co.'s footprint beyond cockpit into cabin.
+                    3. More than half of Top 50 airlines have implemented iOS to enhance guest experience and enable new use case with mobile point of sale.
+                    4. Seeing traction with other mission critical airline functions in ground operations and flight maintenance.
+                    5. One of the largest airlines in the world tells Co. that adoption of iPad has kept maintenance delays in half.
+                    6. AAPL Services are making their way on board, including growing adoption of Apple Pay for food and beverage purchases and in-flight access to Apple Music.
+          5. Seeing significant iOS traction with large enterprise platforms, which are face of complex back-end systems to tens of millions of employees worldwide.
+               1. End-user employee experience is vital to engagement and productivity.
+                    1. With increase in mobility of today's modern workforce, those experiences are best on native iOS applications.
+               2. Sees great momentum through growing number of iOS SDKs being delivered by world's largest enterprise platforms.
+                    1. SAP's SDK for iOS continues to gain strong traction with their customers growing by more than 40% in last six months.
+                    2. Salesforce released its SDK, enabling developers to build native iOS applications directly on top of Salesforce platform.
+          6. Enterprise channels continue to build momentum.
+               1. In Feb., Apple at Work initiative was launched with AT&T.
+                    1. Extension to ongoing collaboration with AT&T will make it easy for more customers to choose best AAPL products for their needs in enterprise and modernize their business.
+                    2. AT&T will enable business services for AAPL products to [other] companies with their IT strategy, including device management, security, productivity and collaboration.
+     8. Cash Position:
+          1. 2Q19-end:
+               1. Cash plus marketable securities $225b.
+               2. Term debt $101b.
+               3. Commercial paper outstanding $12b.
+               4. Net cash position almost $113b.
+          2. In strong position that allows Co. to invest confidently in all business areas, while continuing to return value to shareholders.
+               1. Last year, announced commitment to contribute more than $350b to US economy over next five years, including creation of 20,000 jobs.
+               2. More recently, announced major expansion in Austin, Texas and in other cities across the country.
+                    1. All these efforts are essential investments to make sure that Co. is incorporating innovative ideas and top talent wherever they emerge.
+               3. As Co. executes aforementioned initiatives, returned over $27b to investors.
+               4. Began $12b accelerated share repurchase program in Feb., resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 55.1m shares.
+               5. Repurchased 71.7m AAPL shares for $12b through open market transactions.
+               6. Paid $3.4b in dividends and equivalents.
+          3. Cash priorities have not changed over the years.
+               1. Always wants to maintain cash Co. needs to:
+                    1. Run business.
+                    2. Maintain strategic flexibility.
+                    3. Invest in future.
+               2. Well on way towards meeting investment projections laid out early last year.
+               3. Wants to work towards more optimal capital structure.
+                    1. It is Co.'s plan to reach net cash neutral position over time.
+               4. Given confidence in AAPL's future and value Co. sees in stock, Board authorized additional $75b for share repurchases.
+               5. Because Co. knows many of its investors' value income, raising quarterly dividend for seventh time in less than seven years to $0.77, up about 5% from previous amount.
+               6. Paid over $14b in dividends and equivalents over last four quarters alone, making Co. one of the largest dividend payers in the world.
+                    1. Going forward, continues to plan for annual increases in dividends per share.
+     9. 3Q19 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $52.5-54.5b.
+               1. Range comprehends 300 BP of negative FX impact YoverY.
+               2. In 3Q18, Services revenue included favorable $236m one-time item in connection with final resolution of various lawsuits.
+          2. GM 37-38%.
+          3. OpEx $8.7-8.8b.
+          4. OI&E about $250m.
+          5. Tax rate about 16.5%.
+          6. Reflecting approved increase, on 04/30/19 Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.77 per share of common stock payable on 05/16/19 to shareholders of record as of 05/15/19.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L206"time="00:31:36"/>Certainly. <Sync id="L207"time="00:31:36"/>Our first question will come from Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L208"time="00:31:41"/>Tim, can you talk a bit more about what you're seeing in China? <Sync id="L209"time="00:31:47"/>Clearly, it looks like things are improving sequentially. <Sync id="L210"time="00:31:51"/>You also mentioned that last few weeks of the quarter were stabilizing in emerging markets, I believe. <Sync id="L211"time="00:31:56"/>So what are customers saying there? <Sync id="L212"time="00:31:58"/>What are your partners saying in China? <Sync id="L213"time="00:32:00"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L214"time="00:32:01"/>Yes. <Sync id="L215"time="00:32:01"/>Thanks for the question, Shannon. <Sync id="L216"time="00:32:05"/>We're seeing -- in the iPhone space, we saw a better year-over-year performance in the last weeks of the quarter as compared to the full quarter or November and December, which was sort of a -- appears to be the trough. <Sync id="L217"time="00:32:26"/>I think there's a set of reasons for this. <Sync id="L218"time="00:32:30"/>One, we made some price adjustments, essentially backing out the weaker currency effect and then some. <Sync id="L219"time="00:32:46"/>The -- there's stimulus programs that the government has executed, including, and this happened in early April, VAT being reduced from 16% to 13%, so they've been aggressive in the stimulus side. <Sync id="L220"time="00:33:05"/>Three, our trade-in and financing programs that we implemented in our retail stores have been very well received there, and I'm happy with the results to date there. <Sync id="L221"time="00:33:17"/>And then four, the -- there's an improved trade dialogue between the U.S. and China. <Sync id="L222"time="00:33:24"/>And from our point of view, this has affected consumer confidence on the ground there in a positive way. <Sync id="L223"time="00:33:32"/>And so I think it's a set of all of these things, and we certainly feel a lot better than we did 90 days ago.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L224"time="00:33:46"/>And then I'm sure you're probably expecting a question on Qualcomm settlement. <Sync id="L225"time="00:33:49"/>So what would you like to say on the settlement? <Sync id="L226"time="00:33:52"/>How are you thinking about your component providers going forward? <Sync id="L227"time="00:33:57"/>And how should we think about this with regard to, I don't know, your development plans in the future? <Sync id="L228"time="00:34:03"/>Because I'm sure you're not going to talk about when you're going to do 5G but clearly, it helps that path.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L229"time="00:34:08"/>Yes. <Sync id="L230"time="00:34:08"/>Thank you, Shannon. <Sync id="L231"time="00:34:12"/>We're glad to put the litigation behind us, and all the litigation around the world have been dismissed and settled. <Sync id="L232"time="00:34:25"/>We're very happy to have a multi-year supply agreement. <Sync id="L233"time="00:34:29"/>And we're happy that we have a direct license arrangement with Qualcomm, which was, I know, important for both companies, and so we feel good about the resolution.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L234"time="00:34:48"/>The next question will come from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L235"time="00:34:54"/>Tim, you talked about China responding well to the pricing actions that you've taken in that market. <Sync id="L236"time="00:35:00"/>Do any of those learnings kind of carry through into how you decide pricing in the remaining emerging markets like India, et cetera, as you get ready for the next product cycle?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L237"time="00:35:11"/>We have made some adjustments in India, and we've seen preliminarily some better results there. <Sync id="L238"time="00:35:21"/>Everything that we do does advise everything we do in the future, so we try to learn the best we can and fold that into our thinking. <Sync id="L239"time="00:35:31"/>And we'll obviously do that with this as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L240"time="00:35:36"/>I just had a quick follow-up for Luca on the Services side. <Sync id="L241"time="00:35:41"/>Luca, we see that you're guiding to higher operating expenses quarter-on-quarter. <Sync id="L242"time="00:35:46"/>How much of that incremental is going in to support the new services that you're planning to launch later in the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L243"time="00:35:53"/>Yes. <Sync id="L244"time="00:35:54"/>Of course, we are supporting both our products and Services business, and you can see the trajectory of our OpEx over the different quarters. <Sync id="L245"time="00:36:08"/>Clearly, as we add new services, we will need to make the necessary investments to support them. <Sync id="L246"time="00:36:16"/>Our Services business is -- has multiple streams. <Sync id="L247"time="00:36:22"/>In total, it is accretive to company gross margins. <Sync id="L248"time="00:36:27"/>You've seen the latest -- we're running services margins at over 60%. <Sync id="L249"time="00:36:33"/>So it's a very important business for us in many ways for our ecosystem and for our ability to monetize it. <Sync id="L250"time="00:36:42"/>And so clearly, we will make all the necessary investments to ensure that the new services are successful. <Sync id="L251"time="00:36:48"/>And we're really encouraged by the level of customer response that we received so far in anticipation for the launch of these services.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L252"time="00:36:57"/>The next question will come from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L253"time="00:37:07"/>Luca, if I look back over the past 5 years, June quarter revenue typically declines about 15% from the March quarter. <Sync id="L254"time="00:37:15"/>You're guiding to an 8% drop this year. <Sync id="L255"time="00:37:18"/>So can you just talk about which regions or product segments you think can outperform that typical seasonality?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L256"time="00:37:27"/>Yes, Katy. <Sync id="L257"time="00:37:28"/>And keep in mind, by the way, we are reporting this guidance including a 300 basis point negative impact from foreign exchange, so actually, in constant currency, the numbers would be even stronger. <Sync id="L258"time="00:37:44"/>At the product category level, we expect that we continue to have strong revenue growth from the non-iPhone categories as we've had for the first half of our fiscal year. <Sync id="L259"time="00:37:59"/>We're also expecting a relative improvement in our iPhone performance on a year-over-year basis in Q3 versus the first half. <Sync id="L260"time="00:38:06"/>As Tim said, March was the strongest month of the quarter on a year-over-year basis, and so this has given the confidence to provide the guidance that you've seen. <Sync id="L261"time="00:38:20"/>Geographically, of course, as you've seen from our results for the March quarter, China is the geo where we found some challenges, but we believe the trajectory should improve over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L262"time="00:38:39"/>And then just as a follow-up, Shannon said you're not going to talk specifics around the timing of the 5G phone, but Tim, maybe you can talk about how the company approaches a new technology like this given the higher cost but also potentially significant benefit, how you think about the right timing for coming to market with a product with those characteristics and then just, generally, how meaningful, you think, 5G is as a demand driver for upgrades in your iPhone installed base.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L263"time="00:39:14"/>Katy, this is one that I'm going to largely punt on as you would probably guess. <Sync id="L264"time="00:39:22"/>We look at a lot of things on the different technologies and try to look at the -- and select the right time that things come together and get those into products as soon as we can. <Sync id="L265"time="00:39:40"/>And the -- certainly, from a cost point of view, there has been -- the technologies have had cost pressure over the last couple of years or so. <Sync id="L266"time="00:39:53"/>On the flip side of that, there's a number of things in the commodity markets going in the other direction at the moment like DRAM and NAND. <Sync id="L267"time="00:40:04"/>And so it's difficult to project what happens next, but it's the aggregate of all of it that really matters from a price point of view.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L268"time="00:40:20"/>Jim Suva from Citi has our next question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L269"time="00:40:25"/>A topic that's probably split or shared by both Tim and Luca on a response but I'll ask the question and you can decide how to divide it up. <Sync id="L270"time="00:40:34"/>In your opening remarks, Tim, you'd mentioned about pricing adjustments that you made in some of the markets, and then Luca talked also about the strength of the trade-in program or maybe it was Tim also. <Sync id="L271"time="00:40:46"/>Can you help us understand about what type of lessons or elasticity you've learned about pricing and the trade-in programs of how it impacts like revenues and COGS and margins and things?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L272"time="00:41:00"/>Yes. <Sync id="L273"time="00:41:01"/>Jim, the -- in the opening remarks, I was really talking about China specifically. <Sync id="L274"time="00:41:06"/>And I mentioned 4 things that I believe are responsible for the better year-over-year performance in the Q2 relative to Q1 and also the final weeks of March being better than the Q2 average. <Sync id="L275"time="00:41:27"/>And those 4 are the price reductions but that's 1 of them. <Sync id="L276"time="00:41:35"/>But there are 3 others, and 1 of the others is the trade-in and financing programs that we instituted in our retail stores. <Sync id="L277"time="00:41:44"/>Clearly, what we've learned here and it's not a surprise really is that the -- many, many people do want to trade in their current phone. <Sync id="L278"time="00:41:55"/>It does -- from a customer user point of view, the trade-in looks like a subsidy, and so it is a way to offset the device cost itself. <Sync id="L279"time="00:42:08"/>And many people in literally every market that we've tried this in, there is a reasonable number of people that want to take and pay for something on installments instead of all at once. <Sync id="L280"time="00:42:25"/>And so it's a little different in each market in terms of what the elasticity is, but you can bet that we're learning quickly on all of those.
+<Sync id="L281"time="00:42:35"/>The other 2 items that are not insignificant in China that I don't want to lose here is that the stimulus programs, I believe, are having an effect on the consumer. <Sync id="L282"time="00:42:50"/>And the 1 that I got much visibility in -- that happened in early April was the VAT reduction from 16% to 13%, so it's a very aggressive move. <Sync id="L283"time="00:43:02"/>But there are other stimulus programs as well that likely have an effect to the consumer level. <Sync id="L284"time="00:43:09"/>And then finally, and this is not to be underweighted either, I think the improved trade dialogue between the countries affects consumer confidence in a positive way. <Sync id="L285"time="00:43:21"/>And so I think it's sort of the sum of all of those things.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L286"time="00:43:25"/>And Jim, if I may add on the gross margin level, as we look at pricing actions, of course, anytime you do a pricing action, it is gross margin percentage diluted. <Sync id="L287"time="00:43:36"/>But what really matters to us and what we look at when we look at the elasticity of these programs is to see the impact on our gross margin dollars. <Sync id="L288"time="00:43:44"/>And what -- the experience that we've had in a few of these emerging markets has been positive in that respect, and so that's what we think matters the most really.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L289"time="00:44:02"/>The next question will come from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L290"time="00:44:08"/>Tim, you shared a lot of color around trade-ins, but I was also hoping maybe you can characterize what sort of dynamics you're seeing across your installed base on these trade-ins. <Sync id="L291"time="00:44:20"/>What type of devices are being traded in? <Sync id="L292"time="00:44:23"/>Is the profile of someone who has a really old iPhone? <Sync id="L293"time="00:44:28"/>Or are you seeing folks that have newer iPhones trading in? <Sync id="L294"time="00:44:32"/>And what sort of incentives are you providing beyond sort of the financing to drive that? <Sync id="L295"time="00:44:39"/>And do you see this as something that can accelerate replacement cycles here over the next year or so? <Sync id="L296"time="00:44:45"/>And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L297"time="00:44:48"/>We're -- actually, the product that's being traded in is all over the place, to be honest. <Sync id="L298"time="00:44:53"/>It's 6, 6 Plus, 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus and then fewer 8 and 8 Plus. <Sync id="L299"time="00:45:04"/>But there's some of each of those, and so you get customers that are on the 2-year cycle and customers -- some customers on the 1-year cycle and then customers as well on the 3- and 4-year cycles. <Sync id="L300"time="00:45:21"/>And so it's really all over the place. <Sync id="L301"time="00:45:23"/>In terms of the incentives, we're offering currently in our retail stores a trade-in value that has -- that is more than the sort of the blue book of the device, if you will, for lack of a better description. <Sync id="L302"time="00:45:44"/>And so we have topped those up to provide an extra benefit to the user.
+<Sync id="L303"time="00:45:52"/>The installments are different in each geography. <Sync id="L304"time="00:45:52"/>I would say that, at the moment, the geography that is doing the best in installments would be China. <Sync id="L305"time="00:46:07"/>And we have a bit of a unique offering there, I think, versus the -- versus what you can get in the regular market, and so that probably further helps there. <Sync id="L306"time="00:46:23"/>And so you can bet that we're learning on each of these, finding the parts that the user likes the most.
+<Sync id="L307"time="00:46:31"/>I think the key is we're trying to build a -- build something into the consumer mindset that it's good for the environment and good for them to trade in their current device on a new device. <Sync id="L308"time="00:46:48"/>And we do our best of getting the current device to someone else that can use that or, in some cases, if the product is at an end of life, we are recycling the parts on it to make sure that it can carry on in another form.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L309"time="00:47:13"/>And as my follow-up, Luca, can you just clarify if the settlement with Qualcomm is creating either a headwind or a tailwind to your gross margins in the near term? <Sync id="L310"time="00:47:23"/>And does your guidance contemplate incremental pricing actions that could be creating some gross margin headwinds?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L311"time="00:47:31"/>As Tim has explained, we've reach this comprehensive agreement with Qualcomm. <Sync id="L312"time="00:47:36"/>As part of this, we have agreed that we're not going to share the financial terms of the agreement, so we plan to honor that. <Sync id="L313"time="00:47:46"/>What you see in our gross margin guidance for the June quarter, we guided 37% to 38%, fully comprehends the outcome of the agreement with Qualcomm.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L314"time="00:47:59"/>Mike Olson from Piper Jaffray has our next question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L315"time="00:48:09"/>So you have more than 1.4 billion active devices, and at your event, you announced services that leverage that installed base. <Sync id="L316"time="00:48:16"/>And you have obviously a remarkable position with kind of this Trojan horse of devices out in so many households. <Sync id="L317"time="00:48:22"/>So I guess the question is -- and I know some of these services aren't even live yet, but should we expect a continuation of the building out of new services categories like what we saw at the March event? <Sync id="L318"time="00:48:31"/>Is there a pipeline of new services in the works? <Sync id="L319"time="00:48:34"/>Or have we kind of seen what we're likely to see on that front for the near to intermediate term? <Sync id="L320"time="00:48:39"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L321"time="00:48:40"/>Yes, I wouldn't want to get into announcing things on the call, but obviously, we're always working on new things. <Sync id="L322"time="00:48:47"/>And -- but we're -- right now, we're really focused on getting these 4 out there. <Sync id="L323"time="00:48:53"/>We have the News+ in the market today. <Sync id="L324"time="00:48:57"/>We'll have the Apple Arcade and the Apple TV+ products in the market in the fall, and Apple Card will go out in the summer timeframe. <Sync id="L325"time="00:49:08"/>And so we've got lots in front of us, and we're very excited about getting these out there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L326"time="00:49:18"/>Right. <Sync id="L327"time="00:49:19"/>And then you mentioned the App Store search ad business a couple of times in the prepared remarks. <Sync id="L328"time="00:49:24"/>Is that reaching a point where it's become material and maybe moving the needle for overall Services revenue? <Sync id="L329"time="00:49:30"/>Or is there anything you can quantify related to that? <Sync id="L330"time="00:49:33"/>I also imagine that this is a high-margin business, at least maybe higher than the overall Services margin but wondering if you can confirm if that's the case or not.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L331"time="00:49:42"/>It's growing very, very fast, Mike. <Sync id="L332"time="00:49:45"/>I think it was up around 70% over the previous year. <Sync id="L333"time="00:49:50"/>We're expanding into new geographies as well, and we still have more geographies out there that we think can move the dial further. <Sync id="L334"time="00:50:00"/>So it is a -- it's definitely a business that is big and getting bigger.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L335"time="00:50:11"/>Our next question comes from Lou Miscioscia with Daiwa Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Louis Rocco Miscioscia,  Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - Research Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L336"time="00:50:22"/>Tim, when you look at the 4 things that you have announced, and I realize they have different dates when they're coming out, but which ones would you say, over the next 12 months, has the most potential to help your Services line? <Sync id="L337"time="00:50:33"/>And then maybe which one has the best long-term potential? <Sync id="L338"time="00:50:38"/>And then I have a quick follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L339"time="00:50:40"/>We're going to wait until we get these things out. <Sync id="L340"time="00:50:42"/>And what I can tell you right now is that the -- we're taking sort of consumer interest on the Apple Card, and there's been a significant level of interest on that and we're excited. <Sync id="L341"time="00:50:56"/>As you know, the -- gaming is the top category on the App Store. <Sync id="L342"time="00:51:01"/>And so the Apple Arcade will serve some of that market, and it serves it with a different kind of game, which we think will be great for developers and great for users.
+<Sync id="L343"time="00:51:17"/>The TV+ product plays in a market where it's -- there's a huge move from the cable bundle to over the top. <Sync id="L344"time="00:51:29"/>We think that most users are going to get multiple over-the-top products, and we're going to do our best to convince them that the Apple TV+ product should be one of them. <Sync id="L345"time="00:51:44"/>And then we're working very hard to get everyone to give Apple News+ a look because we think it's a very unique product. <Sync id="L346"time="00:51:56"/>And I love magazines, and we have really wanted to support the publishers. <Sync id="L347"time="00:52:06"/>And so we're working very hard to -- at the -- but at the very beginning of the ramp there. <Sync id="L348"time="00:52:13"/>We wouldn't do a service that we didn't think could be meaningful, so that's sort of the way I look at it. <Sync id="L349"time="00:52:24"/>Yes, these aren't hobbies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Louis Rocco Miscioscia,  Daiwa Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - Research Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L350"time="00:52:26"/>Okay. <Sync id="L351"time="00:52:27"/>A quick follow-up on India. <Sync id="L352"time="00:52:29"/>Obviously, market share there is well, well below China. <Sync id="L353"time="00:52:32"/>I believe you're looking to start manufacturing there. <Sync id="L354"time="00:52:34"/>But what's the -- obviously, the potential could be huge, but the market already seems to be pretty dominated on the Android side. <Sync id="L355"time="00:52:42"/>So maybe if you could just talk about trying to really aggressively ramp up share there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L356"time="00:52:50"/>I think India is a very important market in the long term. <Sync id="L357"time="00:52:56"/>It's a challenging market in the short term, but we're learning a lot. <Sync id="L358"time="00:53:03"/>We have started manufacturing there, which is very important to be able to serve the market in a reasonable way, and we're growing that capability there. <Sync id="L359"time="00:53:15"/>And we would like to place retail stores there, and we're working with the government to seek approval to do that. <Sync id="L360"time="00:53:28"/>And so we plan on going in there with sort of all of our might. <Sync id="L361"time="00:53:33"/>We've opened a developer accelerator there, which we're very happy with some of the things coming out of there. <Sync id="L362"time="00:53:41"/>It's a long-term play. <Sync id="L363"time="00:53:43"/>It's not something that's going to be on overnight huge business, but I think the growth potential is phenomenal. <Sync id="L364"time="00:53:55"/>It doesn't bother me that it's primarily Android business at the moment because that just means there's a lot of opportunity there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L365"time="00:54:08"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts as a webcast on Apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L366"time="00:54:15"/>And the numbers to the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L367"time="00:54:24"/>Please enter confirmation code 7060604. <Sync id="L368"time="00:54:29"/>And these replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L369"time="00:54:32"/>Pacific Time today.
+<Sync id="L370"time="00:54:34"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Matt Blake or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L371"time="00:54:46"/>Matt is at (408) 974-7406, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L372"time="00:54:55"/>Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L373"time="00:55:00"/>That does conclude our conference for today. <Sync id="L374"time="00:55:02"/>Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2019-Jan-29-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,513 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2019 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 29, 2019 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Steven Mark Milunovich
+   Wolfe Research, LLC - MD of Equity Research
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Walter Paul Piecyk
+   BTIG, LLC, Research Division - Co-Head of Research and MD
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 1Q19 revenues of $84.3b, net income of $20b and diluted EPS of $4.18. Expects 2019 revenues to be $55-59b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 1Q19 revenues = $84.3b.
+    2. 1Q19 net income = $20b.
+    3. 1Q19 diluted EPS = $4.18.
+    4. 1Q19 YoverY revenues decline = 5%.
+    5. 1Q19 GM = 38%.
+    6. 1Q19-end cash plus marketable securities = $245b.
+    7. 1Q19-end term debt = $102.8b.
+    8. 1Q19 share repurchase = 38m shares for $8.2b through open market transactions.
+    9. 2019 revenue guidance =$55-59b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 1Q19 Business Review (T.C.)
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Dec. qtr. revenue, $84.3b.
+               1. Below original expectations.
+               2. Down 5% YoverY, or 3% adjusting for FX.
+          2. Noted four factors that would impact results when Co. provided guidance in Nov.:
+               1. Different iPhone launch timing from a year ago.
+               2. FX headwinds.
+               3. Supply constraints on certain products.
+               4. Macroeconomic conditions in emerging markets.
+          3. Weak macro conditions in some emerging markets were significantly more severe than Co. originally foresaw, especially in Greater China.
+               1. Compounded by quarterly iPhone upgrades that were lower than anticipated.
+               2. Greater China revenue down $4.8b YoverY, with declines across:
+                    1. iPhone.
+                    2. Mac.
+                    3. iPad.
+               3. Most shortfalls relative to regional guidance, and over 100% of worldwide YoverY revenue decline was driven by performance in Greater China.
+          4. Despite iPhone upgrades being lower than anticipated, Co.'s business grew outside of China, including new records in:
+               1. Americas.
+               2. Western Europe.
+               3. Central and Eastern Europe.
+               4. Rest of Asia Pacific.
+          5. Had record performance in large markets, including:
+               1. US.
+               2. Canada.
+               3. Mexico.
+               4. Germany.
+               5. Italy.
+               6. Spain.
+               7. Korea.
+          6. In the letter shared earlier this month, Co. said it is proud to participate in Chinese marketplace and that it believes AAPL's business has a bright future there over time.
+          7. Generated record Dec. qtr. Services revenue in Greater China, fueled by an amazing ecosystem with over 2.5m registered iOS developers.
+               1. Saw strong results from wearables business, there with revenues up over 50%.
+          8. Continued to grow total active installed base by adding new customers.
+               1. More than two-thirds of all customers in China who bought a Mac or an iPad during Dec. qtr. were purchasing that product for first time.
+          9. Despite challenging Dec. qtr., revenue from China grew slightly for full calendar year.
+               1. Macroeconomic factors will come and go.
+               2. Sees great upside and continuing to focus on things that Co. can control.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. iPhone XR, iPhone Xs and iPhone Xs Max are by far the best iPhones Co. has ever shipped.
+               1. They share advanced technologies, including A12 Bionic, the most powerful chip ever in a smartphone with Co.'s next generation Neural Engine capable of 5t operations per second.
+          2. Proud of iPhone lineup, and Co.'s industry-leading customer satisfaction.
+               1. Wouldn't change position for anyone.
+          3. Customers are holding on to their older iPhones a bit longer than in past.
+               1. Pairing this with a macroeconomic factor, particularly in emerging markets, it resulted in iPhone revenue down 15% from last year.
+          4. Results accounted for significantly more than entire YoverY revenue decline.
+               1. Outside of iPhone, business grew strongly, by 19%.
+          5. From a customer perspective, Co. believes [aforementioned] is the sum of several factors.
+               1. FX:
+                    1. Relative strength of US dollar has made Co.'s products more expensive in many parts of world.
+                    2. In Turkey, lira depreciated by 33% over course of calendar 2018 and in Dec. qtr., revenue there was down by almost $700m from previous year.
+               2. Subsidy:
+                    1. For various reasons, iPhone subsidies are becoming increasingly less common.
+                    2. In Japan, iPhone purchases were traditionally subsidized by carriers and bundled with service contract.
+                    3. Competitive promotional activity frequently increased amount of subsidy during key period.
+                    4. Today, local regulations have significantly restricted those subsidies and related competition.
+                    5. Thereby, Co. estimates that less than half of iPhone sold in Japan in 1Q19 were subsidized vs. about three-quarters a year ago and that total value of those subsidies had come down.
+               3. Battery replacement program:
+                    1. For millions of customers, Co. made it inexpensive and efficient to replace battery and hold on to their existing iPhones a bit longer.
+                    2. Some people suggested that Co. shouldn't have done this because of potential impact on upgrades, but Co. strongly believes, it was right thing to do for customers.
+               4. Despite aforementioned factors, total active installed base of devices has grown from 1.3b at Jan.-end 2018 to 1.4b by end of Dec., reaching a new all-time high for each of main product categories and for all five geographic segments.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Large and growing installed base is a powerful testament to satisfaction and loyalty of customers, but it's also fueling fast growing Services business.
+          2. Services revenue set an all-time record, at $10.9b in Dec. qtr., growing 19%.
+               1. Had all-time records across multiple categories of services including App Store, Apple Pay, Cloud services and App Store Search Ads business.
+                    1. Had Dec. qtr. record for AppleCare.
+          3. Nearly 16 years after launching iTunes Store, Co. generated highest quarterly music revenue ever due to popularity of Apple Music, now with over 50m paid subscribers.
+          4. App Store wrapped up its best year ever, with record holiday period results propelled by biggest Christmas Day and Christmas week ever.
+               1. Customers spent over $322m on New Year's Day alone, setting a new single day record for number of customers and purchase volume.
+          5. Great holiday season for Apple Pay with over 1.8b transactions; well over twice the volume of 1Q18.
+               1. Merchant adoption continues to reach new milestone.
+               2. Customers can now use Apple Pay with iPhone and Apple Watch at nearly 3,000 Speedway locations.
+               3. While all Target, Taco Bell and Jack in the Box stores will be accepting Apple Pay soon.
+               4. Launched in three new countries in Dec. qtr.:
+                    1. Germany.
+                    2. Belgium.
+                    3. Kazakhstan.
+               5. Live in 27 markets around the world.
+                    1. Rollout in Germany has been a huge success with Deutsche Bank reporting more activations for Apple Pay in one week than for Android in an entire year.
+          6. Revenue from Cloud Services continues to grow rapidly with YoverY revenue up over 40% in Dec. qtr.
+               1. Readership of Apple News set a new record with over 85m monthly active users in three countries where Co. has launched:
+                    1. US.
+                    2. UK.
+                    3. Australia.
+               2. In US, latest data from comScore shows that Apple News has largest audience of all news apps.
+               3. International audience will continue to grow with Co.'s first ever bilingual launch in Canada, available to customers later this qtr.
+          7. Happy with growth and breadth of Services portfolio.
+               1. Revenue from Services has grown from less than $8b in calendar 2010 to over $41b in calendar 2018.
+               2. Largest category represents less than 30% of total Services revenue and new services launched in last few years are all experiencing tremendous growth.
+     4. Others:
+          1. Mac:
+               1. Best qtr. ever.
+               2. Revenue up 9%, fueled by new MacBook Air and Mac Mini, introduced in Oct.
+          2. iPad:
+               1. Revenue up 17%.
+               2. Highest growth rate in almost six years, powered by new iPad Pro released in Nov.
+          3. Wearables, Home and Accessories:
+               1. Had best qtr. ever with 33% growth in total, and almost 50% growth from wearables due to strong sales of Apple Watch and AirPods.
+          4. Co. doesn't measure success in 90 day increments; manages Co. for long-term.
+               1. When considering keys to success over time, there are three that stand out:
+                    1. Highly satisfied and loyal customers.
+                    2. Large and growing active installed base.
+                    3. Deeply ingrained culture of innovation.
+          5. Has an amazingly talented team, creating hardware, software and services, optimizing each of them to create an unparalleled user experience.
+               1. Apple Watch is a powerful example of this.
+                    1. Believes Co. is just beginning to see impact it can make to improving health and is deeply inspired by possibility.
+               2. Has embedded machine learning directly into silicon with A12 Bionic chip.
+                    1. Custom Neural Engine provides power efficiency and incredible performance in a small package, but it enables processing of data and transactions directly on device.
+                    2. iPhone can recognize pattern, make prediction and learn from experience, all while keeping personal information private.
+          6. Undertaking and accelerating a number of initiatives to improve results.
+               1. Making it simple to trade in an iPhone in stores and raising awareness of this opportunity.
+                    1. Because of quality and durability of iPhone, they maintain significant residual value, making trade-ins a great opportunity.
+                    2. It's not only great for environment, it's great for customer as their existing phone acts as a subsidy for their new phone, and it's great for developers as phone that has traded in and redistributed can help grow Co.'s active installed base.
+               2. Beginning last week, Co. started making it easier for people to pay for their phones over time with installment payments.
+                    1. Working on rolling out this program to more geographies as soon as Co. can.
+     5. Summary:
+          1. Confident in fundamental strength of Co.'s business.
+          2. Has a strong pipeline of products and services with some exciting announcements coming later this year.
+          3. Will continue to invest through near-term headwinds, and will emerge stronger as a result.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 1Q19 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Dec. qtr. revenue, $84.3b.
+               1. Below expectations.
+          2. Set new all-time revenue records in:
+               1. US.
+               2. Canada.
+               3. Latin America.
+               4. Western Europe.
+               5. Central and Eastern Europe.
+               6. Korea.
+          3. Results were especially strong in US where revenue was up by more than $1.5b vs. a year ago.
+          4. In several markets, revenue grew by double-digits, including among others:
+               1. Germany.
+               2. Spain.
+               3. Poland.
+               4. Mexico.
+               5. Malaysia.
+               6. Vietnam.
+          5. iPhone revenue declined 15% YoverY.
+               1. Revenue from rest of business grew 19% towards an all-time record, including best results ever for Services, for Wearables and for Mac.
+          6. GM, 38%.
+               1. Co. is now reporting on a quarterly basis GM for products in aggregate and for Services in aggregate.
+                    1. Products GM 34.3%.
+                    2. Services GM 62.8%.
+               2. On sequential basis, products GM increased 60 BP due to positive leverage from holiday qtr., partially offset by higher cost structures as Co. launched several new products and by headwinds from FX.
+               3. Services GM increased 170 BP sequentially due to favorable mix and leverage, partially offset by FX.
+               4. Products and services GMs improved sequentially, total Co. GM was down 30 BP due to a different mix between products and services.
+          7. Net income $20b.
+               1. About flat to last year.
+               2. Diluted EPS $4.18; all-time record.
+                    1. Up 7.5% YoverY.
+          8. Operating cash flow $26.7b; strong.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $52b.
+          2. On geographic basis, most of YoverY decline came from Greater China and other emerging markets with difficult macro and FX conditions affected Co.'s results.
+               1. Believes reduction of carrier subsidies and battery replacement program had an impact in number of countries around world.
+               2. Had a lower number of upgrades than anticipated at beginning of qtr.
+          3. Global active installed base of iPhones continues to grow.
+               1. Reached all-time high at Dec.-end.
+               2. Surpassed 900m devices, up YoverY in each of five geographic segments and growing almost 75m in last 12 months alone.
+               3. Plans to provide information on iPhone installed base and total installed base on a periodic basis.
+          4. Customer satisfaction and loyalty for iPhone continue to be outstanding, and are highest in industry.
+               1. Latest survey of US consumers from 451 Research indicates customer satisfaction of 99% for iPhone XR, iPhone Xs and Xs Max combined.
+               2. Among business buyers who plan to purchase smartphones in March qtr., 81% plans to purchase iPhones.
+               3. Based on latest information from Kantar, iPhone experience had 90% customer loyalty rating for iPhone customers in US, 23 points above next highest brand measured.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Best qtr. ever.
+          2. Revenue $10.9b, up 19% YoverY.
+               1. New Dec. qtr. record in all five geographic segments.
+               2. Many Services categories set new all-time revenue records.
+          3. On track to achieve goal of doubling FY16 services revenue by 2020.
+               1. 2020 goal remains unchanged.
+                    1. Excludes impact of revenue reclassification between products and services Co. recorded in connection with ASC 606, new revenue recognition accounting standard it adopted at beginning of FY19.
+          4. Level of engagement of customers in Co.'s ecosystem continues to grow.
+               1. Number of transacting accounts on digital stores reached a new all-time high during qtr. with number of paid accounts, growing by strong double-digits over last year.
+               2. Now has over 360m paid subscriptions across Services portfolio, up 120m YoverY.
+                    1. Given continued strength and momentum in this part of business, expects a number of paid subscriptions to surpass 0.5b during 2020.
+               3. Subscription business has become large and diversified, covering many different categories from entertainment, to health and fitness, to lifestyle.
+               4. More than 30,000 third-party subscription apps are available today on App Store, and largest of them accounts for only 0.3% of total Services revenue.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Saw great response to new MacBook Air and Mac Mini introduced in Oct., which drove 9% increase in Mac revenue over last year to a new all-time record.
+          2. Revenue was up in vast majority of countries Co. tracks with double-digit growth in many large markets like:
+               1. US.
+               2. Western Europe.
+               3. Central and Eastern Europe.
+               4. Japan.
+               5. Korea.
+               6. South Asia.
+          3. Active installed base of Mac produced a new all-time high.
+               1. Half of all customers purchasing Macs in Dec. qtr. were new to Mac.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Revenue up 17% YoverY.
+          2. Strong performance of iPad and iPad Pro.
+          3. Generated double-digit growth in four of five geographic segments.
+          4. Similar to Mac, installed base of iPads reached a new all-time high.
+               1. Among customers purchasing iPad during qtr., half were new to iPad.
+          5. Most recent consumer survey from 451 Research measured 94% customer satisfaction rating for iPad overall, with iPad Pro models scoring as high as 100%.
+               1. Among business customers who plan to purchase tablets in March qtr., 68% plan to purchase iPads.
+     6. Wearables, Home and Accessories:
+          1. Revenue grew 33% to new all-time record in each geographic segments.
+          2. Revenue up over $1.8b YoverY, due to amazing popularity of Apple Watch and AirPods, both of which were supply constrained as Co. exited qtr.
+          3. Based on revenue over past four quarters, Wearables business is approaching size of a Fortune 200 co.
+          4. Retail and online stores generated strong results from Mac and iPad, and all-time record performance from Services and from Wearables.
+               1. Following launch of new iPhone trading campaign, Co.'s stores more than doubled volume of iPhones traded in vs. last year, reaching an all-time high in 1Q.
+          5. Added Thailand to Co.'s footprint with a beautiful store in Bangkok.
+               1. Opened a stunning new store in Champs-Elysees in Paris, exiting qtr. with 506 physical stores in 22 countries.
+     7. Others:
+          1. Enterprise:
+               1. Across multiple industries, Co.'s technology continues to enable businesses to do their best work.
+          2. Healthcare:
+               1. iPhones and iOS apps continue to streamline and support clinical workflows, communications and care delivery across leading health systems, including:
+                    1. Johns Hopkins Medicine.
+                    2. Massachusetts General Hospital.
+                    3. Stanford Healthcare.
+                    4. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
+          3. Manufacturing:
+               1. SKF, world's largest producers of bearings and seals have transformed their manufacturing processes on iOS and iPhone with incredible success.
+                    1. With custom iOS apps available to production operators across worldwide locations, SKF reduced production errors from 20% to 0%, while saving 70% in system-related time.
+               2. AAPL technology has made possible a simplified user experience, integrating SAP Cloud Platform, yielding better accuracy, efficiency and employee experiences across the board.
+          4. Construction:
+               1. Seeing great innovation with iPad and new third-party apps made for iOS.
+     8. Cash Position:
+          1. 1Q19-end:
+               1. Cash plus marketable securities, $245b.
+               2. Term debt, $102.8b.
+               3. Commercial paper outstanding, $12b.
+               4. Net cash position, $130b.
+                    1. Plans to reach a net cash neutral position over time.
+          2. Returned over $15b to investors during Dec. qtr.
+               1. Repurchased 38m shares for $8.2b through open market transactions.
+               2. Paid $3.6b in dividends and equivalence.
+          3. Consistent with historical cadence, Co. plans to provide an update on overall capital return program when Co. reports March qtr. results.
+     9. 2019 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue, $55-59b.
+               1. Reflects negative YoverY impact of $1.3b from FX, which represents about 210 BP of last year's revenue and a more uncertain macroeconomic environment than a year ago, especially in emerging markets.
+          2. GM, 37-38%.
+               1. Sequentially, reflects seasonal loss of leverage and 60 BP unfavorable impact for FX, partially offset by commodity cost savings.
+          3. OpEx, $8.5-8.6b.
+          4. OI&E, about $300m.
+          5. Tax rate, about 17%.
+          6. On 01/29/19, Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $0.73 per share of common stock payable on 02/14/19 to shareholders of record as of 02/11/19.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L190"time="00:29:30"/>Our first question will come from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L191"time="00:29:35"/>Services growth did decelerate from the growth rates in recent quarters. <Sync id="L192"time="00:29:40"/>So can you talk about the factors that played into that slower growth? <Sync id="L193"time="00:29:45"/>And then appreciate the new disclosure around paid subscribers. <Sync id="L194"time="00:29:51"/>But if you compare what you added in 2018 versus what you expect to add over the next 2 years, that implies a slowdown in annual net new subscribers. <Sync id="L195"time="00:29:59"/>So should we be thinking about Services as a lower growth segment than what you experienced in 2018? <Sync id="L196"time="00:30:07"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L197"time="00:30:10"/>Yes, Katy, let me take that one. <Sync id="L198"time="00:30:11"/>First of all, when we talk about the Services business, it's very important to start from the momentum that we have. <Sync id="L199"time="00:30:18"/>As you know, we have set an ambitious target for ourselves to double the size of our business from fiscal '16 to 2020, which implied, at the time, a 19% CAGR. <Sync id="L200"time="00:30:33"/>So far, we've been able to grow about 20%. <Sync id="L201"time="00:30:35"/>In fiscal '18, we grew 22%, so we are on track to achieve our objective. <Sync id="L202"time="00:30:40"/>And it's important to understand what is driving the growth of the business. <Sync id="L203"time="00:30:44"/>First of all, it's our installed base. <Sync id="L204"time="00:30:46"/>As we just told you, the installed base continues to grow very nicely. <Sync id="L205"time="00:30:52"/>It has reached 1.4 billion active devices at the end of December, and really, very little of our Services revenue is driven by what we sell in the last 90 days. <Sync id="L206"time="00:31:02"/>The second factor for the growth of the Services business is that, within this installed base, the percentage of users who are paying for at least 1 service is growing very strongly. <Sync id="L207"time="00:31:14"/>This is due to several factors. <Sync id="L208"time="00:31:15"/>First of all, we're offering more and more services. <Sync id="L209"time="00:31:19"/>During the last few years, as you know, we launched Apple Music, Apple Pay and advertising service for our developers on the App Store. <Sync id="L210"time="00:31:26"/>All these businesses are growing very strongly. <Sync id="L211"time="00:31:30"/>Second, we are making it easier for our customers to transact on our digital stores. <Sync id="L212"time="00:31:36"/>We accept many more payment methods today, which are very common in certain countries around the world. <Sync id="L213"time="00:31:43"/>We've also increased the distribution coverage for many of these services. <Sync id="L214"time="00:31:46"/>We're bringing AppleCare to more points of sale around the world. <Sync id="L215"time="00:31:50"/>We are launching Apple Pay in more and more markets and so on. <Sync id="L216"time="00:31:55"/>Thirdly, as you mentioned, our subscriptions are becoming a very large portion of our business, and they're growing very well above Services average. <Sync id="L217"time="00:32:06"/>And the fact that we are saying that we will surpass 0.5 billion during 2020, we're not putting a specific date during 2020, but I think you've seen over recent quarters that we've been adding about 120 million on a year-over-year basis for a number of quarters now. <Sync id="L218"time="00:32:31"/>And this is an incredible staggering number, right, when you think about it. <Sync id="L219"time="00:32:38"/>We're also broadening the scope of many of these services. <Sync id="L220"time="00:32:41"/>You should take Apple Pay as an example. <Sync id="L221"time="00:32:44"/>It started off as the most convenient, most private and most secure way to make a payment in a store or in an app. <Sync id="L222"time="00:32:52"/>Then, we took Apple Pay to Safari. <Sync id="L223"time="00:32:55"/>Then, we started a peer-to-peer service, and we're launching it in new markets across the world every quarter. <Sync id="L224"time="00:33:00"/>So we are broadening that scope. <Sync id="L225"time="00:33:04"/>And of course, similar to what we've done in the past in the last 3 years we launched several new services, we're also looking to launch new services going forward that we believe will provide great value to our users. <Sync id="L226"time="00:33:16"/>And we're really very excited about the opportunities that we see in front of us. <Sync id="L227"time="00:33:20"/>I think you're referring to the deceleration in the growth rate that we've seen in the December quarter, and I think you're referring back to the growth that we reported in September. <Sync id="L228"time="00:33:33"/>I think an important point I need to make and I think it's helpful that you asked the question is that a portion of this deceleration is truly just a reclassification of the amortization of free services that we've made in connection with the adoption of the new revenue recognition standard. <Sync id="L229"time="00:33:53"/>And as we explained 90 days ago, this amortization of free services in the past was reported under products and now gets reported under services. <Sync id="L230"time="00:34:06"/>The reclassification is actually dilutive to our growth rate because the amortization of free services is a relatively stable number, which gets applied to our growing base. <Sync id="L231"time="00:34:19"/>So this reclassification reduces our growth rate versus the previous classification. <Sync id="L232"time="00:34:31"/>This factor, by itself, represents roughly 1/3 of the deceleration that you've seen. <Sync id="L233"time="00:34:38"/>We talked about 27% growth in the September quarter. <Sync id="L234"time="00:34:42"/>With the reclassification, that growth rate was about 24.5%. <Sync id="L235"time="00:34:48"/>So that explains about 1/3 of that deceleration. <Sync id="L236"time="00:34:51"/>There are, I would say, 3 factors that explain this difference between the 24.5% to the 19%. <Sync id="L237"time="00:35:02"/>The first one is that foreign exchange plays a role. <Sync id="L238"time="00:35:08"/>Roughly 60% of our Services business is outside the United States; and as you know, the U.S. dollar has appreciated in recent months. <Sync id="L239"time="00:35:18"/>And in general, we tend not to reprice our services for foreign exchange on a very frequent basis. <Sync id="L240"time="00:35:25"/>The second factor is a well-known issue around the App Store in China. <Sync id="L241"time="00:35:31"/>The App Store in China is a large business for us. <Sync id="L242"time="00:35:36"/>We believe this issue around the approval of new game titles is temporary in nature but clearly is affecting our business right now. <Sync id="L243"time="00:35:47"/>And then thirdly, we are seeing some level of deceleration in AppleCare, which has had very, very strong growth during fiscal '18, where we're starting to lap some of the increase in distribution coverage that we put in place recently and the channel fill of Apple components that happened when we increased the distribution coverage. <Sync id="L244"time="00:36:12"/>But in general, we are very, very pleased with 19% growth, and we think that the business will continue to grow nicely going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L245"time="00:36:25"/>Just a quick follow-up, Luca. <Sync id="L246"time="00:36:28"/>Share repurchases in the December quarter were well below the run rate from the June and September quarters. <Sync id="L247"time="00:36:35"/>How much did the weaker quarter play into your ability to carry out the buyback at the same level? <Sync id="L248"time="00:36:42"/>And what should we think about as the right run rate going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L249"time="00:36:49"/>Well, Katy, we've always said that we're very committed to executing our program. <Sync id="L250"time="00:36:54"/>We have done almost $250 billion of repurchases from the beginning of the program. <Sync id="L251"time="00:37:00"/>But we've also said that we want to execute the program in an efficient, effective, I will say, disciplined manner. <Sync id="L252"time="00:37:09"/>And that takes into account also overall market conditions. <Sync id="L253"time="00:37:16"/>So that's what we did during the course of the December quarter. <Sync id="L254"time="00:37:20"/>We -- our fundamental view remains the same. <Sync id="L255"time="00:37:24"/>We are optimistic about our future, and we think there is great value in our stock. <Sync id="L256"time="00:37:30"/>And so we will continue to execute the program. <Sync id="L257"time="00:37:33"/>We will continue to report at the end of every quarter. <Sync id="L258"time="00:37:36"/>And by the way, when we report our March quarter results, we will also talk about the next step in our capital return program, which is something that we do traditionally in the spring.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L259"time="00:37:51"/>The next question will come from Steve Milunovich with Wolfe Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  Wolfe Research, LLC - MD of Equity Research    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L260"time="00:38:01"/>Some have the perception that you priced the new products, the new iPhones too high. <Sync id="L261"time="00:38:07"/>What have you learned about price elasticity? <Sync id="L262"time="00:38:09"/>And do you feel that perhaps you pushed the envelope a little bit too far and might have to bring that down in the future?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L263"time="00:38:17"/>Steve, it's Tim. <Sync id="L264"time="00:38:18"/>If you look at what we did this past year, we priced the iPhone XS in the U.S. the same as we priced the iPhone X the year ago. <Sync id="L265"time="00:38:29"/>The iPhone XS Max, which was new, was $100 more than the XS. <Sync id="L266"time="00:38:35"/>And then we priced the XR right in the middle of where the entry iPhone 8 and entry iPhone 8 Plus have been priced. <Sync id="L267"time="00:38:45"/>So it's actually a pretty small difference in the United States compared to last year. <Sync id="L268"time="00:38:54"/>However, the foreign exchange issue that Luca spoke of in the call and -- made that difference or amplified that difference in international markets, in particular, the emerging markets, which tended to move much more significantly versus the dollar. <Sync id="L269"time="00:39:17"/>And so what we have done in January and in some locations and some products is essentially absorb part or all of the foreign currency move as compared to last year and therefore, get close or perhaps right on the local price from a year ago. <Sync id="L270"time="00:39:46"/>So yes, I do think that price is a factor. <Sync id="L271"time="00:39:51"/>I think part of it is that, the FX piece. <Sync id="L272"time="00:39:56"/>And then secondly, in some markets as I had talked about in my prepared remarks, the subsidy is probably the bigger of the issues in the developed markets. <Sync id="L273"time="00:40:09"/>I had mentioned Japan; but also even in this country, even though the subsidy has gone away for a period of time, if you're a customer that your last purchase was a 6s or 6 or in some cases, even a 7, you may have paid $199 for it -- and now in an unbundled world, it's obviously much more than that. <Sync id="L274"time="00:40:35"/>And so we are working through those, and we've got a number of actions to address that, including the trade-in and the installment payments, which I had mentioned as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Mark Milunovich,  Wolfe Research, LLC - MD of Equity Research    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L275"time="00:40:50"/>I know that you're not giving units going forward, but you said you might make qualitative comments. <Sync id="L276"time="00:40:55"/>I was wondering if you have a comment particularly on the ASP on a year-over-year basis.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L277"time="00:41:02"/>Well, Steve, we did mention on the call last quarter that the different timing of our phone launches would affect the year-over-year compares. <Sync id="L278"time="00:41:17"/>If you remember, our top models, the XS and XS Max shipped during the September quarter, which plays the channel fill and the initial sales in that quarter. <Sync id="L279"time="00:41:28"/>While last year, the iPhone X shipped in Q1 in the December quarter but is in the channel fill and the initial sales in the December quarter. <Sync id="L280"time="00:41:37"/>So we knew that this would create a difficult compare for Q1 of '19, and this is essentially what happened. <Sync id="L281"time="00:41:46"/>It was pretty much in line with our expectations. <Sync id="L282"time="00:41:50"/>To give you more color, I would say that the XR is our most popular model, and it's followed by XS Max and then the XS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L283"time="00:42:03"/>The next question will come from Toni Sacconaghi with Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L284"time="00:42:10"/>I have one for Luca and one for Tim. <Sync id="L285"time="00:42:14"/>Luca, looks like the midpoint of your Q2 revenue guidance implies the steepest Q1 to Q2 sequential decline in iPhone revenues in history. <Sync id="L286"time="00:42:27"/>It also implies a year-over-year deceleration in iPhone revenues. <Sync id="L287"time="00:42:35"/>And I'm wondering if you can comment about whether that's conservatism, whether you're entering the quarter with a high level of channel inventory, and maybe you can comment explicitly on that, or whether you actually think the macroeconomic conditions are getting worse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L288"time="00:42:52"/>Yes. <Sync id="L289"time="00:42:52"/>I mean, 3 questions there. <Sync id="L290"time="00:42:55"/>The first one is a question around conservatism. <Sync id="L291"time="00:43:00"/>As we always do, when we provide a range, it's a range that we believe we're going to fall within. <Sync id="L292"time="00:43:06"/>We've done pretty well with that up until the December quarter, right? <Sync id="L293"time="00:43:11"/>I mean, we've been -- we didn't miss in years and years. <Sync id="L294"time="00:43:14"/>So that's the idea. <Sync id="L295"time="00:43:16"/>It's -- there is that specific level of conservatism. <Sync id="L296"time="00:43:19"/>We believe that this is the range where we're going to fall within. <Sync id="L297"time="00:43:24"/>On channel inventory, as you know, our historical pattern for iPhone channel inventory is that, typically, we increase inventory in Q1 and we decrease in Q2. <Sync id="L298"time="00:43:37"/>And we think this year will be similar, and we've exited the December quarter with levels of inventory that we are comfortable with. <Sync id="L299"time="00:43:48"/>So that leaves us with the reality that our iPhone performance in Q1, from a revenue standpoint, was minus 15%. <Sync id="L300"time="00:43:58"/>And we expect that the key factors that Tim mentioned during the call affecting iPhone performance in Q1 will also have an effect on Q2 starting with the strong U.S. dollar environment. <Sync id="L301"time="00:44:13"/>On a year-over-year basis, the negative impact from currency is going to be about $1.3 billion, so that's about -- a bit more than 2 points versus last year's revenue. <Sync id="L302"time="00:44:25"/>And so that obviously plays a role. <Sync id="L303"time="00:44:28"/>And the macroeconomic environment, particularly in emerging markets, will continue to be there. <Sync id="L304"time="00:44:34"/>On the positive side, we expect that we will continue to grow revenue nicely from the rest of the business, which is not iPhone.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L305"time="00:44:49"/>Tim, at your September event, Lisa Jackson, an Apple VP, stated the company needed to "design products to last as long as possible." And Apple's clearly doing that by helping with the battery replacement program, iOS working on an older range of products, et cetera. <Sync id="L306"time="00:45:12"/>But I guess, the question is why doesn't that mean that replacement or upgrade cycles for iPhones should continue to extend going forward, in part, because that's almost one of your objectives. <Sync id="L307"time="00:45:28"/>And maybe to that end, maybe you can help us understand what iPhone's average replacement cycle might be today and how that may have changed over the last 3 to 5 years. <Sync id="L308"time="00:45:38"/>And again, why wouldn't you expect it to elongate over time given some of the aforementioned things?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L309"time="00:45:47"/>We do design our products to last as long as possible. <Sync id="L310"time="00:45:51"/>Some people hold onto those for the life of the product, and some people trade them in. <Sync id="L311"time="00:45:57"/>And then that phone is then redistributed to someone else. <Sync id="L312"time="00:46:02"/>And so it doesn't necessarily follow that one leads to the other. <Sync id="L313"time="00:46:09"/>The cycles -- the average cycle has extended. <Sync id="L314"time="00:46:12"/>There's no doubt about that. <Sync id="L315"time="00:46:14"/>We've said several times, I think, on this call and before that the upgrades for the quarter were less than we anticipated due to the -- all the reasons that we had mentioned. <Sync id="L316"time="00:46:32"/>So where it goes in the future, I don't know, but I'm convinced that making a great product that is high quality, that is the best thing for the customer and we work for the user. <Sync id="L317"time="00:46:46"/>And so that's the way that we look at it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L318"time="00:46:53"/>Next question will come from Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L319"time="00:46:58"/>I wanted to ask about the trajectory of Services gross margin, up about 500 basis points, it appears, year-over-year. <Sync id="L320"time="00:47:05"/>You talked a little bit about sequential. <Sync id="L321"time="00:47:07"/>But what's driving the improvement? <Sync id="L322"time="00:47:10"/>Or will it be volatile as we go through the year depending on quarters and mix? <Sync id="L323"time="00:47:15"/>Just whatever color you can give us as we start to forecast this.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L324"time="00:47:22"/>Yes, Shannon. <Sync id="L325"time="00:47:24"/>I think you've seen that Services gross margins increased on a year-over-year basis by a significant amount. <Sync id="L326"time="00:47:37"/>Let me start with sequential because I think it's probably most relevant for us. <Sync id="L327"time="00:47:42"/>Sequentially, we increased 170 basis points. <Sync id="L328"time="00:47:45"/>It's a business that is growing nicely, so we get good support from our scale. <Sync id="L329"time="00:47:53"/>Some of these services are scaling quickly, and so we tend to expand gross margins there. <Sync id="L330"time="00:48:01"/>And also, we had favorable mix. <Sync id="L331"time="00:48:04"/>As you probably know, we have a very broad portfolio of services. <Sync id="L332"time="00:48:08"/>Some of them tend to be accretive to the average gross margin for Services also because of the way we account for them. <Sync id="L333"time="00:48:17"/>For example, you know that on the App Store, we book revenue on a net basis, and therefore, the gross margins tend to be accretive. <Sync id="L334"time="00:48:26"/>But we also have services that are very successful that are below the average for the Services business. <Sync id="L335"time="00:48:36"/>And so depending on how these separate businesses do in the marketplace, we're going to be seeing some level of movement going forward on Services margins. <Sync id="L336"time="00:48:47"/>But you've seen that, for the last 12 months, they've gone up nicely, 450 basis points, and sequentially, they've gone up 170 basis points. <Sync id="L337"time="00:48:57"/>But I wouldn't draw necessarily a conclusion on how this Services gross margin is going to move over time. <Sync id="L338"time="00:49:05"/>We will report, of course, at the end of every quarter. <Sync id="L339"time="00:49:10"/>But important to keep in mind, it's a broad portfolio with very different gross margin profiles within the portfolio. <Sync id="L340"time="00:49:18"/>It is important for us to grow gross margin dollars. <Sync id="L341"time="00:49:21"/>And if at times we grow services that are at a level of gross margins, which is below average, as long as this is good for the customer and as long as we generate gross margin dollars, we're going to be very pleased.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L342"time="00:49:39"/>And then, Tim, can you talk a bit about video? <Sync id="L343"time="00:49:41"/>You've signed a myriad of deals. <Sync id="L344"time="00:49:44"/>There was announcement about their TV app directly on Samsung. <Sync id="L345"time="00:49:47"/>So perhaps when this comes out, you'll be multiplatform. <Sync id="L346"time="00:49:51"/>I'm just curious how you view the opportunity in video. <Sync id="L347"time="00:49:54"/>And I guess, assuming you can just leverage the costs that you've made already, it should be accretive to margin, I would think.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L348"time="00:50:05"/>Yes. <Sync id="L349"time="00:50:05"/>Shannon, we see huge changes in customer behavior taking place now, and we think that it will accelerate as the year goes by to sort of the breakdown of the cable bundle that's been talked about for years. <Sync id="L350"time="00:50:21"/>And I think that it'll likely take place at a much faster pace this year. <Sync id="L351"time="00:50:28"/>And so we're going to participate in that in a variety of ways. <Sync id="L352"time="00:50:33"/>One of those is through Apple TV, and you're well familiar with that product. <Sync id="L353"time="00:50:39"/>The second way is the -- is AirPlay 2, which we have -- as you just pointed out, we have support on a number of different third-party TVs. <Sync id="L354"time="00:50:52"/>And we're excited about that. <Sync id="L355"time="00:50:54"/>It makes the experience in the living room with people using our products even better. <Sync id="L356"time="00:51:00"/>We think that people are really going to like that. <Sync id="L357"time="00:51:03"/>Another way is, of course, the -- all the third-party video subscriptions that are on the store. <Sync id="L358"time="00:51:09"/>We're participating in this today. <Sync id="L359"time="00:51:12"/>And I would guess that, that's going to accelerate into the future as the bundle breaks down and people begin to buy likely multiple services in place of their current cable bundle. <Sync id="L360"time="00:51:30"/>And then finally, original content, where -- we will participate in the original content world. <Sync id="L361"time="00:51:37"/>We have signed a multiyear partnership with Oprah. <Sync id="L362"time="00:51:42"/>But today, I'm not really ready to extend that conversation beyond that point. <Sync id="L363"time="00:51:49"/>We've hired some great people that I have a super amount of confidence in, and they're working really hard. <Sync id="L364"time="00:51:56"/>And we'll have something to say more on that later.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L365"time="00:52:02"/>The next question will come from Walter Piecyk with BTIG.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Walter Paul Piecyk,  BTIG, LLC, Research Division - Co-Head of Research and MD    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L366"time="00:52:12"/>I just have a question on the free services. <Sync id="L367"time="00:52:14"/>Can you just describe how the math works on that? <Sync id="L368"time="00:52:17"/>Is it that the free services are noncash revenue that's getting booked in the services revenue with no cost and the costs come out of products? <Sync id="L369"time="00:52:26"/>Can you just run us through what the current state is versus how you were accounting for that before?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L370"time="00:52:34"/>Yes. <Sync id="L371"time="00:52:34"/>In essence, when we sell a product at a certain price, we make an assumption. <Sync id="L372"time="00:52:39"/>We estimate the value that can be associated to providing free service. <Sync id="L373"time="00:52:46"/>In our case, it's providing Maps services, providing Siri and providing free iCloud to all the customers that purchase our product. <Sync id="L374"time="00:52:56"/>And so we calculate an estimated value. <Sync id="L375"time="00:53:01"/>That value gets deferred and gets amortized over the estimated period of time that we deliver the free services. <Sync id="L376"time="00:53:11"/>In the past, that deferral and the subsequent amortization was reported under products. <Sync id="L377"time="00:53:17"/>Now in connection with the new revenue recognition standard, we are reclassifying essentially that amortization from products revenue to services revenue. <Sync id="L378"time="00:53:33"/>So total revenue has not changed. <Sync id="L379"time="00:53:34"/>We just report that estimated value under the services category. <Sync id="L380"time="00:53:40"/>We also reclassify the cost that we need to incur to provide those services. <Sync id="L381"time="00:53:46"/>So the gross margin rate of each services is clearly significantly dilutive to the overall Services margin. <Sync id="L382"time="00:53:56"/>I hope I've answered that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Walter Paul Piecyk,  BTIG, LLC, Research Division - Co-Head of Research and MD    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L383"time="00:54:00"/>Yes, you're right. <Sync id="L384"time="00:54:01"/>So it's in mixed services gross margin. <Sync id="L385"time="00:54:02"/>Got it. <Sync id="L386"time="00:54:03"/>And then my other -- my second question is just when you think about growth in Services, you have selling more to existing paid subscription customers or it's the 300 million going to 0.5 billion. <Sync id="L387"time="00:54:15"/>If you can just talk, at a high level, as far as when you look at growth going forward, is it about -- what is the mix in terms of selling more to existing users, getting new users or -- and maybe some of the individual services that you see the biggest growth opportunity?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L388"time="00:54:31"/>Yes. <Sync id="L389"time="00:54:31"/>I mean, as I said, I mean, essentially, what -- the services -- I said services too is our installed base. <Sync id="L390"time="00:54:39"/>So the first driver is growing the installed base. <Sync id="L391"time="00:54:42"/>Installed base has grown nicely over the last several years. <Sync id="L392"time="00:54:46"/>We've added 100 million in the last 12 months alone. <Sync id="L393"time="00:54:50"/>So that's the first step. <Sync id="L394"time="00:54:51"/>Then within that installed base, of course, we want to make sure that there are more people that are so interested in our services that, in addition to transacting on those services on a free basis, they also are interested in paying for those services. <Sync id="L395"time="00:55:09"/>And I mentioned that the percentage of paid accounts has increased strong double digits. <Sync id="L396"time="00:55:16"/>So we want to continue to do that. <Sync id="L397"time="00:55:18"/>We want to make it easier for our customers to actually use our services, and so we are accepting more and more payment methods around the world. <Sync id="L398"time="00:55:27"/>And clearly, as you said, the idea of adding new services is very important to us. <Sync id="L399"time="00:55:32"/>During the last 3 years, we've added Apple Pay, which has been incredibly successful and is a wonderful customer experience. <Sync id="L400"time="00:55:41"/>We've added Apple Music, where we now have more than 50 million paid subscribers and continues to grow very nicely. <Sync id="L401"time="00:55:47"/>And we've added a very useful service to our developers. <Sync id="L402"time="00:55:51"/>We provide an advertising service for developers on the App Store. <Sync id="L403"time="00:55:56"/>The way we've added these services in the past, obviously, we're also very interested in adding new services that can provide great value to our customers in the future. <Sync id="L404"time="00:56:06"/>And we don't want to get into product announcements here, but obviously, that is part of our strategy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Senior Director of IR and Treasury    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L405"time="00:56:11"/>Thank you all. <Sync id="L406"time="00:56:16"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L407"time="00:56:25"/>And the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L408"time="00:56:33"/>Please enter confirmation code 2358120. <Sync id="L409"time="00:56:38"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L410"time="00:56:41"/>Pacific Time today.
+<Sync id="L411"time="00:56:42"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414. <Sync id="L412"time="00:56:50"/>Financial analysts can contact Matt Blake or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L413"time="00:56:53"/>Matt is at (408) 974-7406, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L414"time="00:57:03"/>And thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L415"time="00:57:07"/>That does conclude our conference for today. <Sync id="L416"time="00:57:09"/>Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2019-Jul-30-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,614 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2019 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 30, 2019 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Director-IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Krish Sankar
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst
+ * Samik Chatterjee
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 3Q19 revenue of $53.8b, net income of $10b and diluted EPS of $2.18. Expects 4Q19 revenues to be $61-64b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 3Q19 revenue = $53.8b.
+    2. 3Q19 net income = $10b.
+    3. 3Q19 diluted EPS = $2.18.
+    4. 3Q19 YoverY revenue growth = 1%.
+    5. 3Q19 GM = 37.6%.
+    6. 3Q19-end cash plus marketable securities = almost $211b.
+    7. 3Q19-end total debt = $108b.
+    8. 3Q19 share repurchase = almost 88m AAPL shares for $17b through open market repurchases.
+    9. 4Q19 revenue guidance = $61-64b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 3Q19 Review (T.C.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Overview:
+          1. Returned to growth and new June qtr. revenue record of $53.8b.
+          2. Saw significant improvement in YoverY iPhone performance vs. 2Q19.
+          3. Strong performances for Mac and iPad.
+          4. Blowout qtr. for Wearables, where Co. had accelerating growth of well over 50%.
+          5. New high watermark for Services, where Co. set all-time revenue record of $11.5b.
+          6. Stepping back and considering Wearables and Services together, two areas where Co. has strategically invested in last several years, they approaches size of Fortune 50 co.
+          7. Geographically:
+               1. Happy with performance across the board, including return to growth in Mainland China.
+          8. Accomplished aforementioned results despite strong headwinds from FX, which impacted topline growth rate by 300 BP vs. 3Q18.
+               1. Equivalent to about $1.5b of revenue.
+          9. In constant-currency, revenue grew in all five geographic segments.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $26b.
+               1. Down 12% YoverY.
+                    1. Significant improvement to 17% YoverY decline in 2Q.
+               2. Encouraged by results Co. is seeing from initiatives it spoke about in Jan., including strong customer response to in-store trade-in and financing programs.
+          2. iPhone in retail and online stores returned to growth YoverY in June.
+          3. Active installed base of iPhone reached new all-time high.
+               1. Up YoverY in each of Co.'s Top 20 markets, underscoring quality of products and satisfaction and loyalty of iPhone customers worldwide.
+          4. Revenue, excluding iPhone, up 17% YoverY, with growth across all categories.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $11.5b; all-time record.
+               1. Up 13% YoverY.
+               2. Excluding $236m favorable one-time item from 3Q18, growth was 15% or 18% in constant-currency.
+                    1. Consistent with 2Q performance.
+          2. Strong performance was broad-based.
+               1. Set new all-time records for AppleCare, Music, Cloud Services and App Store Search Ad business.
+               2. Achieved new 3Q revenue record for App Store.
+          3. Double-digit Services revenue growth in all five geographic segments.
+          4. Surpassed 420m paid subscriptions to Services across platform.
+               1. Remains on track to double FY16 Services revenue in 2020.
+          5. In May, launched all-new Apple TV app in over 100 countries, bringing together all the ways to watch TV in single app across iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and select smart TVs.
+               1. Monthly viewers in Apple TV app in US are up over 40% YoverY.
+               2. Seen Co.'s success being driven here by several factors.
+                    1. The fact that Co. has been able to integrate content from over 150 leading content providers all in one place.
+                    2. Same ease-of-use and unmatched user interface that sets Co. apart in other categories sets it apart in TV.
+                    3. Benefiting from broader secular move to over-the-top services.
+          6. Engaging with aforementioned third trend in five ways.
+               1. Apple TV hardware.
+               2. Apple TV channels, where customers can choose to pay only for channels they want.
+               3. Massive library of over 100,000 iTunes, movies and TV shows.
+               4. App Store, where users can find their favorite streaming services.
+               5. Later this year, Co.'s original programing service, Apple TV+.
+          7. Apple Pay:
+               1. Completing nearly 1b transactions per month, more than twice volume YoverY.
+               2. Launched in 17 countries, completing Co.'s coverage in EU and bringing it with total of 47 markets currently.
+               3. Based on 3Q19 performance, Apple Pay is adding more new users than PayPal.
+                    1. Monthly transaction volume is growing four times as fast.
+               4. In US, in addition to successful integration into Portland's transit system in May, Co. is beginning rollout of New York City transit.
+                    1. Will launch in Chicago later this year.
+               5. In China, Apple Pay launched payment card for DD, world's largest ride hailing provider.
+               6. Transit integration is major driver of broader digital wallet adoption.
+                    1. Going to keep up this push to help users leave their wallet at home in more and more instances.
+               7. Thousands of Co. employees are using Apple Card every day in beta test.
+                    1. Plans to begin rollout of Apple Card in Aug.
+     4. Wearables:
+          1. Growth accelerated to well over 50%.
+          2. Apple Watch set new June qtr. revenue record.
+               1. Reaching millions of new users.
+               2. Over 75% of customers buying Apple Watch in June qtr. were buying their first Apple Watch.
+          3. Seeing phenomenal demand for AirPods.
+          4. Tallying up last four quarters, Wearables business is bigger than 60% of companies in Fortune 500.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Revenue over $5b.
+               1. Growth driven by iPad Pro and by strong customer response to new iPad Mini and iPad Air.
+               2. Third consecutive qtr. of growth.
+                    1. With revenue up 15% YTD, feels great about where Co. is headed with iPad.
+          2. With current lineup of iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Air and iPad Pro, got perfect device for everyone from young learners to professionals.
+     6. Mac:
+          1. Double-digit revenue growth, fueled by strong performance of MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.
+          2. Looking forward, there is enormous amount to be excited about for Mac.
+               1. On heels of Mac Mini and iMac updates earlier in FY, brought significant updates to bulk of notebook lineup in last couple of months.
+               2. Has $999 MacBook Air that is killer for college students.
+               3. For Pro users, who pushed limits of what Mac can do, Co. unveiled most powerful Mac ever, new Mac Pro in all-new Pro display XDR, which will be available this fall.
+                    1. Designed for maximum performance, expansion and configurability and at breakthrough pricing.
+                    2. Most powerful tool Co. has ever put in hands of Pro customers.
+          3. Mac ecosystem as a whole is about to get a big boost.
+               1. At Co.'s recent Worldwide Developers Conference, announced game-changing tool to help developers easily adapt their iOS and iPadOS apps for Mac.
+     7. Greater China:
+          1. Saw significant improvement vs. 1H19.
+               1. Returned to growth in constant-currency.
+          2. Experienced noticeably better YoverY comparisons for iPhone business than Co. saw in last two quarters.
+               1. Had sequential improvement in performance of every category.
+          3. Combined effect of government stimulus, consumer response to trade-in programs, financing offers and other sales initiatives and growing engagement with broader Co. ecosystem had positive effect.
+          4. Double-digit increase in Services, driven by strong growth from App Store in China.
+     8. Future:
+          1. Last week, announced agreement with Intel to acquire majority of its smartphone modem business.
+               1. Second largest acquisition by dollars.
+               2. Largest-ever in terms of staff.
+               3. Sees this as great opportunity to:
+                    1. Grow Co.'s portfolio of wireless technology patents to over 17,000.
+                    2. Expedite development of future products.
+                    3. Further Co.'s long-term strategy of owning and controlling primary technologies behind products that it may.
+          2. Had best WWDC ever last month, packed with announcements of great new features coming this fall across four software platforms, making them more:
+               1. Powerful.
+               2. Personal.
+               3. Private.
+          3. For iPhone users, iOS 13 will take on dramatic new look with dark mode, while delivering major updates to apps one uses every day, including photos, camera and maps.
+               1. iOS 13 offers great new ways to help manage privacy and security, including Sign on with Apple, which uses face ID or touch ID to quickly sign into apps and websites without sharing personal information.
+               2. Improvements across entire system will make iPhone even faster and more delightful to use than ever before.
+     9. iPad:
+          1. For first time, iPad is getting its own version of iOS called iPadOS, strategic step forward that takes iPad experience to whole new level.
+               1. Redesigned home screen, powerful new multitasking tools, and deeper integration with Apple Pencil take productivity and creativity further, including using iPad as extended and interactive second monitor for Mac.
+     10. Apple TV:
+          1. tvOS 13 will make big screen experience even more personal.
+          2. With redesigned home screen and multiuser support, everyone in the family can get more engaging and tailored experience with their favorite TV shows, movies, sports and news along with Apple Music, photos and videos in iCloud and App Store with thousands of great games and apps.
+     11. Apple Watch:
+          1. watchOS 6 is major step forward in helping Apple Watch users stay:
+               1. Healthy.
+               2. Active.
+               3. Connected.
+          2. Dedicated App Store that users can access directly from device.
+               1. New watch faces, Siri enhancements and music and audio features make Apple Watch more useful than ever.
+          3. Innovating on Apple Watch's promise to be intelligent guardian for health.
+               1. watchOS 6 includes powerful new features like notifications that warn about high decibel noise to protect hearing and cycle tracking to aid in women's healthcare decision.
+          4. Expanded availability of ECG app and irregular rhythm notifications to five additional European countries.
+               1. Added Canada and Singapore last week, making them available in 31 countries and regions worldwide with more to come later this year.
+     12. macOS Catalina:
+          1. Believes macOS Catalina will be breakthrough in Mac ecosystem.
+          2. New tool included in macOS Catalina called Mac Catalyst gives developers major head start in bringing their iOS apps to Mac.
+               1. Thousands of developers are using it to bring their apps to Mac ecosystem.
+                    1. Expects to see wave of popular apps arriving for Mac as early as this fall.
+     13. Other Highlights:
+          1. Aforementioned updates are latest steps in broader strategic effort to make user experience across iOS, macOS, iPadOS, watchOS and tvOS more effortless and more intuitive.
+               1. Co. is alone in offering this kind of value and ecosystem to its customers.
+                    1. Aforementioned devices and their platforms are unmatched in their ease of use, their seamlessness and their privacy and security.
+                    2. While providing aforementioned things, created dynamic environment where developers benefit greatly from creating for and distributing on these platforms.
+                    3. Customers benefit greatly from access to all creativity and innovation.
+          2. Unveiled other exciting technologies to make it easier and faster for developers to create powerful new apps.
+               1. SwiftUI provides intuitive new framework for building sophisticated user interfaces across software platforms using simple easy-to-use code.
+               2. Core ML 3 supports acceleration of more types of advanced real-time machine learning models and (inaudible) developers build machine learning models without writing code.
+          3. Has world's largest augmented reality-enabled platform.
+               1. Thousands of ARKit-enabled applications in App Store.
+               2. Building on strategy and momentum in this area, introduced three new AR-based technologies.
+                    1. ARKit 3 uses on-device real-time machine learning to recognize human form and integrates people seamlessly into AR experiences.
+               3. RealityKit is new developer framework built from ground up to provide all tools and technologies required to make AR objects virtually life-like.
+               4. Reality Composer brings AR content creation to tens of millions of developers who had no 3D experience.
+                    1. Developers are running with these new technologies.
+          4. On so many fronts, there is enormous amount to look forward to over next few months, including launch of new services like:
+               1. Apple Arcade.
+               2. Apple TV+.
+               3. Apple Card.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 3Q19 Financials (L.M.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Revenue $53.8b; record.
+               1. Up 1% YoverY.
+          2. Returned to growth despite difficult FX environment worldwide, which impacted YoverY growth rate by 300 BP.
+          3. Set June qtr. revenue records in Americas, Japan, and Rest of Asia Pacific.
+               1. All geographic segments grew in constant-currency.
+          4. Overall products revenue $42.4b, down 2% YoverY.
+               1. Significantly better than 8% decline in product revenue experienced during 1H19.
+          5. Product categories outside of iPhone grew 20%, with strong results in:
+               1. Wearables.
+               2. Mac.
+               3. iPad.
+          6. Services $11.5b; new all-time record.
+               1. Grew 13%.
+               2. Excluding one-time item Co. highlighted a year ago in connection with final resolution of various lawsuits, Services revenue growth was 15% and 18% in constant-currency terms.
+          7. Geographically:
+               1. Saw marked improvement in YoverY comparisons from emerging markets relative to 1H19, particularly in BRIC countries, where YoverY performance went from 25% revenue decline in 1H to 3% growth in 3Q19.
+               2. Set June qtr. revenue records in several major developed markets, including:
+                    1. US.
+                    2. Canada.
+                    3. Germany.
+                    4. France.
+                    5. Japan.
+                    6. Australia.
+                    7. Korea.
+               3. In emerging markets:
+                    1. Returned to growth in Mainland China.
+                    2. Grew strong double-digits in India and Brazil.
+                    3. Set new 3Q records in Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines.
+          8. GM 37.6%, flat sequentially and in line with guidance.
+               1. Products GM 30.4%, down about 80 BP sequentially due to seasonal loss of leverage and product mix, partially offset by favorable costs.
+               2. Services GM 64.1%, up 30 BP sequentially, primarily due to favorable mix.
+          9. Net income $10b.
+          10. Diluted EPS $2.18.
+          11. Operating cash flow $11.6b.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $26b, down 12% YoverY.
+               1. Significantly better YoverY performance than [2Q19] 17% decline with sequential improvement in YoverY comparisons in 15 of Top 20 markets.
+          2. Active installed base of iPhone continued to grow to new all-time high in each of geographic segments.
+               1. In US, latest survey of consumers from 451 Research indicates iPhone customer satisfaction of 99% for iPhone XR, iPhone Xs and Xs Max combined.
+               2. Among business buyers, who plan to purchase smartphones in Sept. qtr., 83% plan to purchase iPhones.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Reached all-time revenue record despite FX headwinds, with:
+               1. Double-digit growth from:
+                    1. App Store.
+                    2. Apple Music.
+                    3. Cloud Services.
+                    4. AppleCare.
+               2. Triple-digit growth from:
+                    1. Apple Pay.
+                    2. App Store Search Ad business.
+          2. All geographic segments had double-digit growth in Services revenue.
+               1. Set new June qtr. records with all-time records in Americas and Rest of Asia Pacific.
+          3. Accounted for 21% of Co. revenue and 36% of GM dollars.
+          4. Customer engagement in Co.'s ecosystem continues to grow.
+               1. Number of transacting accounts on digital content stores reached new all-time high.
+               2. Number of paid accounts grew strong double-digits vs. last year.
+               3. Has over 420m paid subscriptions across Services on platforms.
+                    1. Well on way to Co.'s goal of surpassing 500m mark during 2020.
+          5. On App Store, growth accelerated sequentially.
+               1. Subscription business continues to grow strongly.
+                    1. Extremely diversified across many categories like entertainment, lifestyle, photo and video and music.
+               2. Third-party subscription revenue grew over 40%.
+               3. Across all third-party subscription apps, largest accounted for 0.25% of total Services revenue.
+          6. Among many Services records, it was best qtr. ever for AppleCare.
+               1. Seeing increase in service contract attach rates.
+                    1. Expanding distribution of AppleCare through partners.
+               2. Recently expanded authorized service provider network.
+                    1. Nearly 1,000 Best Buy stores across US are offering expert service and repairs for Apple products.
+                    2. This expansion provides customers with even more convenient access to repairs using parts certified for safety, quality and reliability.
+                    3. In addition to AAPL retail stores, there are over 1,800 third-party Co.-authorized service providers in US; three times as many locations as three years ago.
+     4. Mac:
+          1. Revenue $5.8b, up 11% YoverY.
+               1. Grew in four of five geographic segments.
+               2. Set June qtr. records in US, Europe and Japan as Co.'s overall market performance significantly outpaced global PC industry.
+          2. Nearly half of customers purchasing Macs were new to Mac, with revenue growing in developed and emerging markets.
+               1. Active installed base of Macs reached new all-time high.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Revenue $5b, up 8%.
+               1. Revenue grew in all five geographic segments with:
+                    1. 3Q revenue record in Mainland China.
+                    2. Double-digit growth in emerging markets.
+          2. In total, over half of customers purchasing iPads during June qtr. were new to iPad.
+          3. iPad active installed base reached new all-time high.
+          4. Most recent surveys from 451 Research measured 94% customer satisfaction rating for iPad from consumers.
+               1. Among business customers, who plan to purchase tablets in Sept. qtr., 75% plan to purchase iPads.
+     6. Wearables, Home & Accessories:
+          1. Revenue accelerated across all geographic segments.
+               1. Grew 48% to over $5.5b; June qtr. record.
+               2. Growth was fueled primarily by strong performance of Wearables business, which was up well over 50% and has become size of Fortune 200 co. over last 12 months.
+               3. Generated double-digit revenue growth from Apple TV and accessories.
+     7. Retail & Online Stores:
+          1. Produced best June qtr. revenue ever with double-digit revenue growth across:
+               1. Apple Watch.
+               2. iPad.
+               3. Mac.
+               4. Accessories.
+          2. Trade-in program is showing great momentum with more than five times the number of iPhones traded in vs. year ago.
+          3. Opened new stores in Carnegie Library in Washington DC and Xinyi district in Taipei, and new location in Dallas Galleria.
+               1. Ended qtr. with 506 physical stores in 22 countries, alongside online store presence in 35 countries.
+     8. Enterprise:
+          1. Gaining traction with strategy of transforming major industries by expanding leading positions in key functional areas to grow Co.'s reach and modernize customer and employee experiences.
+          2. In financial services industry, 90 of largest 100 banks by asset size are deploying AAPL products to improve efficiency and effectiveness across their organizations.
+               1. iPhone and iPad are overwhelmingly preferred mobile devices for bankers on the go.
+                    1. 60% of biggest banks are supporting iPads for wealth managers.
+          3. In retail banking, two-thirds of top banks are deploying iPad for branch transformation and modernizing legacy interfaces with unified iPad experience.
+               1. One of the world's largest banks created iPad suite that reduced customer onboarding time from more than an hour to just 12 minutes.
+               2. Bank branch employees are using Apple Watch for communication and notifications and Apple TV for customer presentations from iPads using AirPlay.
+          4. Financial institutions tell Co. that they receive positive feedback from leveraging AAPL solutions for direct customer engagement.
+               1. American Express, Credit Suisse, Discover and TD Ameritrade launched Apple Business Chat as dynamic way to support and interact with customers.
+          5. Intuitive interface of messages on iOS enables rich communication between customers and contact center staff.
+               1. TD Ameritrade has become first brokerage in world to enable immediate funding of accounts using Apple Pay, eliminating 2-3 business days it used to take to fund accounts by wire transfer.
+     9. Cash Position:
+          1. 3Q19-end:
+               1. Cash plus marketable securities, almost $211b.
+               2. Retired $3b of term debt.
+               3. Reduced commercial paper by $2b.
+               4. Total debt $108b.
+               5. Net cash $102b.
+                    1. Continues on path to reaching net cash neutral position over time.
+          2. Returned over $21b to shareholders, including $17b through open market repurchases of almost 88m AAPL shares and $3.6b in dividends and equivalents.
+     10. 4Q19 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $61-64b.
+               1. Guidance includes almost $1b of YoverY negative impact from FX.
+          2. GM 37.5-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx $8.7-8.8b.
+          4. OI&E [about] $200m.
+          5. Tax rate about 16.5%.
+          6. Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.77 per share of common stock, payable on 08/15/19 to shareholders of record as of 08/12/19.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L180"time="00:30:52"/>The first question will come from Amit Daryanani from Evercore.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L181"time="00:30:59"/>I guess 2 from me. <Sync id="L182"time="00:31:01"/>First off, could you just talk about, when I think about the September quarter guide, it's implied, I think, up 16% or so sequentially. <Sync id="L183"time="00:31:08"/>Historically, at least in that guide has been in the 10% low double-digit kind of range. <Sync id="L184"time="00:31:12"/>Just maybe help us understand what gives you the confidence for a better-than-seasonal guide in September either from a geo or product basis would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L185"time="00:31:20"/>Amit, it's Luca. <Sync id="L186"time="00:31:22"/>Of course, this is our best estimate of where we think we will land. <Sync id="L187"time="00:31:25"/>Clearly, we expect to have continued strong growth from the non-iPhone categories. <Sync id="L188"time="00:31:33"/>We have great momentum in Wearables. <Sync id="L189"time="00:31:35"/>We mentioned that we were up almost 50% in the June quarter or actually over 50% in the June quarter. <Sync id="L190"time="00:31:46"/>Our Services business, we set an all-time record in June. <Sync id="L191"time="00:31:50"/>And so these 2 categories have become really important and really large for us. <Sync id="L192"time="00:31:56"/>And so as we continue to grow quickly, that is going to help us as we go through the year. <Sync id="L193"time="00:32:03"/>Keep in mind that the guidance includes an estimated almost $1 billion of foreign exchange headwind for the quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L194"time="00:32:11"/>Fair enough. <Sync id="L195"time="00:32:15"/>That's really helpful. <Sync id="L196"time="00:32:15"/>And I guess if I just follow up on China, impressed to see the continued recovery you guys are seeing despite all the headlines that are out there. <Sync id="L197"time="00:32:25"/>Just curious what are the few things that are driving the success in China? <Sync id="L198"time="00:32:29"/>And how sustainable do you think those changes are for Apple as you go forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L199"time="00:32:34"/>Yes, Amit. <Sync id="L200"time="00:32:34"/>It's Tim. <Sync id="L201"time="00:32:35"/>I apologize for my voice. <Sync id="L202"time="00:32:36"/>I'm suffering from an allergy. <Sync id="L203"time="00:32:39"/>But what happened last quarter in China was -- it's a confluence of things. <Sync id="L204"time="00:32:46"/>The government stimulus just came in terms of a VAT reduction, a very bold one. <Sync id="L205"time="00:32:53"/>We took some pricing action. <Sync id="L206"time="00:32:56"/>We instituted our trade-in and financing programs in our retail stores and worked with certain channel partners on that as well. <Sync id="L207"time="00:33:08"/>And we're seeing a growing engagement with the broader Apple ecosystem during the quarter.
+<Sync id="L208"time="00:33:14"/>And so when you look at it, each of our categories, iPhone, iPad, Mac, Wearables, Services, everything improved sequentially. <Sync id="L209"time="00:33:27"/>So we couldn't be happier with the results or the progress, I should say. <Sync id="L210"time="00:33:34"/>I would point out, as I think I had mentioned in my comments, that we actually grew in constant currency for Greater China, and we grew in Mainland China on a reported basis. <Sync id="L211"time="00:33:49"/>So there's several things going on there that are quite positive.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L212"time="00:33:58"/>The next question will come from Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L213"time="00:34:06"/>Can you talk a bit about what's going on within Services, some of the puts and takes? <Sync id="L214"time="00:34:12"/>I know Luca, you gave us some color in terms of the growth rates in that. <Sync id="L215"time="00:34:16"/>But I'm just curious as -- and I know you won't talk about future products, but as you think about the opportunities, you think about what you've got now and in the future and then some of the -- what's been going on with China in that, is there something that could reaccelerate or again the 18% on a constant currency basis is obviously quite strong. <Sync id="L216"time="00:34:38"/>But how are you thinking about it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L217"time="00:34:40"/>Yes. <Sync id="L218"time="00:34:40"/>I think it's important to start with that 18% in constant currencies, Shannon. <Sync id="L219"time="00:34:47"/>Our reported results are on a normalized basis, removing the onetime item from last year, was 15%. <Sync id="L220"time="00:34:56"/>Clearly, FX plays a role around the world, 300 basis points of FX impact during the June quarter. <Sync id="L221"time="00:35:04"/>In spite of that, it was an all-time record revenue. <Sync id="L222"time="00:35:11"/>Our installed base continues to grow. <Sync id="L223"time="00:35:14"/>It's growing in every geography and it's growing across all our major product categories, and that is very, very important for the Services -- for the Services business. 
+<Sync id="L224"time="00:35:28"/>I would say -- I'll give you a bit more color around 2 offsetting factors around this performance during the June quarter. <Sync id="L225"time="00:35:37"/>On one side, the App Store, I mentioned in my prepared remarks that growth accelerated sequentially. <Sync id="L226"time="00:35:46"/>We had double-digit growth on the App Store in every geography. <Sync id="L227"time="00:35:52"/>In China, we saw significant acceleration. <Sync id="L228"time="00:35:57"/>As you know, we tend to monetize in China on the App Store through game titles, and the government has approved a few key game titles during the quarter that has helped our performance there. 
+<Sync id="L229"time="00:36:13"/>On the other side, AppleCare. <Sync id="L230"time="00:36:17"/>I mentioned AppleCare was an all-time record in June so a really strong performance. <Sync id="L231"time="00:36:22"/>But our growth has decelerated in AppleCare due to factors that we fully expected because we are comping this expansion of our coverage for AppleCare that we've had, we've had significant success during the last 18 to 24 months in really broadening our coverage of AppleCare around the world with some key partners, carriers and resellers. <Sync id="L232"time="00:36:52"/>And obviously, as we go through the year, those comps become a bit more difficult. 
+<Sync id="L233"time="00:37:01"/>Having said all that, you know that we've given ourselves a couple of targets and we feel very confident about reaching those targets. <Sync id="L234"time="00:37:11"/>The first one is that we wanted to double the size of the Services business from our fiscal '16 to 2020. <Sync id="L235"time="00:37:18"/>We are on our way there. <Sync id="L236"time="00:37:22"/>Paid subscriptions is another target. <Sync id="L237"time="00:37:23"/>It's important to us. <Sync id="L238"time="00:37:25"/>It's an important way for us to monetize our ecosystem. <Sync id="L239"time="00:37:30"/>We set a target of surpassing 0.5 billion paid subscriptions on the ecosystem during 2020. <Sync id="L240"time="00:37:39"/>We're already at 420 million now. <Sync id="L241"time="00:37:41"/>So we feel confident there. 
+<Sync id="L242"time="00:37:43"/>And of course, as you mentioned, we're very excited about the fact that we're going to be launching new services soon. <Sync id="L243"time="00:37:50"/>As Tim said, we're starting the rollout of Apple Card in August. <Sync id="L244"time="00:37:57"/>And there's 2 more very important services that we're going to be adding to our portfolio during the fall. <Sync id="L245"time="00:38:03"/>One is Apple Arcade, which is our gaming subscription service, and of course, Apple TV+, which is our video streaming service. <Sync id="L246"time="00:38:14"/>So obviously, these services will help us carry on with the momentum that we have in Services.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L247"time="00:38:23"/>Great. <Sync id="L248"time="00:38:23"/>And this is probably for you too as well, Luca. <Sync id="L249"time="00:38:25"/>Can you talk about gross margin? <Sync id="L250"time="00:38:28"/>The guidance was pretty solid. <Sync id="L251"time="00:38:30"/>Obviously, there are various things that are at play here. <Sync id="L252"time="00:38:33"/>I know you mentioned the $1 billion worth of top line impact, I think, from currency next quarter. <Sync id="L253"time="00:38:37"/>But maybe if you can kind of talk about what went into your gross margin guidance?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L254"time="00:38:41"/>Yes. <Sync id="L255"time="00:38:42"/>So of course, Shannon, as you've seen, our guidance for margin is 50 basis points higher than the guidance that we had given for June. <Sync id="L256"time="00:38:52"/>I would say on the positive, we expect to benefit from leverage, as you've seen from our revenue guidance, and from cost savings because, as you know, the commodity environment is fairly favorable right now. <Sync id="L257"time="00:39:08"/>On the negative side, the headwind on gross margins on a year-over-year basis from foreign exchange is about 100 basis points. <Sync id="L258"time="00:39:17"/>And so we need to keep that in mind, but we feel pretty good about the guidance we provided.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L259"time="00:39:28"/>Our next question will come from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L260"time="00:39:34"/>I'd like to go back to the discussion around strength in China in the quarter and understand what linearity looked like. <Sync id="L261"time="00:39:42"/>I asked because there was some industry data around the smartphone market in China that seemed to deteriorate in the month of June, the App Store data deteriorated a little bit in June. <Sync id="L262"time="00:39:53"/>And just curious if that's something you saw in the business, and if it at all informs your outlook around the pace of the China business as you go into September.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L263"time="00:40:06"/>Katy, it's Tim. <Sync id="L264"time="00:40:08"/>We obviously took into account all of the information that we had and coming out with the guidance, including linearity across last quarter and how this quarter has started. <Sync id="L265"time="00:40:21"/>And so we've obviously looked at that in quite much detail.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L266"time="00:40:30"/>And then just on the App Store, appreciate there's not a lot of detail out around exact timing and even some pricing of the new services. <Sync id="L267"time="00:40:39"/>But how should we think about the new services that launched in March impacting the overall Services growth? <Sync id="L268"time="00:40:51"/>Does that start to benefit the model in the back half of this calendar year? <Sync id="L269"time="00:40:58"/>Or will the impact be more longer term in nature and really show up in 2020?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L270"time="00:41:06"/>Katy, let me just talk about the new services that we've announced in March and then also about the timing of how we get to revenue, right? <Sync id="L271"time="00:41:16"/>We've announced Apple News+, and this is the service that is available for consumers right now. <Sync id="L272"time="00:41:26"/>We've announced our channel service, which has also become available a few weeks ago. <Sync id="L273"time="00:41:32"/>The other 3 services, the Card is launching in August, the gaming service and the video service are starting in the fall. <Sync id="L274"time="00:41:41"/>Keep in mind for all these services, there's a trial period upfront. <Sync id="L275"time="00:41:45"/>There's going to be different trial periods, we'll see what they look like. <Sync id="L276"time="00:41:49"/>So the road to monetization takes some time. <Sync id="L277"time="00:41:53"/>Obviously, all of them will add to our base and will help us with growth rates as we get into next year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L278"time="00:42:04"/>That question will come from Krish Sankar with Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L279"time="00:42:12"/>I have 2 of them. <Sync id="L280"time="00:42:13"/>First one, on the iPhone trade-in program, how effective was it and what percentage of iPhone sales came from the trade-ins? <Sync id="L281"time="00:42:22"/>And are there any other geographies where you're left to roll it out? <Sync id="L282"time="00:42:24"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L283"time="00:42:27"/>It's Tim. <Sync id="L284"time="00:42:27"/>In retail, it was quite successful. <Sync id="L285"time="00:42:31"/>We got going in a larger way during that quarter. <Sync id="L286"time="00:42:36"/>We were pretty much just ramping in the previous quarter. <Sync id="L287"time="00:42:41"/>And trade-in, as a percentage of their total sales, is significant and financing is a key element of it. <Sync id="L288"time="00:42:50"/>Those 2 things in the aggregate led retail -- the combination of retail and online, we -- to short form that as retail, are Apple Store, led to growth in June. <Sync id="L289"time="00:43:02"/>And so we feel very, very good about our trajectory. <Sync id="L290"time="00:43:06"/>We are obviously taking those programs and advocating those more widely. <Sync id="L291"time="00:43:13"/>And that is at different levels of implementation throughout different geographies because we're working with our carrier partners on those and retail partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L292"time="00:43:29"/>Got it, got it. <Sync id="L293"time="00:43:30"/>That's very helpful, Tim. <Sync id="L294"time="00:43:31"/>And then a follow-up for you, a much longer-term question. <Sync id="L295"time="00:43:34"/>I understand we're in the very early innings of the Services growth story. <Sync id="L296"time="00:43:39"/>Is there a way to think about it down the road that 3 or 5 years down the road, would the Services growth be focused or will it still be tethered to the hardware of the iPhone? <Sync id="L297"time="00:43:49"/>Or do you think at some point down the road, Services would be independent by itself and not really tied to your hardware installed base?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L298"time="00:43:57"/>Well, there are elements today that are not necessarily tethered to iPhone, right? <Sync id="L299"time="00:44:02"/>We have other products where people are both purchasing things, they're watching Apple TV. <Sync id="L300"time="00:44:11"/>We offer Apple Music on Android, and so there's a series of things that are outside of that. <Sync id="L301"time="00:44:18"/>And so we'll see what we do in the future. <Sync id="L302"time="00:44:20"/>I don't want to really get into that. 
+<Sync id="L303"time="00:44:24"/>But more broadly, to answer your question about growth as we go forward, the way I see it is we have the strongest hardware portfolio ever. <Sync id="L304"time="00:44:35"/>We've got new products on the way. <Sync id="L305"time="00:44:37"/>The pipeline is full of great new stuff, both on the product and services side. <Sync id="L306"time="00:44:44"/>We're very fortunate and work very hard to have loyal customers and to continue attracting an impressive number of switchers. <Sync id="L307"time="00:44:54"/>The installed base is growing, hit a new record. <Sync id="L308"time="00:44:57"/>That's obviously good. <Sync id="L309"time="00:44:59"/>And it hit a new record across all geographies and across all categories. <Sync id="L310"time="00:45:06"/>And so this is a really good thing.
+<Sync id="L311"time="00:45:11"/>And we've got the Wearables area that is doing extremely well. <Sync id="L312"time="00:45:18"/>We stuck with that when others perhaps didn't and really put a lot of energy into this and a lot of R&D and are in a very good position today to keep playing out the what's next there.
+<Sync id="L313"time="00:45:35"/>At the same time, on the market side, we have emerging markets where we have low penetration. <Sync id="L314"time="00:45:43"/>And in -- during the quarter, tactically, emerging markets had a bit of a rebound. <Sync id="L315"time="00:45:48"/>In fact, on a constant currency basis, we actually grew slightly in emerging markets. <Sync id="L316"time="00:45:55"/>We still declined on a reported basis. <Sync id="L317"time="00:45:59"/>India bounced back. <Sync id="L318"time="00:46:01"/>During the quarter, we returned to growth there. <Sync id="L319"time="00:46:04"/>We're very happy with that. <Sync id="L320"time="00:46:05"/>We grew in Brazil as well. 
+<Sync id="L321"time="00:46:09"/>We're also continuing to focus on the enterprise market. <Sync id="L322"time="00:46:12"/>Luca mentioned some of this in his comments, and we think that continues to be a big opportunity for us. <Sync id="L323"time="00:46:19"/>And then we've got lots of what I would call core technology kinds of things like augmented reality, where we're placing big bets, and I think we have a big future in addition to the health kinds of things that may fall out of the Watch. <Sync id="L324"time="00:46:38"/>And so hopefully, that kind of this gives you a view over the total. <Sync id="L325"time="00:46:42"/>And so we're focusing on products and services and there will be some services that aren't hooked and some that are hooked not on current period sales are mostly -- very much services are rarely connected on that today or at least not a high percentage by any means. <Sync id="L326"time="00:47:07"/>They're more correlated to the installed base, the active installed base and also the level of transacting customers that are there and the amount per customer, which relates also to the offering that we have.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L327"time="00:47:31"/>Next, we'll go to Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L328"time="00:47:37"/>Tim, the China trade situation remains sort of fluid over here and recently -- more recently, you asked for some tariff exemptions. <Sync id="L329"time="00:47:45"/>We're not granted those. <Sync id="L330"time="00:47:46"/>How are you thinking about the longer-term footprint for manufacturing? <Sync id="L331"time="00:47:51"/>And can you talk about any potential alternatives that you've looked at and considered in moving parts of production potentially out of China? <Sync id="L332"time="00:47:57"/>And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L333"time="00:47:57"/>Yes. <Sync id="L334"time="00:47:58"/>I know there's been a lot of speculation around the topic of different moves and so forth. <Sync id="L335"time="00:48:05"/>I wouldn't put a lot of stock into those, if I were you. <Sync id="L336"time="00:48:09"/>The way that I view this is the vast majority of our products are kind of made everywhere. <Sync id="L337"time="00:48:15"/>There's a significant level of content from the United States and a lot from Japan to Korea to China and the European Union also contributes a fair amount. <Sync id="L338"time="00:48:29"/>And so that's the nature of a global supply chain. <Sync id="L339"time="00:48:35"/>I think -- largely, I think that will carry the day in the future as well. <Sync id="L340"time="00:48:45"/>In terms of the exclusions, we've been making the Mac Pro in the U.S. We want to continue to doing that. <Sync id="L341"time="00:48:53"/>And so we're working and investing currently in capacity to do so because we want to continue to be here. <Sync id="L342"time="00:49:05"/>And so that's what's behind the exclusions. <Sync id="L343"time="00:49:07"/>And so we're explaining that and hope for a positive outcome.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L344"time="00:49:20"/>And there's -- Luca, maybe for you, there's been some significant destocking of inventory in the first calendar half of this year in iPhone. <Sync id="L345"time="00:49:28"/>Can you comment about the broader channel inventory levels, where you are in your typical ranges, especially given the comment around June iPhone sales being quite strong? <Sync id="L346"time="00:49:37"/>And do you expect anything atypical in channel inventory dynamics in the September quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L347"time="00:49:44"/>Yes, Wamsi. <Sync id="L348"time="00:49:44"/>As you know, we're not getting into this topic very much, but I think I can give you some color here. <Sync id="L349"time="00:49:52"/>You know that in general, we decreased our inventory during the March quarter and the June quarter. <Sync id="L350"time="00:50:01"/>That has been traditionally what we've done. <Sync id="L351"time="00:50:04"/>This year, we reduced channel inventory for iPhone slightly more than last year. <Sync id="L352"time="00:50:11"/>And that is true in total, and it's true for Greater China as well. <Sync id="L353"time="00:50:15"/>So we feel very good about our channel inventory ranges as we get into the September quarter. <Sync id="L354"time="00:50:22"/>I hope that helps you with that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L355"time="00:50:31"/>Our next question comes from Jim Suva with Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L356"time="00:50:37"/>The first question is probably for Tim and the second one for Luca, and I'll ask them at the same time so you can pick and choose whichever one you want to answer, first and second. <Sync id="L357"time="00:50:45"/>But the first question, Tim. <Sync id="L358"time="00:50:47"/>Regarding the installed base comment you've made, which is quite encouraging, but yet when you look at the iPhone revenue year-over-year, the past several quarters has been down. <Sync id="L359"time="00:50:58"/>Can you help us bridge the gap of how is the installed base growing? 
+<Sync id="L360"time="00:51:03"/>Is it mostly because like secondary users are the new ones coming into the system as people are holding their phones longer? <Sync id="L361"time="00:51:12"/>And what does that user typically bring  in with them or something unique relative to what we historically know? <Sync id="L362"time="00:51:19"/>And then for Luca, you've been investing a lot, a lot, lot, lot and a lot of these services are now coming to pass, whether it be AppleCare, Apple cloud, all these Wearables, and soon Apple Pay and Arcade. <Sync id="L363"time="00:51:32"/>Are we at a point where now, a lot of harvesting is going to happen? <Sync id="L364"time="00:51:35"/>Or do you kind of continue these relatively same investments that you've been doing for the future strategy?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L365"time="00:51:43"/>Okay. <Sync id="L366"time="00:51:43"/>Jim, it's Tim. <Sync id="L367"time="00:51:45"/>I'll start with your installed base question. <Sync id="L368"time="00:51:47"/>Installed base is a function of upgrades and the time between those. <Sync id="L369"time="00:51:56"/>It's a function of the number of switchers coming into the iOS, macOS and so forth tents. <Sync id="L370"time="00:52:06"/>It's a function of the robustness of the secondary market, which we think overwhelmingly hits incremental customer. <Sync id="L371"time="00:52:15"/>And it's a function still in the emerging markets and somewhat developed markets, to a lesser degree, of people new that -- they're buying their first smartphone. <Sync id="L372"time="00:52:28"/>There are still quite a few people in the world in that category.
+<Sync id="L373"time="00:52:32"/>And so the reason that the installed base doesn't correlate to the 90-day clock is that what's happening underneath the numbers is switchers are still a very key piece of what's going on. <Sync id="L374"time="00:52:48"/>The secondary market is very key, and we're doing programs, et cetera, to try to increase that because we think we'd wind up hitting a customer that we don't hit in another way. <Sync id="L375"time="00:53:05"/>And the upgrades, where people are holding on to their device a bit longer than they were, they're staying in the ecosystem. <Sync id="L376"time="00:53:15"/>And then you have the people in the new category as well. <Sync id="L377"time="00:53:19"/>And so that's sort of the equation. <Sync id="L378"time="00:53:22"/>I don't want to go into the specific numbers, but I think you can see readily, mathematically, how the installed base is growing in an environment where the iPhone revenue is declining within a 90-day kind of window.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L379"time="00:53:42"/>And Jim, on OpEx, obviously, it's very important for us to continue to invest in the business, particularly on the R&D side because we always want to bring more innovation into the market. <Sync id="L380"time="00:53:55"/>We want to improve the user experience and differentiate our products and services in the marketplace. <Sync id="L381"time="00:54:01"/>So we will continue to do that. 
+<Sync id="L382"time="00:54:05"/>There are some types of investments, of course, that are very strategic for us and they will have long-term implications. <Sync id="L383"time="00:54:13"/>You've seen the announcement that we made around the Intel acquisition. <Sync id="L384"time="00:54:17"/>Very important strategically for us. <Sync id="L385"time="00:54:20"/>It requires upfront investment, of course. <Sync id="L386"time="00:54:24"/>As you've seen from this quarter and also from the past, we will continue to run our SG&A portion of OpEx tightly. <Sync id="L387"time="00:54:34"/>We will -- of course, we'll continue to invest in marketing and advertising. <Sync id="L388"time="00:54:39"/>We talked about a lot of new services that we are launching during the fall and Apple Card the next month. <Sync id="L389"time="00:54:48"/>Obviously, they will require the appropriate level of marketing and advertising as we launch them to the general public.
+<Sync id="L390"time="00:55:00"/>When you look in total at where we are in terms of our expense-to-revenue ratio for operating expenses, you know quite well that we are extremely competitive relative to other tech companies. <Sync id="L391"time="00:55:16"/>So we want to continue to be competitive and at the same time, we will not under invest in the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L392"time="00:55:24"/>The next question will come from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L393"time="00:55:33"/>I just wanted to start off with the announcement of the WWDC around the independent App Stores for the Watch and the iPads. <Sync id="L394"time="00:55:45"/>What level of interest have you seen from developers and how are they thinking about the ability to monetize services independently on those App Stores? <Sync id="L395"time="00:55:53"/>And how does it help you position Wearables more formally into the health and fitness category?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L396"time="00:56:00"/>We're seeing good interest across virtually everything that we announced at WWDC. <Sync id="L397"time="00:56:05"/>I couldn't be happier with the developer tools around ARKit and AR in general that I went through earlier. <Sync id="L398"time="00:56:21"/>Lots of interest there. <Sync id="L399"time="00:56:21"/>Lots of interest from the watch App Store to the Catalyst that will be released with macOS Catalina, which allows developers quickly to port a iOS app to the Mac. <Sync id="L400"time="00:56:33"/>We think this is huge and so great for the user experience. <Sync id="L401"time="00:56:38"/>And so you look at all of these and all of the things that I talked about earlier and I couldn't be happier with the reception that we're getting and the work that is going on behind the scenes right now to ready -- for the developers readying their apps for the fall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L402"time="00:56:54"/>Got it. <Sync id="L403"time="00:56:54"/>If I can just follow up on the China market. <Sync id="L404"time="00:57:02"/>One of the things that we're looking at is with these -- going into the new year into 2020, there'll be a lot of 5G phones launching in that market from the Android players. <Sync id="L405"time="00:57:12"/>How you're thinking about the competitive landscape there as you enter next year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L406"time="00:57:18"/>We don't comment on future products. <Sync id="L407"time="00:57:22"/>With respect to 5G, it's -- I think most people would tell you it's -- we're in sort of the extremely early, early innings of it and even more so on a global basis. <Sync id="L408"time="00:57:36"/>So we couldn't be more proud of what our lineup is and we're excited about the great pipeline of both hardware and software, and we won't trade our position for anyone's.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Director-IR    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L409"time="00:57:46"/>Thank you, Samik. <Sync id="L410"time="00:57:48"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone and the numbers to the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L411"time="00:58:07"/>Please enter confirmation code 3057347. <Sync id="L412"time="00:58:12"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L413"time="00:58:14"/>Pacific Time today.
+<Sync id="L414"time="00:58:17"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414 and financial analysts can contact Tejas Gala or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L415"time="00:58:30"/>Tejas is at (669) 227-2402, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L416"time="00:58:38"/>Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L417"time="00:58:43"/>That does conclude our conference for today. <Sync id="L418"time="00:58:55"/>Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2019-Oct-30-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,584 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2019 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 30, 2019 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+ * Nancy Paxton
+   Apple Inc. - Director-IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Christopher Caso
+   Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst
+ * Samik Chatterjee
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * A.M. Sacconaghi
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 4Q19 revenues of $64b, net income of $13.7b and diluted EPS of $3.03. Expects 1Q20 revenues to be $85.5-89.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 4Q19 revenue = $64b.
+    2. 4Q19 net income = $13.7b.
+    3. 4Q19 diluted EPS = $3.03.
+    4. 4Q19 YoverY revenue growth = 2%.
+    5. 4Q19 GM = 38%.
+    6. 4Q19-end cash plus marketable securities = almost $260b.
+    7. 4Q19-end total debt = $108b.
+    8. 4Q19 share repurchase = 86m AAPL shares for almost $18b through open market repurchases.
+    9. 1Q20 revenue guidance = $85.5-89.5b.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 4Q19 Review (T.C.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Overview:
+          1. This was Co.'s highest revenue in Sept. qtr. ever.
+          2. Revenue $64b.
+               1. At high end of expectations, even despite predicted FX drag of almost $1b.
+          3. Geographically, set new 4Q revenue records in Americas and Rest of Asia Pacific, and saw further improvement in revenue trends in Greater China.
+          4. iPhone:
+               1. Customers have only begun to get their hands on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models.
+               2. YoverY performance continued to improve.
+          5. Outside of iPhone, revenue up 17%.
+               1. Reached new all-time high for Services with growth accelerating to 18%.
+               2. Generated well over 50% revenue growth from Wearables.
+                    1. Set 4Q records for Wearables in each and every market Co. tracks.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $33b.
+               1. 9% decline YoverY is significant improvement over 15% decline Co. saw across first three quarters.
+               2. Significant upswing in demand in final part of qtr. is mirrored in positive reviews, customer feedback and in-store response Co. has seen for new generation of devices and best photos from a smartphone.
+          2. iPhone 11 features Co.-designed A13 Bionic, fastest, most powerful chip ever in smartphone plus all new dual-camera system and even longer all-day battery life, all wrapped in six new colors.
+               1. Since its launch, iPhone 11 has quickly become Co.'s best-selling iPhone.
+          3. iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max deliver even more advanced performance.
+               1. New Super Retina XDR display is brightest ever in iPhone.
+               2. New triple camera system provides pro-level photography experience with ultra-wide, wide and telephoto camera.
+          4. All three of new iPhones feature Night mode, delivering huge improvements to photo capture in low-light environments, either indoors or outdoors.
+               1. They produce highest-quality video in smartphone, supporting 4K video with extended dynamic range for more highlight detail and cinematic video stabilization.
+          5. iOS 13 is driving user experience forward across iPhone family with:
+               1. Bold new look in Dark Mode.
+               2. Major updates to apps customers use every day, like photos and maps.
+               3. New ways to help protect their privacy with Sign in with Apple.
+               4. Performance improvements across entire system.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue $12.5b.
+               1. Up 18% YoverY.
+               2. Beats previous record set in June qtr. by more than $1b.
+               3. Saw double-digit Services revenue growth and all-time records in all five geographic segments.
+               4. Established new all-time highs for multiple Services categories, including App Store, AppleCare, Music, cloud services and App Store Search Ad business.
+               5. Well on way to accomplishing goal of doubling FY16 Services revenue during 2020.
+          2. Had all-time record revenues from payment services.
+               1. For Apple Pay, revenue and transactions more than doubled YoverY with over 3b transactions, exceeding PayPal's number of transactions and growing four times as fast.
+               2. Apple Pay is now live in 49 markets globally with over 6,000 issuers on platform.
+               3. Believes Apple Pay offers best possible mobile payment experience and safest, most secure solution on market.
+          3. Apple Card launched in US in Aug.
+               1. Seen positive reception.
+               2. Users can apply for Apple Card through Wallet app on iPhone in minutes and start using it right away in stores, in apps and on websites.
+               3. Apple Card has absolutely no fees.
+               4. Major apps and retailers like Uber, Uber Eats, Walgreens, Duane Reade and T-Mobile have already joined to offer 3% daily cash back on Apple Card transactions.
+               5. On 10/30/19, announced that later this year Co. is adding another feature to Apple Card.
+                    1. Customers will be able to purchase their new iPhone and pay for it over 24 months with zero interest.
+                    2. They will continue to enjoy all benefits of Apple Card, including 3% cash back on total cost of their new iPhone with no fees and ability to manage their payments right in Apple Wallet app on iPhone.
+                    3. Believes aforementioned features appeal broadly to all iPhone customers.
+               6. Believes this has been most successful launch of credit card in US ever.
+          4. Last month, launched Apple Arcade, groundbreaking game subscription service, offering all new way for whole family to enjoy games online or offline.
+               1. Apple Arcade subscribers get unlimited access to curated selection of games from many of the most innovative developers in the world with almost 100 new titles playable across iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Mac and Apple TV today and more are being added all the time.
+               2. Customer feedback to date has been positive.
+          5. Working with Oprah Winfrey to bring Oprah's Book Club to Apple Books.
+          6. Expanded reach of Apple News+ beyond US and Canada to readers in Australia and UK, bringing together popular publications, like The Times of London, The Australian and Hello Magazine, in addition to major publications like The Wall Street Journal, The L.A. Times, The New Yorker, People, GQ and much more.
+          7. On 11/01/19, launching Apple TV+ in over 100 countries and regions.
+               1. First all-original video subscription service.
+               2. Premiered shows like See and The Morning Show in L.A. and New York over past couple of weeks, and stage is set for exciting debut.
+               3. Customers who have purchased qualifying Co.'s devices starting Sept. 10 can opt into 12 free months of Apple TV+.
+     4. Wearables:
+          1. Had amazing results due to phenomenal popularity of Apple Watch, AirPods and Beats products.
+          2. Set 4Q revenue records for Wearables in every single market that Co. tracks globally.
+          3. In Sept., launched Apple Watch Series 5 with Always-On Retina display.
+               1. New location features help users better navigate their day while international emergency calling allows them to call emergency services directly from Apple Watch in over 150 countries even without an iPhone nearby.
+               2. Combined with power of watchOS 6, users are empowered to take charge of their health and fitness with new features like Cycle Tracking, Noise app, Activity Trends.
+               3. ECG app now available in 32 markets, including India, has become widely celebrated illustration of Co.'s commitment to one's health, giving users the ability to document and monitor functioning of their heart and provide critical data to their doctors.
+          4. Deepening commitment to medical research.
+               1. Announced new Research app paired with three unprecedented medical studies spanning hearing, heart and movement, and women's health.
+               2. Collaborating with leading health institutions to reach more participants than has ever been possible, enabling them to contribute to potential medical discoveries and help create next-generation of innovative health products.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Generated 17% growth driven by iPad Pro and ongoing momentum of wider lineup.
+          2. In Sept., introduced seventh-generation iPad, bringing more screen area and support for full-sized Smart Keyboard to most popular and most affordable iPad.
+          3. For first time, released iPadOS built on same foundation as iOS but with powerful apps designed for iPads large multi-touch display, letting users multitask with intuitive gestures, and drag and drop a file with fingertip.
+     6. Mac:
+          1. Revenue $7b.
+               1. Had tough comparison to 4Q18 when Co. updated both models of MacBook Pro.
+               2. For FY19 overall, generated highest annual revenue ever from Mac business.
+          2. In July, updated Mac portables with great pricing for students and MacBook Air, in particular, has been hit in back-to-school season.
+          3. Earlier this month, released macOS Catalina with all new entertainment apps, innovative Sidecar feature that uses iPad to expand Mac workspace and new accessibility tools that enable users to control their Mac entirely with their voice.
+               1. Catalina brings Apple Arcade experience to Mac.
+                    1. Already seeing some third-party developers bring their iPad apps to Mac App Store with Mac Catalyst, including Twitter, Post-it and more.
+          4. Launching newly redesigned Mac Pro this fall, which Co. is manufacturing in Austin, Texas.
+     7. Others:
+          1. In FY19, crossed $100b in revenue in US for first time.
+          2. Introduce new services from Apple Card to Apple TV+ and generated over $46b in total Services revenue, setting new yearly Services records in all five geographic segments and driving Services business to size of Fortune 70 co.
+          3. Delivered new hardware in all device categories.
+          4. Wearables business showed explosive growth and generated more annual revenue than two-thirds of companies in Fortune 500.
+          5. Set yearly revenue record for Mac.
+          6. Outside of iPhone, revenue grew by $17b to almost $118b.
+          7. Overall success was achieved widely across markets with annual revenue records in US, Canada, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam.
+          8. Believes that Co. leads in innovation because AAPL leads with its values.
+          9. At time of urgency and action on climate change, continues to drive breakthroughs in clean power, sustainable materials and device recycling.
+               1. By running 100% of global operations on renewable energy and challenging entire network of suppliers do the same, Co. is driving virtuous cycle of demand for clean sources of power.
+               2. Sees award Co. recently received from United Nation's Global Climate Action program as mandate to deepen this vital work.
+          10. Continues to invent and improves on cutting-edge renewable materials, including 100% recycled aluminum alloy found in many of Co.'s products.
+               1. Added rare earth elements to list of recycled materials with introduction of iPhone 11.
+               2. Disassembling, recycling or refurbishing millions of devices every year with help of Daisy, recycling robot, and pushing entire global supply chain toward recycled or renewable materials.
+          11. Driving access to critical coding skills development to educators and students through programs like teaching coding academies and free Everyone Can Code curriculum.
+          12. Continues to put user privacy at center of everything that Co. does.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 4Q19 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Revenue:
+          1. 4Q19 $64b.
+               1. Up 2% YoverY.
+               2. New Sept. qtr. record.
+               3. As predicted, FX negatively impacted revenue by close to $1b.
+               4. Constant currency growth, 3%.
+          2. Products $51.5b.
+               1. Down 1% YoverY, mainly due to iPhone but largely offset by strong performance from Wearables and iPad.
+          3. Services $12.5b.
+               1. Grew 18%.
+               2. Up over $1.9b YoverY and almost $1.1b sequentially to new all-time record with broad-based growth globally and across portfolio.
+          4. Geographically:
+               1. Set new 4Q revenue records in Americas and Rest of Asia Pacific segments.
+               2. Saw continuous improvement in Greater China where YoverY revenue comparisons became more favorable each qtr. of FY19 from 27% decline in 1Q to 2% decline in 4Q.
+               3. Established new 4Q records in many major developed and emerging markets, including US, Canada, Germany, France, Korea, Singapore, Brazil, India, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
+     2. GM:
+          1. 4Q19 38%.
+               1. Up 40 BP sequentially, driven by leverage from higher revenue.
+          2. Products 31.6%.
+               1. Up 120 BP sequentially, due to leverage and favorable mix.
+          3. Services 64.1%.
+               1. Even with June qtr.
+     3. Results:
+          1. Net income $13.7b.
+          2. Diluted EPS $3.03.
+               1. 4Q record.
+               2. Up 4% YoverY.
+          3. Operating cash flow $19.9b.
+               1. 4Q record.
+               2. Up almost $400m from previous record Co. set last year.
+     4. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $33.4b.
+               1. 9% YoverY decline; meaningful improvement to 12% decline in 3Q19 and 16% decline in 1H19.
+          2. Saw great customer response to launch of iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max at qtr.-end.
+          3. Active installed base continue to grow to new all-time high in each geographic segments.
+          4. In US, latest survey of consumers from 451 Research indicates iPhone customer satisfaction of 99% for iPhone XR, XS and XS Max combined.
+          5. Among business buyers who plan to purchase smartphones in Dec. qtr., 83% plan to purchase iPhones.
+     5. Services:
+          1. Had strong qtr. with all-time record performance and growth accelerating from June qtr.
+          2. All five geographic segments set new all-time Services revenue records and all grew double digits.
+          3. Established new all-time records for App Store, Apple Care, Music, cloud services, payment services and App Store Search Ad business.
+          4. Accounted for:
+               1. 20% of revenue mix.
+               2. 33% of GM mix.
+          5. Customer engagement in Co.'s ecosystem continues to grow.
+               1. Number of transacting and paid accounts on digital content stores reached new all-time high with double-digit growth in paid accounts in all geographic segments.
+                    1. Now has 450m paid subscriptions across services on platform vs. over 330m a year ago.
+                    2. Well on way to goal of surpassing 500m mark during 2020.
+          6. App Store revenue grew strong double digits due to robust customer demand for in-app purchases and subscriptions.
+          7. Third-party subscription business grew across multiple categories and increased almost 40% YoverY.
+               1. There are now more than 35,000 subscription apps on platform, with largest accounting for less than 0.25% of total Services revenue.
+          8. Best qtr. ever for AppleCare due to strong service agreement attach rates and expanded distribution.
+               1. To better meet customers' needs, announced new iPhone repair program, making it easier for independent providers across US to tap into same resources as Apple Authorized Service Provider network and offering customers additional options for most common out-of-warranty iPhone repairs.
+               2. New program complements Co.'s continued investment in growing global network of over 5,000 Apple Authorized Service Providers that lead industry for customer satisfaction and help millions of people with in- and out-of-warranty service for all products.
+     6. Mac:
+          1. Revenue $7b.
+               1. Down 5% YoverY due to different mix of products, given strength of MacBook Air lineup and difficult comparison to last year's launch of MacBook Pro models.
+               2. Despite tough compare, generated all-time revenue record in US and India, and 4Q revenue record in Japan.
+          2. More than half of customers purchasing Macs during qtr. were new to Mac.
+          3. Active installed base reached new all-time high.
+     7. iPad:
+          1. Revenue $4.7b.
+               1. Up 17% YoverY.
+          2. Revenue grew in all five geographic segments with 4Q revenue record in Japan.
+          3. Over half of customers purchasing iPads during Sept. qtr. were new to iPad.
+          4. Active installed base reached new all-time high.
+          5. Most recent surveys from 451 Research measured 95% customer satisfaction rating for iPad from consumers and 97% from businesses.
+          6. Among consumers and businesses who plan to purchase tablets in Dec. qtr., more than 80% plan to purchase iPads.
+     8. Wearables, Home & Accessories:
+          1. Revenue $6.5b; new 4Q record.
+               1. Up 54% YoverY with growth accelerating from 3Q across all five geographic segments.
+               2. Performance was driven by growth across Apple Watch, AirPods, Beats products and accessories.
+          2. Set 4Q records for Wearables category in every single market Co. tracks globally.
+     9. Retail & Online Stores:
+          1. Generated record Sept. qtr. revenue in all five geographic segments, and strong double-digit growth across iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and accessories.
+          2. Continued to see great results from trade-in program with more than five times the iPhone trade-in volume Co. had a year ago.
+          3. Last month, reopened Apple Fifth Avenue store in New York with even more welcoming layout beneath landmark glass cube, providing nearly twice the space of original store.
+               1. This store is open seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and provides even better environment for customers to experience latest products, meet with Geniuses, creative pros and specialists, and attend free daily Today at Apple session.
+          4. Opened newest and largest store in Japan, and fifth store in Tokyo in Marunouchi business district across from historic Tokyo Station.
+          5. Opened new store in heart of Mexico City's vibrant Polanco district.
+     10. Enterprise:
+          1. Seeing strong demand for products in enterprise market, with growth significantly ahead of Co.'s business overall, and has great momentum transforming major industries.
+          2. 80 of 100 largest retailers in the world are choosing Co. to modernize their customers and employee experiences across all functions of their business.
+               1. Retailers are using iPhone, iPad and Mac to optimize their back of house operations, modernize point of sale, and deliver differentiated customer and employee experiences.
+               2. Customer engagement and assisted selling have been areas of particular focus.
+                    1. Seeing great results for brands like Burberry, Ralph Lauren, Sephora USA, Gap Inc., and many others.
+          3. Helping government agencies globally, use technologies to improve effectiveness and efficiency of the way they deliver critical services to public.
+               1. US Census Bureau is making fundamental changes to the design and implementation of next year's census with goal of producing quality results, while reducing costs by leveraging mobility, user experience and privacy of iOS.
+               2. Hundreds of thousands of Co.'s devices will be deployed this FY to support innovative new model for collection and management of census data.
+               3. CDW, Co.'s partner in this initiative, will utilize Apple Financial Services, AAPL's enterprise financing platform, to help minimize cost to public by taking advantage of uniquely strong residual value of Co.'s devices.
+     11. Cash Position:
+          1. 4Q19-end cash plus marketable securities almost $260b.
+          2. Issued $7b of new term debt, retired $3b of maturing debt and reduced commercial paper by $4b, leaving Co. with total debt of $108b.
+          3. 4Q19-end net cash $98b.
+               1. Continues on path to reaching net cash neutral position over time.
+          4. Returned over $21b to shareholders, including almost $18b through open market repurchases of 86m Co.'s shares, and $3.5b in dividends and equivalents.
+          5. Retired additional 7m shares in final settlement of 14th ASR.
+     12. 1Q20 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $85.5-89.5b.
+               1. Includes negative impact from FX of over $1b.
+          2. GM 37.5-38.5%.
+          3. OpEx $9.6-9.8b.
+          4. OI&E about $200m.
+          5. Tax rate about 16.5%.
+     13. Others:
+          1. On 10/30/19, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.77 per share of common stock payable on 11/14/19 to shareholders of record as of 11/11/19.
+          2. Nancy Paxton, Head of IR, has decided to retire at Dec.-end.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L199"time="00:31:05"/>Today, that will come from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L200"time="00:31:11"/>Congratulations on the quarter. <Sync id="L201"time="00:31:13"/>iPhone revenue trajectory did improve, but it still declined 9%. <Sync id="L202"time="00:31:17"/>So can you talk about the drivers that will allow you to get that category back to growth and if you think that's something that's realistic to expect in fiscal '20?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L203"time="00:31:29"/>Katy, it's Tim. <Sync id="L204"time="00:31:31"/>We're very thrilled with what we're seeing in the early going on iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max. <Sync id="L205"time="00:31:42"/>It's early, but the trends look very good, so I don't want to make a long-range forecast here. <Sync id="L206"time="00:31:49"/>We've put our current thinking in the guidance, and you can tell that from the guidance, we are bullish.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L207"time="00:32:01"/>Great. <Sync id="L208"time="00:32:01"/>And Luca, on margins, guidance is consistent with September, but there's a lot going on under the covers. <Sync id="L209"time="00:32:08"/>Tariffs could expand in mid-December. <Sync id="L210"time="00:32:10"/>There's some impact from the TV+ bundle. <Sync id="L211"time="00:32:14"/>You have some big currency and commodity price moves. <Sync id="L212"time="00:32:16"/>So can you just talk about the gives and takes that land you at the December quarter gross margin guidance?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L213"time="00:32:24"/>Yes. <Sync id="L214"time="00:32:24"/>Katy, of course. <Sync id="L215"time="00:32:26"/>As you said, I mean, at the midpoint of the range, we are essentially flat sequentially. <Sync id="L216"time="00:32:37"/>On one side, we expect -- on the positive side, we expect leverage from higher revenue. <Sync id="L217"time="00:32:47"/>On the other side, foreign exchange for us continues to be probably the biggest headwind that we got right now. <Sync id="L218"time="00:32:55"/>It's going to be negative 70 basis points on a sequential basis. <Sync id="L219"time="00:33:00"/>Also, keep in mind that during the holiday season, we have a higher mix of products revenue than we have in other quarters. <Sync id="L220"time="00:33:08"/>And that obviously is dilutive to the company margin. <Sync id="L221"time="00:33:16"/>On a year-over-year basis, we're also about flat. <Sync id="L222"time="00:33:23"/>And on one side, we've got better commodity pricing. <Sync id="L223"time="00:33:26"/>The environment is better than it was a year ago, but foreign exchange is a negative impact of 120 basis points on a year-over-year basis.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L224"time="00:33:46"/>Our next question will be from Mike Olson with Piper Jaffray.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L225"time="00:33:53"/>So Wearables category has been strong, and it's hard to believe it's now essentially the same size as Mac. <Sync id="L226"time="00:33:59"/>But related to Apple's initiatives in health care, do you think health-related features are a primary driver of Wearables growth? <Sync id="L227"time="00:34:07"/>And maybe conversely, how important is the rising installed base of Wearables and the data that's associated with that to the ongoing innovation within Apple Health? <Sync id="L228"time="00:34:19"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L229"time="00:34:19"/>Yes. <Sync id="L230"time="00:34:19"/>Michael, it's Tim. <Sync id="L231"time="00:34:21"/>The Wearables have done extremely well. <Sync id="L232"time="00:34:23"/>It was an acceleration further from the previous quarters, so we're thrilled with the results. <Sync id="L233"time="00:34:31"/>As to what's driving it, it's the totality that's driving it. <Sync id="L234"time="00:34:36"/>For some people, it's about fitness. <Sync id="L235"time="00:34:39"/>For some people, it's about health. <Sync id="L236"time="00:34:40"/>For some other people, it's about communication, and for some people, it's all of the above. <Sync id="L237"time="00:34:46"/>And I think the new feature of always-on on Series 5 is a game-changer for many of our users. 
+<Sync id="L238"time="00:34:57"/>And in terms of other health-related things that we have going, we will be continuing to build out our health records connection into the Health app, really democratizes the information about people's health, and so they can easily go from doctor to doctor. <Sync id="L239"time="00:35:23"/>We've got the research going that I've mentioned earlier. <Sync id="L240"time="00:35:27"/>There will be more of those through time. <Sync id="L241"time="00:35:30"/>And obviously, we've got things that we're not going to talk about just yet that we're working on. <Sync id="L242"time="00:35:36"/>But as I've said before, my view is there will be a day in the future that we look back and Apple's greatest contribution will be to people's health.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L243"time="00:35:50"/>And then with the strong slate of content in Apple TV+, can you just talk about the strategy behind giving it away to those that are buying an applicable device versus charging for it? <Sync id="L244"time="00:36:01"/>And my congrats to Nancy and thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L245"time="00:36:07"/>Yes. <Sync id="L246"time="00:36:08"/>It's a gift to our users. <Sync id="L247"time="00:36:10"/>And from a business point of view, we'd like to -- we're really proud of the content. <Sync id="L248"time="00:36:16"/>We'd like as many people as possible to view it. <Sync id="L249"time="00:36:21"/>And so this allows us to focus on maximizing subscribers, particularly in the early going. <Sync id="L250"time="00:36:29"/>And so we're -- we feel great about doing that. <Sync id="L251"time="00:36:33"/>I think it's a bold move. <Sync id="L252"time="00:36:35"/>And the price also for those people that are not buying a device in the period of time that we offer this, the price is very aggressive as well. <Sync id="L253"time="00:36:46"/>You think about the quality of content that you get for $4.99, and it's amazing. <Sync id="L254"time="00:36:55"/>It is amazing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L255"time="00:36:59"/>That will come from Evercore's Amit Daryanani.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L256"time="00:37:07"/>I guess 2 questions from me as well. <Sync id="L257"time="00:37:08"/>First one, Tim, if you think about the Services business, you're less than $2 billion away from the targets you had laid out a few years back. <Sync id="L258"time="00:37:16"/>But I'm wondering if you think about the growth rates you've had in the business over the last several years, the high teens average, I think, how much of that do you think was driven by the installed base growing versus incremental monetization of the installed base? <Sync id="L259"time="00:37:28"/>And do you see that ratio essentially flipping or changing as you go forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L260"time="00:37:32"/>I think we have opportunities, Amit, in both the growth of the installed base. <Sync id="L261"time="00:37:38"/>As Luca mentioned in his comments, we continue to grow across every category, hit new highs in the last quarter. <Sync id="L262"time="00:37:47"/>And we hit new highs in all of our top 20 markets. <Sync id="L263"time="00:37:52"/>And so the installed base is clearly a piece of it. <Sync id="L264"time="00:37:56"/>Getting the trade-in program going and the secondary market moving has been helpful in that as well. <Sync id="L265"time="00:38:07"/>And of course, the -- ultimately, the thing that builds the installed base is to make customers happy. <Sync id="L266"time="00:38:16"/>And that's our -- always our top objective is to have satisfied customers.
+<Sync id="L267"time="00:38:21"/>The other thing that is obviously happening is in many areas, the ARPU is increasing. <Sync id="L268"time="00:38:30"/>And so as there's more offers out there, I mean, the one that is today getting the attention is on the streaming side. <Sync id="L269"time="00:38:39"/>But if you look at the number of services that have been added over the years, it's significant. <Sync id="L270"time="00:38:47"/>And people love them. <Sync id="L271"time="00:38:50"/>And so it's really both of those. <Sync id="L272"time="00:38:52"/>And obviously, finally, getting more people that are enjoying things for free to elect to pay for some of the premium services. <Sync id="L273"time="00:39:06"/>So it's sort of all 3 of those.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L274"time="00:39:10"/>Got it. <Sync id="L275"time="00:39:10"/>And then if I could just kind of go back to the Wearables discussion, I mean, and especially if you think about Apple Watch and AirPods. <Sync id="L276"time="00:39:15"/>Is there a sense or a way to think about what's the attach rate today to iOS devices for Apple Watch or AirPods? <Sync id="L277"time="00:39:22"/>I guess I'm just trying to understand, if I think about 900 million-plus iPhone installed base, what kind of penetration do you have at Wearables and how long could this one may be as you go forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L278"time="00:39:34"/>Well, we're not releasing the precise numbers of our Wearables, but it is a really nice try in getting me to say that. <Sync id="L279"time="00:39:42"/>The -- what we're seeing in terms of new ads on the watch, I think Luca may have mentioned this in his comments, is about 3/4 of the Apple Watch buyers are new to Apple Watch. <Sync id="L280"time="00:39:57"/>And so we are still and significantly in the build mode there. <Sync id="L281"time="00:40:04"/>And so don't think of the penetration as anywhere near a sort of a mature penetration. <Sync id="L282"time="00:40:13"/>We got a lot left there. 
+<Sync id="L283"time="00:40:15"/>And the AirPods just keep hitting new highs. <Sync id="L284"time="00:40:21"/>And I anticipate that will carry over to this quarter too, and we're really proud to add another product up there for people wanting noise-canceling with the AirPods Pro beginning to sell today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L285"time="00:40:40"/>That will come from Shannon Cross with Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L286"time="00:40:47"/>First, Nancy, just want to send you our best wishes. <Sync id="L287"time="00:40:50"/>We'll definitely miss you. <Sync id="L288"time="00:40:52"/>I'm sure, I agree with Luca, you've been very instrumental over the years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Director-IR    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L289"time="00:40:56"/>Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L290"time="00:40:57"/>My questions though with regards to China. <Sync id="L291"time="00:41:01"/>And I don't know, Tim, if you can talk more about what you're seeing in China, the trends during the quarter, the reception specifically there to the iPhone. <Sync id="L292"time="00:41:10"/>Any thoughts on Hong Kong used to be a big market. <Sync id="L293"time="00:41:13"/>There's obviously some turmoil there. <Sync id="L294"time="00:41:14"/>So if can you just provide some more in China that will be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L295"time="00:41:19"/>Yes. <Sync id="L296"time="00:41:19"/>We had a very good September, Shannon, and the lead of that is sort of the reception of iPhone 11 and 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max. <Sync id="L297"time="00:41:33"/>And so we feel really good about how we've gotten started there. <Sync id="L298"time="00:41:39"/>As you can tell from the numbers, we've significantly improved since the beginning of the year. <Sync id="L299"time="00:41:45"/>We've gone from minus well into the 20s to minus 2% last quarter. <Sync id="L300"time="00:41:53"/>And if you looked at that in constant currency, we actually grew 1%. <Sync id="L301"time="00:41:57"/>And so there's a very slight growth there. <Sync id="L302"time="00:42:00"/>We obviously want that to be better. <Sync id="L303"time="00:42:04"/>But we feel good about how we're doing. 
+<Sync id="L304"time="00:42:06"/>I think it's a combination of things that are -- that have turned things around. <Sync id="L305"time="00:42:12"/>On a macro basis, I think the trade tension is less, and that clearly looks positive right now with the comments that we've been reading in the press. <Sync id="L306"time="00:42:26"/>Secondly, the products have been extremely well-received there. <Sync id="L307"time="00:42:33"/>Third, the things that we've done from a pricing and monthly payments point of view, and trade-in, getting the trade-in program up and running, all of these things have moved the dial. <Sync id="L308"time="00:42:46"/>And so it's sort of a -- the sum of all of that. 
+<Sync id="L309"time="00:42:51"/>I would also say it's not all about iPhone in China. <Sync id="L310"time="00:42:54"/>The Services area grew double digit. <Sync id="L311"time="00:42:57"/>We began to see more gaming approvals in the quarter or I should say some key gaming approvals. <Sync id="L312"time="00:43:03"/>It's not all about quantity but about which ones. <Sync id="L313"time="00:43:08"/>We saw that. <Sync id="L314"time="00:43:11"/>Also, Wearables, where Wearables are doing so great at a company level, they're doing even better in China. <Sync id="L315"time="00:43:17"/>And so lots of positives there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L316"time="00:43:24"/>And then I'm curious, Luca, maybe you can talk a bit about how you think about operating expense growth. <Sync id="L317"time="00:43:29"/>It continues to grow significantly faster than revenue. <Sync id="L318"time="00:43:33"/>So I'm just curious as to where you're targeting the incremental spend. <Sync id="L319"time="00:43:37"/>And then is there a point at which we might just see some leverage?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L320"time="00:43:44"/>Well, Shannon, we've gone through different cycles. <Sync id="L321"time="00:43:46"/>In some cases, our revenue growth exceeds our OpEx growth. <Sync id="L322"time="00:43:51"/>In other cases, like fiscal '19, it was the other way around. <Sync id="L323"time="00:43:55"/>But our approach frankly is not changing over time. <Sync id="L324"time="00:43:59"/>We want to invest in the business. <Sync id="L325"time="00:44:03"/>Our primary investments during the last few years have been in the R&D space because obviously we want to continue to innovate, improve the user experience, differentiate our products. 
+<Sync id="L326"time="00:44:16"/>We continue to run SG&A tightly. <Sync id="L327"time="00:44:19"/>Obviously, if you look at what we've launched during the last few quarters and few years, we launched a lot of new products, and now we're launching a lot of new services. <Sync id="L328"time="00:44:30"/>And when we do that, we need to make the adequate investments in marketing and advertising to raise the awareness of the new products and new services. <Sync id="L329"time="00:44:41"/>And that is what you're seeing, for example, in the guidance that we provided for the first quarter as we're launching new services right now. <Sync id="L330"time="00:44:51"/>And so we're making investments both in engineering and in advertising to support the new launches.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L331"time="00:45:01"/>That will come from Bernstein's Toni Sacconaghi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L332"time="00:45:08"/>I think this is for Luca, and then I have a follow-up as well. <Sync id="L333"time="00:45:12"/>If I look at your guidance, the midpoint of your guidance for revenues on a sequential basis, it's up about 36.5%. <Sync id="L334"time="00:45:22"/>Historically, fiscal Q4 to Q1 was up 50% or more. <Sync id="L335"time="00:45:27"/>And even last year, given that iPhone is a slower-growing product, you guided for revenues to be up 45% sequentially. <Sync id="L336"time="00:45:37"/>So given the enthusiasm about the iPhone 11 launch and the new Wearables products and the new Services, I guess the question is why is your guidance not stronger for Q1 on the top line? <Sync id="L337"time="00:45:59"/>And is that sort of a reflection of conservatism, given that there's a lot of uncertainty in the world and we certainly saw that last year? <Sync id="L338"time="00:46:08"/>Or are there other forces at work that we should be considering?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L339"time="00:46:15"/>Toni, thanks for the question. <Sync id="L340"time="00:46:18"/>The guidance that we are providing, if you look at it at the midpoint, implies an acceleration of growth from the performance that we've seen during the course of fiscal '19. <Sync id="L341"time="00:46:33"/>As I said earlier, foreign exchange is clearly a headwind for us right now. <Sync id="L342"time="00:46:39"/>There's about $1.1 billion of negative foreign exchange on a year-over-year basis. <Sync id="L343"time="00:46:46"/>So that is something to keep in mind. 
+<Sync id="L344"time="00:46:51"/>We feel very good, as Tim said, about the iPhone, the way the new cycle has started. <Sync id="L345"time="00:46:57"/>And we do expect an improvement in our year-over-year growth rate on iPhone. <Sync id="L346"time="00:47:04"/>Wearables has very, very strong momentum. <Sync id="L347"time="00:47:06"/>The portfolio of Services also has incredible momentum. <Sync id="L348"time="00:47:13"/>One thing to keep in mind as we look at this guidance range is the fact that we also contemplated the comparison to the launch of the iPad Pro a year ago for iPad as well as the new MacBook Air that was launched during the December quarter last year. <Sync id="L349"time="00:47:34"/>So for the iPad and Mac categories, you need to keep in mind that our launch timing is different on a year-over-year basis.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A.M. Sacconaghi,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L350"time="00:47:45"/>Okay. <Sync id="L351"time="00:47:47"/>And then if I could follow up. <Sync id="L352"time="00:47:50"/>Just on the bundling of Apple TV+. <Sync id="L353"time="00:47:54"/>I guess for you, Tim, this is really the first time we've seen a significant bundling of services offering and a hardware offering. <Sync id="L354"time="00:48:06"/>And I'm wondering if you view this as kind of a strategic advantage of Apple and whether we might see more hardware plus services offerings -- bundled offerings. <Sync id="L355"time="00:48:17"/>And ultimately, to you, do you ever believe that your hardware itself might be offered as a bundled service? <Sync id="L356"time="00:48:27"/>And maybe while we're on that, either you or Luca could give us the 30-second tutorial on how we should think about the deferred revenue accounting, approximately how much of the $60 are you going to be deferring and what's your expectation for attach rate on that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L357"time="00:48:45"/>Let me cover that accounting issue first. <Sync id="L358"time="00:48:49"/>Obviously, we need to make some assumptions around the take rate of our customers on the -- on Apple TV+, right? <Sync id="L359"time="00:48:59"/>And we don't want to get into the details of that because we view those assumptions as confidential and competitively sensitive. 
+<Sync id="L360"time="00:49:07"/>But you need to keep in mind that we contemplate a number of factors, including the fact that we have family sharing as part of the service, the fact that there are multiple device purchases, the geographic availability around the world, the availability of local content at the beginning of the service, how many people do we have with payment methods on file. <Sync id="L361"time="00:49:31"/>So we use all these things to make assumptions around what the take rate is going to be. <Sync id="L362"time="00:49:39"/>Obviously, those assumptions will possibly change over time as we get more information on how the customers behave. <Sync id="L363"time="00:49:47"/>We haven't launched the service yet. <Sync id="L364"time="00:49:49"/>We're going to start serving our customers tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes, but we take into account all these different factors.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L365"time="00:49:57"/>On the bundled question, Toni, we look at each service and decide what's best to do for it. <Sync id="L366"time="00:50:05"/>And on the TV+, we concluded that a great way to get more people to see the content would be to do this, and it would be a good gift for our users, and so that's what we're doing. <Sync id="L367"time="00:50:20"/>You can also see that on the other services, we're not doing that. <Sync id="L368"time="00:50:24"/>So it's not part of a broader pattern or -- although I wouldn't want to rule out for the future that we might not see another opportunity at some point in time.
+<Sync id="L369"time="00:50:35"/>In terms of hardware as a service or as a bundle, if you will, there are customers today that essentially view the hardware like that because they're on upgrade plans and so forth. <Sync id="L370"time="00:50:54"/>And so to some degree, that exists today. <Sync id="L371"time="00:50:57"/>My perspective is that will grow in the future to larger numbers that will grow disproportionately. <Sync id="L372"time="00:51:08"/>And one of the things we're doing is trying to make it simpler and simpler for people to get on these sort of monthly financing kind of things that's a part of what we announced with the Apple Card earlier in the call. <Sync id="L373"time="00:51:23"/>And so we're cognizant that there are lots of users out there that want sort of a recurring payment like that and the receipt of new products on some sort of standard kind of basis. <Sync id="L374"time="00:51:41"/>And we're committed to make that easier to do than perhaps it is today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L375"time="00:51:48"/>That will be from Chris Caso with Raymond James.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L376"time="00:51:52"/>And Nancy, our congratulations to you, too, and we're going to miss you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Director-IR    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L377"time="00:52:00"/>Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L378"time="00:52:03"/>My first question is about pricing and the effect of some of the lower price points for iPhone 11 as compared to last year. <Sync id="L379"time="00:52:12"/>And it looked like margins and the revenues did well on that. <Sync id="L380"time="00:52:18"/>And it also followed some price adjustments you made in emerging markets last year. <Sync id="L381"time="00:52:23"/>And obviously, we've seen some improvement in China as well. <Sync id="L382"time="00:52:25"/>So if you could talk about maybe what that tells us about pricing strategy in general and perhaps that you're willing to take a little more flexible approach to drive some elasticity if you think that's going to have a positive effect.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L383"time="00:52:38"/>Yes. <Sync id="L384"time="00:52:40"/>Chris, I think that the price moves we've made have been smart and well-received and do show a level of elasticity. <Sync id="L385"time="00:52:51"/>But the most important thing by far is the product. <Sync id="L386"time="00:52:55"/>And I think we've got the best lineup we've ever had, and the customer response to the product, what the product does for them is really incredible. <Sync id="L387"time="00:53:05"/>And the photos I'm getting from many users around the world are just incredible that people are taking. <Sync id="L388"time="00:53:12"/>And so I think it's product first and then price sort of falls out of that. <Sync id="L389"time="00:53:18"/>And we did decide to be more aggressive. <Sync id="L390"time="00:53:24"/>And looking at the results in the early going, I think it was the right call. 
+<Sync id="L391"time="00:53:30"/>In terms of emerging markets, we picked sort of locally relevant prices. <Sync id="L392"time="00:53:38"/>And in some cases where the dollar had become stronger, we took an exchange rate that would've reflected a while back instead of the current exchange rate. <Sync id="L393"time="00:53:53"/>And in other words, we tried to stay as close as we could to a local price point that we knew was effective for that particular market. <Sync id="L394"time="00:54:04"/>And those, in addition to the U.S. price that have gotten more of a discussion, have been extremely well-received.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L395"time="00:54:19"/>As a follow-on, perhaps you could talk about the potential for some of the tariffs that are upcoming. <Sync id="L396"time="00:54:28"/>What -- do you have a view of what potential impact that could have going forward and how Apple is looking to address it? <Sync id="L397"time="00:54:37"/>Will you need to adjust your own pricing if, in fact, the tariffs are imposed?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L398"time="00:54:45"/>We're paying some tariffs today, as you know, some that went into effect pre-September and some others that went into effect in September. <Sync id="L399"time="00:54:55"/>So we are paying some. <Sync id="L400"time="00:54:56"/>That's been comprehended. <Sync id="L401"time="00:54:59"/>But in general, my view is very positive in terms of how things are going. <Sync id="L402"time="00:55:05"/>And that positive view is obviously factored in our guidance as well, and just the tone, I think, has changed significantly. <Sync id="L403"time="00:55:18"/>And I have long thought that it was in both countries' best interest to get to an agreement that maybe initially doesn't solve everything but solves some things that each party may want and get to a better place than where we're at. <Sync id="L404"time="00:55:40"/>And I'm hopeful that that's where we're headed.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L405"time="00:55:52"/>That will be from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L406"time="00:55:55"/>I just wanted to start off with one of -- new Services, Apple Arcade and if you have any insights in terms of what you're seeing for engagement or retention of customers beyond the initial trial period. <Sync id="L407"time="00:56:06"/>Also, how are your partnerships with developers progressing there? <Sync id="L408"time="00:56:10"/>How does the pipeline look like? <Sync id="L409"time="00:56:12"/>And any early projections of what that business longer term might look like?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L410"time="00:56:18"/>We're not going to give out projections on it, but I would tell you that we were really pleased with the number of people that entered the trial period. <Sync id="L411"time="00:56:29"/>People are just coming out of the 30-day trial period in the last few days or a week or so, and so it's really too early to tell what the conversion rate will be. <Sync id="L412"time="00:56:46"/>But I feel like we're off to a good start, and the -- most important of everything, the customer feedback to date has really been incredible, and we're very excited for the future of the service.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L413"time="00:57:01"/>Great. <Sync id="L414"time="00:57:01"/>Another follow-up, if I can try and attack the Wearables question with another angle. <Sync id="L415"time="00:57:06"/>What are you seeing in terms of typical -- consumer behavior in upgrading Wearables like Apple Watch or AirPods? <Sync id="L416"time="00:57:13"/>And how are you thinking about your ability to accelerate some of that replacement cycle by driving innovation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L417"time="00:57:21"/>I think we -- because the Watch is relatively young, we haven't seen enough upgrade cycles to really establish a pattern as yet. <Sync id="L418"time="00:57:34"/>And as I've mentioned before, 3 out of 4 customers buying an Apple Watch currently or last quarter, I should say, were buying an Apple Watch for the first time. <Sync id="L419"time="00:57:45"/>And so there's still a very, very large new to Apple Watch in this regard. <Sync id="L420"time="00:57:53"/>I do think the upgrade market will get larger over time but just don't have a current view as to how often and so forth.
+<Sync id="L421"time="00:58:05"/>On the AirPods, we're anxious to see the customers for the new AirPods Pro. <Sync id="L422"time="00:58:16"/>But I would guess that one, particularly in the early going, will be people that have AirPods today and want to have a -- also have a pair for the times that they need noise cancellation.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Nancy Paxton,  Apple Inc. - Director-IR    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L423"time="00:58:31"/>Thank you, Samik. 
+<Sync id="L424"time="00:58:33"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone, and the numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L425"time="00:58:51"/>Please enter confirmation code 4331479. <Sync id="L426"time="00:58:55"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L427"time="00:58:58"/>Pacific Time today.
+<Sync id="L428"time="00:58:59"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414, and financial analysts can contact Tejas Gala or me with additional questions. <Sync id="L429"time="00:59:11"/>Tejas is at (669) 227-2402, and I'm at (408) 974-5420. <Sync id="L430"time="00:59:20"/>Thanks again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L431"time="00:59:22"/>And that will conclude today's conference. <Sync id="L432"time="00:59:24"/>Again, thank you all for joining us today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2020-Apr-30-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,553 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2020 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 30, 2020 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Tejas Gala
+   Apple Inc. - IR Contact
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Christopher Caso
+   Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst
+ * Samik Chatterjee
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kanghui Ong
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 2Q20 revenue of $58.3b, net income of $11.2b and EPS of $2.55.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 2Q20 revenue = $58.3b. 
+    2. 2Q20 net income = $11.2b. 
+    3. 2Q20 EPS = $2.55. 
+    4. 2Q20 YoverY revenue growth = 1%.
+    5. 2Q20 GM = 38.4%.
+    6. 2Q20-end net cash = $83b.
+    7. 2Q20-end total debt = $110b.
+    8. 2Q20 share repurchase = 64.7m AAPL shares for $18.5b through open market repurchases.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 2Q20 Review (T.C.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Overview:
+          1. Revenue $58.3b.
+               1. All-time record for Services.
+               2. Quarterly record for Wearables, Home and Accessories.
+               3. Quarterly revenue record for Retail, powered by growth in online store.
+          2. Amid the most challenging global environment in which Co. has ever operated its business, AAPL grew during qtr.
+     2. COVID-19 Response:
+          1. Contending with COVID-19 since Jan.
+          2. Before COVID-19 was on the horizon, Co. anticipated that 2Q20 was going to be prolific and energetic period for AAPL.
+               1. When pandemic did strike, teams succeeded in growing the business in introducing powerful new products and in meeting customers' needs, and they rose to the occasion in terms of meeting broader obligations to communities.
+          3. At the same time that they were leaving no stone unturned to get Co.'s latest generation of devices manufactured and into customers' hands, worldwide network of supply chain partners, logistics and operations folks in every part of AAPL were also sourcing more than 30m masks for frontline medical workers, ensuring they're donated to places of greatest need in every region worldwide.
+          4. While product teams were preparing to launch new iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, MacBook Air and new iPhone SE, they were also working with suppliers to design, test, manufacture and distribute more than 7.5m face shields.
+               1. Continues to ship more than 1m of these every week to doctors, nurses and medical personnel on frontlines.
+          5. In a qtr. where Services teams achieved strong growth, which speaks to real durability of Services strategy, these teams were also putting COVID-19 front and center.
+               1. As Apple News reached 125m monthly active users, Co. elevated trusted information from reliable sources through special COVID-19 vertical.
+               2. Let customers skip payments without incurring interests on Apple Card for March and April in light of financial hardship for many families.
+               3. Worked with everyone from Oprah to Lady Gaga, to inform, entertain and give back through Apple TV.
+               4. Services like FaceTime and Messages set new all-time records for daily volume as users relied on their devices to stay connected in new reality.
+          6. In software, at the same time that teams work with great creativity and excitement as Co. prepares to deliver first-ever all-online Worldwide Developers Conference later this qtr., they also worked with same creativity and speed to put together COVID-19 symptom checking website and app in partnership with CDC.
+               1. As of 04/30/20, app has been installed nearly 2m times and web tool has received over 3m unique visits.
+               2. This month, to accelerate contact tracing, launching joint effort with Google to enable to use of Bluetooth technology to help governments and health agencies reduce the spread of virus with user privacy and security central to design.
+          7. Paired aforementioned programmatic efforts with broader strategy to give back where it's needed most.
+               1. Made major corporate donations to response efforts worldwide to support global citizen, and new fund for Americans experiencing food and security due to crisis.
+                    1. When tallying these things up and considering ongoing two-to-one match for employee donations, Co.'s contributions to global response are significant, diverse and great source of pride for whole team.
+               2. Doing what Co. can to help employees, their families, and by extension, their communities, stay safe and well by modifying its operations where appropriate.
+                    1. This extends to retail employees; they're Co.'s face to customers and instrumental part of business, and AAPL is compensating them normally despite store closures.
+          8. During a qtr. where circumstances evolved by the hour, Co. has been gratified by resilience and adaptability of global supply chain.
+               1. While Co. felt some temporary supply constraints in Feb., operations team, suppliers and manufacturing partners have been safely returning to work and production was back at typical levels toward March-end.
+          9. At this time of social distance, of shuttered schools and gathering places, of delayed plans and new ways of socializing, Co. has seen significant evidence that AAPL's products have taken renewed importance for customers.
+               1. Teachers and students worldwide are relying on Co.'s technology to teach, learn and stay connected with each other.
+               2. Co. is in process of deploying major orders of iPads to school systems working to keep learning going strong at a distance, including:
+                    1. Tens of thousands in Ontario, Canada, Glasgow, Scotland, and Puerto Rico.
+                    2. 100,000 to city of Los Angeles.
+                    3. 350,000 to New York City.
+               3. Aforementioned is Co.'s largest educational iPad deployment ever.
+               4. Since early March, seen unprecedented demand for Pro Apps from students, enthusiasts and creative professionals.
+                    1. Made Final Cut Pro X and Logic Pro X available for free for 90 days for everyone.
+                    2. Reaction has been overwhelming, driving software downloads and usage to record levels.
+          10. Doctors and medical professionals are making even greater use of Apple Watch and other health features to communicate with patients and to treat them safely from distance when necessary.
+               1. With new FDA guidance on non-invasive remote patient monitoring, ECG app on Apple Watch is increasingly being used to facilitate remote ECG measurements and recordings for telemedicine usage, reducing patient and healthcare provider contact and exposure.
+               2. Many hospitals like Geisinger Health System, NYU Langone Health and Stanford Health Care are using apps on iPad and iPhone to support communication and video conferences between hospitalized patients and their care teams.
+                    1. This enables care teams to keep close watch on patients without entering isolation rooms, which helps to minimize exposure and reduces some of the need for personal protective equipment.
+     3. Key Metrics:
+          1. Revenue $58.3b.
+               1. Product revenue $45b.
+          2. Performance of product business had three very different phases.
+               1. Based on Co.'s performance during first five weeks of qtr., AAPL was confident it was headed toward record 2Q at the very high end of expectations.
+               2. In next five weeks of qtr., as COVID-19 started impacting China, iPhone supply was temporarily affected, and demand for products within China.
+                    1. This caused Co. to withdraw revenue guidance in Feb.
+                    2. At that point, demand for products outside of China was still strong and in line with expectations.
+               3. During last three weeks of qtr., as virus spread globally and social distancing measures were put in place worldwide, including closure of all Co.'s retail stores outside of Greater China on March 13 and many channel partner points of sales worldwide, saw downward pressure on demand, particularly for iPhone and Wearables.
+          3. Given lack of visibility and certainty in near term, will not be issuing guidance for coming qtr.
+               1. Over long term, has high degree of confidence in enduring strength of business.
+               2. Global supply chain is profoundly durable and resilient.
+                    1. Shown consistent ability to meet and manage temporary supply challenges like those caused by COVID-19.
+          4. Continued to deliver innovative new products across multiple categories that appeal to a broad cross section of customers, including all-new iPhone SE.
+               1. Teams worldwide have tackled complexities of this moment with unmatched creativity, good humor and dedication to customers.
+          5. Long running investment in Services strategy is succeeding.
+               1. This business is growing, and is a reflection of Co.'s enduring large and growing installed base.
+               2. Expects to meet longstanding goal of doubling FY16 Services revenue in 2020.
+          6. Always run Co. for long term.
+               1. Entered this period with unmatched financial strength, robust cash position and best product pipeline ever.
+          7. Major investments, including five-year commitment to contribute $350b to economy in US are moving forward at full speed ahead.
+          8. Always managed through difficult moments by doubling down and investing in next-generation of innovation, and that's Co.'s strategy today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 2Q20 Financials (L.M.)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Overview:
+          1. Different qtr. than what Co. was expecting at Jan.-end.
+     2. Revenue:
+          1. 2Q20 $58.3b.
+               1. Up 1% YoverY, despite extreme circumstances from impact of COVID-19 and headwind of 100 BP from FX.
+          2. Products $45b.
+               1. Down 3%.
+               2. After strong Jan., performance was impacted, particularly during last three weeks of qtr., when lockdowns and point-of-sale closures increased due to COVID-19 spreading worldwide and affected Co.'s product sales.
+               3. On demand basis, performance was stronger than reported results as Co. reduced iPhone channel inventory more than it did a year ago.
+               4. Installed base of active devices reached all-time high in all of Co.'s geographic segments and all major product categories.
+          3. Services:
+               1. Followed different trend.
+               2. YoverY growth 17%; strong.
+               3. Revenue $13.3b; new all-time record.
+                    1. Set all-time records in many Services categories and in most countries Co. tracks.
+     3. GM:
+          1. 2Q20 38.4%.
+               1. Flat sequentially, with cost savings and mix shift towards Services offset by seasonal loss of leverage.
+          2. Products 30.3%.
+               1. Down 380 BP sequentially, due to loss of leverage and unfavorable mix.
+                    1. Drop was more pronounced than under normal circumstances due to COVID-19 impact.
+          3. Services 65.4%.
+               1. Up 100 BP sequentially, driven by favorable mix.
+     4. Results:
+          1. Reported tax rate 14.4%.
+               1. Lower than 16.5% guidance due to one-time discrete items.
+          2. Net income $11.2b.
+          3. EPS $2.55.
+               1. Up 4%.
+          4. Operating cash flow $13.3b; very strong.
+               1. Improved $2.2b YoverY.
+     5. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $29b.
+               1. Down 7% YoverY, as iPhone supply and demand were affected by impact of COVID-19 at some point during qtr.
+          2. Suffered from some temporary supply shortages during Feb.
+               1. Operations team and manufacturing partners put forth extraordinary effort to restore production quickly.
+               2. Co. exited qtr. in good supply position for most product lines.
+          3. After strong first five weeks, saw impact of COVID-19 affect demand in China for next five weeks and then more broadly worldwide for last three weeks of qtr. when lockdowns and point-of-sale closures became more widespread in many countries.
+          4. While Co. saw slight elongation in replacement cycle towards qtr.-end, which Co. attributes to widespread point-of-sale closures, active installed base of iPhones has reached all-time high.
+               1. This speaks to quality of products and strength of ecosystem.
+          5. In US, latest survey of consumers from 451 Research indicates iPhone customer satisfaction of 99% for iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max combined.
+     6. Services:
+          1. Revenue $13.3b; all-time record.
+          2. Had strong performance across the board with all-time revenue records in:
+               1. App Store.
+               2. Apple Music.
+               3. Video.
+               4. Cloud services.
+               5. App Store search ad business.
+          3. Set March qtr. record for Apple Care.
+          4. New services, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Card, continued to add users, content and features while contributing to overall Services growth.
+          5. Well on way to accomplishing goal of doubling FY16 Services revenue during 2020.
+          6. App Store revenue grew by strong double digits, due to robust customer demand for in-app purchases and subscriptions.
+               1. Third-party subscription business grew across multiple categories and increased over 30% YoverY, reaching new all-time high.
+               2. First-party subscription services continued to perform well.
+          7. Apple Music and cloud services both set all-time revenue records.
+          8. Apple Care set March qtr. record.
+          9. Paid subscriptions for all three aforementioned services were up strong double digits.
+          10. Customer engagement in Co.'s ecosystem continues to grow strongly.
+               1. Number of transacting and paid accounts on digital content stores reached new all-time high.
+                    1. Number of paid accounts increased double digits in all of Co.'s geographic segments.
+               2. Now has over 515m paid subscriptions across services on platform, up 125m YoverY.
+               3. Sequentially, paid subscriptions grew by over 35m; highest sequential growth ever.
+               4. With this momentum, believes Co. will reach increased target of 600m paid subscriptions before the end of calendar 2020.
+     7. Wearables, Home & Accessories:
+          1. Established new March qtr. record.
+          2. Revenue $6.3b.
+               1. Up 23% YoverY, with strong double-digit performance across all five geographic segments.
+          3. Wearables business is now the size of Fortune 140 co.
+               1. Apple Watch continues to extend its reach as over 75% of customers purchasing Apple Watch worldwide during qtr. were new to the product.
+     8. Mac & iPad:
+          1. Revenue:
+               1. Mac $5.4b.
+               2. iPad $4.4b.
+          2. Towards qtr.-end, launched brand-new iPad Pro that includes first-in-class LiDAR scanner with some augmented reality applications, and MacBook Air, with significantly improved performance at lower price.
+          3. Around half of the customers purchasing Macs and iPads worldwide were new to that product.
+          4. Active installed base for Mac and iPad reached new all-time high.
+          5. Most recent surveys of consumers from 451 Research measured customer satisfaction at 95% for iPad and 96% for Mac.
+     9. Others:
+          1. In enterprise market, businesses everywhere have been making transition to working remotely.
+               1. Created content to assist customers in this transition, including on-demand video learning series focused on topics like remote deployments of iPads and Macs and security.
+               2. Realigned Co.'s own retail business and enterprise teams to provide timely and relevant support to customers as they navigate new work environments.
+               3. Some of Co.'s largest customers offering Mac to employees, like IBM and SAP, have been able to pivot quickly to allow employees to easily set up and secure their devices from home, benefiting from Apple Business Manager and zero-touch deployment.
+               4. Peloton worked with New York teams to deploy entire fleet of Macs overnight so their team could work remotely.
+          2. In essential sectors like grocery and financial services, Co. is seeing organizations adopt its technology to better serve their customers safely.
+               1. Leading grocers worldwide like Trader Joe's, Woolworths, Lawsons, Sainsbury's, Lidl and Carrefour offer Apple Pay so customers can use contactless payments.
+               2. As stores shift to become fulfillment centers for online orders, organizations are leveraging apps for remote shoppers and food delivery to reduce foot traffic.
+          3. In banking, where safety and security is a top priority, one way to protect co. and client information is by providing corporate iOS devices to employees who use mobile phones daily as part of their jobs.
+               1. Bank of America is purchasing tens of thousands of additional iOS devices for their workforce.
+     10. Cash Position:
+          1. Liquidity has not been an issue for Co. during these highly unusual financial market conditions.
+          2. Has extraordinarily strong balance sheet, deep access to capital markets and unmatched free cash flow generation.
+          3. 2Q20-end:
+               1. Cash plus marketable securities $193b.
+               2. Total debt $110b.
+               3. Net cash $83b.
+          4. Returned $22b to shareholders.
+               1. $18.5b through open market repurchases of 64.7m AAPL shares.
+               2. $3.4b in dividends and equivalents.
+     11. 2Q20 Outlook:
+          1. Note:
+               1. Given lack of visibility and certainty in near term, will not be issuing guidance for coming qtr.
+               2. Guidance is based on what Co. has seen in April and how it thinks things might play out.
+          2. From FX standpoint, US dollar has appreciated recently against most currencies worldwide.
+               1. Thereby, expects revenue to be negatively impacted by more than $1.5b YoverY.
+          3. Global supply chain is back up and running.
+               1. Co. is in typical supply position, including Co.'s usual ramp associated with new products recently launched.
+                    1. These newly launched products, iPad Pro, MacBook Air and iPhone SE, have all received outstanding customer response even during these extreme circumstances.
+               2. On iPhone and Wearables, expects YoverY revenue performance to worsen in June qtr. relative to March qtr.
+               3. On iPad and Mac, expects YoverY revenue performance to improve in June qtr.
+          4. On Services, seeing two distinct trends.
+               1. Customers are actively engaging with Co.'s ecosystem and digital services.
+                    1. Believes strong recent performance in App Store, video, Music and cloud services will continue throughout June qtr.
+               2. Due to overall reduced level of economic activity due to lockdowns worldwide, services like Apple Care and advertising have been impacted.
+                    1. Apple Care is comprised of product repair business and warranty agreements with customers, both of which have been affected by store closures and reduced level of customer traffic.
+                    2. Advertising, which is comprised of third-party agreements, App Store search ads and Apple News ads, has been impacted by overall economic weakness and uncertainty on when businesses will reopen.
+          5. For GM, sequential headwinds include FX, mix within products and seasonal loss of leverage on Co.'s product business.
+               1. FX will have 70 BP impact sequentially and 130 BP impact YoverY.
+          6. Regarding product mix, keep in mind commentary provided at revenue level.
+               1. Sequential tailwinds include cost savings and mix shift towards Services.
+          7. With regard to capital allocation, approach remains unchanged.
+               1. Continues to invest confidently in future while returning value to shareholders.
+     12. Others:
+          1. Co. is in midst of developing most exciting pipeline of products and services ever, while contributing over $350b to US economy and expanding footprint in many cities around the country over five-year period.
+          2. Continues to believe that there is great value in Co.'s stock.
+               1. Maintaining target of reaching net cash neutral position over time.
+          3. Board has authorized $50b for share repurchases in addition to over $40b authorization remaining under current share repurchase plan.
+          4. Board authorized 6% increase in quarterly dividend.
+               1. On 04/30/20, declared cash dividend of $0.82 per share of common stock payable on 05/14/20 to shareholders of record as of 05/11/20.
+          5. Managing Co. for long term.
+               1. During uncertain times historically, continued to invest in business, and this remains Co.'s philosophy.
+               2. Will continue to stay focused on what Co. does best, investing in product and service pipeline, managing business wisely and taking care of teams, and believes AAPL will come out from this stronger.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L182"time="00:29:03"/>Yes. <Sync id="L183"time="00:29:04"/>That will come from Shannon Cross, Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L184"time="00:29:10"/>I hope everyone is well. <Sync id="L185"time="00:29:13"/>Tim, you talked about seeing some improvement in the second half of April. <Sync id="L186"time="00:29:15"/>So I was wondering if you could just talk maybe a bit more on the segment and geographic basis what you're seeing in the various regions that you're selling in and what you're hearing from your customers. <Sync id="L187"time="00:29:28"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L188"time="00:29:31"/>Sure, Shannon. <Sync id="L189"time="00:29:31"/>If you look at -- I'll start with China. <Sync id="L190"time="00:29:34"/>If you look at what happened in China, we were having a really good January. <Sync id="L191"time="00:29:42"/>The lockdown started there toward the end of January as you know. <Sync id="L192"time="00:29:47"/>February, we saw a steep decline in demand. <Sync id="L193"time="00:29:52"/>We closed our stores in February. <Sync id="L194"time="00:29:57"/>As the lockdown completed in mid-February toward the second half of February, we began to open stores. <Sync id="L195"time="00:30:07"/>We opened them on a staggered basis. <Sync id="L196"time="00:30:10"/>That took about 30 days until mid-March. <Sync id="L197"time="00:30:14"/>And from a demand point of view, we saw an improvement in March over February. <Sync id="L198"time="00:30:21"/>And if you look at kind of where we are today, we've seen further improvement in April as compared to March. <Sync id="L199"time="00:30:30"/>And so that's China.
+<Sync id="L200"time="00:30:31"/>If you look at the rest of the world, we were doing great in January, the first 5 weeks of the quarter. <Sync id="L201"time="00:30:43"/>And we do believe that we were headed toward the sort of the top end of our expectations that we had talked to you about on the last call, that the next 5 weeks were spent sort of reacting and getting the supply chain back up in full force and working through the sharp decline in China that I already talked about.
+<Sync id="L202"time="00:31:11"/>The real thing for the rest of the world happened in March when the shelter-in-place orders went in and the work from home began. <Sync id="L203"time="00:31:19"/>For those 2-, 3-week period, at the end of the quarter, we saw a sharp decline in demand. <Sync id="L204"time="00:31:26"/>If you now step out into April and look at that, early April started like the end of March, but in the second half of April, we've seen an uptick across -- really across the board. <Sync id="L205"time="00:31:42"/>It's not just related to a certain geo or a certain product. <Sync id="L206"time="00:31:50"/>We think, by looking at it, a part of it is due to just our new products. <Sync id="L207"time="00:31:54"/>A part of it is due to the stimulus programs taking effect in April, and then a part of it is probably the consumer behavior of knowing this is going to go on for a little while longer and getting some devices and so forth lined up to work at home more.
+<Sync id="L208"time="00:32:14"/>In particular for, as I think Luca shared, we believe that iPad and Mac are going to improve on a year-over-year basis during this quarter. <Sync id="L209"time="00:32:25"/>And that's customers that are either taking online education or working remotely. <Sync id="L210"time="00:32:34"/>And so complex answer to your question but that's what we're seeing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L211"time="00:32:42"/>That was helpful. <Sync id="L212"time="00:32:44"/>Luca, unless I missed it, you talked about various puts and takes in the quarter but didn't really discuss operating expenses. <Sync id="L213"time="00:32:50"/>I know you mentioned some cost savings on the COGS line. <Sync id="L214"time="00:32:52"/>I'm curious how you're thinking about your spending in OpEx given some of the macro challenges that you may be facing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L215"time="00:32:59"/>Yes. <Sync id="L216"time="00:32:59"/>Well, Shannon, as we said, we manage the company for the long term, right? <Sync id="L217"time="00:33:05"/>So we know that the core of the business, the core of the company is innovation and product and services development, so we will continue to invest in our pipeline. <Sync id="L218"time="00:33:17"/>We're very excited about what we have in store, and so we will continue to invest there. <Sync id="L219"time="00:33:23"/>Obviously, we are aware of the environment, and so we will manage the SG&A portion of the company tightly. <Sync id="L220"time="00:33:33"/>We are making new investments in the new services that we launched recently. <Sync id="L221"time="00:33:39"/>We -- as you know, we purchased the baseband activities from Intel, and obviously, we want to develop that technology because we consider it's a core technology for us. <Sync id="L222"time="00:33:52"/>And so we will try to balance the need to continue to invest during difficult circumstances and the fact that we like to manage the business wisely.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L223"time="00:34:12"/>That will be from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L224"time="00:34:18"/>Tim, I think I speak for everyone on the call that we're all very appreciative of Apple's contribution during this pandemic. <Sync id="L225"time="00:34:25"/>We all appreciate it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L226"time="00:34:26"/>Thank you very much for that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L227"time="00:34:32"/>No, it's been great. <Sync id="L228"time="00:34:34"/>Tim, in past downturns, we have not really seen Apple pull back from investing, and you as a company have largely maintained the product introduction cadence. <Sync id="L229"time="00:34:44"/>But given these are unprecedented times and there are a lot of challenges associated with product development during a time when you have a global footprint for such activities and unable to really do a lot of things in person, how should we think about the product development and introduction cadence as we go over the next several quarters? <Sync id="L230"time="00:35:05"/>And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L231"time="00:35:06"/>Well, we're continuing to operate. <Sync id="L232"time="00:35:08"/>And so as you can tell, along with everything else going on, we were able to launch and ship the iPhone SE, the iPad Pro with the Magic Keyboard and the MacBook Air. <Sync id="L233"time="00:35:24"/>And so business continues and the new products are our lifeblood. <Sync id="L234"time="00:35:32"/>And so we're continuing to work. <Sync id="L235"time="00:35:35"/>Everybody is getting used to the work at home. <Sync id="L236"time="00:35:40"/>In some areas of the company, people may be even more productive. <Sync id="L237"time="00:35:46"/>In some other areas, they're not as productive, and so it's mixed depending upon what the roles are. <Sync id="L238"time="00:35:55"/>But as you can tell from what we did this quarter, despite the environment, we have our head down, are working because we know that our customers want the products that we've got. <Sync id="L239"time="00:36:10"/>They are even more important in these times.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L240"time="00:36:18"/>As a follow-up, I know you're doing a lot with both the Apple Card and financing plan for iPhones to get your products in the hands of customers. <Sync id="L241"time="00:36:30"/>But I was wondering, would you consider using the strength of your balance sheet maybe a little differently structured, maybe deferred payments or things like that? <Sync id="L242"time="00:36:41"/>And -- or do you think that there could be other steps like bundling that you will consider versus what you already currently do?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L243"time="00:36:48"/>Well, as you know, we launched the payment plan earlier on Apple Card for iPhone. <Sync id="L244"time="00:36:56"/>We're working on doing that for other products as well, and you'll see something on that shortly. <Sync id="L245"time="00:37:02"/>So we're very focused on the affordability point. <Sync id="L246"time="00:37:07"/>The trade-in programs also are fairly wide across the board and act as both something great for the environment, also something great from a way to get that entry price down.
+<Sync id="L247"time="00:37:24"/>In terms of deferred payments, nothing to announce today. <Sync id="L248"time="00:37:30"/>But as you know, having access to the Card, at least in the United States, gives us more degrees of freedom, and that is not using our balance sheet. <Sync id="L249"time="00:37:40"/>It's -- but we play a key role in deciding what kind of programs go with the Card.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L250"time="00:37:52"/>That will come from Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L251"time="00:38:00"/>I hope the whole team is staying healthy and safe. <Sync id="L252"time="00:38:04"/>Tim, I want to start on a longer-term question. <Sync id="L253"time="00:38:08"/>Where do you see structural changes on the back of this health crisis that might present opportunities for new revenue streams at Apple? <Sync id="L254"time="00:38:17"/>And I'm particularly thinking about your past comments on health and augmented reality, but I'm sure there's even more areas of inspiration and creativity coming out of the company. <Sync id="L255"time="00:38:27"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L256"time="00:38:29"/>I think there are things from just a great reminder of how important our products are and -- for remote work. <Sync id="L257"time="00:38:38"/>And it's pretty clear to me that where things will get a lot closer to normal than they are today, obviously, I think many people are finding that they can learn remotely, and so I suspect that trend will accelerate some. <Sync id="L258"time="00:38:58"/>I think that's probably also true about working remotely on -- in some areas and in some jobs. <Sync id="L259"time="00:39:06"/>And so I think we have significant solutions and products for those -- for all of those groups.
+<Sync id="L260"time="00:39:17"/>On the health area, I gave some examples in my opening comments about the ECG being used on the Watch. <Sync id="L261"time="00:39:25"/>You can bet that we're looking at other areas in this. <Sync id="L262"time="00:39:30"/>We were already doing that because we've viewed that, that area was a huge opportunity for the company and a way for us to help a lot of people. <Sync id="L263"time="00:39:41"/>And so you will see us continue on that. <Sync id="L264"time="00:39:45"/>I wouldn't say that the health door opened wider. <Sync id="L265"time="00:39:51"/>I would say it was already opened fairly wide.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L266"time="00:39:57"/>Okay. <Sync id="L267"time="00:39:57"/>And then as a follow-up, the $50 billion share repurchase authorization is impressive in absolute terms, but it is a bit lower than the last couple of years. <Sync id="L268"time="00:40:08"/>So just any context around the thought process of landing on $50 billion? <Sync id="L269"time="00:40:14"/>And then related to that, you have one of the strongest balance sheets in the world. <Sync id="L270"time="00:40:18"/>Does the current environment change your thinking at all around M&A opportunities?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L271"time="00:40:25"/>Well, let me answer that, Katy. <Sync id="L272"time="00:40:30"/>First of all, on the buyback, as I said, in general, our approach to capital allocation has remained the same for the last several years, and it's not changing now. <Sync id="L273"time="00:40:41"/>Keep in mind here, we're talking about just the authorization, right? <Sync id="L274"time="00:40:44"/>And when you look at our actual results at the end of every quarter, you see how much we actually do in terms of share repurchases. <Sync id="L275"time="00:40:52"/>The $50 billion is in addition to over $40 billion that is still remaining from the past authorization that we've received from our Board, right? <Sync id="L276"time="00:41:04"/>So it's the total available or outstanding in terms of authorization is over $90 billion.
+<Sync id="L277"time="00:41:11"/>And as you look at our run rate during the last several years, you know that, that is a very adequate amount. <Sync id="L278"time="00:41:20"/>And as you know, we will provide an additional update a year from now. <Sync id="L279"time="00:41:25"/>So nothing really has changed there.
+<Sync id="L280"time="00:41:28"/>And nothing has changed on our approach for M&A. <Sync id="L281"time="00:41:32"/>We've been quite active over the last several years. <Sync id="L282"time="00:41:35"/>We purchase companies on a very regular basis. <Sync id="L283"time="00:41:39"/>We're always looking for ways to accelerate our product road maps or fill gaps in our portfolio, both on the hardware side, on the software side, on the Services side. <Sync id="L284"time="00:41:53"/>So we will continue to do that. <Sync id="L285"time="00:41:57"/>And so also on the M&A front, nothing has changed.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L286"time="00:42:13"/>That will come from Amit Daryanani with Evercore.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L287"time="00:42:17"/>I have 2 as well. <Sync id="L288"time="00:42:19"/>I guess, first off, on the channel inventory, I was hoping if you could talk about how did channel inventory look like in the March quarter because it sounds like it may be below the historical ranges. <Sync id="L289"time="00:42:28"/>And then the discussion you had for June quarter performance of iPhones, what are you embedding from a channel building back inventory levels in that expectation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L290"time="00:42:37"/>Amit, it's Tim. <Sync id="L291"time="00:42:41"/>If you look at the iPhone channel inventory during Q2, the reduction of it was more than the reduction from the previous year. <Sync id="L292"time="00:42:51"/>It's not unusual that we reduce in Q2, and in fact, if you look back on -- generally speaking, in the first half of the calendar year, we reduce channel inventories. <Sync id="L293"time="00:43:06"/>During the second half of the calendar year, we generally raise channel inventories. <Sync id="L294"time="00:43:11"/>That's a seasonal thing. <Sync id="L295"time="00:43:13"/>And I believe -- sitting here today, I believe that will happen this year as well. <Sync id="L296"time="00:43:21"/>So hopefully, that answers your question. <Sync id="L297"time="00:43:22"/>And by the way, we ended in a comfortable position, so you could conclude from that, that we were within a target range.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L298"time="00:43:34"/>That's really helpful. <Sync id="L299"time="00:43:35"/>And could I just follow up? <Sync id="L300"time="00:43:36"/>Tim, I was hoping you could maybe talk a little bit about how do you think about Apple's manufacturing strategy and perhaps need for some diversity, especially given everything the company and everyone has gone through over the last 12 months. <Sync id="L301"time="00:43:48"/>How do you think about that? <Sync id="L302"time="00:43:50"/>And do you feel comfortable that the supply chain and the manufacturing base is well situated today to launch the traditional fall products that they used to get from Apple?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L303"time="00:43:58"/>Yes. <Sync id="L304"time="00:43:59"/>As you know, our supply chain is global and so our products are truly made everywhere. <Sync id="L305"time="00:44:05"/>And I would focus on that versus focus on one element of the manufacturing process, which tends to get more visibility, which is the final assembly. <Sync id="L306"time="00:44:19"/>We have some final assembly in the United States. <Sync id="L307"time="00:44:22"/>We have final assembly in China as well. <Sync id="L308"time="00:44:26"/>I think you'd have to conclude or at least I conclude that if you look at the shock to the supply chain that took place this quarter, for it to come back up so quickly really demonstrates that it's durable and resilient. <Sync id="L309"time="00:44:45"/>And so I feel good about where we are. <Sync id="L310"time="00:44:50"/>That said, we're always looking at tweaks, and it's just not something we talk about because we view it as confidential and competitive information. <Sync id="L311"time="00:45:00"/>And so we will look at the -- as we get out of this totally, we will look to see what we learned and what we should change.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L312"time="00:45:15"/>We'll hear from Jeriel Ong with Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kanghui Ong,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - Research Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L313"time="00:45:22"/>So I want to focus the question on Services. <Sync id="L314"time="00:45:27"/>The segment was solid in the quarter in spite overall macro weakness. <Sync id="L315"time="00:45:31"/>I can kind of see launch behind it being strong despite product weakness overall. <Sync id="L316"time="00:45:37"/>As you kind of look at the rest of the year, do you think that's sustained? <Sync id="L317"time="00:45:40"/>Or at some point, does the macro impacts worldwide impact the Services line?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L318"time="00:45:47"/>Jeriel, let me take that one. <Sync id="L319"time="00:45:51"/>We typically don't give a lot of specifics about our categories. <Sync id="L320"time="00:45:57"/>But I've said, as we look into the June quarter, we see 2 distinct trends in our Services business overall. <Sync id="L321"time="00:46:08"/>Our ecosystem is very strong. <Sync id="L322"time="00:46:11"/>Our customers are very engaged. <Sync id="L323"time="00:46:13"/>We are continuing to grow double digits the number of transacting accounts and paid accounts. <Sync id="L324"time="00:46:20"/>And so we expect our digital services to continue at the same level of performance that we have seen during the March quarter. <Sync id="L325"time="00:46:30"/>And that includes the App Store, of course, our video business, our Music business, cloud services, so we expect all these businesses to continue to grow very strongly.
+<Sync id="L326"time="00:46:41"/>Given the overall economic environment, the level of demand right now, there are 2 businesses that we believe are going to be impacted during the June quarter. <Sync id="L327"time="00:46:54"/>One of them is Apple Care. <Sync id="L328"time="00:46:56"/>Apple Care is essentially comprised of our product repair business and the warranty agreements that we signed with our customers when they purchased our devices. <Sync id="L329"time="00:47:09"/>Both these businesses have been affected obviously by the store closures, not only our retail stores but also our partners' points of sale. <Sync id="L330"time="00:47:20"/>And obviously, they reduced level of customer traffic because of the social distancing measures, right? <Sync id="L331"time="00:47:26"/>And we do expect Apple Care to be affected during the June quarter.
+<Sync id="L332"time="00:47:31"/>The other business which we think is going to be impacted by the overall economic weakness and the uncertainty on when businesses will reopen is advertising, which is the sum of our advertising business on the App Store, on Apple News and the third-party agreements that we have on the advertising front. <Sync id="L333"time="00:47:56"/>So these are 2 things that, during the June quarter, will create a headwind for the Services business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kanghui Ong,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - Research Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L334"time="00:48:06"/>Got it. <Sync id="L335"time="00:48:07"/>Appreciate that. <Sync id="L336"time="00:48:08"/>My second question comes about the overall purchasing decisions consumers are making. <Sync id="L337"time="00:48:14"/>So far through April, have you seen increased perhaps downticks across your product line? <Sync id="L338"time="00:48:20"/>So for example, somebody might have a shift maybe towards the lower end of the storage mix of certain products. <Sync id="L339"time="00:48:28"/>And do you expect that going forward as unemployment uptick and macro impacts kind of layer on through rest of '20?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L340"time="00:48:39"/>I haven't seen what you're asking, no. <Sync id="L341"time="00:48:43"/>I have seen a strong customer response to iPhone SE, which is our most affordable iPhone. <Sync id="L342"time="00:48:52"/>But it appears that those customers are primarily coming from wanting a smaller form factor with the latest technology or coming over from Android. <Sync id="L343"time="00:49:08"/>And so those are the 2 principal kind of segments versus somebody buying down as you're talking about it. <Sync id="L344"time="00:49:19"/>We've also seen -- we launched the iPad Pro in the midst of all of this, and the reception there has also been incredibly good. <Sync id="L345"time="00:49:28"/>And that's obviously our top-of-the-line iPad. <Sync id="L346"time="00:49:32"/>And so I'm not seeing what you're alluding to at least at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L347"time="00:49:47"/>That will be from JPMorgan's Samik Chatterjee.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L348"time="00:49:53"/>So if I can just start with a question on kind of what you're seeing in China, you mentioned kind of the pickup in activity. <Sync id="L349"time="00:50:01"/>But is that driven by more kind of footfall in the stores or what you're seeing relative to online activity and how much of this recovery is driven online? <Sync id="L350"time="00:50:11"/>Any thoughts on that, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L351"time="00:50:13"/>Yes. <Sync id="L352"time="00:50:13"/>What we saw in China for the full quarter, and I'll speak about Mainland China because I think that's the source of your question, we saw strong results in iPad and in Wearables and in Services. <Sync id="L353"time="00:50:33"/>And if you look up underneath the full quarter, we saw a strong January and then a significantly reduced demand in February as the shelter-in-place orders and the lockdowns went into effect in China and the stores closed. <Sync id="L354"time="00:50:59"/>And then in March, as stores reopened, we -- the recovery began, and then we've seen further recovery in April. <Sync id="L355"time="00:51:09"/>Where that goes, we will see, but that's kind of what we've seen so far there.
+<Sync id="L356"time="00:51:17"/>To your question about store traffic, store traffic is obviously up from where it was in February, but it is not back to where it was pre the lockdown. <Sync id="L357"time="00:51:33"/>There has been, however, more move to online. <Sync id="L358"time="00:51:39"/>And as I'd mentioned earlier in my remarks, the -- it's pretty phenomenal actually. <Sync id="L359"time="00:51:48"/>Retail had a quarterly record for us during the quarter, and that's despite stores being closed for the 3-week period around the world ex China and then China was closed prior to that 3 weeks. <Sync id="L360"time="00:52:05"/>And that's partly because the online store had such a phenomenal quarter, and that included in China but it was also other regions as well. <Sync id="L361"time="00:52:19"/>So there is definitely a move. <Sync id="L362"time="00:52:22"/>And whether that's a permanent shift, I would hesitate to go that far as I think people like to be out and about. <Sync id="L363"time="00:52:36"/>They just know that now is not the time to do that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L364"time="00:52:40"/>Got it. <Sync id="L365"time="00:52:41"/>And if I can just follow up on your previous comment about the strong demand you're seeing for iPhone SE, just given the price point, I'm wondering if you're expecting any change in terms of the geographic mix of where the demand comes from relative to typically what you see for other iPhones in the lineup just given the lower price point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L366"time="00:53:04"/>I think it plays in every geo, but I would expect to see it doing even better in areas where the median incomes are less. <Sync id="L367"time="00:53:18"/>And so we'll see how that plays out. <Sync id="L368"time="00:53:21"/>And I expect some fair number of people switching over to iOS. <Sync id="L369"time="00:53:28"/>And so it's an unbelievable offer. <Sync id="L370"time="00:53:33"/>It's, if you will, the engine of our top phones in a very affordable package. <Sync id="L371"time="00:53:43"/>And I think -- and it's faster than the fastest Android phones, and so it's an exceptional value.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L372"time="00:54:00"/>Our last question today will be from Chris Caso with Raymond James.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L373"time="00:54:06"/>I wanted to follow up with another question on iPhone SE and the decision to bring it back and where it sits within the total iPhone strategy. <Sync id="L374"time="00:54:17"/>And I guess coupled with the fact that iPhone 11, you made the decision to bring that at a lower price point, what does that tell us with respect to your approach to iPhone pricing and flexibility? <Sync id="L375"time="00:54:30"/>Is this helping to add users and kind of bring people into the ecosystem? <Sync id="L376"time="00:54:38"/>And if so, what does that imply for gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L377"time="00:54:41"/>Chris, we've always been about delivering the best product at a good price, and that fundamental strategy has not changed at all. <Sync id="L378"time="00:54:57"/>As you know, we did have an SE for a while. <Sync id="L379"time="00:54:59"/>It's great to bring it back. <Sync id="L380"time="00:55:02"/>It was a beloved product, and so I wouldn't read anything into that other than we want to give people the best deal that we can while making the best product.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L381"time="00:55:22"/>Okay. <Sync id="L382"time="00:55:22"/>As a follow-up, the follow-up question is on commodity pricing, and I think you had expected to see some commodity price declines through the March quarter. <Sync id="L383"time="00:55:33"/>If you could talk about what you expect as you go through the year perhaps in this new environment and again, whether that turned into a tailwind or a headwind for gross margins as you go into the second half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L384"time="00:55:44"/>Yes. <Sync id="L385"time="00:55:45"/>For March, Chris, we saw NAND pricing increase slightly, while DRAM and displays and the other commodities declined. <Sync id="L386"time="00:55:56"/>For the June quarter, we would expect NAND and DRAM pricing to remain at this historically low level, while displays and most other commodity prices, we expect to decline.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L387"time="00:56:09"/>Thank you, Chris. <Sync id="L388"time="00:56:16"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. <Sync id="L389"time="00:56:25"/>The numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L390"time="00:56:37"/>Please enter confirmation code 3229513. <Sync id="L391"time="00:56:42"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5:00 p.m. <Sync id="L392"time="00:56:45"/>Pacific Time today. <Sync id="L393"time="00:56:47"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414. <Sync id="L394"time="00:56:56"/>Financial analysts can contact me with additional questions at (669) 227-2402. <Sync id="L395"time="00:57:03"/>Thank you again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L396"time="00:57:07"/>And that does conclude today's conference. <Sync id="L397"time="00:57:09"/>Thank you all for joining us today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thomson Reuters reserves the right to make changes to documents, content, or other 
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+such changes.
+
+In the conference calls upon which Event Transcripts are based, companies 
+may make projections or other forward-looking statements regarding a variety 
+of items. Such forward-looking statements are based upon current 
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Transcripts/AAPL/2020-Jan-28-AAPL.txt

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+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2020 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 28, 2020 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Tejas Gala
+   Apple Inc. - IR Contact
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Krish Sankar
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Christopher Caso
+   Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst
+ * Kyle P. McNealy
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Equity Analyst
+ * Samik Chatterjee
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Thomas Ferris Forte
+   D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Michael Joseph Olson
+   Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 1Q20 revenue of $91.8b, net income of $22.2b and diluted EPS of $4.99. Expects 2Q20 revenue to be $63-67b.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 1Q20 revenue = $91.8b. 
+    2. 1Q20 net income = $22.2b.
+    3. 1Q20 diluted EPS = $4.99.
+    4. 1Q20 YoverY revenue growth = 9%. 
+    5. 1Q20 GM = 38.4%. 
+    6. 1Q20-end net cash = $99b. 
+    7. 1Q20-end total debt = $108b.
+    8. 1Q20 share repurchase = 40m AAPL shares for $10b through open market transactions.
+    9. 2Q20 revenue guidance = $63-67b. 
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 1Q20 Review (T.C.) 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Thrilled to report Co.'s biggest qtr. ever, which set new all-time records in:
+               1. Revenue.
+               2. Earnings.
+          2. Revenue $91.8b.
+               1. Above high end of guidance range.
+               2. Revenue growth accelerated for third consecutive qtr.
+          3. Geographically, set all-time records in Americas, Europe and Rest of Asia Pacific.
+               1. Greater China returned to growth.
+          4. Record performance was fueled by iPhone, where Dec. qtr. revenue was up 8% YoverY and by fifth consecutive qtr. of double-digit growth outside of iPhone, including new all-time record for Services and another blowout qtr. for Wearables.
+          5. Active installed base of devices now surpassed 1.5b, up over 100m in last 12 months alone, reaching new all-time high for each main product categories and geographic segments.
+               1. Not only is large and growing installed base of powerful testament to satisfaction engagement and loyalty of customers, but it's fueling growth across the Board, particularly in Services.
+     2. iPhone:
+          1. [Dec. qtr. revenue $56b].
+               1. Up 8% YoverY.
+               2. Exceptional demand for iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max.
+                    1. iPhone 11 was top selling model every week during Dec. qtr., and three new models were Co.'s three most popular iPhones.
+               3. Had double-digit growth in many developed markets, including US, UK, France and Singapore.
+                    1. Grew double-digits in emerging markets, led by strong performances in Brazil, Mainland China, India, Thailand and Turkey.
+                    2. These new models are by far the best iPhone's Co. ever shipped with advanced technologies and unprecedented leap in battery life to easily get through the day and best-in-class camera experience.
+                    3. Has been wild with photos customers shared in all-new Night Mode photo challenge this month.
+     3. Services:
+          1. Revenue reached $12.7b.
+               1. All-time record.
+               2. Grew 17% over last year.
+          2. Saw double-digit growth in all five geographic segments.
+               1. Established new all-time records for multiple categories, including cloud services, music, payment services and App Store search ad business, and setting a Dec. qtr. record for App Store and Apple Care.
+          3. 2019 was historic year for Services business.
+               1. For App Store, 2020 started off strong with customers spending a new single day record $386m on New Year's Day alone, 20% increase over last year.
+               2. Apple Arcade, new game subscription service, has been fast off blocks with catalog of over 100 new and exclusive games which can't be found anywhere else, all playable across Apple devices with new games and expansions added every month.
+               3. Apple TV+ is off to rousing start.
+                    1. Continued to focus on telling stories that matter like Little America, which recently premiered to widespread critical acclaim with much more great content still to come.
+               4. Apple News now draws over 100m monthly active users in US, UK, Australia and Canada and provides curated and personalized experience using on-device intelligence to recommend stories.
+               5. Apple News+ continues to add new titles, offering subscribers seamless access to world's top publications across all of their devices.
+               6. For Apple Pay, revenue and transactions more than doubled YoverY with run-rate exceeding 15b transactions a year.
+                    1. Apple Pay transit support expanded with customers paying for journeys on Transport for London more easily with Apple Pay Express Transit.
+               7. In spring of 2020, iPhone and Apple Watch customers will be able to simply tap to ride trains and buses in even more cities, including Shenzhen and Guangzhou.
+               8. Thrilled with continued growth of Apple Card.
+                    1. Last month, customers began using Apple Card monthly instalments at AAPL retail and online to purchase new iPhones and pay for them over 24 months.
+     4. Wearables:
+          1. Had another incredible qtr., setting all-time record in virtually every market Co. tracks worldwide.
+               1. This product category is now size of Fortune 150 co.
+          2. Demand for AirPods continues to be phenomenal, particularly for recently launched AirPods Pro, new addition to AirPods family that features active noise cancellation.
+          3. Apple Watch had great start to FY20, setting all-time revenue record during qtr.
+               1. It continues to have profound impact on customers' lives and continues to further its reach as over 75% of customers purchasing Apple Watch during qtr. were new to Apple Watch.
+               2. AirPods and Apple Watch were must have holiday gifts helping drive unprecedented results for category even as Co. faces supply constraints for Apple Watch Series 3 and AirPods Pro.
+          4. Mac and iPad generated $7.2b and $6b in revenue, respectively.
+               1. High level of customer satisfaction and loyalty for both products drove active installed base of Mac and iPad to new records in all geographic segments.
+     5. iPad:
+          1. Saw growth in key emerging markets like Mexico, India, Turkey, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
+               1. With current lineup of iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini and iPad, along with new iPad OS, gives customers unparalleled tablet experience, integrating hardware, software and services in a way that only AAPL can.
+     6. Mac:
+          1. Exciting qtr. for Mac, as Co. launched most powerful notebook ever.
+               1. 16-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR, the most powerful tools Co. has ever put in hands of pros.
+     7. Other Details:
+          1. This qtr., opened a beautiful new store in Kawasaki, Japan.
+               1. Retail and online stores set an all-time record and delivered strong double-digit growth in iPhone.
+          2. Began 2020 with greatest product lineup ever.
+          3. In Nov., released a completely redesigned Everyone Can Code curriculum to help introduce more elementary and middle school students to the world of coding.
+               1. The new curriculum includes even more resources for teachers, a brand new guide for students and updated Swift Coding Club materials.
+               2. Nov. saw launch of new Research app, latest in ongoing effort to put future of health in hands of every user.
+                    1. Customers in US can enroll on three landmark multiyear health studies that Co. is undertaking with leading academic and research institutions, the Apple Women's Health Study, the Apple Heart and Movement Study and the Apple Hearing Study.
+                    2. Built user privacy into Research app from ground-up.
+          4. This qtr., announced $2.5b plan to help address housing availability and affording crisis in home state of California.
+          5. As Co. closes books on record-breaking Dec. qtr., already well underway on some new and exciting developments for future.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 1Q20 Financials (L.M.) 
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. Business and financial performance in Dec. qtr. were exceptional.
+               1. [Set new] all-time records for revenue, net income and EPS.
+          2. Revenue $91.8b.
+               1. Up $7.5b or 9% YoverY, in spite of $1b headwind from FX.
+          3. Geographically, established all-time revenue records in many major developed and emerging markets, including among others, US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
+          4. Products revenue $79.1b.
+               1. Up 8%, as iPhone returned to growth.
+               2. Had incredibly strong results in Wearables, where Co. set all-time records for Apple Watch and AirPods.
+          5. Services revenue grew 17% to new all-time record $12.7b with double-digit growth in every geographic segment, a new all-time records across portfolio.
+     2. GM:
+          1. 1Q20 38.4%.
+               1. Up 40 BP sequentially, driven by leverage from higher revenue, in spite of negative 60 BP impact from FX.
+          2. Products 34.2%.
+               1. Up 260 BP sequentially.
+          3. Services 64.4%.
+               1. Up 30 BP sequentially, driven by favorable mix.
+     3. Results:
+          1. Reported tax rate 14.2%.
+               1. Before discrete items, rate was 16.5%, exactly in line with guidance.
+               2. Favorable one-time item impacted rate by 230 BP.
+          2. Net income was all-time record at $22.2b, up $2.3b or 11% over last year.
+          3. Diluted EPS was all-time record at $4.99, up 19%.
+          4. Operating cash flow was strong $30.5b, improvement of $3.8b over a year ago.
+     4. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue $56b.
+               1. Grew 8% YoverY, as Co. saw great customer response to launch of newest iPhones.
+               2. Set all-time revenue records in several countries, including US, Mexico, UK, France, Spain, Poland, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
+          2. Active installed base reached all-time high and is growing in each geographic segments.
+               1. In US, latest survey of consumers from 451 Research indicates iPhone customer satisfaction of 98% for iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max combined.
+               2. Among business buyers planning to purchase smartphones in next qtr., 84% plan to purchase iPhones.
+     5. Services:
+          1. Set all-time revenue record of $12.7b, with double-digit growth in all five geographic segments.
+               1. Established new all-time records for Apple Music, cloud services, payment services and App Store search ad business, and Dec. qtr. records for App Store and Apple Care.
+               2. Well on way to accomplishing goal of doubling [FY16] Services revenue during 2020.
+                    1. Already reached that goal on run rate basis with results of Dec. qtr.
+          2. Customer engagement in ecosystem continues to grow.
+               1. Number of transacting and paid accounts on digital content stores reached new all-time high with paid accounts growing double-digits in all geographic segments.
+                    1. Now has over 418m paid subscriptions across services on platform, up 120m from a year ago.
+                    2. At this point, expects to hit goal of surpassing 500m mark already during March qtr.
+          3. Given tremendous momentum Co. is experiencing across Services offerings, increasing target for paid subscriptions and aims to reach 600m before end of calendar 2020.
+          4. App Store revenue grew strong double-digits.
+               1. Robust customer demand for in-app purchases and subscriptions.
+               2. Third-party subscription business grew across multiple categories, and increased almost 40% YoverY.
+          5. First-party subscription services continued to perform extremely well.
+          6. Apple Music set all-time revenue record, offering a catalog of over 60m songs to customers.
+          7. iCloud generated all-time revenue record, growing strong double-digits, while offering customers safe, secure and seamless experience across all their devices.
+          8. It was Dec. qtr. record for Apple Care.
+     6. Mac & iPad:
+          1. Mac revenue was $7.2b and iPad revenue was $6b.
+               1. Both products had difficult YoverY comparison due to launches of MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro during Dec. qtr. a year ago and subsequent channel field.
+               2. Despite tough compare on demand basis, performance for Mac and iPad was around even to last year.
+               3. Around half of customers purchasing Macs and iPads around the world, during the qtr. were new to that product.
+               4. Active installed base for Mac and iPad reached new all-time high.
+               5. Most recent surveys from 451 Research measured 93% customer satisfaction rating for iPad from consumers and 92% from businesses.
+                    1. Among consumers and businesses, planning to purchase tablets in March qtr., 78% plan to purchase iPads.
+     7. Wearables, Home & Accessories:
+          1. Established new all-time record with revenue of $10b, up 37% YoverY with strong double-digit performance across all five geographic segments and growth across Wearables, Accessories and Home.
+          2. Set all-time records for Wearables in virtually every market Co. tracks, even as it experienced some product shortages due to strong customer demand for Apple Watch and AirPods during the qtr.
+          3. Continued to see strong demand for products in enterprise market, as technology solutions enabled businesses to do their best work.
+               1. 100% of Fortune 500 companies in healthcare sector use AAPL technology in areas like patient experience, clinical communications and nursing workflows.
+               2. Seeing smaller companies in this sector drive innovation with technology and apps.
+                    1. One example is Gauss Surgical, which uses Core ML in iOS to more accurately estimate blood loss during childbirth and surgery.
+                    2. This helps clinicians have more complete and timely information on whether a patient needs an intervention, which can impact both clinical outcomes and costs.
+                    3. Another example is Butterfly Network, a medical imaging co., which makes handheld ultrasound device that connects to iPhone or iPad to enable clinicians to take an ultrasound anywhere at a cost that is dramatically lower than other solutions on market today.
+     8. Cash Position:
+          1. 1Q20-end cash plus marketable securities, [$207b].
+          2. Issued [EUR2b] denominated green bond, retired $1b of maturing debt and reduced commercial paper by $1b during qtr., leaving Co. with total debt $108b.
+          3. 1Q20-end net cash $99b.
+               1. Maintains target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.
+          4. Returned nearly $25b to shareholders during Dec. qtr.
+               1. Began $10b accelerated share repurchase program in Nov., resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 30.4m shares.
+          5. Repurchased 40m AAPL shares for $10b through open market transactions.
+               1. Paid $3.5b in dividends and equivalents.
+     9. 2Q20 Outlook:
+          1. Revenue $63-67b.
+               1. Wider than usual revenue range comprehends uncertainty related to recently unfolding public health situation in China.
+          2. GM 38-39%.
+          3. OpEx $9.6-9.7b.
+          4. OI&E about $250m.
+          5. Tax rate about 16.5%.
+     10. Others:
+          1. On 01/28/20, Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.77 per share of common stock, payable on 02/13/20 to shareholders of record as of 02/10/20.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. That will be from Amit Daryanani with Evercore.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I guess first one for me. On Wearables, fairly impressive to see it's already a $10 billion business for you guys. Can you just touch on the growth that you see on the Wearables side? How much of the growth do you think is coming from first-time buyers of AirPods or Apple Watch versus folks that seem to be just upgrading the products that they have? Because it looks to us adoption rates are fairly low in your installed base so there should be a long runway, but love to just understand how you see the growth divided between those 2 buckets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Amit, it's Tim. If you look at the Apple -- or the Wearables as a category within the Wearables, Home and Accessories revenue, Wearables grew 44%, so it was very strong, as you say. The -- both Apple Watch and AirPods did very well in terms of collecting new customers. Apple Watch, in particular, 75% of the customers are new to the Apple Watch, and so it's still very much selling to new customers at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Perfect. And I guess, Luca, if you could just touch on gross margins. The March quarter guide, I think, implies gross margins are flat to actually up 10, 15 basis points. It's rare for you guys to actually guide gross margins up in March, I think, because you have a fairly high seasonal sales deleverage happening. So what are the offsets that's enabling what looks like a better-than-seasonal guide for gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, that's right, Amit. It's about flat sequentially and, by the way, significantly higher on a year-over-year basis. But on a sequential basis, you're right. On one side, we got the loss of leverage from the usual seasonality, but we expect that, that loss of leverage will be offset by better mix and cost savings.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Amit. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will come from Tom Forte with D.A. Davidson.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thomas Ferris Forte,  D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. So congrats on the launch of Apple TV+. I wanted to know internally how you are gauging success. Is it purely on critical acclaim? Is it on number of consumers that are using the service, contribution of service revenue, et cetera, et cetera?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tom, it's Tim. We are primarily measuring ourselves on the number of subscribers. As you can tell from the way that we launched the product, we started with a very aggressive price at $4.99. And in addition to that, we have our bundle, where if you buy pretty much any device, you're getting a year for free, and so we're very focused on subscribers. That said, our -- the product itself is about storytelling. And we think if we do that well, then we'll find that there will be some number of those that will also be critically acclaimed and we're seeing that with The Morning Show. We're seeing that with Little America and others.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thomas Ferris Forte,  D.A. Davidson & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. And then my second question is, I think you indicated that last month, you started offering consumers the ability to use their Apple Card to buy an iPhone on an installment basis. Can you talk about how that's had an impact on your unit sales for iPhones?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The retail stores did fantastic on iPhone, very strong double-digit growth in iPhone from a year-over-year point of view. And one of the factors that enabled that was the -- getting to monthly payments on the Apple Card to make it very simple. Of course, that's U.S.-only at this point, but the U.S. is a very key market for us. And so it was an important part of it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Tom. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will come from Shannon Cross, Cross Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I wanted to go back to revisit China. Tim, can you talk about what you're seeing in the region -- what you were seeing in the region prior to the health crisis? And then can you also update us a bit in terms of your manufacturing strategy, dual sourcing, geographic diversification even within the region just so we have some idea of how this will be managed?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Thanks, Shannon. In terms of China, the results from last quarter and then I'll get into the coronavirus second. For the results from last quarter, we had double-digit growth for iPhone in Mainland China, so that was an important change from where we had been running. We also had double-digit growth in Services in Mainland China, and we had extremely strong double-digit on Wearables. And so really, there were a number of different factors. 
+In terms of the things that customers are responding to, iPhone 11 is doing particularly well there. The product has been very well received with its battery life, and the camera is unbelievable. We also, as you probably know, have certain trade-in programs going and financing programs. These have also been well-received. And so it's sort of the sum of all of this, and we're attracting quite a large percentage of new customers on products like the Mac. 3/4 of the customers buying a Mac in China are new, and nearly 2/3 of the customers buying iPad are new. And so it was a terrific quarter. We had 3 of the top 4 selling smartphones in urban China according to Kantar. 
+In terms of the coronavirus, as I mentioned earlier, first and foremost, our thoughts are with all of those that are affected across the region. And as I've mentioned, we're donating to groups that are working to contain the outbreak. We're also working very closely with our team and our partners in the affected areas, and we have limited travel to business-critical situations as of last week. The situation is emerging, and we're still gathering lots of data points and monitoring it very closely. As Luca had mentioned, we have a wider-than-usual revenue range for the second quarter due to the greater uncertainty. 
+I'll talk about supply chain and customer demand some to give you some color. With respect to the supply chain, we do have some suppliers in the Wuhan area. All of these suppliers, there are alternate sources, and we're obviously working on mitigation plans to make up any expected production loss. We factored our best thinking in the guidance that we provided you. 
+With respect to supply sources that are outside the Wuhan area, the impact is less clear at this time. The reopening of those factories after Chinese New Year has been moved from the end of this month to February 10, depending upon the supplier location. And we've attempted to account for this delayed start-up through our larger range of outcomes that Luca mentioned earlier. 
+With respect to customer demand and sales, we've currently closed 1 of our retail stores, and a number of channel partners have also closed their storefronts. Many of the stores that remain open have also reduced operating hours. We're taking additional precautions and frequently deep cleaning our stores as well as conducting temperature checks for employees. While our sales within the Wuhan area itself are small, retail traffic has also been impacted outside of this area across the country in the last few days. And again, we have attempted to account for this in our guidance range that we've provided you. I hope that gives you some color.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, that was really helpful. Luca, maybe if you could just touch on, from a gross margin perspective, the commodity pricing environment and availability. Obviously, there's been some movement on DRAM and NAND. So if you can talk about how you're thinking about inventory levels and managing that going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. As I said earlier to the question around the gross margin guidance for the March quarter, we are seeing a benign commodity environment. Most commodities have been declining during the December quarter, and we expect the same to happen in the March quarter. As always and as you probably know, we look at the way these prices move. And at times when we feel it's appropriate, we buy certain commodities in advance. And so we will continue that practice as we go through the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Shannon. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will come from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca, can you address the modest slowdown in Services growth this quarter, 17% versus 18% in September? Which Services categories accelerated versus where did you see some deceleration in the growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Katy, let me make a couple of comments here. The 17% during the December quarter, we look at it against our fiscal year '19 growth rate, which was 16%, so we feel very good about the results for the December quarter. As Tim and I mentioned during our prepared remarks, it was a very broad-based growth because we grew double digits in Services across all the 5 geographies. We set all-time records for many, many categories, music, cloud, search ads, payment services, December records for the App Store and AppleCare.
+If you remember, we had set 2 goals for ourselves in the Services segment. First, we set a goal to double our fiscal '16 revenue during 2020, and when we look at it on a run rate basis, we've already achieved that goal with the results for the December quarter. We also set a goal to pass 500 million paid subscriptions during 2020. And given that we are already at 480 million at the end of December, we expect to pass that mark during the March quarter. And so now we are setting a new target for ourselves for paid subscriptions. And so we are now aiming to reach 600 million before the end of calendar 2020. 
+So we feel that the Services business is growing incredibly well. Of course, we have launched new services very recently. For example, Apple TV+ just launched in November. And so while these services did not have a material impact in our December quarter results, we expect that over time, these are contributing to the growth of the Services business. But we feel very happy with the 17%.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim, as a follow-up, at some point in the future, Apple will launch a 5G iPhone. How big of a demand driver do you view 5G capability in a handset? And what's your view as to what the killer app will be from a consumer perspective?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We don't comment on future products, and so I'll try to sidestep a bit. With respect to 5G, I think it's -- and we're in the early innings of its deployment on a global basis. We obviously couldn't be prouder of our lineup and is -- and are very excited about our pipeline as well and wouldn't trade our position for anybody.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll hear from Kyle McNealy with Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kyle P. McNealy,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Equity Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So we're seeing some signs of new spectrum being deployed for 5G deployments and even additional 4G capacity, and it's already having a positive impact for handset upgrades to use that new capacity. Do you get the sense that wireless carriers are getting more incentivized to upgrade handsets to get leverage out of these new network investments? How much might this be helping? And do you think it will continue to accelerate?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think that we've had some great partners not only in the U.S. but also around the world that were really helpful this quarter as partners. And so I think that probably a part of that is the level of investments they have, and then a part of it is probably making sure that those customers stick with them in an environment where there's a lot of trading back and forth. So I'm optimistic that it will continue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kyle P. McNealy,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Equity Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay, great. And then the comment that you made about capacity in your Wearables division with AirPods Pro and Apple Watch 3, what should we think about the time line of when those capacity constraints might be alleviated? And will they come from capacity additions or the natural workout of kind of unit shipments and something on the demand side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I'm hopeful that the Series 3 will come into balance during this quarter. On AirPods Pro, I don't have an estimate for that for you. I just can't predict when at this point where -- we seem to be fairly substantially off there, and we're working very hard to put in additional capacity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Kyle. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Wamsi Mohan, Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tim, Apple has a very valuable installed base of users. Can you see a future where Apple can become larger in the advertising market as you build out TV+, given you could have the unique position and ability to drive targeted ads to users without compromising on privacy?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think it's -- I think it is possible to have advertising in a straightforward manner that doesn't encroach on people's privacy. I wouldn't want to conjecture about us in that business. I think for the TV+ business, we feel strongly that what that customer wants is an ad-free product, and so that's not our aversion to ads, it's what we believe that the customer wants.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. And Luca, can you just clarify if the Services revenue this quarter had any impact of deferrals associated with TV+ at all? And how can you help us maybe size the impact of the amortization of the content cost associated with TV+ as we think about the next couple of years?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So yes, of course, we launched the service, and so there was a very small contribution to revenue from the deferral. And there was also a contribution to revenue from the people, the subscribers that are actually paying for the service. When you think about what goes into the Apple TV+ revenue, at this point, there are 2 components: the paid subscribers, these are the customers that pay for the service and we recognize revenue over the subscription period; and then we've got the what we call the Apple TV+ bundle subscribers, these are the customers that buy an eligible hardware device and redeem the offer for a free year of TV+ services. We defer revenue for this offer based on 3 items. The first one is the value of the service that is being provided, the 1-year of Apple TV+. The second one is the number of customers that are eligible for the offer, and the third one is our estimate of the expected number of customers that will redeem the offer. So you need to keep in mind that from our total eligible device sales, you need to make a number of reductions for family sharing, for multiple device purchases and for geographic availability. Also the take rate can also be impacted by the availability of local content, and we also require a payment method on file. So this estimate is reviewed quarterly and gets updated based on actual trends of the offer. 
+And so these inputs provide us with the amount of revenue that we defer for each device sale that then gets recognized over the 1-year period that the TV+ service is provided. And so when you take the combination of pay subscribers and bundled subscribers, you get the Apple TV+ revenue. Of course, because we launched the service very recently, the amount of revenue that we recognized during the quarter was immaterial to our results. 
+With regard to the cost of the service, of developing the content, we -- essentially, as we incur these costs, we put them on the balance sheet, and then we amortize them over a certain period of time depending on the type of content that we produce.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We'll hear from Cowen and Company's Krish Sankar.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Congrats on the great results. I had 2 questions. First one, Tim, I just wanted to pick your brain a little bit on the overall smartphone market. There's a general view that when 5G phones come out, they're going to be more expensive due to higher component costs. But at the same time, it looks like you guys have proven that there is a market for low-cost geographies with phones like iPhone SE. So how do you see these 2 different segments within the smartphone market evolving over the next 1 to 3 years? And then I have a follow-up for Luca.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Again, I want to stay away from commenting about future products. But generally, I think it's important when you think about 5G is to look around the world at the different deployment schedules. And some of those look very different perhaps than what you might be seeing here. And so that's very important. In terms of the price, I wouldn't want to comment on the price of handsets that aren't announced.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. No worries, Tim. And then a follow-up for Luca. OpEx as a percentage of sales for March looks like about 15% higher than in your prior quarters. Kind of curious, how much of that, as part of it, is driven by some of your Intel modem asset purchases or TV+ in the OpEx? Or how do we think about it on a go-forward basis?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. I think we felt good about our OpEx results because they were at the low end of our guidance range. But clearly, we want to make all the necessary investments in the business. And from -- in terms of the new services, not only for TV+ but all the new services that we launched during 2019, this is a period where we're making the necessary investments in advertising and marketing, and that level of investment is reflected in our OpEx results. 
+And also, as you correctly stated, we completed the acquisition of the Intel baseband business during the December quarter. And so we had -- we reflected the run rate of the expenses related to that business partially during the quarter after the completion of the transaction. And we -- that is a very important core technology for the company, so we will continue to make all the necessary investments also there. There is a third category of expenses that affected the December quarter and is the fact that our revenue was very strong, and we have certain variable expenses, for example, credit card fees that are associated with higher volume and, of course, impacted our OpEx results.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Krish. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will be from Mike Olson with Piper Sandler.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So a slightly different take on an earlier question on Wearables, and that is, what impact do you think Wearables is having on driving people into the Apple ecosystem? You mentioned 75% of watch buyers are new to the Apple Watch, but are many of them new to Apple overall? I'm sure a lot of existing iPhone, iPad or Mac users are going to be Wearables customers, but do you think Wearables bring people into the ecosystem to buy other devices in a material way?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think that -- Michael, it's Tim. With each Apple product that a customer buys, I think they get tighter into the ecosystem because they like -- that's the reason that they're buying into it, is they like the experience, the customer experience. And so from that point of view, I think each of our products can drive another product. I would think in that case, it's more likely that the iPhone comes first, but there's no doubt in my mind that there's some people that came into the ecosystem for the Watch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Michael Joseph Olson,  Piper Sandler & Co., Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. And then I think you recently mentioned that augmented reality will pervade our entire lives. And I'm wondering if you could share your thoughts about how you think it starts to impact our lives most significantly. For example, will the inflection point in AR come from gaming or industrial usage or some other category? In other words, where will the average person kind of first feel the impact of AR on their lives in a significant way?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think when you look at AR today, you would see that there are consumer applications, there are enterprise applications. This is the reason I'm so excited about it, is you rarely have a new technology where business and consumer are both -- most see it as key to them. And so I think it's -- the answer is that that's the reason that I think it's going to pervade your life, is because it's going to go across both business and your home life. And I think these things will happen in parallel. There are already companies that are deep into the enterprise business that are working on applications for the enterprise. And of course, you can see -- you can go on the store and see thousands of apps that are ARKit-enabled at this time and with even more coming.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Mike. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will come from Raymond James' Chris Caso.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I guess the first question is on gross margins, and you spoke about the favorable mix. Wondering if you could expand on that a little bit. And clearly, iPhone is doing well within the overall mix, growing year-on-year. But if you could talk about what's happening to the mix within iPhone. Is that improving as well and also helping margins? And is there anything else you would point to with regard to the overall mix in margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. I think that the mix helped us both in Q1, and it's helping us with the guidance for Q2. And as you said, some of it is mix of iPhones. The customer response for iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max has been exceptional, and that clearly has helped our mix. iPhone 11 was our top-selling model throughout the quarter, every single week of the quarter. And so certainly, better mix within iPhone. 
+The other point that I'd like to point out is that as we move from Q1 to Q2, the proportion of revenue coming from Services increases versus the holiday quarter. And given the fact that Services are accretive to gross margin for the company, we end up getting a better mix from Services as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Caso,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. And I guess a follow-on question with regard to OpEx, and it has been growing at a faster rate than revenue for, I guess, largely over the last 3 years or so. Can you set us some expectation with regard to when you get a return on that investment? I understand there are new investments that are happening now. But how should we think about potential leverage going forward? Is there a point in time where the OpEx spending tend to level off and you get some return on that? Or is it just a function of faster revenue growth in the future?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, I would start by saying that our expense to revenue ratio is incredibly competitive relative to other companies in our sector. There are years when our OpEx grows faster than our revenue, but we've also had years in the recent past where the opposite has happened. We continue to believe that we have a lot of great opportunities in front of us. And just if you look at this past year, we launched many new initiatives, for example, on the Services front, which we want to support with the appropriate level of investment, not only marketing and advertising but also in R&D. 
+As I mentioned earlier, we closed the acquisition of the Intel baseband business because we think it's a very important strategic core technology for the company going forward. And I think from the results that you've seen during this quarter and the guidance that we provided during -- for the March quarter, I think we're doing a pretty good job at balancing the level of investments that we are making on the expense front with the level of returns that we get, both in terms of revenue and in terms of profitability that we're getting. Our net income, for example, was up 11% during the December quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Can we have the next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That will come from Samik Chatterjee with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Just wanted to kind of ask on the iPhone revenue growth and definitely good to see it return to growth. Based on the velocity or momentum you're seeing for the products exiting the quarter, how comfortable are you feeling about sustaining growth in iPhone revenues through the year? And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We have a practice of forecasting the current quarter, and so we've given you the range that we expect for the current quarter and really don't give a range beyond that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Samik Chatterjee,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. So if I can just maybe then follow up in terms of, obviously, you've returned to growth in most of the regions you report. One of the regions that are declining is Japan, so if you can share your thoughts on what actions you need to take there to return that segment -- that geography to growth. And what are the product trends there? What's probably the headwind that's kind of limiting growth there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So Japan was down 10% during the December quarter, was primarily due to iPhone performance, which was challenged because there were some regulatory changes that took effect on the 1st of October, where essentially, the regulators decoupled the mobile phone pricing from the 2-year contracts and are capping the maximum amount of carrier discounts that can be made. At the same time, I would say, within a more difficult macro environment, iPhone did incredibly well during the quarter. 6 of the top 7 selling smartphone models in Japan during the December quarter were iPhones. So it was a very strong performance by iPhone in a difficult environment. 
+Also, in Japan, we had very strong double-digit growth from Services, stronger than company average, and very strong double-digit growth in Wearables, also stronger than company average. So we feel very good. Japan is a country where it's starting to -- we've had great success. The customers are very loyal and very engaged, and we have a very strong position there, and we feel we have a very good momentum.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Samik. A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor and via telephone. The numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. Please enter confirmation code 6826206. These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. Pacific Time today. Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414. Financial analysts can contact me with additional questions at (669) 227-2402. Thank you again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Again, that will conclude today's conference. Thank you all for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AAPL/2020-Jul-30-AAPL.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,603 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Brief
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2020 Apple Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 30, 2020 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Tejas Gala
+   Apple Inc. - IR Contact
+ * Luca Maestri
+   Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP
+ * Timothy D. Cook
+   Apple Inc. - CEO & Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Benjamin James Bollin
+   Cleveland Research Company - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Krish Sankar
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani
+   Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst
+ * Kyle P. McNealy
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Equity Analyst
+ * Shannon Siemsen Cross
+   Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst
+ * Wamsi Mohan
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kanghui Ong
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Kathryn Lynn Huberty
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst
+ * Jim Suva
+   Citigroup Inc., Research Division - MD & Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+OVERVIEW
+================================================================================
+Co. reported 3Q20 revenue of $59.7b, net income of $11.3b, and EPS of $2.58.
+
+================================================================================
+FINANCIAL DATA
+================================================================================
+
+    1. 3Q20 revenue = $59.7b.
+    2. 3Q20 net income = $11.3b.
+    3. 3Q20 EPS = $2.58.
+    4. 3Q20 YoverY revenue growth = 11%.
+    5. 3Q20 Co. GM = 38%.
+    6. 3Q20-end net cash = $81b.
+    7. 3Q20-end cash plus marketable securities = almost $194b.
+    8. 3Q20-end total debt = $113b.
+    9. 3Q20 share repurchase = $10b through open market repurchases of 31.3m AAPL shares.
+
+================================================================================
+PRESENTATION SUMMARY
+================================================================================
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I. 3Q20 Review (T.C.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. In uncertain environment, saw qtr. of historic results, demonstrating important role Co.'s products play in customers' lives.
+          2. Revenue $59.7b; June qtr. record.
+               1. Up 11% YoverY.
+               2. Products and Services set June qtr. records and grew double-digits.
+               3. Revenue grew in each geographic segment, reflecting broad base of success.
+          3. Committed $100m to launch Co.'s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative and new and renewed internal efforts to foster diversity and inclusion at all levels of Co.
+          4. As COVID-19 continues to represent great risk for individuals and great uncertainty for communities, care and adaptability are defining how Co. conducts work wherever it works.
+               1. In some places that has met responsibly reopening operations and retail stores with enhanced health and safety precautions.
+               2. In others, where virus has reemerged, it's met taking challenging, but necessary step of re-closing stores.
+          5. Due to uncertain and ongoing impacts of COVID-19, did not provide typical guidance when Co. reported results last qtr.
+               1. Provided some color on how Co. expected June qtr. to play out.
+     2. Product Categories:
+          1. iPhone revenue grew 2%.
+               1. In April, expected YoverY performance to worsen.
+               2. Saw better-than-expected demand in May and June.
+                    1. Attributes increase in demand to several interactive causes, including strong iPhone SE launch, continued economic stimulus, and potentially some benefit from shelter-in-place restrictions lifting worldwide.
+          2. Expected iPad and Mac growth to accelerate.
+               1. Saw strong double-digit growth for these devices.
+                    1. This remarkable performance came despite supply constraints on both products.
+               2. Working hard to get more iPads and Macs into customers' hands as quickly as possible, recognizing how integral they have become to working and learning from home, providing entertainment, and staying connected with loved ones.
+          3. Wearables growth decelerated as expected, but grew by strong double-digits.
+               1. Set revenue record for non-holiday qtr.
+               2. Building on powerful new features built into watchOS 7 and AirPods Pro announced this qtr., excited about many opportunities in front of Co. for this product category.
+                    1. Strong results helped drive installed base of active devices to new all-time records across each product category.
+          4. Reflecting deep integration of hardware, software and services, Services generated June qtr. record of $13.2b, up 15% YoverY.
+               1. There were two distinct trends Co. was seeing and they played out as it thought.
+                    1. Results for advertising and Apple Care were impacted by reduced level of economic activity and store closures to a degree that was in line with expectations.
+                    2. Strong performance in digital services with all-time revenue records in App Store, Apple Music, video and cloud services and elevated engagement on iMessage, Siri, and FaceTime.
+               2. Customers are loving new offerings across Co.'s Services like:
+                    1. Apple News Today, new daily audio briefing.
+                    2. Greyhound, new summer blockbuster starring Tom Hanks.
+               3. Apple TV+ hit history making 95 awards nominations and 25 wins and accolades.
+               4. Based on aforementioned results and performance over last four quarters, achieved goal of doubling FY16 Services revenue six months ahead of schedule.
+     3. Other Highlights:
+          1. Conscious of the fact that these results stand in stark relief during time of real economic adversity for businesses, large and small, and certainly for families.
+               1. Does not have zero-sum approach to prosperity.
+               2. Especially in times like this, focused on growing the pie, making sure Co.'s success isn't just its success and that everything it makes, builds, or does is geared toward creating opportunities for others.
+               3. App Store is a great example.
+                    1. This qtr., new study by independent economists at Analysis Group found that App Store facilitated more than 0.5t in commerce globally in 2019 alone.
+                    2. Especially in a time of COVID-19, one can measure economic resilience in the ways in which App Store supports remote ordering for restaurants, digital commerce for small businesses, and enduring entrepreneurial opportunity for creators and visionaries.
+          2. Keeping learning vibrant and impactful in the time of COVID-19 is priority everyone shares.
+               1. Earlier this month, announced significant enhancements to Develop in Swift and Everyone Can Code curricula.
+                    1. Launched new professional learning course available exclusively to educators.
+               2. Two weeks ago, Community Education Initiative added 10 more historically black college and university regional coding centers to roster, bringing total to 24 locations nationwide.
+                    1. 12 of which are HBCUs.
+                    2. 21 of which serve majority black and brown student populations.
+          3. In Co.'s backyard, announced that it is allocating $400m of multi-year $2.5b affordable housing commitment to new housing construction, homebuyer assistance programs, and support for those at greatest risk of experiencing homelessness across Silicon Valley.
+          4. Results are possible due to people and their ongoing ingenuity, flexibility, resilience, and determination during these ever-changing times.
+               1. Apple Care and retail teams paired exceptional service during time of intense demand with great adaptability during qtr. where stores have reopened in some places and re-closed in others.
+               2. Team of specialists and experts has shoulder the task of caring for well-being of teams and communities store by store, location by location, with evidence-driven granularity and agility that is unrivaled anywhere.
+          5. Innovation from adversity certainly define this year's Worldwide Developers Conference.
+               1. Event where traditionally Co.'s worldwide community of developers gathers together to share, celebrate, and do big things together.
+               2. Though could not be together in person, Co. set new standard for what online events can achieve with celebrated all virtual event.
+               3. More than 22m viewers tuned in across all of Co.'s streams.
+               4. For developers, distributed more than 72 hours of video content; three full days of video.
+               5. Week saw more than 200 direct-to-video engineering and design sessions and about 4,500 person-to-person appointments with developers across 227 virtual labs.
+               6. This year's announcements:
+                    1. iOS 14, which boasts radical redesign to home screen, powerful updates to messages, streamlined and effortless app clips and even greater privacy transparency and controls.
+                    2. Major updates to Apple Pencil, Siri [and calling] iPadOS 14.
+                    3. Much anticipated sleep tracking, new fitness and wellness features and unprecedented customization in watchOS 7.
+                    4. New macOS Big Sur, boasting biggest redesign upgrade to macOS since OS X.
+               7. No less important for Co.'s innovation road map is transition to AAPL silicon for Mac.
+                    1. This two-year effort will achieve unprecedented performance for Mac and common architecture across all AAPL products.
+     4. Outlook:
+          1. Profoundly optimistic about future.
+          2. Recognizes that with this success comes some real responsibility to lead with values because those values help make that success possible in the first place.
+          3. Will be fully carbon-neutral by 2030 across entire supply chain and including energy use of every device Co. makes as it is of any hardware innovation.
+          4. Committed to standing with those marching for lives and dignity through new $100m commitment to Co.'s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative.
+               1. Deepening diversity and inclusion efforts internally.
+                    1. Future as a business is inextricably linked with future of communities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+II. 3Q20 Financials (L.M.)
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+     1. Highlights:
+          1. June qtr. was a testament to Co.'s ability to innovate and execute during challenging times.
+          2. Results speak to resilience of business and relevance of products and services in customers' lives.
+          3. Total revenue $59.7b, new June qtr. record, up 11% YoverY, despite 300 BP headwind from FX.
+          4. Performance was strong across entire portfolio, as Co.:
+               1. Grew revenue in each product category.
+               2. Set June qtr. records for Mac, Wearables, and services.
+          5. Strong results worldwide, with:
+               1. Growth in all geographic segments.
+               2. New June qtr. records in:
+                    1. Americas.
+                    2. Europe.
+                    3. Japan.
+                    4. Rest of Asia-Pacific.
+          6. Products revenue $46.5b, up 10% and June qtr. record.
+               1. iPhone returned to growth.
+               2. Saw strong double-digit growth from:
+                    1. iPad.
+                    2. Mac.
+                    3. Wearables.
+               3. Lockdowns and point of sale closures were widespread during April and impacted performance.
+                    1. Saw demand for all products improve significantly in May and June.
+               4. Due to strong performance and unmatched loyalty of customers, installed base of active devices reached all-time high in all geographic segments and all major product categories.
+          7. Services continued to grow strongly, up 15% YoverY.
+               1. Reached June qtr. record of $13.2b.
+               2. Set all-time records in many Services categories and June qtr. records in each geographic segment.
+     2. GM:
+          1. Co. GM 38%.
+               1. Down 40 BP sequentially due to unfavorable FX of 90 BP and different mix of products, partially offset by cost savings and services mix.
+          2. Products GM 29.7%, decreasing 60 BP sequentially due to FX and different mix, partially offset by cost savings.
+          3. Services GM 67.2%, up 180 BP sequentially, mainly due to mix.
+          4. Net income $11.3b.
+          5. EPS $2.58, up 18% and June qtr. record.
+          6. Operating cash flow was June qtr. record at $16.3b.
+               1. $4.6b improvement YoverY.
+     3. iPhone:
+          1. Revenue grew 2% to $26.4b, with customer demand improving as qtr. progressed.
+          2. COVID-19 was most impactful during first three weeks of April when lockdowns and point of sale closures became more widespread in many countries.
+               1. Saw marked improvement around the world in May and June, which Co. attributes to improved level of customer demand, helped by successful launch of iPhone SE and economic stimulus packages.
+          3. Active installed base of iPhones reached an all-time high due to loyalty of customer base and strength of ecosystem.
+               1. In US, latest survey of consumers from 451 Research indicates iPhone customer satisfaction of 98% for iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max combined.
+     4. Services:
+          1. Revenue $13.4b; June qtr. record.
+          2. Had all-time record performance and strong double-digit growth in:
+               1. App Store.
+               2. Apple Music.
+               3. Video.
+               4. Cloud services.
+          3. New services, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple Card are contributing to overall Services growth and continue to add users, content, and features.
+          4. Customer engagement in ecosystem continues to grow at a fast pace.
+               1. Number of transacting and paid accounts on digital content stores reached new all-time high with paid accounts increasing double-digits in each geographic segment.
+          5. In aggregate, paid subscriptions grew more than 35m sequentially.
+               1. Has over 550m paid subscriptions across services on platform, up 130m from a year ago.
+               2. With this momentum, remains confident to reach increased target of 600m paid subscriptions before calendar 2020-end.
+     5. Wearables, Home & Accessories:
+          1. Revenue $6.5b; new June qtr. record.
+               1. Up 17% YoverY.
+          2. Wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 140 co.
+               1. Set June qtr. records in majority of markets Co. tracks.
+               2. Apple Watch continues to extend its reach, with over 75% of customers purchasing Apple Watch during 3Q20 new to product.
+     6. Mac & iPad:
+          1. Mac:
+               1. Revenue $7.1b; June qtr. record.
+                    1. Up 22% YoverY.
+                    2. Grew double-digits in each geographic segment.
+                    3. Set all-time revenue records in Japan and rest of Asia-Pacific and June qtr. records in Americas and Europe.
+               2. Customer response to new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro launches has been strong.
+          2. iPad:
+               1. Revenue $6.6b, up 31%.
+                    1. Highest June qtr. revenue in eight years.
+               2. Demand was strong worldwide, with double-digit growth in each geographic segment, including June qtr. record in Greater China.
+               3. Launch of new iPad Pro has been received incredibly well in every region of the world.
+          3. Mac and iPad are extremely relevant products in new working and learning environments.
+               1. Most recent surveys of consumers from 451 Research measured customer satisfaction of 96% for Mac and 97% for iPad.
+               2. Around half of customers purchasing Mac and iPad during 3Q20 were new to that product.
+                    1. Active installed base for products reached new all-time high.
+     7. Others:
+          1. Retail business had record June qtr. revenue due to performance of online store.
+               1. Set records in all geographic segments and grew across all major product categories.
+               2. In June, launched Apple Card Monthly Installments for more products in US stores, allowing customers to pay for their devices overtime with 0% interest.
+                    1. Pleased with level of customer interest this new offering has generated.
+          2. In enterprise market, continues to see companies leverage Apple products and offerings to successfully navigate their businesses through COVID-19.
+          3. In healthcare, seeing rapid acceleration of telehealth to support more flexible model of patient care.
+               1. Many hospitals like UVA Health, Rush University Medical Center and UC San Diego Health are using apps on iPad and iPhone to have triage, monitor and care for patients who are at home.
+                    1. This helps free up hospital capacity to support patients who need inpatient care, while enabling continued care for patients who do not require in-person visits.
+          4. Since many call center employees are currently working remotely, Apple Business Chat has proven invaluable tool for staying connected with customers.
+               1. HSBC deployed Apple Business Chat in its US and UK contact centers.
+               2. Apple Business Chat provides flexible and secured channel for digital banking assistance through native AAPL experience, improving efficiency and experience for customers and agents.
+               3. Seeing similar adoption by hundreds of other organizations.
+     8. Cash Position:
+          1. 3Q20-end cash plus marketable securities, almost $194b.
+          2. Issued $8.5b of new term debt, retired $7.4b of term debt and increased short-term borrowing facilities by $1.1b, leaving Co. with total debt of $113b.
+          3. 3Q20-end net cash $81b.
+               1. Continues on path to reaching net cash neutral position over time.
+          4. Returned over $21b to shareholders, including:
+               1. $3.7b in dividends and equivalents.
+               2. $10b through open market repurchases of 31.3m AAPL shares.
+          5. Began $6b accelerated share repurchase program in May, resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 15.2m shares.
+          6. Retired additional [4.8m] shares in final settlement of 15th ASR.
+     9. 4Q20 Outlook:
+          1. Similar to last qtr., given uncertainty worldwide in near term, will not be issuing revenue and margin guidance.
+               1. Will provide some additional insight on expectations for product categories.
+          2. iPhone:
+               1. Expects to see recent performance continue for current product lineup, including strong customer response for iPhone SE.
+               2. Last year, started selling new iPhones in late Sept.
+                    1. This year, projects supply to be available few weeks later.
+               3. Expects rest of product categories to have strong YoverY performance.
+          3. Services:
+               1. Expects to have same trends observed during June qtr. except for Apple Care, where during Sept. qtr. year ago Co. expanded distribution significantly.
+                    1. Expects difficult comp for Apple Care, considering COVID-related point of sale closures this year.
+          4. GM:
+               1. Will have different mix than in prior years.
+          5. OpEx $9.8-9.9b.
+          6. Tax rate about 16.5%.
+          7. OI&E $50m.
+          8. Board of Directors declared cash dividend of $0.82 per share of common stock, payable on 08/15/20 to shareholders of record as of 08/10/20.
+          9. On 07/30/20, announcing four-for-one split of AAPL common stock to make stock more accessible to broader base of investors.
+               1. Each shareholder of record at close of business on 08/24/20 will receive three additional shares for every outstanding share held on record date and trading will begin on split-adjusted basis on 08/31/20.
+
+
+================================================================================
+QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L167"time="00:26:24"/>Yes. <Sync id="L168"time="00:26:24"/>That will be from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L169"time="00:26:30"/>Tim, in light of the economic adversity that you talked about in the prepared remarks, can you just walk us through how Apple's leveraging finance and trade-in programs to make technology more affordable and accessible during this period while also addressing the opportunity to recycle and reuse products and maybe also extend that to how these programs might expand over time? <Sync id="L170"time="00:26:56"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L171"time="00:26:59"/>As Luca mentioned, in June, we actually rolled out to the overwhelming balance of our other products the ability to do interest rate -- interest-free financing in our stores with payments. <Sync id="L172"time="00:27:15"/>And that's in addition to trade-in, which is becoming a more common trend now, which I think is terrific because it is great for the environment and it acts as a subsidy, if you will, against the price of a new phone. <Sync id="L173"time="00:27:35"/>And so when you compound these 2 things with the financing and the trade-in, it makes the product super affordable. <Sync id="L174"time="00:27:45"/>And we're really happy with what we're seeing in that regard.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kathryn Lynn Huberty,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - MD and Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L175"time="00:27:52"/>And then as a follow-up, just specifically to iPhone, the category returned to growth. <Sync id="L176"time="00:27:56"/>As you pointed out, the installed base is larger today. <Sync id="L177"time="00:28:02"/>Our math would suggest that replacement cycles, in some cases, are elongated. <Sync id="L178"time="00:28:07"/>And then you have the affordability element that you just discussed. <Sync id="L179"time="00:28:10"/>Does all of that combine to build confidence that we're entering a longer period of iPhone revenue growth after what's been 6 quarters of decline?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L180"time="00:28:24"/>We're very pleased with how we did on iPhone. <Sync id="L181"time="00:28:26"/>It was better than we thought largely because, as we pointed out in the prepared remarks, May and June were much better. <Sync id="L182"time="00:28:37"/>If you look at iPhone in totality, the things that get me very optimistic is the size of the active installed base. <Sync id="L183"time="00:28:47"/>The fact that if you look in the major geographies like the U.S., we had the top 2 selling smartphones. <Sync id="L184"time="00:28:54"/>In the U.K., we had 3 of the top 4. In Australia, we had 5 of the top 6. And in Japan, we had the top 4. Urban China, we were -- iPhone 11 was the top-selling smartphone in the country. <Sync id="L185"time="00:29:09"/>And so these are some very different geographies with very different competitive situations and we're doing fairly well. 
+<Sync id="L186"time="00:29:18"/>The iPhone SE, it's also clear that from the early data, we're seeing a higher switcher number than we did in the previous year, which we feel very good about. <Sync id="L187"time="00:29:30"/>And it also seemed to appeal to some people that were holding onto the device a little longer because they wanted a smaller form factor phone. <Sync id="L188"time="00:29:39"/>And so the combination of the smaller form factor and an incredibly affordable price made the iPhone SE very popular. <Sync id="L189"time="00:29:49"/>iPhone 11 is still the most popular smartphone, but iPhone SE definitely helped our results. <Sync id="L190"time="00:29:57"/>And as we -- as Lucas said in his outlook, we do see that continuing into this quarter currently.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L191"time="00:30:10"/>That will be from Krish Sankar with Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L192"time="00:30:16"/>I have 2 of them. <Sync id="L193"time="00:30:20"/>First one, Tim, when you look at the Services business and in terms of your TV+ content production, have the movement restrictions impacted the content production efforts? <Sync id="L194"time="00:30:33"/>And along the same path, 4 years ago, your premonition on Services being a $50 billion business in 2020 came sooner than expected. <Sync id="L195"time="00:30:42"/>I don't know if you want to make any such forecast 4 years out on how you think Services revenue is going to be. <Sync id="L196"time="00:30:47"/>Then I had a follow-up for Luca.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L197"time="00:30:50"/>I'm sorry. <Sync id="L198"time="00:30:50"/>I missed that second question because the audio didn't come through. <Sync id="L199"time="00:30:53"/>But I think I got to -- just to the first, and that is production has been affected for Apple TV+, as I think it has for most people. <Sync id="L200"time="00:31:06"/>We are working to get restarted. <Sync id="L201"time="00:31:09"/>I don't have a precise date yet when we will get restarted, but there will be some impact because we shut down in the March time frame and are yet to really restart in a significant way particularly for those that are shot in the L.A. area given the current status of the virus in this -- and I'm sorry, I missed your -- the second part of your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L202"time="00:31:38"/>Well, Tim, I was trying to see. <Sync id="L203"time="00:31:42"/>4 years ago, you made a great prediction that Services is going to be $50 billion by 2020. <Sync id="L204"time="00:31:48"/>I wanted to see if you have any update to the prediction 4 years down the road.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L205"time="00:31:53"/>We're not updating today. <Sync id="L206"time="00:31:55"/>We feel good. <Sync id="L207"time="00:31:56"/>We want to take the moment and feel good about achieving the doubling 6 months early. <Sync id="L208"time="00:32:04"/>And we do have, still hanging out there, as you know, the subscription number that we're shooting for later in the year at 600 million. <Sync id="L209"time="00:32:15"/>So we do have that objective out there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Krish Sankar,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L210"time="00:32:20"/>Okay. <Sync id="L211"time="00:32:21"/>If I could just squeeze in one for Luca. <Sync id="L212"time="00:32:23"/>With the strong sales in Mac given the shelter in place, do you think the back-to-school season got pulled in by a quarter? <Sync id="L213"time="00:32:30"/>Or do you expect the momentum to still continue?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L214"time="00:32:34"/>As I said when I was talking about providing some commentary for the September quarter, we expect all the non-iPhone product categories to have a very strong year-over-year performance. <Sync id="L215"time="00:32:48"/>So we definitely -- I mean the back-to-school season is clearly this one. <Sync id="L216"time="00:32:54"/>And we're very excited not only for the Mac but also for the iPad. <Sync id="L217"time="00:33:00"/>We got a fantastic lineup of products, and we know that these products are incredibly relevant especially given the current circumstances. <Sync id="L218"time="00:33:11"/>So we expect the performance that we've seen for Mac in the June quarter to continue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L219"time="00:33:22"/>From Cross Research, we'll hear from Shannon Cross.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L220"time="00:33:28"/>Tim, can you talk a bit about what you're seeing in China? <Sync id="L221"time="00:33:33"/>I know the revenue was up 2%, and I think Luca talked about record iPad. <Sync id="L222"time="00:33:37"/>But just curious as to -- given their 5G is a bit ahead, how you're seeing the market play out. <Sync id="L223"time="00:33:43"/>And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L224"time="00:33:45"/>Yes. <Sync id="L225"time="00:33:46"/>Shannon, the growth that -- we did see growth in Greater China for the quarter of 2%. <Sync id="L226"time="00:33:53"/>Currency affected China a bit more than in other places. <Sync id="L227"time="00:33:57"/>It affected 400 basis points, and so in constant currency, we would have grown at 6%. <Sync id="L228"time="00:34:04"/>As I'd mentioned before, the iPhone 11 has been our best-selling phone and has been #1 in Urban China, and so we're very, very proud of that. <Sync id="L229"time="00:34:16"/>iPad was helped in the June quarter there by the work-from-home and distance learning as it was in other geographies, and the Mac also grew strong double digit during the quarter. <Sync id="L230"time="00:34:35"/>And Services set a new June quarter record there. <Sync id="L231"time="00:34:40"/>We also continue to see extremely high new customer rates on Mac and iPad there. <Sync id="L232"time="00:34:47"/>To give you a perspective, about 3 out of 4 customers that are buying the Mac are new in China, and about 2 out of 3 that are buying the iPad are new. <Sync id="L233"time="00:34:58"/>And so these are numbers that we're super proud of.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shannon Siemsen Cross,  Cross Research LLC - Co-Founder, Principal & Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L234"time="00:35:04"/>Great. <Sync id="L235"time="00:35:05"/>And then can you talk a little bit more about the decision to bring Mac silicon in-house and the benefits that you expect to see or you've seen from vertical integration of acquisitions like the Intel modem business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L236"time="00:35:20"/>Yes. <Sync id="L237"time="00:35:20"/>I mean what we wound up -- what we'll wind up with is a common architecture across all of our products, which gives us some interesting things that we can do in products that are -- that it sort of unleashes another round of innovation. <Sync id="L238"time="00:35:38"/>And so I don't want to say a lot about it other than we're extremely excited about it. <Sync id="L239"time="00:35:47"/>It's something that we've worked on quite a while to get to this point, and we're looking forward to shipping the first Mac with Apple silicon later in the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L240"time="00:36:00"/>That will come from Amit Daryanani with Evercore.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L241"time="00:36:08"/>I have one and a follow-up as well. <Sync id="L242"time="00:36:13"/>So first one, I guess, Tim, if I think about the strength you're seeing with iPhones right now, do you have a sense in terms of where is this trend coming from? <Sync id="L243"time="00:36:20"/>Is it more replacement cycles getting shorter? <Sync id="L244"time="00:36:22"/>Or are we just getting new customers into the iOS ecosystem? <Sync id="L245"time="00:36:25"/>Because clearly, these growth rates seem fairly impressive in the context of a pandemic and the upcoming refresh cycle that we have.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L246"time="00:36:34"/>I think, Amit, it's a combination of a strong launch with iPhone SE and in some -- probably some pickup because of the economic stimulus that hit different countries at different points in time and probably some of the reopening that took place across the quarter, particularly in May and June, as stores started to reopen. <Sync id="L247"time="00:37:01"/>And so it's a combination of all of those. <Sync id="L248"time="00:37:04"/>And as you know, we've been having a strong cycle with the iPhone 11 and the 11 Pro. <Sync id="L249"time="00:37:12"/>And so when you combine the -- a strong cycle plus an iPhone SE launch plus the reopening of the stores, et cetera, I think there were a lot of things that were going in the right direction there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Amit Jawaharlaz Daryanani,  Evercore ISI Institutional Equities, Research Division - Senior MD & Fundamental Research Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L250"time="00:37:30"/>Perfect. <Sync id="L251"time="00:37:31"/>That's helpful. <Sync id="L252"time="00:37:32"/>And I guess, Luca, if I could just follow up with you. <Sync id="L253"time="00:37:33"/>I'd love to get your perspective on how do we think about the overall 38% gross margins. <Sync id="L254"time="00:37:39"/>What do you think are the levers to improve this as you go forward, not really September quarter but over the next 1 or 2 years? <Sync id="L255"time="00:37:46"/>And in that context, do you see a point where the product gross margins start to stabilize because they have been trending somewhat lower for the last couple of quarters now?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L256"time="00:37:56"/>Yes. <Sync id="L257"time="00:37:56"/>Let me start with what we've seen during the June quarter. <Sync id="L258"time="00:38:02"/>We were -- at 38%, we were down slightly sequentially but up the same amount on a year-over-year basis. <Sync id="L259"time="00:38:12"/>And really, the big negative impact that we felt for several quarters now has been the strength of the U.S. dollar. <Sync id="L260"time="00:38:21"/>So the foreign exchange impact on a sequential basis was 90 basis points, on a year-over-year basis was 130 basis points. <Sync id="L261"time="00:38:31"/>So obviously, that is something to keep in mind. <Sync id="L262"time="00:38:35"/>And then the other aspect, I think it's always important to keep in mind, Amit, is that we sell many different products. <Sync id="L263"time="00:38:44"/>They have different margin profiles. <Sync id="L264"time="00:38:45"/>And so sometimes, a different mix can have an impact on the aggregate level of products' gross margins. <Sync id="L265"time="00:38:54"/>And we're very pleased to see the performance of Mac, iPad and wearables, but obviously, it's a different mix. 
+<Sync id="L266"time="00:39:04"/>Going forward, the variables are always the same. <Sync id="L267"time="00:39:10"/>It's -- the foreign exchange will continue to play an impact. <Sync id="L268"time="00:39:15"/>The mix of products that we're going to be selling will have an impact as well. <Sync id="L269"time="00:39:22"/>The commodities market has been relatively benign, and we'll see how that plays out over time. <Sync id="L270"time="00:39:31"/>As you know now for several years, we've been managing gross margin, I would say, fairly well in spite of some difficult situations like the one with the strength of the dollar, and we plan to continue to make good trade-off decisions between revenue and units and margins.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L271"time="00:39:55"/>That will come from Kyle McNealy with Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kyle P. McNealy,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Equity Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L272"time="00:40:06"/>Our team in Asia, recently, we did some survey work on smartphones in China. <Sync id="L273"time="00:40:11"/>It showed that there's still a high proportion of the installed bases on 6, 7 and 8 devices. <Sync id="L274"time="00:40:17"/>I know you talked about the trade-in programs and promotions that you've been doing there. <Sync id="L275"time="00:40:21"/>I wonder if you can tell us whether there's anything else that you're doing to get these customers into your latest technology. <Sync id="L276"time="00:40:28"/>What might those customers be looking for? <Sync id="L277"time="00:40:29"/>And how should we think about when an upgrade cycle might come on more strongly there in China?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L278"time="00:40:35"/>Customers upgrade at different -- at a different pace, and I don't have in front of me the exact installed base data from China. <Sync id="L279"time="00:40:47"/>But I mean much like in other geographies, the upgrades have extended some. <Sync id="L280"time="00:40:52"/>It extended some during the depths, if you will, of the pandemic in China and the rest of the world and probably, to some degree, is happening still at this point. <Sync id="L281"time="00:41:10"/>The key things that we can do is keep innovating, deliver a product that people can't imagine going through life without and obviously keep rolling out these programs that make the front-end purchase be much less. <Sync id="L282"time="00:41:30"/>And this is things like the financing and the trade-in programs that you mentioned. <Sync id="L283"time="00:41:35"/>And I do feel like those are going quite good in a number of geographies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kyle P. McNealy,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Equity Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L284"time="00:41:43"/>Okay. <Sync id="L285"time="00:41:43"/>Great. <Sync id="L286"time="00:41:43"/>And one more, if I may. <Sync id="L287"time="00:41:46"/>Congrats again on the strong iPad and Mac results. <Sync id="L288"time="00:41:48"/>That's really impressive. <Sync id="L289"time="00:41:50"/>I guess the obvious question is, should we ever think about how much of that might be pulled forward and what might it do to future upgrades in the next 2 years? <Sync id="L290"time="00:41:58"/>Anything else you can share on how you think about growth from here or whether there's a hangover period maybe after the back-to-school season or holiday season, that would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L291"time="00:42:10"/>The installed base is growing, and the new customer numbers that Luca went over in the aggregate are still very high in the -- close to 50% kind of range. <Sync id="L292"time="00:42:22"/>And so that, to me, makes the -- bodes well for the future. <Sync id="L293"time="00:42:28"/>There's clearly -- as we had indicated, there's some amount of work from home and remote learning that do affect the results of Mac and iPad positively. <Sync id="L294"time="00:42:42"/>They probably affect wearables and iPhone the other direction and -- but on Mac and iPad, these are productivity tools that people are using to stay engaged with their work or stay engaged with their school work. <Sync id="L295"time="00:42:59"/>And we believe we're going to have a strong back-to-school season. <Sync id="L296"time="00:43:05"/>Sitting here today, it certainly looks like that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L297"time="00:43:18"/>That will come from Cleveland Research's Ben Bollin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Benjamin James Bollin,  Cleveland Research Company - Senior Research Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L298"time="00:43:25"/>Tim, I was hoping you could share a little bit about where you think channel inventory is. <Sync id="L299"time="00:43:30"/>You talked about the tightness you saw exiting the June quarter for Mac and iPad. <Sync id="L300"time="00:43:36"/>Interested where you think inventory is across major product categories. <Sync id="L301"time="00:43:41"/>And then I had a follow-up for Luca.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L302"time="00:43:44"/>We -- usually, we've gotten away from talking about channel inventories. <Sync id="L303"time="00:43:48"/>But to give you a perspective, sitting here, looking at it, on iPhone, the inventory is slightly less than it was a year ago. <Sync id="L304"time="00:43:56"/>And that's -- I'm saying that at a quarter end point, so at the end of Q3. <Sync id="L305"time="00:44:03"/>And obviously, iPad and Mac are constrained, and so both of those are less than they were in the year-ago quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Benjamin James Bollin,  Cleveland Research Company - Senior Research Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L306"time="00:44:16"/>Okay. <Sync id="L307"time="00:44:16"/>And then, Luca, I'm interested. <Sync id="L308"time="00:44:18"/>Any color you could share about the impact COVID had on OpEx in the quarter, be it work-from-home stipends, less travel, other employee support costs? <Sync id="L309"time="00:44:29"/>And also, how the company is thinking about the longer-term opportunity of employees working remotely maybe more permanently and any considerations on how that could influence future OpEx.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L310"time="00:44:40"/>Well, on the OpEx front, there have been obviously certain things that have been affected in terms of cost reductions. <Sync id="L311"time="00:44:53"/>Obviously, travel is a perfect example. <Sync id="L312"time="00:44:58"/>The number of meetings that we had internally, some of those costs have been reduced. <Sync id="L313"time="00:45:04"/>We've also invested heavily in initiatives. <Sync id="L314"time="00:45:10"/>For example, we're really trying to help during very difficult circumstances. <Sync id="L315"time="00:45:16"/>For example, we have had a program, for example, where we match our employee donations. <Sync id="L316"time="00:45:22"/>We made donations directly as a company around the world to many institutions and governments. <Sync id="L317"time="00:45:29"/>On a net basis, I would say probably, the costs have outweighed the savings both during the March and the June quarter, but we think it's absolutely the right thing to do. 
+<Sync id="L318"time="00:45:44"/>From an employee perspective, what we said so far is that here in the United States, most -- the majority of our population will continue to work from home until the end of the year. <Sync id="L319"time="00:46:01"/>And then we'll see. <Sync id="L320"time="00:46:01"/>I mean we've taken an approach that we try to understand how the virus is evolving over time. <Sync id="L321"time="00:46:10"/>We've taken a very cautious approach both with our corporate facilities and with our retail stores. <Sync id="L322"time="00:46:16"/>I think what you've seen with retail stores is that we have reopened in a number of geographies around the world. <Sync id="L323"time="00:46:25"/>We've reopened here in the United States. <Sync id="L324"time="00:46:27"/>We've had to reclose some of the stores here in the United States as the number of cases has gone up, and we will continue to track how the virus is doing. <Sync id="L325"time="00:46:38"/>And hopefully, at some point, we're going to get to a point where there is a vaccine or there is a cure. <Sync id="L326"time="00:46:46"/>And so we'll make those decisions as we get more information.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L327"time="00:46:58"/>That will be from Jeriel Ong with Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kanghui Ong,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - Research Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L328"time="00:47:03"/>I have 2 questions as well. <Sync id="L329"time="00:47:04"/>I'd like to focus on the gross margin expansion within the Services line, all-time record for the quarter. <Sync id="L330"time="00:47:12"/>I'm just curious whether you think that will sustain. <Sync id="L331"time="00:47:16"/>I understand within Services, there's a pretty wide range of gross margins by business, and I'm wondering if that should continue to improve.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L332"time="00:47:25"/>Well, as you've seen, obviously, we've had a sequential expansion in gross margin for Services, and that was driven primarily by mix, as you said, right? <Sync id="L333"time="00:47:38"/>We have a very broad portfolio. <Sync id="L334"time="00:47:40"/>And depending on which one of the services does better, then we have an impact on Services gross margins. <Sync id="L335"time="00:47:49"/>We like the Services business because it's a recurring type of revenue and the margins are accretive to company margin. <Sync id="L336"time="00:48:02"/>We did over 67% this quarter. <Sync id="L337"time="00:48:07"/>But we want to offer very competitive services across the board, and the same -- I think I'm going to make the same comments that I made on products. <Sync id="L338"time="00:48:20"/>What matters to us is to be successful with everything that we do and provide great products and services to our customers. <Sync id="L339"time="00:48:26"/>So the relative success of our products and services in the marketplace will drive, to a certain extent, what our margins are. <Sync id="L340"time="00:48:37"/>That's -- the margins are a by-product of our success in the marketplace.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kanghui Ong,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - Research Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L341"time="00:48:45"/>Got it. <Sync id="L342"time="00:48:45"/>I really appreciate that. <Sync id="L343"time="00:48:47"/>And I wanted to ask a question on the wearables segment. <Sync id="L344"time="00:48:51"/>It seems to me that you're categorizing the wearables business as maybe being a little bit impacted by pandemic similar to the iPhones. <Sync id="L345"time="00:49:01"/>And it's the first time that wearables hasn't materially upsided in at least a while in recent memory. <Sync id="L346"time="00:49:09"/>I guess the drivers of wearables being Watch and -- predominantly Watch and AirPods, what are your thoughts going forward on whether there's a little bit of pent-up demand perhaps that might resume as we get back to a more normalized environment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L347"time="00:49:23"/>I think on the Watch, in particular, is like the iPhone, more affected by store closures because people -- some people want to try on the Watch and see what it looks like, look at different band choices and those sorts of things. <Sync id="L348"time="00:49:45"/>So I think as stores closed, it puts more pressure on that. <Sync id="L349"time="00:49:51"/>I was -- we did come out sort of the way we told you last quarter. <Sync id="L350"time="00:49:57"/>We were going to come out from a -- from the color that we gave you. <Sync id="L351"time="00:50:01"/>So we knew things would decelerate because of the closures. <Sync id="L352"time="00:50:04"/>So we wound up being very pleased with how we did, but the store closures definitely affect the wearables and the iPhone.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L353"time="00:50:20"/>That will come from Jim Suva with Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc., Research Division - MD & Research Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L354"time="00:50:31"/>And I have 2 questions. <Sync id="L355"time="00:50:32"/>I'll ask them at the same time, and it's one for Tim and one for Luca. <Sync id="L356"time="00:50:38"/>Tim, the coronavirus -- your company has done a fantastic job at overcoming the hurdle. <Sync id="L357"time="00:50:43"/>So congratulations to you. <Sync id="L358"time="00:50:44"/>As you look forward, say, to the Christmas holiday shopping season and given the economic challenges around the world of where is coronavirus and your product launches and things like that, can you give any commentary maybe how this Christmas, you're looking forward to see maybe some past cycles of Christmas of a line-up? <Sync id="L359"time="00:51:03"/>Because it just seems like it's a little bit different, but Apple is really showing a lot more strength coming into this Christmas than maybe some of the past years. 
+<Sync id="L360"time="00:51:12"/>And then for Luca. <Sync id="L361"time="00:51:13"/>I think today, a quick comment, Luca, that -- you mentioned something about a few weeks later. <Sync id="L362"time="00:51:19"/>Was that for like iPhone, iPhone chips or product launches? <Sync id="L363"time="00:51:25"/>Or maybe expound upon that. <Sync id="L364"time="00:51:27"/>I know things are more difficult but I didn't quite get the commentary. <Sync id="L365"time="00:51:29"/>It was in your prepared comments, Luca, about a few weeks later. <Sync id="L366"time="00:51:34"/>Let's just do a quick little blurb.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L367"time="00:51:38"/>Yes, we're -- we take it one quarter at a time, and so we'll give you a color on the December quarter in October. <Sync id="L368"time="00:51:49"/>Generally speaking, I think we need to see a vaccine or therapeutic or both, and there's some optimism around that in that particular time frame. <Sync id="L369"time="00:52:03"/>And so we'll see. <Sync id="L370"time="00:52:04"/>I don't have any information that isn't publicly available there, but I think that would boost consumer confidence quite a bit if it began to happen. <Sync id="L371"time="00:52:18"/>And I think that any kind of consumer stock company would benefit from that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Luca Maestri,  Apple Inc. - CFO & Senior VP    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L372"time="00:52:24"/>And Jim, on the iPhone, I said in my remarks that we launched -- a year ago, we launched the new iPhone in late September. <Sync id="L373"time="00:52:35"/>So I was referring to the new product. <Sync id="L374"time="00:52:38"/>And I said that this year, the supply of the new product will be a few weeks later than that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jim Suva,  Citigroup Inc., Research Division - MD & Research Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L375"time="00:52:47"/>Congratulations to you and your entire organization and teams.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L376"time="00:52:55"/>That will come from Wamsi Mohan with Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L377"time="00:53:04"/>I was wondering if you can maybe comment on the penetration of Apple Card users in the iOS installed base. <Sync id="L378"time="00:53:11"/>And have you seen any change in the buying behavior of Apple Card users in terms of accelerating spend on more Apple products and services? <Sync id="L379"time="00:53:19"/>And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L380"time="00:53:21"/>We saw changes in consumer spending as the shutdowns occurred and as the store closures occurred. <Sync id="L381"time="00:53:31"/>We could see that across the Card. <Sync id="L382"time="00:53:35"/>It affected the categories that you would guess the most, like travel and entertainment, et cetera. <Sync id="L383"time="00:53:45"/>But overall, if you sort of pull the lens out on the Apple Card, we're very happy with the number of people that have the Apple Card. <Sync id="L384"time="00:53:57"/>We believe, based on what we've heard, that it's the fastest rollout in the history of credit cards, and so we feel very good about that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wamsi Mohan,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L385"time="00:54:09"/>Okay, Tim. <Sync id="L386"time="00:54:10"/>And as a follow-up, now that Apple has Apple silicon for Macs, would you ever consider monetizing this as a merchant silicon vendor? <Sync id="L387"time="00:54:20"/>Or is this going to be forever for Apple use?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy D. Cook,  Apple Inc. - CEO & Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L388"time="00:54:26"/>Well, I don't want to make a forever comment but there are -- we're a product company and we love making the whole thing and -- because we can own the user experience in that way and with the goal of delighting the user. <Sync id="L389"time="00:54:42"/>And that's the reason that we're doing the Apple silicon is because we can envision some products that we can achieve with Apple silicon that we couldn't achieve otherwise. <Sync id="L390"time="00:54:54"/>And so that's how we look at it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tejas Gala,  Apple Inc. - IR Contact    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L391"time="00:55:01"/>Thank you, Wamsi. <Sync id="L392"time="00:55:02"/>A replay of today's call will be available for 2 weeks on Apple Podcasts, as a webcast on apple.com/investor, and via telephone. <Sync id="L393"time="00:55:12"/>The numbers for the telephone replay are (888) 203-1112 or (719) 457-0820. <Sync id="L394"time="00:55:22"/>Please enter confirmation code 2630782. <Sync id="L395"time="00:55:24"/>These replays will be available by approximately 5 p.m. <Sync id="L396"time="00:55:24"/>Pacific Time today. <Sync id="L397"time="00:55:33"/>Members of the press with additional questions can contact Kristin Huguet at (408) 974-2414. <Sync id="L398"time="00:55:41"/>Financial analysts can contact me with additional questions at (669) 227-2402. <Sync id="L399"time="00:55:48"/>Thank you again for joining us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          <Sync id="L400"time="00:55:52"/>And again, that will conclude today's conference.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Disclaimer
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcripts/AMD/2016-Apr-21-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,880 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2016 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 21, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Lisa Su
+   AMD - President and CEO
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   AMD - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer
+ * Ruth Cotter
+   AMD - SVP Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Mark Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * Sidney Ho
+   Deutsche Bank - Analyst
+ * Shankar Iyer
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * John Pitzer
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * Jaguar Bajwa
+   Arete Research - Analyst
+ * Suji Desilva
+   Topeka Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Bill Peterson
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Hans Mosesmann
+   Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst
+ * Stacy Rasgon
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * David Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst
+ * Vijay Rakesh
+   Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst
+ * Ian Ing
+   MKM Partners - Analyst
+ * Joe Moore
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Kevin Cassidy
+   Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst
+ * Deepon Nag
+   Macquarie Research - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices first-quarter 2016 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this is being recorded.
+It is now my pleasure to introduce your host Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President, Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, Ms. Cotter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  AMD - SVP Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you and welcome to AMD's first-quarter conference call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary in slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at ir.amd.com.
+Participants on today's conference call are Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on amd.com.
+I would like to highlight a few dates for you. Devinder Kumar will present at the JPMorgan Global Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference on May 24 in Boston. And our second-quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, June 17, 2016.
+Before we begin, let me remind everyone that first-quarter 2016 was a 13-week quarter for AMD and we expect to record our extra week in the fourth quarter of 2016. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectation.
+Please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP figures during this call, except for revenue, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the press release and CFO commentary posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.amd.com.
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors and our filings with the SEC, and in particular AMD's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 26, 2015.
+Now with that, I would like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Ruth, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. Our strategy to improve our business by gaining share in the graphics and PC markets, growing our semi-custom business, and expanding into the data center market is progressing as planned. First-quarter revenue decreased in line with expectations to $832 million, driven largely by an anticipated reduction in semi-custom shipments.
+Looking at our computing and graphics segment, against the backdrop of one of the largest sequential Q4-to-Q1 declines in the PC industry and ongoing softness in the Chinese PC market, we continue to execute our multi-quarter plan to improve the financial performance of this part of our business.
+Revenue decreased 2% sequentially, as improved notebook processor, desktop GPU, and professional graphics sales offset declines for our other PC products. We reduced our operating loss from the prior quarter, outperformed the PC market, and believe we regained processor and GPU share. Importantly, we accomplished this while maintaining our disciplined approach to managing inventory in the quarter, as our inventories with M&Cs and downstream channel partners were flat to slightly down sequentially.
+We had our second straight quarter of double-digit sequential percentage growth in mobile APU sales. We began shipping our seventh-generation Bristol Ridge APUs in March, and have secured new design wins that continue our expansion into more premium notebook offerings, including HP's new Envy x360 convertible notebook. Compared to our previous-generation 15-watt APU mobile offering, Bristol Ridge delivered a 20% improvement in our already industry-leading graphics performance and up to 20% CPU performance uplift.
+In graphics, we delivered a strong sequential double-digit percentage increase in desktop discrete unit shipments, largely driven by increased sales of our Radeon 300 series GPUs in the channel. Our investments in graphics and our focus on creating industry-leading drivers and software are starting to pay off. We have delivered seven new graphics drivers releases in the first quarter alone, not only improving the performance and user experience of our GPUs, but also adding support for new AAA game titles and features like our innovative XConnect external GPU technology.
+We expect to grow our investment in graphics throughout the year as we further update our graphics software and extend our leadership in Direct X12 gaming and VR. We believe VR will be a key long-term demand driver for AMD across both our consumer and professional graphics offerings, especially as content creators require more powerful GPUs to create fully immersive VR experiences.
+To capitalize on this trend, I am proud to share that we plan to launch the industry's most powerful platform for VR creation and consumption at the end of this month, when we introduce the $1,500 Radeon Pro Duo.
+We remain on track to introduce our new 14 nanometer FinFET-based Polaris GPUs midyear. Polaris delivers double the performance per watt of our current mainstream offerings, which we believe provides us with significant opportunities to gain share.
+Now, turning to our enterprise embedded and semi-custom segment. Revenue declined 24% sequentially due to lower semi-custom sales. Based on our current visibility, we expect semi-custom unit shipments and revenue to grow on an annual basis based on strong demand for game consoles and the ramp of our previously announced new business in the second half of the year.
+In embedded, we secured new designs across our target markets. Highlights from the quarter include our first significant CPU design win with one of the leading network infrastructure providers.
+I am also pleased to share that we are making excellent progress on our strategy to reestablish our presence in the data center market as we successfully passed several key milestones related to our next-generation Zen-based server processor. The Zen silicon running in our bring-up labs is meeting our expectations, and priority customer sampling is on track to begin this quarter in advance of data center system availability in 2017.
+Our EESC results in the quarter also benefited from the latest step in our strategic IP monetization efforts. As we've disclosed earlier today, we have licensed high-performance microprocessor technologies to a newly created JV we formed with THATIC. The JV will develop SoCs tailored to the Chinese server market. The $293 million licensing agreement is a great example of how our IP monetization efforts can accelerate the adoption of AMD technologies in key markets while also strengthening our balance sheet and financial results.
+Today's announcement is a key part of our overall strategy to reenter the data center market, with the JV providing AMD with a differentiated approach to gain share in the fastest-growing regional server market.
+In closing, we are making steady progress on the clear strategy we have developed to return AMD to growth and profitability through delivering great products. We are executing well to our product and technology roadmaps, including the introduction of our seventh-generation APUs, our midyear launch of new Polaris GPUs, and our future Zen-based processors.
+As we enter into the second quarter, we see strong demand for our semi-custom and graphics products, which we believe will lead to stronger-than-seasonal sequential revenue growth. For the full year, we are confident that our product portfolio and business execution can further strengthen our financial results and enable us to grow annual revenue and return to non-GAAP operating profitability in the second half of the year.
+Longer term, we expect the strong customer interest in AMD's data center offerings will result in new design wins that can deliver profitable revenue growth in 2017 and beyond.
+Now, I would like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our first-quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. From a financial perspective, the first quarter came in as expected. We continued funding our roadmap products and also made progress on our IP monetization strategy with the execution of a licensing agreement that is expected to generate $293 million of cash before tax, contingent upon achieving certain milestones.
+Let me review the results for the first quarter. As a reminder, our first fiscal quarter was a 13-week quarter. Revenue was $832 million, down 13% sequentially, driven primarily by lower sales of semi-custom SoCs. The year-over-year decline was 19% due primarily to lower sales of semi-custom SoCs and client notebook processors.
+Gross margin was 32%, a 2 percentage point improvement from the prior quarter due primarily to a more favorable product mix and a mix of revenue between the business segments. Operating expenses were $332 million, up $9 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to increased R&D expenses related to new products, partially offset by lower SG&A expenses. Operating expenses were $12 million higher than guided, primarily due to the timing of mass and hardware for our new products and some incremental investments in graphics.
+Operating loss was $55 million and net loss was $96 million, with loss per share of $0.12, calculated using 793 million shares. We recognized a $7 million licensing gain associated with our IP monetization efforts in the quarter.
+Net interest, other expense, and taxes were $41 million in the quarter, down from $53 million in the prior quarter, primarily due to a $13 million tax settlement in Q4 2015, which was included in the GAAP results. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $22 million compared to negative $5 million in the prior quarter.
+Now turning to the business segments. Computing and graphics revenue was $460 million, down 2% from the prior quarter, primarily due to lower desktop processor sales. Computing and graphics segment operating loss was $70 million compared to $99 million the prior quarter, primarily due to decreased operating expenses.
+Enterprise, embedded, and semi-custom revenue was $372 million, down 24% from the prior quarter, primarily due to lower sales of our semi-custom SoCs. The operating income of this segment was $16 million, down from $59 million the prior quarter, driven primarily by lower revenue and higher R&D expenses, partially offset by the IP licensing gains.
+Turning to the balance sheet, our cash and cash equivalents totaled $716 million at the end of the quarter, down $69 million from the end of the prior quarter, primarily due to lower sales and higher debt interest payments of $69 million in Q1. Additionally, our Q1 results include $52 million net of taxes received from our IP licensing agreement. Inventory was $675 million, down $3 million from the end of the prior quarter.
+Total wafer purchases from GLOBALFOUNDRIES in the first quarter were $183 million, including $155 million related to the 2015 WSA amendment taken in Q1 2016. Debt as of the end of the quarter was $2.24 billion, flat from the end of the prior quarter, including total borrowings of $230 million on our secured revolving line of credit, unchanged from the prior quarter. Free cash flow in the first quarter was negative $68 million compared to a positive $27 million in the fourth quarter of 2015.
+Before providing our outlook for the second quarter, let me provide an update on our ATMP joint venture with Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics. Earlier this month, NFME's shareholders approved the transaction and we are currently in the final stages of obtaining regulatory approvals and expect to close the transaction this quarter.
+Now turning to our outlook, which is based on a 13-fiscal-week quarter. For the second quarter of 2016, we expect revenue to increase 15% sequentially, plus or minus 3%, driven by a strong demand for our semi-custom and graphics products.; non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 31%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $335 million; IP monetization licensing gain to be approximately $25 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes, and other to be approximately $45 million, including approximately $3 million of taxes related to the IP licensing game; cash and cash equivalents to be approximately $950 million, including approximately $320 million related to our ATMP joint venture; inventory to be up slightly from first-quarter levels.
+For the full-year 2016, we continue to expect revenue to grow year over year, to be non-GAAP operating profitable in the second half of 2016, and to generate positive free cash flow from operations for 2016. Also, we now expect non-GAAP operating expenses to be between $330 million and $350 million per quarter; IP monetization licensing gain of approximately $52 million, with $7 million already recognized in Q1 2016; and capital expenditures of approximately $80 million. For the rest the full-year 2016 outlook, please refer to the written CFO commentary document posted on amd.com.
+In closing, we continue to strengthen AMD's core business while leveraging our IP and technology. As we look to the rest of the year, we are focused on introducing compelling new products, regaining market share, and improving our financial performance.
+With that, I will turn it back to Ruth. Ruth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  AMD - SVP Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we would be very happy for you to poll the audience for questions, please.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Mark Lipacis, Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my question. I guess this is one of the most exciting developments that we've heard about in awhile, the license agreement. And I was hoping that you could maybe provide some more color on that.
+Could you help us understand, maybe just go back in time and just explain the cross-license agreement that you have with Intel? What should investors understand about that and assessing any kind of a risk associated with this IP agreement? Do you need to get -- do you check in -- do you tell Intel that this is going on, did you get clearance from them, or is this something that you just kind of run with?
+And when do you -- do you have to wait for like regulatory approval to get this through? Or -- how should we think about timing and milestones? That is a lot of questions. I will stop there. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, Mark. This is Lisa. Thank you for your question. Regarding the JV that we just announced, yes, we are very excited about it, partnering with THATIC, and really focusing on the Chinese market for server processors.
+What we are licensing in this agreement is microprocessor technologies and system-on-chip technologies, all of the technologies, licensed our AMD technologies. So there are no encumbrances from that standpoint.
+We have closed on the deal and we are starting execution of the deal. So we've talked about, from a financial standpoint, there is a $293 million licensing payment over a number of years. What we expect is the first payment we received in the first quarter of $50 million-ish, and we expect that over the first two years that about half of the licensing payments would be paid upon completion of some development milestones.
+So overall for us, I've talked about IP monetization in a very broad sense. For us, that includes patents as well as technology licensing. This one is very positive for us, not just from the standpoint that it leverages our IP, but it also gives us a very key partner in the Chinese market, which we all believe is going to be very, very important for data center growth going forward. So hopefully I addressed your questions there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and if I may, just one quick follow-up. Are you of the view that you just can go and hit the ground running? I guess you do, because you are expecting a $50 million payment right away. But do you feel that -- is there any risk in the regulatory front on this deal? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We don't expect any risk on the regulatory front. We believe that the technologies that we are licensing are compliant with all of the regulations -- the US regulatory issues. And I would also say that the joint venture is starting and we do believe that we will execute quickly.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          David Wong, Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Could you give us some idea? You called out your sequential growth guidance was in part due to graphics. Are you able to give us any feel for what sequential growth in graphics your guidance assumes?
+And what products are driving the sequential growth? Does this come from Polaris? Or do Polaris revenues start after the June quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So David, our sequential guidance, as we mentioned, is due to both semi-custom and graphics. I would say it is more heavily weighted on semi-custom.
+But if you look at our graphics progression over the last couple of quarters, even though Q1 is normally a weaker market than Q4, we grew units overall in the desktop graphics business. So we believe that was on some of the strength of some of our new software work and our work with the ecosystem.
+So going into the second quarter, again, we believe that we have an opportunity in graphics to drive some volume. Polaris is on track to launch in the middle of the year and we will expect that will drive -- further strengthen the second half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And just a clarification. You mentioned $53 million license gain, but if I understand correctly, your guidance is for $25 million in the second quarter. Is that part of that $53 million? Or is that something different?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          David, I can take that. So the total proceeds in the Q1 time frame are $57 million, but there are some taxes related to that. So the net cash [will result] $52 million. We recognized $7 million in Q1 of 2016. We are recognizing $25 million in Q2, and then the rest of it will be over the second half of 2016, which is the balance, $20 million.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hans Mosesmann, Raymond James.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Mosesmann,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you give us a sense on Zen, based on you're hitting all your performance milestones, what part of the server market are you addressing? What's the size of the opportunity? And I am assuming that you can go after both enterprise and data center because it is an x86.  Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. We are pleased with the progress on Zen. Obviously, there are lots of engineering milestones to pass, but a key one is that we are on track to sample to our priority customers in the second quarter.
+In terms of the markets that we can address, yes, we do believe that Zen has broad applicability across enterprise and data center. And we will continue to work with both OEMs and ODMs to ensure that they have the right boards and platforms for our products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Mosesmann,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Joe Moore, Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wonder if you could talk a little bit about how the JV is going to be set up over time. Will you compete with them with standard products within China, or is there some kind of dividing of the market? And will they be manufacturing the products through their own foundry relationships or will you be delivering them manufactured product?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, so the way to think about it is the JV roadmap will be a complementary roadmap to our own server roadmap, so we think there will be enough differentiation. But taken as a whole, it will be a compelling roadmap.
+In terms of foundries, I think we are not ready to talk about foundries. But we will update more about the products as we get further into the execution.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And will the monetization of this over time -- I mean, you mentioned that there is a royalty component as well. Will most of the monetization come from the licensing? Or do you think the royalty portion could be of similar size down the road?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I would say that it is probably a bit early to call that. The licensing payment is well understood. The royalties will come over time, depending on the strength of the products and the number of products that are being done.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ian Ing, MKM Partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First question on the server JV. Your products are going to go up against [decent incumbency] in the China server market, so how advantaged do you think this JV will be in terms of perhaps being a locally sourced product? Are there other advantages that this JV would bring to the table to address the incumbency?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think we believe that there is a large opportunity in the data center market across the board. That is why we are investing so much in Zen and its follow ons. As it relates to the China JV that we are doing with THATIC, I think there is a -- certainly a benefit to having someone local that has experience in the market and knowledge of the market. And THATIC is an investment consortium that is partially led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
+So we think that both from a technical and a commercial standpoint, they will be a value-added partner in this joint venture.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. And for my follow-up, for your June guidance, you are getting some strength in from this new semi-custom ramp. How sustained should we think that ramp to be? And is it a seasonal ramp? Does it come back every year? Any granularity would help. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          As it relates to our guidance for the second quarter and then the full year, if you think about the semi-custom business in the last few years, the third quarter is always the peak. And it will be the peak this year as well. We are starting some of the ramp in the second quarter as we build up to the stronger third quarter.
+But overall, I think we feel good about the semi-custom business. The business overall will grow year on year as a result of the product momentum we have.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thanks. I will re-queue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Vivek Arya, Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shankar Iyer,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Shankar on behalf of Vivek. I have a question on the gross margins. Given the strong growth in Q2, why isn't the gross margin growing? And longer term, what are the levers behind the gross margin? Can it grow from 32% to 35%, 40%, and what do you have to do get there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think if you look at the business in particular, as I said even in my prepared remarks, you have gross margin levers. But one of the things that obviously comes into play is the mix of business between the semi-custom business or the EESC business, and then the CG business. So that obviously comes in play, as Lisa said.
+We have the growth with our guidance for revenue in Q2, and it is weighted towards the semi-custom business in addition to the growth that we are seeing in graphics. And that is primarily what is driving the guidance at 31% as compared to where we came in in Q1 at the 32% level.
+And then as far as the levels going on from there, I think it partly is a mix of the business overall from a viewpoint of the semi-custom business and other businesses. But also the continuing investment we are making in the roadmaps, as you see from our OpEx guidance for the rest of the year, as we want to go ahead and invest in products, in graphics, and other areas that will help us improve the gross margin. And then getting into later on when the Zen product is introduced, having even higher gross margin compared to where we are today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shankar Iyer,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it, thanks. As a follow-up on the semi-custom side, the -- didn't some embedded revenue will likely come in in the second half? Like you guided before -- $1 billion of total revenue spread over, I think, three years. How much of the second-half growth in semi-custom comes from embedded versus semi-custom?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So maybe let me give you some explanation on that. So the semi-custom, if you -- just to recap on what we've said about the semi-custom designs in the past, we have a total of three design wins that have a lifetime revenue of about -- let's call it $1.5 billion or greater. And that will come across over the next three to four years. In addition, we have our current game console business as well.
+So when you look at the aggregate of that, we do expect to start ramping that new business in the second half of the year. But we also expect the seasonal uplift of our traditional game console business. So that is adding to what we expect will be a strong year for semi-custom overall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shankar Iyer,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          If I can just slip in, the $1.5 billion you said, is that evenly split over the next three to four years or is it ramps towards the end of 2018 or so?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, it is definitely -- I mean, it takes some time to ramp. So this year will be lower since it is half a year and it is not all the designs. And as we go into the next few years, it will ramp to a steady-state.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Shankar Iyer,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Stacy Rasgon, Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my questions. First, on the licensing agreement, can you be a little more specific on exactly what you are licensing? You said it was like high-performance CPUs and SoCs. Is this x86? Is it ARM? Is it both? What are the other pieces besides CPUs, potentially, that you are licensing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The -- what we are licensing is microprocessor technology and system-on-chip technology. So they are technologies, not products. The technologies are applicable to both x86 and ARM. But as you know, most of our investments are in x86.
+And then in terms of other aspects, there are other aspects that are needed to put together system-on-chip. So they include things like fabrics and other IP.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So let me ask the question a different way. Will the JV be able to manufacture and sell x86-based server chips into China?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. The JV will be able to manufacture and sell x86 server chips.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, thank you. I have one more question for you on IP. Is this JV exclusive? Or will you be free to sign other server-based JVs with other parties, both either inside China or outside of China?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It is not an exclusive deal.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And one more, if I could. Just on your -- sorry, in your current quarter, you launched Bristol Ridge in March. So maybe that led to some of the incremental better-than-market-unit growth. But why were ASPs overall down, given the product refresh that started? And what do you expect for pricing into Q2?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so, if you talk about the Bristol Ridge launch, we did start the launch in March, including -- on the mobile side. And that did contribute to some of the mobile units up. If you look at the overall ASPs, actually mobile ASPs were up. Desktop ASPs were down, and that is why we said overall down. But it was quite modest. So if you look overall, I think the ASP trends are about what we would expect.
+Going into the second quarter in general, it depends on the mix and the mix of the product. We are certainly trying to sell further up the stack. But we will have to see how the exact mix comes out. But there is not a dramatic change in ASPs, if that is what you're asking.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Harlan Sur, JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bill Peterson,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Bill Peterson calling in for Harlan. Thanks for taking the question. A clarification on an earlier question. You said most of the growth is coming from semi-custom and some from graphics.
+How much -- is there any channel fill or related Polaris revenue in the second quarter or planned in the second quarter? Or is it really a second-half story?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Again, not being specific, because we have not actually announced our launch date, but I would say the majority of Polaris is a second-half story.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bill Peterson,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thanks. And then more of a broader question related to PCs obviously becoming less important. But what is AMD's view on the PC market in terms of unit shipments this year? And what is the expectation in terms of AMD's growth in that segment if we think about the full year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So again, on the PC market, I think our view of the PC market is very consistent with what's out there, probably down, let's call it, high-single digits. Certainly the first quarter started off a bit weaker than any of us would have liked.
+I would say, though, that in that environment, we still believe that we can gain share in both the client compute and the graphics side. Really, as we are transitioning to a new product portfolio on the graphics side, so I think that is a strong driver for us.
+And then on the client compute side, between our product refresh and also our partnership with OEMs. I think in general, OEMs are getting more comfortable using us higher up in the stack, and our A8s, our A10s, our commercial-based processors. So we are continuing to work with OEMs to ensure that we get into the right priority platforms. So that would be our focus, even in a down market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bill Peterson,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Thanks for that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Suji Desilva, Topeka Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Suji Desilva,  Topeka Capital Markets - Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the arrangement with THATIC, can you talk about what end markets the server product would be specifically targeting? Is it going after government business there, research institutions, or maybe the China Internet companies?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think it's fair to say that the market range for the joint venture will be across China, so across all of the markets that you mentioned.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Suji Desilva,  Topeka Capital Markets - Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you talk about the pipeline for the licensing business you instituted I guess -- announced a couple of quarters ago? You already have a success here. I'm wondering how robust the pipeline might be for further licensing opportunity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Look, we are thinking about our IP monetization strategy as really a broad strategy that is going to unfold over the next number of years. So I wouldn't say that these things are all going to be immediate.
+The IP monetization includes patent licensing. It includes sales of certain parts of our patent portfolio that are no longer core to our business, as well as the strategic technology licensing.
+We have a good, solid pipeline. I would say it's -- there are lots of opportunities out there. We are looking for ones that are very additive to our product portfolio and to our roadmap objectives. And I think we will look for the right partners to enable that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Suji Desilva,  Topeka Capital Markets - Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          One last quick question; would you be -- would it be possible to tell us how long you had been in discussions with this licensing agreement to understand how long lead times are for them to close?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It is fair to say that any one of these deals takes awhile. So they are fairly involved to go through. But I think we have a good set of conversations and we certainly believe that there is a lot of value in this IP portfolio that we will continue to leverage.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Suji Desilva,  Topeka Capital Markets - Analyst    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (inaudible) by all means. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ross Seymore, Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Sidney Ho calling on behalf of Ross. Thanks for taking my question. So first question is you talked about EESC revenue will be up annually, and I think you talk about the different components.
+Just to be clear, do you expect to game console revenue specifically to be up? And kind of related to that, do you expect the C&G revenue to be up this year as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Again, I would like to keep it at the segment level. And at the segment level, we expect both segments to be up -- to contribute to our overall guidance of revenue being up. As it relates to our EESC business, the majority of the EESC business is semi-custom, so semi-custom would have to be up year over year. And then I think that is about as specific as I would like to get.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And my follow-up question is on the discrete GPU market. Your competitor has grown very nicely by, what, 35% in the last two years. Clearly, some of that is coming from share gains.
+What do you think -- I mean, you guys have also gained share in Q1, seems like. What do you think the graphics market itself is growing on a normalized basis? And it wasn't that long ago you guys were like 50% share in discrete graphics.
+But with the traction you are seeing right now and with Polaris right around the corner, how quickly do you think you can regain share? And which segment do you think has the biggest opportunities?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the graphics business is very strategic to us, and I think it is not just a unit story. It is really also the mix going to higher-end graphics, driven by VR and driven by AAA gaming, and all the things going on there.
+As it relates our share, I will say that we certainly have aspirations to regain shares to our historic levels. It will take us some period of time, so it will happen over multiple number of quarters. We are optimistic about the second half of the year and we think Polaris is positioned well. We are particularly positioning in some of the mainstream segments that are higher volume, so would drive share growth faster. And we will have to see how that plays out in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Christopher Danely, Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Unidentified Audience Member    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Marco speaking on behalf of Chris Danely. In light of your IP licensing agreement with THATIC, can you just kind of talk about your expectations for the China server market in 2016/2017? And if are there any longer-term milestones?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so with regard to our China JV with THATIC, we are -- we're starting the development phase in 2016, so I would say that we view this as a longer-term opportunity for us. But overall, I think all of the trends in the data center market are certainly positive. We believe we can participant in those trends with both the AMD products as well as the JV products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Unidentified Audience Member    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. And then my follow-up -- regarding your days of inventory, it looks like this quarter is about 110 days. Why is it so high? And if you -- if there's any worries.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think if you look at it from a days standpoint, essentially we have managed the inventory pretty well. It is up slightly in Q1, but we also guided the revenue up pretty significantly from where we ended in Q1. And we have also said the second half of the year, we are expecting strength over first half, and obviously that leads to higher inventory.
+So Q1 to Q2, up slightly; revenues up. And then we expect second half to be stronger than the first half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Unidentified Audience Member    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Kevin Cassidy, Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for taking my question. On the licensing and JV, are there opportunities -- would you consider the mobile market or the desktop market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          When you say the -- you mean mobile PCs or mobile other?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, notebook -- just mobile PCs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [77]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I see. Look, I think as it relates to the overall licensing strategy, I think we are open to licensing that makes sense. And so strategically placed with the right market, with the right market drivers, I don't think we have anything that is necessarily off-limits.
+I will say that it does need to be strategic and additive to our product business. Our first priority is the product business, and the IP monetization efforts is an overlay on top of that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [78]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay? And what is the time frame for the JV? I guess does this license go on through the life of the patent?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [79]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It is for a number of years through the product development and sales cycle.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [80]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, nothing specific right now?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [81]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Nothing specific right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [82]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [83]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Vijay Rakesh, Mizuho Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst    [84]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just on this licensing agreement, obviously when you license it to China, do you think they have the manufacturing or process experience to go into production with this? And what is the timeline to get commercial products in the market with this licensing agreement?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [85]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We are not talking about sort of the details of the product timelines just yet. We would like to really get the JV off and running before we disclose those details. And those will be disposed as part of the joint venture.
+As it relates to manufacturing, I think there might be interest in manufacturing in China, although that is certainly not a condition of the deal.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst    [86]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as you look at this semi-custom ramp, the 15% to 18%, very encouraging. How do you split it up between gaming and the new VR strategy, VR market? Obviously, VR seems to be a huge market as you look out. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [87]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think the way to think about it is for the near term, I think the semi-custom business and gaming is probably the larger driver. We believe VR is a strategic area where you will see more pickup over the next number of quarters and over the next years. But it is not the near-term driver.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst    [88]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it, thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [89]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          John Pitzer, Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [90]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I guess my first question -- when you look at your full-year guide for revenue to grow, I am kind of curious to what extent is that based upon sort of market forecast versus market share gains.
+I know you don't want to get into division by division, but maybe at a high level, as you look at your year-over-year growth, how do you differentiate between what the market is doing and kind of the market share gains that you need to get to that year-over-year growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [91]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, that is a fair question. So let me break it up into the two segments. When you look at the EESC segment and especially semi-custom, that is less about a general market and more about what we see in terms of the customer forecasts, and what they are seeing the market to be. So I think those are, let's call it, fairly well understood by us, and we are very interlocked with our customers.
+When you talk about the computing and graphics market, I think that is where you get a little bit more of how much uncertainty is there with the PC market trends. There is no question that the PC market is weaker than any of us would like.
+I think from our standpoint, though, if you remember the last few quarters and how many times we've talked about inventory normalization and ensuring that we got ourselves into a healthy position relative to our OEM and channel customers, I think we feel that we've done a good job there. And we are now in a place where the consumption is more in line with the selling.
+So we believe that even in this market, there is enough opportunity for us to gain share, and obviously we have to prove that out over the next couple of quarters. But just given where our business is, where we see the products, and where we see the design wins, that is how we see the market right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [92]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then Lisa, I apologize if you addressed this, but just going back to the JV in China, I am just kind of curious. The IP licensing gains you expected this year, are there any milestones that you need to hit to get that? And as we think about 2017, if you hit the milestones in 2017, would we expect licensing to grow year over year from the JV?
+And then lastly on the JV, just given that you guys have the opportunity to go into China today and sell your own product, I am just curious how we should think about $100 of server product in the JV and what that means to you from an economic standpoint versus you just going into China today and selling $100 worth of server product as AMD.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [93]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, no, good question. So look, on the JV licensing payments, we will expect about half of the licensing revenue to come over the next two years, so over 2016 and 2017. Our current forecast for 2016 was that $50-ish million that Devinder mentioned, and it is contingent on several milestones that we believe are on track.
+To your broader question about why do a JV versus just selling right into servers? We are very cognizant of where our share is in servers. So I believe we have the technology to get there and we will continue to make progress.
+But given the importance of China and the fact that having a partner who is very much familiar with both the Chinese market from a customer as well as just a technology standpoint I think can only be additive. And there is more than enough server market to go after, given where we are. So I think it's an additive deal to our baseline strategy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [94]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, guys.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [95]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Deepon Nag, Macquarie.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Deepon Nag,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [96]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, for the semi-custom wins that you are going to get in the back half of the year, are those going to be purely incremental to existing products? Or is there any risk of cannibalization to existing products?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [97]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I don't believe that we have gone through any detail about what those wins are, so I would prefer to let that come out as our customers are ready to launch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Deepon Nag,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [98]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thanks for that. And then on the game console side, so clearly VR is going to be a pretty big deal in Q4 with so many PS4 VR. And there has been some chatter about obviously maybe a thatcher refresh for some of the game consuls.
+Because the value of graphics is becoming higher in these game consoles, is there any potential for you to get higher content, and more specifically higher margins in future console refreshes? And is there also any ability to renegotiate terms if -- because of the value of your IP is getting more valuable inside these consoles?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [99]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me take that in several pieces. Relative to our current game consoles, those deals were well negotiated at the beginning, and I don't think we will be renegotiating. I think the ASPs and all that stuff are also well understood.
+Relative to what VR brings -- and again, not being specific to any particular customer because there is just a lot of speculation out there in the industry -- I will say that VR is very exciting, not just for game consoles, but for PC gaming, for the headset guys, for the ecosystem. So yes, we believe that graphics becomes much more valuable in this framework, and we will be looking for how to leverage and monetize that across both our semi-custom business as well as our discrete graphics and APU businesses.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Deepon Nag,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [100]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just one quick clarification, if I could squeeze it in. So if -- for any future console refreshes, though, you do have the ability to reset ASP trends? Or is it already pre-negotiated in your initial contracts?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [101]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think if anybody were to do a different console or a new console, then that would be a new negotiation. But for the current generation consoles, those terms are locked.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Deepon Nag,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [102]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. Thanks a lot.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [103]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Jaguar Bajwa, Arete Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [104]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking the question. Just on the Polaris launch in midyear, you talked about attacking the mainstream segment of the GPU market. I just wonder when you look at potential share gains in the second half, do you expect that to come more from the discrete desktop side in the AIB channel or the notebook space where you have a relatively higher share, market share?
+And given your ASPs in that space, roughly in the discrete desktop spaces, I think you've got about a third of the ASP of your competitor. Just wondering on the trend of that and how you see that over the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [105]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so we believe that we have a share gain opportunity in both mobile and desktop/AIB as we look at Polaris and how it will launch in the second half of the year. Relative to the ASP trends, I think that depends a bit on the mix of the business. So I think I will defer that to how things look.
+But from a macro standpoint, we believe we can get a larger share -- a larger revenue share in discrete graphics. But we will certainly have to look at how the individual quarters shape up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [106]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then also, on the -- given your IP licensing deal in China, I am just wondering on the acceleration side for GPU, do you see opportunity there potentially with that deal?
+And also just in a more general sense, we hear a lot about acceleration with GPU. Can you just talk about how you're approaching that acceleration in general? Will Polaris be suited to that? Or will we have to wait for Vega to come out later in the year? And how do you differentiate versus your competitors?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President and CEO    [107]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          In terms of your first question on GPU acceleration, so the JV that we announced with THATIC is focused on microprocessor technologies only, so it does not cover graphics.
+And then to your comment about graphics acceleration or just in general becoming more important and a growth driver, we would agree with that. I think going forward, you will see a bit more focus from us in that area. We have launched some new professional graphics products recently.
+We will -- we've also introduced this new software initiative called GPUOpen that really focuses on building an open ecosystem around the graphics area, both in compute and gaming. So we do believe it is a good opportunity and it'll be an area that we will invest more.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [108]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thanks very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  AMD - SVP Human Resources, Corporate Communications, and IR    [109]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Operator, that concludes today's call. If you would like to wrap it up, please. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [110]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2016-Jan-19-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,691 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2015 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 19, 2016 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Lisa Su
+   AMD - President, CEO
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer
+ * Liz Morali
+   AMD - Director, IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Matt Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity - Analyst
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Stacy Rasgon
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Hans Mosesmann
+   Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst
+ * David Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst
+ * Ross Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank - Analyst
+ * Srini Pajjuri
+   CLSA Limited - Analyst
+ * Steven Chin
+   UBS - Analyst
+ * Ian Ing
+   MKM Partners - Analyst
+ * Sanjay Chaurasia
+   Nomura Securities Intl (America) - Analyst
+ * Joe Moore
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Chris Rolland
+   FBR & Co. - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for your patience. You have joined AMD's fourth-quarter and year-end earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference may be recorded.
+I would now like to turn the call over to your host, Director of Investor Relations, Ms. Liz Morali.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Liz Morali,  AMD - Director, IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (technical difficulty) fourth-quarter and year-end conference call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at ir.amd.com.
+Participants on today's conference call are Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on amd.com.
+I would like to highlight a few dates for you. Mark Papermaster, Senior Vice President and CTO, will present at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom conference on March 3 in San Francisco. And our first-quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, March 11, 2016.
+Before we begin, let me remind everyone that today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectation.
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP figures during this call, except for revenue, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release and CFO commentary posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.amd.com.
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 26, 2015.
+With that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Liz, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. While 2015 was a challenging year from a financial perspective, the dedicated commitment of our employees, combined with our long-term technology investments and sharpened focus, have created a strong foundation for future growth.
+In the fourth quarter, revenue decreased 10% sequentially to $958 million, as seasonally lower semi-custom SoC shipments were partially offset by the second straight quarter of double-digit percentage revenue growth in our computing and graphics business.
+Looking at our computing and graphics segment, revenue increased 11% sequentially as we continued to improve the performance of our PC business. We had strong double-digit sequential percentage growth in mobile APU sales, driven largely by increased Carrizo shipments and good sellthrough of AMD-based PCs on Black Friday.
+In the channel, we delivered our third straight quarter of sequential revenue growth and further reduced downstream product inventories based on improved demand for FX CPUs and A-Series APUs. We also made progress diversifying our client computing revenue as we further expand into the commercial PC market.
+Second-half 2015 commercial APU unit shipments increased more than 15% from the first half of the year. We believe we can continue to grow our commercial shipments based on the high-volume wins we are securing both across large enterprises and the public sector.
+Now shifting to graphics, GPU revenue increased sequentially for the second straight quarter, driven by improved AIB channel sales of our Radeon 300 series across the enthusiast performance and mainstream segments and growth in professional graphics sales. The PC gaming market strength helped fuel a richer GPU mix and improved demand for our high-end Radeon R9 series in the quarter. We expect this momentum to continue throughout 2016 as Oculus and HTC begin shipping consumer-ready VR headsets.
+The buzz and interest in VR is an exciting trend that is focusing the software industry's attention and some of its brightest minds back on the PC platform. While the initial wave of VR will be focused on gaming, an increasing number of developers see VR as the most significant advancement in how we interact with technology since the introduction of the mouse and graphical user interface. Most importantly, these breakthrough software experiences will only be enabled with high performance energy efficient GPUs.
+Overall, we made good progress further stabilizing our PC business in the fourth quarter. And we believe we are well positioned to navigate the seasonally weaker first half of the year and ongoing challenges in the China PC market due to macro conditions.
+Turning to our enterprise embedded and semi-custom segment, revenue declined 23% sequentially, in line with our expectations as semi-custom sales decreased from their third-quarter seasonal peak. We had record annual semi-custom unit shipments in 2015 and have shipped more than 50 million semi-custom APUs as a critical and trusted partner to Sony and Microsoft.
+Demand for game consoles looks strong for 2016 and we remain on track to generate additional revenue from new semi-custom business in the second half of 2016. We also began production shipments of our first 64-bit data-center-class ARM SoC and expect additional system introductions from our partners throughout 2016 as the ARM 64 infrastructure ecosystem further develops.
+Now turning to the year ahead. We remain focused on completing our strategic work around three key growth pillars. First, in PCs, even in a declining overall market, we believe we can regain client compute and discrete graphics share for the year, driven by gaming, VR, commercial, and our most competitive product roadmap in more than a decade.
+We have clear opportunities to regain GPU share in 2016 based on the performance per watt of our new GPUs and software leadership. Earlier this quarter at CES, we announced our new Polaris GPU architecture, which we expect to begin shipping in the middle of 2016.
+Polaris combines significant design enhancements as well as 14-nanometer FinFET process technology to deliver double the performance per watt of our current GPU offerings. Customer response has been excellent, particularly in the notebook space, where for the first time ever there will be a GPU architecture capable of bringing high-end gaming and VR experiences to thin and light notebooks.
+In client computing, our opportunities to regain share in 2016 will be driven by our design win momentum, continued progress expanding into the commercial market, and reentering the high-performance desktop market late in the year with our Zen-based Summit Ridge CPU.
+Our second growth pillar is in the $15-billion-plus data center and infrastructure markets, driven by our FirePro GPUs and next-generation server CPUs.
+Our Zen-based GPU development is on track to achieve greater than 40% IPC uplift from our previous generation and we're on schedule to sample later this year. We have secured several key design wins with global OEMs for our Zen-based server CPU and believe we can rapidly reestablish our presence in the data center when we bring our new products to market in 2017.
+With FirePro, we plan to leverage our upcoming Polaris architecture and suite of new software tools designed to dramatically simplify GPU computing to accelerate the adoption of FirePro in the HPC and data center markets.
+Our third growth pillar is focused on further expanding the TAM for our products and technologies through ramping our previously communicated semi-custom wins, converting additional semi-custom pipeline opportunities, and gaining share in targeted embedded markets.
+We also have near-term opportunities to strategically monetize our valuable IP in 2016 through licensing and partnerships that are complementary to our product development efforts. I look forward to sharing the initial results of our IP monetization strategy in the coming quarters.
+While we expect revenue to be lower in the first half of 2016 compared to the second half based on the seasonality of the PC and game console businesses, we remain focused on successfully executing our product and technology roadmaps and plan to return AMD to non-GAAP operating profitability in the second half of 2016 and generate positive cash flow from operations for the year.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our fourth-quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. In 2015, notwithstanding a difficult PC market and financial losses, we continued our multiyear effort to transition our business model by diversifying revenue and establishing a foundation for improved financial performance.
+We made progress in stabilizing the computing and graphics segment and achieved strong double-digit percentage revenue growth in the second half of 2015. We also reduced overall channel inventory significantly from the prior year. In our EESC segment, we had record shipments of our semi-custom SoCs powering the Playstation 4 and Xbox One game consoles.
+In total, against a backdrop of a 28% revenue decline from 2014, we reduced our cost profile with a 14% decrease in OpEx, managed our inventory down, and maintained our cash well within our target range of $600 million to $1 billion.
+Now let me provide the specifics of the fourth quarter. Revenue was $958 million, down 10% sequentially, driven primarily by seasonally lower sales of semi-custom SoCs, partially offset by higher computing and graphics segment sales. The year-over-year decline was 23% due primarily to lower client processor and chipset sales and lower game console royalties.
+Gross margin was 30%, a 7 percentage point improvement from the prior quarter, with 6 percentage points resulting from the impact of a $65 million inventory write-down in Q3.  And the remainder primarily from improved product mix in the computing and graphics segment.
+Operating expenses were $323 million, down $13 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to lower headcount and ongoing expense control. Operating loss was $39 million and net loss was $79 million, with loss per share of $0.10, calculated using 791 million shares.
+Net interest, other expense, and taxes were $40 million in the quarter compared to $39 million in the prior quarter. The GAAP results include a $13 million tax settlement in a foreign jurisdiction. Adjusted EBITDA was negative $5 million, improving from negative $55 million in the prior quarter.
+Now turning to the business segments. Computing and graphics revenue was $470 million, up 11% sequentially, primarily due to higher notebook processor sales. This is the second consecutive quarter of double-digit percentage revenue growth for this segment as we increased sales on both our client compute and graphics processors in Q4. Computing and graphics segment operating loss was $99 million, improving from $181 million the prior quarter, primarily due to higher sales and the absence of a third-quarter 2015 inventory write-down.
+Enterprise embedded and semi-custom revenue was $488 million, down 23% from the prior quarter, primarily due to seasonally lower sales of our semi-custom SoCs. The operating income of this segment was $59 million, down from $84 million in the prior quarter, driven primarily by lower semi-custom product sales.
+Turning to the balance sheet, our cash and cash equivalents totaled $785 million at the end of the quarter, up $30 million from the end of the prior quarter. Inventory was $678 million, down $83 million or 11% from the end of the prior quarter, primarily due to reduced levels of semi-custom SoC inventory.
+We have concluded our wafer reprofiling discussions related to the 2015 WSA amendment with GLOBALFOUNDRIES and will be moving approximately $60 million of wafer purchases from that amendment to later in 2016. To date, total wafer purchases under the 2015 WSA amendment are approximately $1 billion, including approximately $150 million of wafer purchases which were not taken until early in our fiscal first quarter 2016. We are currently negotiating the 2016 WSA amendment.
+Debt as of the end of the quarter was $2.26 billion, flat on the end of the prior quarter, including total borrowings of $230 million on our secured revolving line of credit, unchanged from the prior quarter. Free cash flow in the fourth quarter was a positive $21 million, an improvement of $105 million from the third quarter of 2015.
+Turning to our outlook for the first quarter of 2016, which is based on a 13-week quarter, AMD expects revenue to decrease 14% sequentially, plus or minus 3%, driven by game console seasonality and a cautious macro environment in China. Gross margin is expected to be approximately 32%.
+Non-GAAP operating expenses are expected to be approximately $320 million. Interest expense, taxes, and other to be approximately $42 million. Cash and cash equivalent balances to be down approximately $100 million from the end of the fourth quarter, including $70 million of cash interest payments.
+This cash balance does not include any cash proceeds related to the ATMP JV with Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics. We expect to close that transaction in the first half of 2016 pending regulatory and other approvals and expect cash flow proceeds of approximately $320 million net of taxes and other expenses upon closure. Inventory is expected to be approximately flat from fourth-quarter levels.
+Our fiscal year 2016 is based on 53 weeks and we plan to take the extra week in our fiscal fourth quarter. For the full year 2016, we expect revenue to grow year over year. Non-GAAP operating expenses between $320 million and $340 million per quarter as we continue to invest in leadership products and in line with our expected revenue profile.
+Interest expense, taxes, and other will be approximately $45 million per quarter. Cash and cash equivalent balances to be in the optimal zone of $600 million to $1 billion. Capital expenditures of approximately $70 million. Inventory to be down year over year, and to return to non-GAAP operating profitability in the second half of 2016 and generate positive free cash flow from operations for the year.
+In closing, as we begin the new year, we remain focused on financial and operational execution and look forward to building on our second-half 2015 product and roadmap momentum throughout 2016 across the three areas that Lisa outlined: high-performance PCs, the data center, and TAM expansion through semi-custom and embedded opportunities.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Liz. Liz?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Liz Morali,  AMD - Director, IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, can you please poll the audience for questions?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions)
+David Wong, Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks very much. Looking at your guidance for growth, year-over-year growth in revenue in 2016, you are ending with the last quarter your game console revenues down year over year. Do you expect game console revenues to grow in 2016 as a whole? And what other things will drive overall growth for 2016?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          David, thanks for the question. So let me give you a bit of color through the guidance and how we view 2016. So if you look at overall 2016, we do expect to grow revenues. And if you look at our business, we see certainly the second-half revenue will be stronger than the first half because of both of our businesses.
+Game consoles -- we see units going up 2016 to 2015. We've also said in the enterprise embedded and semi-custom segment that we will be ramping some new design revenue in the second half of 2016.  So we see that as a positive growth driver.
+And then if you look overall at our computing and graphics business, we do believe even in a down PC market that we have the opportunity to gain share as a growth vector in computing and graphics. So those are the overall drivers for the 2016 comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Great. And just a quick follow-up. I understand that you don't breakout all the details, but can you give us some feeling as to whether your discrete GPU business is showing year-over-year growth at the moment, either in the December quarter or expected for the March quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So as you say, we don't go into that level of detail. I think what we have said is that we did see growth in our discrete graphics business sequentially in both Q3 and Q4. As we look into 2016 with our discrete graphics business, we have a strong product portfolio. And particularly the ramp and introduction of our new FinFET products -- codenamed Polaris -- will happen in the middle of 2016, so that will be a 2016 growth driver.
+So certainly we've seen some sequential improvement in the second half of 2015 and we look forward to those product releases in 2016.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ian Ing, MKM Partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. Could you talk more about the channel business in light of your cautious comments on macro in China. Are you seeing weakness potentially in the ODM business or the white box market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Ian, I think overall if you look at the channel business in the second half of the year for us -- second half 2015 relative to first half 2015 -- we have made quite a bit of progress in the channel in terms of just overall inventory levels. We saw a good quarter in the fourth quarter in both North America and Europe.
+We did see a degradation in China towards the end of the fourth quarter. And I think there are cautious comments throughout the industry about sort of the early 2016 start for China. So I think overall what I would say is I'm pleased with the progress we've made in the channel. I think in both the desktop channel as well as the AIB channel we've made some progress in the second half of the year.
+I think China is a factor as we go into the first quarter, but I think overall we still view the channel as a positive business for AMD and one in which we believe we can grow share.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Great. And then Devinder, your OpEx guidance range: $320 million to $340 million in the coming quarters. Can you give us a sense of the timing of some of the upcoming mask costs, given you've got Zen-based cores and Polaris coming up?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I would say I think you've hit the nail on the head. There are new products coming out and there's some [mask to the] cost. I think that's more weighted towards later in the year. From a Q1 time frame, we have given the guidance on the OpEx at the $320 million level compared to where we ended up in Q4 of 2015.
+So yes, we do have support for the investments in the products we need and in particular the technology and product transitions that we have coming out in 2016.  And that's why you see a range in OpEx of between $320 million and $340 million.
+And then a last factor that obviously affects the OpEx is obviously the revenue profile, because Lisa said earlier it's stronger in the second half of the year than the first half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And my last question. You're talking now about some GPU share gains in 2016. I mean, does a lot of that come from the Polaris launch starting midyear or is that sort of sustained business from the R9 Series? Or a combination?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we have made some progress in with the R9 Series, particularly as in the fourth quarter. I think as we go forward, it's a combination of things. If you look at our investments in graphics, they really include both hardware and software.
+So the Polaris family is excellent from a hardware standpoint in terms of the performance per watt that we get. But we have a number of software initiatives that we've started over the past couple months and will continue. And we see all of those contributing to graphics momentum.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sanjay Chaurasia, Nomura.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sanjay Chaurasia,  Nomura Securities Intl (America) - Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          One question on gross margin. I noticed that you are not providing gross margin guidance for 2016 and I was wondering if you have clarity that your revenue would be up year on year. What are some of the puts and takes here that's making you hold gross margin guidance?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the key is if you look back over the last few quarters, we have made progress on the gross margin front, ending Q4 2015 at a 30% level. And the guidance specifically for Q1 of 2016 is 32%.
+You're right -- I haven't given guidance for the year. But some of the puts and takes are really the mix of product as we get more into 2016. And then obviously the mix of business between our computing and graphics segment and the EESC segment.
+In computing and graphics, we have introduced some new products in the second half of 2015 and even going into 2016 and you have some of the commercial success we've had. And that obviously has gross margin, but at the same time, we want to see how the year unfolds, in particular on the PC side of the house, given some of the comments we made about caution in China in particular.
+So for the year, I'm not giving guidance today. This is kind of a first-quarter guidance at a 32% for gross margin and we'll get through the year as we get into the next one or two quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sanjay Chaurasia,  Nomura Securities Intl (America) - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then a follow-up, Lisa, a question on servers. You indicated you are shipping your Seattle, but at the same time in your guidance, you didn't mention anything about ARM contributing in 2016. And my question is, is ARM servers a meaningful share for you in 2017 and 2018?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So Sanjay, the ARM server did start shipments and we have shipped our first production unit. I think we have some design wins with it and I would call it a modest revenue contributor in 2016.
+We still see ARM strategically as a interesting market for the infrastructure markets, but it is certainly developing a bit slower than expected. So I think overall I think it's an important proof point in terms of enterprise class server architectures with ARM, but it's a modest revenue contribution in 2016.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Vivek Arya, BofA Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my question. Lisa, just to follow-up on the last one, on ARM servers. The comment about progress being somewhat slower -- do you think that's an AMD-specific trend or does that apply to all the ARM server vendors?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think it's more of a market statement, Vivek, than an AMD-specific statement. I think the overall commentary -- maybe if I just expand a little bit -- is the data center market is really, really interesting. And I think we all agree with that. I think x86 has a lot of momentum and that's one of the reasons that we've put quite a bit more emphasis on our x86 data center and infrastructure play.
+Now that being said, I think ARM does have a lot of specific areas where it can contribute and it has done so. But I would say in servers in particular perhaps slower than originally expected, but still something to watch for the medium term.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as I follow up perhaps a longer-term question, which is what is the strategy to actually get to a meaningful earnings and cash flow growth? I understand the macro environment is a little tough right now, but the way I see it, a lot of the progress you guys are making on your embedded products is being offset by the declines in your legacy businesses.
+And as the mix is shifting to your embedded products, gross margins are sort of holding around that 30% level, but you're not really able to reduce cost. So sales are finding it tough to grow with that offset; gross margins are not moving up that much and you are now going to hold OpEx steady also. So I'm just trying to understand what are we missing here that can help AMD be a more sustainably profitable company? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Vivek. So let me try and then Devinder can add if he has some comments. So I think what you have to do is take a step back and look at overall, the progress in year 2015 from a foundation standpoint and then what we hope to accomplish in 2016 and forward.
+I think the most important message around sustainable profitability for AMD is around our product and technology roadmap and ensuring that we grow share in our target markets. So that is certainly the goal. I think if you look at some of the progress that we made in the second half of 2015, we have seen some stabilization in our computing and graphics business and actually a return to some sequential growth.
+As we go forward into 2016, we certainly have to continue that momentum in both our client, compute, as well as our graphics business in terms of gaining profitable unit market share. And then as we go forward, we have our data center strategy as well as our semi-custom and new markets that will bring additional opportunities.
+So from a product standpoint, it is about getting our technology out there and I think we will enter 2016 with the strongest product portfolio we've had in a long time. And we need to continue to work with our customers on design opportunities and moving the platforms into production as we go through the year 2016.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          If I can add, Lisa, I think the other thing I would add is if you look at a couple of areas that Lisa mentioned -- data center in particular, but also the embedded space. As we talked about in our financial analyst day in May, those are businesses that command higher gross margins.
+So, Vivek, to your point about the gross margins, I think longer term with that business kicking in in 2017, we believe that we can get closer to the longer-term model. 2016 we've guided to operating -- free cash flow positive from an operation standpoint. And as we continue to manage the cost, as you said, especially on the OpEx side of the house, improving the gross margin in and of itself obviously benefits the bottom line. And that's kind of heading toward the longer-term model we outlined at the analyst day that we had in May of 2015.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. One last quick clarification: what PC unit declines, Lisa, are you assuming for 2016? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So if you look at the current market projections, it's somewhere in the low single digits. I think if you were to talk to the customer set, it might go from low single digit to mid single digit. So that's the environment that we are forecasting unit share growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Thank you. Good luck.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Stacy Rasgon, Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my questions. First, I was wondering if you could elaborate a little more on how you plan to gain share on PCs for the year? Especially since it looks like Zen isn't really launching until the tail end of the year and it looks like you're starting Q1 already in the hole if I compare your guidance versus Intel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, Stacy, why don't I start and again Devinder can add. So overall if you look at PCs, I think we'll have to wait until the numbers come out, but we believe we have gained a bit of share in Q4.
+I think if you look at the driving factors behind that, Stacy, there were a couple factors. In 2015, I think we did a concerted effort to clean up some of our channel inventory, both on the OEM side as well as in the DIY channel. So that factor will be gone in 2015 relative to 2016.
+I think if you look at the product roadmap, I think the product roadmap is stronger. I think if you look at our commercial business, that is also stronger. So it's leading to a stronger product mix, so those are the key factors.
+Relative to the Q1 guidance -- I'll make a comment about Q1 guidance overall. Our Q1 guidance includes obviously both the computing and graphics and the enterprise embedded and semi-custom business. The semi-custom business is historically significantly lower in the first quarter of the year. If you look at the past couple of years it's been the case because they are coming off of a strong holiday season. So I would say that has to be factored into the guidance.
+And then if you look at the computing and graphics business, I think what we're seeing is very consistent with what's out there in the market. And we believe in that market -- that set of market conditions we can gain share.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The only thing I would add, Stacy, is I think too early to tell from a viewpoint of your thinking in terms of the guidance for Q1, that just based on the guidance, we lose share in Q1 in the PC space.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, if I just looked, you're down 14% and Intel down what they are, there is a differential there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the key is to look at the guidance that we gave and trying to parse out where the decline is. And it's kind of more weighted towards the EESC segment than the computing and graphics segment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Okay. Thanks. For my follow-up --
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The other thing -- just one last clarification. I think the thing to bear in mind -- I think I said in my prepared remarks in our quarter this year, actually both from a viewpoint of the quarter and the year, we have a 53-week year and we have a 13-week quarter in Q1.  As opposed to what the competitors and you are doing, I think it's more on the 14 weeks as opposed to 13 weeks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, even if you correct for that, but okay. In terms of my follow-up, just very briefly, does your guidance for positive free cash flow for the year include the proceeds from the backend sale? And does your guidance for a 32% gross margin for next quarter contemplate you selling any of the inventory that you wrote down in Q3?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So the first one is no, it does not. The free cash flow from operations being positive for the year does not include the proceeds from the joint venture for the backend facilities. And then the guidance for the margin at 32% Q1 does not contemplate any sale of previous [sales] of inventory.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And that free cash flow -- that's not operating cash flow guidance, that's free cash flow guidance? (multiple speakers)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, that's free cash flow. I think the way we defined it is operating cash flow less CapEx.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Okay. Thank you, guys. Good luck.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Matt Ramsay, Canaccord Genuity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much. Good afternoon. I think there's some -- my observation looking at the product roadmap is there's some pretty big hurdles past: getting Polaris on FinFET, getting Zen on FinFET over the next few quarters.
+I guess relative to some lower operating spending that you guys are doing as a Company, maybe Lisa, you could lay out some priorities for how you are going to roll out these products? I guess particularly I'm looking at how you balance semi-custom versus discrete GPU? How you balance enterprise GPUs versus APUs when you roll out Zen. It seems like quite a bit to take on, given the lower spending levels of the business at a whole and I just wonder how you are prioritizing that versus the guidance for the year? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So Matt, I think maybe a couple comments. I will say that I am pleased with the execution on engineering that we have accomplished over the last 12 months. I think we have passed some significant hurdles. The transition to FinFET for us was very, very critical across our businesses and I feel good about the state of the progress there.
+As it reflects on 2016 spending, I think Devinder commented earlier, but I would say that's why we're giving ourselves a range in the OpEx from $320 million to $340 million. And we are being prudent in where we spend. However, clearly there is a significant focus on discrete graphics and what we can do in that space.
+I think we're very excited about the momentum around virtual reality and the momentum in gaming. And we think that that's a very good market for us.
+I think relative to our CPU competitiveness and retaining competitiveness there, that is a very key priority as well. So Zen across both our client computing as well as our server markets are a priority.
+Relative -- the good thing about our semi-custom business is it does rely on customer investment to customize the roadmap. So I think the combination of those things gives us a reasonable envelope to execute the go-to-market around the product portfolio.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. Thank you. Thank you for that. And I guess as my follow-up, I think I took away as an impression at least from CES a refocusing of investment on developers, particularly in the GPU space. So Lisa, maybe you could speak to that little bit and how you guys are trying to I guess balance the priorities of the semi-custom business in consoles and gaming with sort of rekindling the brand and maybe rekindling mindshare with developers in the PC gaming community? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the Radeon Technologies Group has added a lot of focus to our graphics activities. And I think as you said, it's both a hardware and software statement. So the work we've done around our drivers and trying to ensure that we have a good customer experience as well as a good development experience is certainly there. I think the main takeaway is: we know how to do this. It's really a matter of getting the focus and getting it done.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. Thanks. Good luck.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Srini Pajjuri, CLSA Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srini Pajjuri,  CLSA Limited - Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Lisa, just going back to your annual guidance for growth. If I start from down 14%, I think, you have to model double-digit for the next three quarters, which is well above seasonal for you. So I'm trying to understand where the growth is coming from.
+Obviously you said you expect to gain share, but can you talk about the semi-custom win that's supposed to ramp in the second half, how big that opportunity is, and when exactly you expect those ramps to come in?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me try to frame it in this way. So if you look overall at our business -- yes, we are projecting full-year revenue growth 2016 compared to 2015 and so we would have to have some significant growth as we go into the second half of the year.
+Independent of any new designs, the semi-custom business naturally is significantly higher in the second half than in the first half; especially third quarter. It's kind of a peak for the business as we go into the holiday season and we continue to see that phenomenon as our customers are giving us their forecast.
+We expect the base semi-custom business or the base game consoles to continue unit growth in 2016 versus 2015. There will be some modest ASP decline with that, and then we expect to layer over it some new semi-custom revenue starting in the second half of the year.
+So from what we see, obviously a lot of things have to happen, but the semi-custom business is one that we've been able to predict pretty well, given the customer long-term forecasts. And then we have to continue the conversation around the computing and graphics business as we see how the market sorts itself out in the first half of the year going into the stronger second half for the PC business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srini Pajjuri,  CLSA Limited - Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Then as a follow-up, I think, Lisa, it was last quarter you told us that you were looking to monetize some of the IP properties that you have. Can you give us an update as to -- based on your discussions how you see that opportunity short term and long term? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So on the IP monetization strategy, we will continue to update that quarterly as we go through the process. I think we have had really a good discussion around where to go there. I think there are several different avenues that we believe our IP will be valuable.
+I think on the straight patent side, we've said before we have 10,000 patents that are over a substantive number of technical areas, including graphics and microprocessors and other semiconductor patents. Those can certainly be licensed or in some cases there may be sales.
+However, another area that we think has a lot of potential is the area of technology licensing, where we can help partners accomplish their objectives with both patents and know-how. So we will update the results on that as we go through 2016, but we do believe it's a significant area for us going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ross Seymore, Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Seymore,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for letting me ask a question. Lisa, one for you on I guess what you'd call now the base enterprise embedded and semi-custom business. You talked about the gaming SoC business being up on a unit basis, but in 2015, that whole segment was down about 8% year over year.
+So I guess my question is I know new things are coming in in the back half of this year, but what gives you confidence that today's core business can actually remain anywhere close to flat considering that it fell in 2015?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Ross. So let me give you some more color on the compare, which might help. So on the base EESC business, if you were to look at product revenues of semi-custom game console SoCs, they were actually up a bit. So overall, units were up double-digit percentage. ASP declined, but less than that. So product revenue was up.
+What you saw as segment decline was actually legacy revenue from server and embedded. And if you remember, we have some legacy revenue based on some of the older updrawn products that we continue to sell. And that has seen a drop off as well as our DCSS or C Micro business was there in 2014 that we exited in 2015. So that was the year-on-year decline that was there.
+And then I think as you go forward to 2016 -- I'm not being that specific about the base business, but I will say I think units will be up. And we will have to see exactly how much up and as the markets go, but we certainly don't see it substantially down, if that's what you're implying.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Seymore,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's very helpful. And I guess piggybacking off that to an earlier question -- this time for Devinder on the gross margin side. Correct me if from wrong here, but what I heard as to the answer to the earlier question as to why you're not guiding for the full-year gross margin was partially because the unknown mix dynamic in revenues.
+To the extent that's true, does that imply that the gross margin delta between the computing and graphics group and the EESC group, even with the new ramps in semi-custom, is likely to remain as wide as it has in the last year or so?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  AMD - SVP, CFO, Treasurer    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think we have to see how the year unfolds, to be honest. I think Q1, like I said, the guidance at 32%. We need to see mix of product. We have new products being introduced in both the businesses with the new design wins in the second half on the semi-custom side. And then obviously on the CG side, you've heard us talk about graphics and computing new products kicking in.
+So from my standpoint, I want to see how it unfolds in terms of the mix of product, mix of the business before getting into the gross margin. But fair to say, as you know, the semi-custom business -- just the way the model works on an NRE standpoint has lower gross margin than the computing and graphics side of the business, so that's a fair statement.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Chris Rolland, FBR & Co.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  FBR & Co. - Analyst    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for the question. On the semi-custom business, I'm sure you guys have looked at prior console platform price cuts for customers and their effect on sellthrough. So I'd love to know how you are kind of thinking about that and the potential re-acceleration if that were to happen. Do you have any prior metrics you can share with us?
+And then also, I think I know the answer, but if there was a platform price cut, should we still expect to slow in linear reduction in your ASPs or might there be something a little bit more aggressive, like a one-time step down?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Okay. So Chris, if you look at the semi-custom cycle -- and again, these cycles are hard to predict -- through this year, through the end of 2015, the game console units are far ahead of the previous cycle. So on the order of 20 million units ahead of the previous cycle.
+When you look at the significant price points, I would say there are sub-$300 price points that start accelerating demand. And you saw some of that this holiday season, so that had some impact.
+Your question overall in terms of acceleration -- I think, again, the game console guys know how to do this cost reduction and they've done it very well. Our price or ASP reductions are not step-function reductions. They end up being pre-negotiated and in line with cost reductions that we have agreed to with our partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  FBR & Co. - Analyst    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Very helpful. Also, perhaps you can talk about ASPs in 2016, how do you see them trending with Summit Ridge and server products. And how big a driver is that for top line and for profitability?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think it is very important that we see an improvement in our product mix. And that's something that we've certainly been striving for in both our mobile products and as we introduce higher-performance desktop and server products we should see that reflected in the ASPs.
+So the mix of business, focusing on commercial versus sort of the low-end consumer, will help all those things. But when the vendor talks about some of the pluses and minuses on gross margin, it really is our ability to increase and improve that mix in our overall business going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hans Mosesmann, Raymond James.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Mosesmann,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, a clarification on Zen. You said that you have some design wins already on the server side of that roadmap. Can you give us a sense on what kinds of server wins and what kind of an opportunity you see in terms of market share over the next several years as you come back to the market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Hans, overall on the Zen design wins, we have been engaged very early on with large OEM and cloud providers on the Zen design point and the platforms that would be useful for Zen. So we have closed our first design wins. We are working very closely with these OEM partners to make sure that they bring up their platforms concurrently with our own design validation and testing.
+I think the main message is we are on track with the schedule that we previously discussed in terms of sampling this year. We will introduce first in desktop and so we are having conversations with some of the PC OEMs about getting their platforms ready for desktop. And then we will go into enterprise server first full year in 2017.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Mosesmann,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then as a follow-up, what kind of performance point should we look at your initial Zen in the server space? Is this kind of Xeon E3 Class-type products or E5s? Or maybe you can help with some granularity there if you can?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So we believe that we will be able to address, let's call it, 80% of the server CPU market with our Zen class of products. So that's a very high end, but really the meat of the market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Joe Moore, Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thank you. I wonder if you can talk about the discrete GPU market business. You were first to market with high-bandwidth memory and saw the benefit of that. Did you see the benefit that you had hoped for? And with your competitor ramping HBM at some point presumably this year, does that blunt the momentum that you've seen in the GPU side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I would say HBM was a very good technology. I think we got the performance benefit that we expected. It is still at the high end of the cost point range and so that's why we've introduced it just at the high end.
+I think HBM and all this 2.5D packaging technology is going to be really important over the next three years -- three to five years -- but definitely over the next three years. So I think being first to market, we've gotten a lot of experience on the technology. We will continue to use high-bandwidth memory in our portfolio. And as the cost goes down, it will give us an opportunity to use it in a broader set of segments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thank you. And then as my follow-up, have you talked about potentially semi-custom products in virtual reality? And to the extent that you have or can, is that going to have the same type of GPU requirement that we've seen on the PC platform or is it possibly scaled down from that level of performance requirement?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I think there are opportunities to do custom implementations of GPU for virtual reality. I think the amount of graphics horsepower that's required and perhaps some of the form factors that you want to go into being smaller and more portable would enable you to do that.
+I think it's early to talk specifics, but I think that the general idea that VR has a lot of requirements and doing something custom might be helpful I think is absolutely on the mark.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Steven Chin, UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Chin,  UBS - Analyst    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thanks for taking my questions. Lisa, if I could on the graphics roadmap side, with the upcoming Polaris architecture later this year, that's going to come out about four to five quarters after Fiji was released, which is a pretty good improvement in terms of timing or cadence compared to the previous generation.
+So I guess my question is is this sort of one-year-plus cadence for your GPU roadmap, is this something that can be assumed going forward? And how does that compare relative to the OpEx run rate that Devinder guided for for this year -- is that the right quarterly run rate for [that consisting] that type of graphics roadmap, first of all?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think the overall answer is we do believe the cadence of graphics requires annual refreshes, and we're going to invest to enable that. And I think the Polaris launch is significant because it's also a change of process technology, which sometimes can run into other issues. But I think we feel very good about where we are there and you should expect that cadence to continue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Steven Chin,  UBS - Analyst    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Perfect. And as my follow-up, just given some of the product announcements on the professional commercial graphics side and some of the design wins you were talking about with Dell, for example, I was wondering if you could help provide any color from your customers in terms of qualitative or even quantitative, potentially, in terms of the opportunity for AMD this year, especially given the macro backdrop -- is there going to be some large step-function up this year from those design wins? Or it pulls the macro potentially play somewhat of a modest headwind for that new opportunity?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  AMD - President, CEO    [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I really view the macro has more of a headwind for the overall PC market. When you talk about professional graphics, I think it's such a specialized market that it is more about the product you offer and is competitive and differentiated enough.
+I think it's fair to say that most of our customers would say the products are actually very good. So the overall product capability and performance is good. Our issue has really been are we investing enough in the software resources to help customers use some of our products.
+So I think on the professional graphics base, we do believe it's a growth opportunity. I think we're going to continue to invest in some of the software around professional graphics and continue to make steady progress into 2016.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Liz Morali,  AMD - Director, IR    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That concludes our call for today. We'd like to thank everyone for participating. Operator, you may close the call now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [77]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude your conference. You may now disconnect and have a great day.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2016-Jul-21-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,642 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2016 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 21, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Lisa Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer
+ * Ruth Cotter
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Matt Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity - Analyst
+ * Jaguar Bajwa
+   Arete Research - Analyst
+ * Gabriel Ho
+   BMO Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Mark Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * Stacy Rasgon
+   Bernstein Research - Analyst
+ * David Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst
+ * Marco Chan
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+ * Ian Ing
+   MKM Partners - Analyst
+ * Sidney Ho
+   Deutsche Bank - Analyst
+ * Joe Moore
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * John Pitzer
+   Credit Suisse Group - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================s
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices' second-quarter 2016 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
+I would now like to turn the conference over to your host, Ruth Cotter, Chief Human Resources Officer, and Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations. Thank you. You may begin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you and welcome to AMD's second-quarter conference call. By now you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you've not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at IOR.AMD.com.
+Participants on today's conference call are Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on AMD.com.
+I'd like to take the opportunity to highlight a few dates for you. Lisa Su will present at the Pacific Crest Global Technology Leadership Forum on the 9th of August in Colorado. Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and Chief Architect, Radeon Technologies Group, will attend the Jefferies Semiconductor Hardware and Communications Infrastructure Summit in Chicago on August 30.
+Mark Papermaster, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, will present at the Deutsche Bank's Technology Conference on September 13 in Las Vegas. And our third-quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, September 16, 2016. Before we begin, let me remind everyone that second quarter -- that the second-quarter 2016 was a 13-week quarter, and we expect to record our extra week in the fourth quarter of 2016.
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.
+Additionally, please note we will be referring to non-GAAP figures during this call except for revenue, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release and CFO commentary that we've posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.AMD.com.
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC, and in particular, AMD's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 26, 2016.
+Now with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Ruth. And good afternoon to all those listening in today. Our ongoing focus on diversifying our business model and delivering great products is creating solid market and financial momentum. Looking at the second-quarter specifically, strong semicustom demand and better-than-seasonal graphic sales drove a 23% sequential revenue increase and our return to non-GAAP operating profitability.
+We also recorded our first full quarter licensing gain from our China server JV, THATIC, and improved our balance sheet with cash proceeds from the formation of our ATMP joint venture, with NFME. Looking at our Computing and Graphic segment, revenue decreased 5% sequentially, as stronger-than-seasonal GPU sales were offset by a decline in desktop processor sales.
+First-half 2016 GPU sales increased by a double-digit percentage from a year ago, as the investments we have been making to develop leadership graphics hardware, software and drivers, combined with new marketing campaigns, are paying off.
+Our strong second-quarter graphics performance was capped by the launch of our new Polaris based RX 480 GPUs at the end of June, which helped contribute to our highest desktop channel GPU shipments since the fourth quarter of 2014. The Radeon RX family resets expectations around the experiences and features gamers now want in a mainstream GPU.
+We are pleased with the Polaris launch, initial channel sales, and OEM design wins. We expect this strong demand to continue and help drive revenue growth in the third quarter with the launch of the RX 470 and RX 460 desk top GPUs, and Polaris based notebooks from our OEM customers. We also delivered our third straight quarter of sequential professionals graphics revenue growth and believe we gained share driven by increased adoption of FirePro graphics by OEMs as well as several cloud data center GPU compute wins.
+In client, mobile APUs sales increased for the third straight quarter, partially offsetting decreased desktop processor sales led by channel softness in China. Shipments of our recently launched seventh generation APUs are ramping well and outpacing sales of our six-generation APUs at this point in their lifecycle.
+More than 25 new seventh generation APU systems, including several premium designs, are expected to be widely available in the coming months from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, and Lenovo, providing us with confidence in this part of our business as we enter the seasonally stronger second half of the year.
+Turning to our enterprise embedded and semicustom segment, our 59% sequential revenue increase is the largest since our first full quarter of semicustom products shipments in 2013. As in the previous two years, we expect semicustom shipments to peak for the year in the third quarter, as both Microsoft and Sony prepare for the holidays. Based on strong demand, we believe semicustom unit shipments and revenue will grow on an annual basis.
+Last quarter at E3, Microsoft announced two new members of the Xbox One family powered by AMD. The Xbox One S is the slimmest Xbox console ever, and the first to support HDR. The system is expected to go on sale in the coming weeks. Microsoft also announced their next-generation game console, code-named Project Scorpio, for the 2017 holidays.
+Project Scorpios is designed to be fully compatible with existing Xbox One software, while leveraging AMD's leadership gaming technologies to create more immersive 4K and VR gaming experiences. Project Scorpio is one of the semicustom design wins we communicated previously.
+Our next generation Zen processor products passed several key milestones in the quarter as well. I'm excited to report that, in addition to conducting the first public demonstration of our next generation Zen-based processor at Computex in June, priority server customer sampling began in the quarter, and dual socket server platforms are now running at both our labs and our customers' labs.
+We are pleased with the performance we are seeing with Zen hardware, which is helping to expand our customer engagements and accelerating design win momentum across multiple OEMs and ODMs. We remain on track for volume shipments of our Zen server CPU in the first half of 2017.
+In closing, over the last 18 months, we have been diligently executing our strategic plan to improve our financial performance by delivering great products, strengthening our customer relationships, and simplifying our business. In the past six months alone, we released our game-changing Polaris architecture, completed our ATMP JV transaction, announced a JV and IP licensing transaction with THATIC, and returned to non-GAAP operating profitability.
+While we recognize we have more work to do, we believe that, based on the ongoing ramps of our semicustom SoCs, Polaris GPUs, and seventh generation APUs, we can deliver full-year revenue growth in 2016 and non-GAAP operating profitability in the second half of the year. We also remain focused on delivering our road map of high performance products and technologies, including Zen and our next generation Vega GPU architecture that can drive long-term growth.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our second-quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. The second quarter was a strong quarter, punctuated by better-than-expected financial performance, driven by demand for our semicustom SoCs and the closure of our ATMP joint venture transaction with Nantong Fujitsu Microelectronics, which bolstered our cash position.
+Second-quarter revenue was $1.027 billion, up 23% sequentially, driven by higher sales of semicustom SoCs. The year-over-year revenue increase was 9% with higher sales in both reportable segments. Gross margin was 31%, down 1 percentage point from the prior quarter, primarily due to a higher mix of semicustom SoCs sales.
+Operating expenses were $342 million, up $10 million from the prior quarter, primarily due to increased marketing investments. We also recognized a $26 million licensing gain associated with our JV with THATIC, and restructuring credits of $7 million, primarily related to facilities. We are pleased to report operating income of $3 million this quarter.
+Net loss was $40 million with loss per share of $0.05, calculated using 794 million basic shares in the quarter. We recorded a pretax gain of $150 million related to the ATMP JV transaction, an equity loss of $3 million based on our 15% ownership stake, and taxes of $27 million related to the JV transaction. Adjusted EBITDA was a positive $36 million compared to negative $22 million in the prior quarter.
+Now turning to the business segments -- Computing and Graphics revenue was $435 million, down 5% from the prior quarter, primarily due to decreased sales of client desktop processors and chipsets. Revenue was up 15% year-over-year, largely driven by higher client notebook Processor and Graphics sales.
+Computing and Graphics segment operating loss was $81 million compared to $70 million in the prior quarter, primarily due to lower revenue. Enterprise, embedded and semicustom revenue was $592 million, up 59% from the prior quarter and 5% higher than the prior year, driven by higher semicustom SoC sales. Operating income of this segment was $84 million, up from [$16 million] in the prior quarter, driven by higher revenue and a $26 million IP licensing gain compared to a licensing gain of $7 million in the first quarter.
+Turning to the balance sheet, our cash and cash equivalents totaled $957 million at the end of the quarter, up $241 million from the end of the prior quarter, primarily due to net cash proceeds from the ATMP JV transaction, offset by working capital needs in the quarter. Inventory was $743 million, up $68 million or 10% from the prior quarter, and higher than guided, in support of expected higher semicustom sales in the third quarter.
+In the second quarter, we recorded a $62 million investment on our balance sheet related to our 15% ownership stake in the ATMP JV. Total wafer purchases from GlobalFoundries in the second quarter were 75 million and year-to-date, we have purchased 259 million.
+Debt as of the end of the quarter was $2.24 billion, flat from the end of the prior quarter, and includes total borrowings of $226 million on our secured revolving line of credit. Free cash flow in the second quarter was negative $106 million compared to a negative $68 million in the first quarter of 2016, primarily due to the inventory build in support of strong second-half revenue.
+Now turning to the outlook, which is based on a 13-week fiscal quarter. For the third quarter of 2016, we expect revenue to increase 18% sequentially, plus or minus 3%, primarily driven by our graphics and semicustom products, including the ramp of new semicustom business; non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 31%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $350 million, due to an increase in R&D investments; IP monetization licensing gain to be approximately $22 million to maintain non-GAAP operating profitability; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes or other -- and other to be approximately $45 million; cash and cash equivalents to be approximately flat; and inventory to be approximately $700 million. And lastly, for the full-year 2016, we expect low-single digit revenue growth year-over-year.
+In closing, we are pleased with the progress we've made this quarter. We launched exciting new products in the second quarter, with more expected to come to help drive strong revenue growth and improved financial performance in the third quarter. We recognize there's a lot more work to be done to return AMD to sustainable profitability and free cash flow generation, and look forward to continuing our progress over the coming quarters.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Ruth. Ruth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Devinder. Operator, if you could poll the audience please for a question-and-answer session?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) David Wong, Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+My first question -- can you give us any detail on the ramp in dollar terms of revenues from new semicustom products in the September/December quarters, and what the seasonal pattern of these products might be?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, David. This is Lisa. Let me start with that. So, our semicustom business overall, we see as strong for the year. I think the predominant business is the current generation game consoles, and as they ramp into the second half and the stronger holiday season.
+We expect the seasonality of semicustoms to be similar to prior years. We'll see a peak in the third quarter and a decline in the fourth quarter, and we will see the new business layer in starting in the third quarter. But I don't expect that to change the seasonality pattern. So, we are building up for a strong holiday season overall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Great. Thanks, Lisa. And since the launch of your Radeon 480 graphics product end of last month, have you been able to supply to demand for the cards? Or if not, when do you expect demand will rise to match supply?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So, David, we're very pleased with the launch of the Radeon RX 480. We had good supply at major retailers on launch day. Since then, the demand has continued to be strong and so some of the retailers are out of supply. We do see that the 14 LPP yields are good and we're ramping up production steeply.
+So we expect that will equalize as we go through the quarter. We're also very soon going to launch the rest of the Radeon RX family. And so you'll see three products in the third quarter in terms of overall product momentum.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thanks very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, David.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis, Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my question. First one -- Lisa, maybe for you -- the China licensing deal was -- I thought it was creative and fascinating. Can you characterize kind of the pipeline of IP deals that you have or the technology deals? Is this it? Or do you have more in the pipe? Can you talk about timing or the types of deals you might be working on?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Mark. So the China JV, as you said, we announced it last quarter and it's now in operation. It's actually going well, so we're on track for some of the important milestone deliveries that we had.
+In terms of the overall pipeline, I would say we have a nice set of interesting opportunities. They're -- very much, as you know, they take a while for them to come to fruition, but we feel good about the model which is partnering with folks that need high-performance technology. And we'll continue to work those deals as we go through the next couple of quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Great. And I'll follow-up if I may. I was hoping that you could just help me with the accounting of the semicustom design wins. So if I remember properly, there was two that you expect in the back half of this year, and then one -- I thought it was the first half of next year.
+So Scorpio is one of those three? But that's next year; so that's the one for next year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, let me help you out with the accounting -- I know that we've had several different pieces of information on the semicustom new design wins. So what we said is we'll have a total of three semicustom new design wins that will account for about -- let's call it $1.5 billion of revenue approximately over the next three to four years.
+We are starting the ramp of new business this coming quarter, this third quarter, and that will be one of the semicustom design wins. Scorpio is also a design win, and that, as our customer said, will be in 2017. And we'll give you more information about the third one as we have more visibility.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And do you have more design wins that you just haven't announced or mentioned timing of?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, we're trying to get out a little bit of the counting game, but I think overall, we're pleased with the semicustom pipeline. I think some of the questions that we've been asked are, do we believe we have design wins outside of game consoles, and the answer is yes. We have design wins outside of game consoles. I think we view the pipeline as good, and it's a business model that works well with our high-performance technology plans and our SoC capabilities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. That's very helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Mark.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay, Canaccord Genuity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my questions. Lisa, I have a couple of questions on Zen. You gave some color in your prepared remarks about server opportunities for Zen starting in the first half of next year. Maybe you could give us a little color on potentially what markets you are going after there, where you see the opportunities?
+It seems to me that a lot of different moving parts in the cloud market with open power and ARM, and then custom CPUs from Intel, but a pretty big enterprise space that's x86 captive for you guys to go after. So I would just be interested to see what the strategy is going forward there and where the design wins might come from?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Matt. So, yes, let me give you a little bit of color how we see it. First of all, look, Zen is a brand-new CPU design and we had very ambitious goals for it. And given where we are today, it's actually coming up very well.
+We've demoed both desktop systems, and now we have server systems working in both our labs and our customers' labs. I would say as the progress of Zen is -- goes along in terms of validation, the customer interest has increased. And so, while we did close a number of design wins in the second quarter and we have a number more in the pipeline, as we go into the third quarter and more widespread availability.
+Our view is, Zen is a general-purpose server architecture that can play in many different places. So you mentioned the cloud. I think that's certainly one target market given the growth there. We also see there are workloads that would be particularly -- fit well for sort of the performance areas that we're targeting. I think enterprise is also again very much a target area for Zen.
+What we are looking for again is ensuring that we have a very high quality launch, and so we're working very closely with customers to make sure that we run their workloads and demonstrate the performance improvement that we expect. But as I said overall, it's going well, and we continue to work with customers to ensure that they see the benefits of Zen and working with AMD.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you for the color and it's good to hear. I guess another question on Zen more in the PC market -- because I think your prepared remarks focused a bit more on server -- but maybe you could give us a little bit of an update in the timing of desktop and notebook potential launches.
+It just seems to me going into the holiday season that it's still a little unclear as to where Zen is going to land relative to holiday ramps in the Western market and to Chinese New Year. So any color around that would be really helpful. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. No, that's a fair question, Matt. So we have been very focused on the server launch for first half of 2017. Desktop should launch before that. In terms of true volume availability, I believe it will be in the first quarter of 2017. We may ship some limited volume towards the end of the fourth quarter, based on how bring-up goes and the customer readiness.
+But again, if I look overall at what we are trying to do, I think the desktop product is very well-positioned for that high-end desktop segment, that enthusiast segment, in both channel and OEM, which is very much a segment that AMD knows well. And so that's where we would focus -- on desktop.
+You should expect a notebook version of Zen with integrated graphics in 2017, and that development is going on as well. And so I think it's just a time of a lot of activity around the Zen and the different Zen product families.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. Congratulations on the return to profitability.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Matt.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon, Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein Research - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my questions. I was looking at the implied guidance for Q4. You said the -- I guess for the full year, up low single digits. So, I mean, call it 3%. But it would imply Q4 down 16%/17% sequentially, and actually down on an absolute basis, lower than I would've thought. I think Q4 also has an extra week in it.
+I was wondering if you could give us, I guess, some color on how you see the drivers, I guess, for seasonality going from Q3 to Q4 across both of the businesses, given that, I guess, the trajectory of the different product launches that we have in the back half? Like, how do you come to that number?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Stacy, maybe I'll start and see if Devinder would like to add to it. So, look, our -- when we started the year, our expectation is that we would grow revenue in 2016 versus 2015, but we were coming off of a very low base in the first quarter. So we've been pleased with how it played out certainly in our second-quarter revenue and the third quarter revenue guidance.
+Overall, the businesses are performing well, so we do expect both Computing and Graphics and EEFC to both grow for the year. I think the semicustom business is the large driver of the fourth quarter in terms of just how we see the overall business playing out. But the Computing and Graphics business is playing out as you might expect.
+So the second half should be seasonally higher, certainly with Polaris, and as we launch broader availability across the product line, as well as the seventh generation APUs as they go into back-to-school and holiday. So that's the way we should think about it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein Research - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thank you. For my follow-up, I just wanted to take a look at your notebook shipments in the quarter. So they were up again sequentially -- I think they were up double digits in Q1; I think they were up in Q4 as well. So three quarters in a row of sequential increase. Obviously off a low base as well.
+But how confident are you -- like what's driving that? Is this -- is it actually sort of a sell-out that's actually driving the demand? Or is this sell-in into the channel? And how should we think about that potentially normalizing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, so if you're talking about the notebook computing business, actually we are kind of pleased with how it performed. So if you look at it, overall, the -- our OEM customers have adopted our technologies, so we see that across both notebook and desktop, but presumably notebook.
+We are also making progress in commercial, and that was a very important initiative over the past five or six quarters. And so that's been nice to stabilize the business. And again, I don't believe it's a sell-in phenomenon. Actually it's consumption share that we see increasing. And I think we have a reasonable opportunity to add to that in the second half of the year. But it's really around our products in the platforms that we're putting together with the OEMs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein Research - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. If I could ask one more really quick. I was just a little bit surprised at how much your wafer purchases at GlobalFoundries came down quarter-over-quarter, given the increase in notebooks as well as the timing of the Polaris launch. Any -- what -- should we read anything into that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think basically the purchases of the wafers are in line with product demand and mix of business. And as I said in the prepared remarks, the other day we purchased about [$260 million] of wafers, and we are getting into the back half of the year, which as you can see, with our revenue guidance in Q3, is pretty strong.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein Research - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, guys.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer, Credit Suisse Group.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse Group - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for letting me ask the question and congratulations on orchestrating the turnaround. I guess, Lisa, my first question, I would kind of like to get your view on the news earlier this week around Softbank and ARM. You are sort of in a unique position because you are both kind of a partner with ARM as an ARM licensee. But if you look at your custom silicon business, especially on the x86 architecture, you could make the argument that you're a little bit of a competitor as well.
+So I'm kind of curious to know how you see kind of the reaction to that from a customer perspective? And does that change your view of how you might be able to monetize your own IP in the future?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John, thanks for the question. Look, I think it's a very interesting deal -- the ARM SoftBank deal. I think we have a lot of respect for ARM; they are a close partner. I'm not sure we would call them a competitor. Overall, they are a partner.
+As it relates to how we think about our IP, we really believe that our IP, particularly the high performance element of it on the microprocessor and the graphic side, is very unique, and in some sense, there are very few places in the industry where you have access to it. I think the applications that need it, whether you are talking about consumer applications or enterprise cloud applications, are growing. And so it's an opportunity for us to look for larger markets to monetize beyond just our own products.
+And that's, in general, the way we think about IP monetization. We have a set of products that is very important to our business model, but our IP can go further than our products themselves. And so we would continue to look for opportunities to monetize our IP.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse Group - Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And again, I apologize if I missed this -- you commented on sort of your expectations for GPUs going into Q3 and for semicustom. How do you view the PC outlook within your total outlook above ATM? And I've got a quick follow-on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. So let me talk about the PC market overall. I think our view of the PC market is pretty similar to others in the industry. We would say, overall for 2016, high-single digit decline. We have seen some positive signals, and we saw some positive data points from IDC earlier the last week. And then we saw a little bit of pickup in consumption in June from our OEM customers. But again, that was compared to -- let's call it a soft April/May.
+Our view is OEM business looks okay. The channel for us is still weaker than we would like, and that's our view of the PC business. Even in that framework, we believe we can grow our Computing and Graphics business on the strength of the products. The Graphics products, we've talked about, as they ramp in the second half of the year. And on the Computing side as well, I think we have a number of new platforms, and back-to-school and holiday are important for us. So that's the way would characterize PCs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse Group - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So, Lisa, not to put words in your mouth, but for Q3, PC's up but perhaps not up as much as seasonal? Is that the best way to think about it within your guide?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I would say roughly seasonal -- roughly seasonal.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse Group - Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That's helpful. And then lastly, guys, I apologize, but Devinder, now that you've got revenue growth behind you and you've got some momentum here, how do we think about the gross margin progression from here and kind of the puts and takes? And I know there's lot of different dynamics there, including the mix of semicustom. But from these levels, how should we think about gross margin progression over the next, call it, two to four quarters?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, John, I think the way you think about it is, it is the mix of business, so that's a good observation. But also you see us making continuing investments in our roadmap in graphics and in other areas, and we believe that will help us improve the gross margin. And then as you look out longer-term, as you observe -- get beyond a couple of quarters and get into 2017, we do have the Zen product introduction coming up. We also have a product in the pro graphics area, and that should drive even higher gross margins compared to where we are today, given the mix will get better with those products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse Group - Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks. Well, thanks, guys.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, John.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Seymore, Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my question. This is Sidney Ho asking -- calling in for Ross. Just follow up to -- with the last question by focusing on third quarter, you guided third-quarter gross margin to be flat, but the profile seem -- of revenue growth seems to be -- would suggest gross margin should decline on a mix adjusted basis.
+How should we think about gross margin by segment in Q3? What are some of the moving parts? And maybe follow-up to that, do you expect the gross margin of the new custom design wins ramping this quarter to have better or worse margins than your game console business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, I think that's well-put. I mean if you look overall when we have a higher mix of semicustom business, typically the gross margin is lower since the business model on the semicustom side has for the lower margin just the way the model is constructed. So keeping it flat at 31% with the guide in Q3 was variable in Q2. We were pretty pleased with that. And I think you're seeing some of the strength underlying the non-semicustom business is allowing us to keep it flat quarter-on-quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Great. And then my follow-up question is -- you guys talked about the Zen products at Computex and it's on track for launching in the first half of 2017. Can you talk about the impact on R&D expense and maybe on gross margin on the preparation of this launch over the next few quarters? And if you hit your revenue plan that you have thought about, at what point do you need to start increasing OpEx from the $330 million to $350 million level?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+The OpEx side of it, if I look at it from that standpoint, you have seen our OpEx actually go up; in Q3, we are guiding at the $350 million level with specific targeted investments we are making in key R&D areas and products, in particular the high performance roadmap that we have laid out. But we are also making some specific investments in the marketing area, given the new products that are coming out on the PC side as well as the GPU side, trying to attract end-users back to the AMD brand.
+And I think you'll continue to see us do that. And that helps obviously with this new product underlying the better margins that you get with the fresh cycle, in particular with the new technology areas that we are putting our products in.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Maybe just one quick follow-up. For Q4 with an extra week in the fiscal quarter, should we expect OpEx to be at the high end of levels, that that will be enough -- that $350 million?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I'm not prepared -- you know, one of the things about OpEx as I always say even if you look at Q3, the OpEx is up on a guided basis at $350 million, but very much as I always say, we manage the OpEx pretty tightly. We've done that over the last several years, and obviously it gets modulated somewhat by revenue. Q3, our revenue is up 18%, OpEx is at $350 million and we'll talk about Q4 when we gather here in about 90 days.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sidney Ho,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore, Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I was also curious about GlobalFoundries being so low in Q2. And I guess have you guys finalized the 2016 wafer supply agreement? And can you talk more generally about which products -- how you are deciding which products are allocated to Global and TSMC? And is there anything that's exclusive to one or the other?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, several parts to it. I mean the working relationship, as Lisa said, with GlobalFoundries is very good. We continue to work through the 2016 WSA and that's not finalized; we're in the process of negotiating that. In the meantime, we continue to get delivery of wafers for the products that we need in line with the product demand and mix of business. And relative to your -- which products from which foundry, we typically do not share the source of foundry for any of our wafers or products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. That's fair. And then with regards to kind of thinking about next year's OpEx, when you look at the importance of a CPU that can attack the server market and can attack the high end of the sort of enthusiast CPU market, I guess I don't want you to necessarily be constrained by the R&D requirements of the last couple of years.
+I mean, so how do you think about that? If you start to show some revenue traction, I mean, can you -- how much flexibility do you think there is on spending? I'm not asking for a number, but just qualitatively, how are you thinking about profitability versus investing in these opportunities next year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe, I would say my engineers would be very happy to hear you say that. So look, I appreciate the question. I think you've seen -- and Devinder said this -- we're going to be disciplined in OpEx. And as this quarter was an important turning point for us, to return to operating profitability, I think we have a nice sort of a view into Q3.
+We will look for opportunities to ensure that we are strategically placing the big bets in R&D, and both on the CPU and the GPU side. For example, this year, we have ramped up our investments on the graphics side with the formation of the Radeon Technologies Group, and what we're doing in both hardware and software -- very significant investments.
+And similarly on the CPU side as well. So, I think we take very seriously our commitments in terms of profitability, but we will invest in the future and we'll continue to look for opportunities to balance those in the right way.
+I don't know, Devinder, if you want to add --?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+No, I think that's well-said. In 2017, obviously, as we get to the back half of the year, Q3 we have guided, we're getting to that -- get through Q3 and get into Q4. And at that point, we'll start thinking about where we want to place our bets as these are put in terms of the longer-term investments in 2017. Right now we're really focused on getting -- we got to non-GAAP operating profitability this quarter. We want to maintain that in Q3 and then we'll see what happens from there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Danely, Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Marco Chan,  Citigroup - Analyst    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+This is Marco Chan calling on behalf of Chris Danely. Thanks for letting me ask the question. My first question is, could you please update us on your expectations on the THATIC x86 server JV in China? Are there any potential legal risks with it, potentially Intel?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So relative to the server JV that we have with THATIC, as we stated before, we believe that our joint venture is operational. I think it's well underway. The technology that we're licensing is AMD technology, and so we don't have any issues relative to licensing. I think --
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. If I may add, I mean, one thing on the update, I guess, if you look at the prepared remarks and the commentary for Q3 is, we now expect, based on technology transfer milestone completion, to recognize $22 million to authorize a gain in Q3 and approximately $75 million for the year, which is higher than what we had said previously when we said it was $52 million for the year. So you can see it's incremental and therefore, as Lisa said, things are operationally on track and we continue to meet our technology transfer milestones from a date standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Marco Chan,  Citigroup - Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That's very helpful. Thank you. And then my follow-up -- I know you guys mentioned PCs and Graphics segment should be up year-over-year. Could you guys get into more detail, maybe talk about each segment individually, your trends for PCs versus GPUs?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, we don't usually go into granularity about the subsegments of the business. I think it's fair to say that our PC business has stabilized. And what we're seeing now is the opportunity, as we go into the seasonally stronger half of the year on both the PC side and graphics side, on top of that with some new product launches, we believe that we will end up growing year-over-year. But again, we don't usually guide to the details within the segment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Marco Chan,  Citigroup - Analyst    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava, BMO.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gabriel Ho,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+This is Gabriel Ho calling in for Ambrish. Thanks for taking my question. I have a follow-up on your Project Scorpio comment. I think it's going to be launched in 2017. And I think you had significantly higher performance and support 4K and V. So how should we think about the pricing on ASP that compares to what you have indicated on the current generation game console platform?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So, again we don't -- we wouldn't disclose anything that's incrementally more than what our customer has disclosed. So I think Microsoft has talked about their goals with Project Scorpio. I think we are in support of those goals. Given the performance level, you would imagine that there's more capability on chip, but I wouldn't want to go more than that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gabriel Ho,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. As a follow-up -- I think your competitor has launched a comparable mainstream product -- I think GeForce 10 6P, so given the absence of your maybe higher performance part launching maybe in the second half, so how should we think about the rest of the year on the demand on your graphics side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, we are feeling very good about our Polaris launch. This was our strategy from the beginning. I mean we laid out a strategy where we were going after the mainstream, and growth rate, really a new experience in terms of both capability and price point. And I think we've done that.
+We've also been very focused on DX 12 and our performance -- on new APIs like Vulcan. So we are happy with our competitiveness. I think it's played out as we thought it would do. Certainly our aspirations in GPU are to certainly have very competitive products across the entire product line. And so I've talked about working on Vega, which is the next generation high-end architecture.
+But in terms of our competitiveness, you know, we -- again, we've executed what we thought we were going to execute. And it seems like, from both customer reviews and analyst reviews, that it's pretty well-received by the market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gabriel Ho,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator, we'll take two more callers, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing, MKM Partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, thank you for fitting me in. So EESC -- looks like you achieved operating income same level as third quarter of last year but with $45 million lower revenue. So just wondering how you got more profitable in this segment, given these are both strong game console quarters and also you've got annual price declines in game consoles, I assume. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think if you look at the profitability, you've got to remember that in the EESC segment, we also have other businesses embedded for one, and also the investment we are making for the enterprise side of it, for the data center product that's coming out in 2017. So the profitability -- you're right about the observation, but profitability depends upon obviously -- the largest business we have in there right now is the semicustom business, but also the investments on the OpEx standpoint that we make year-on-year. And we talked about the targeted investments we are making in some of the product areas.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Great. But these are relatively older products that are embedded into enterprise products at the moment then, it sounds like. Okay, great. And then my follow-on is -- you are at a one-year cadence for GPUs now. Could you talk about expectations on how last year's R9300 series winds down and how that plays out? It looks like in Q2, it was really just a lack of a pause ahead of a known refresh. And do you expect sort of a sharp wind-down at some point? Or is it more gradual?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [77]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Actually, Ian, that's a good observation. The 390 series or the 300 series overall actually did do okay in the second quarter. We were also wondering whether there would be a pause prior to a new generation. I think we see it as a very orderly transition; it's actually one of our better product transitions as we go from the 300 series over to the 400 series.
+So again, nothing very spectacular to report other than the sellthrough has continued -- the sellthrough was good in the second quarter. And we believe that it's an orderly transition of the inventory.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ian Ing,  MKM Partners - Analyst    [78]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay, great. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [79]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Ian.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [80]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our final question today is coming from Jaguar Bajwa from Arete Research. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [81]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my question. Just a question on Q3. Could you just lay out which would be the fastest-growing sequential segment in Q3? Will that be the GPU business, CPU or semicustom? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [82]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar, I think what we would say is that our Q3 guidance is both semicustom and graphics will be the drivers of the sequential revenue growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [83]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thanks. And then could you just give a bit more clarity around Vega timing? And also what do you expect to be your differentiation here versus what Nvidia has done with Pascal?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [84]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Again, I think we'll talk more about the details of the Vega architecture in time, but certainly Vega is a high-performance GPU that will use high-bandwidth memory as part of it. So, I would leave the details for a more -- as we go -- get closer to the Vega launch date.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [85]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Well, maybe just one final one then. When we get into the server CPU cycle with Zen, should we expect any kind of contribution from an APU format with CPU plus Vega? Because we're seeing a lot of acceleration now in the data center. Do you think that could be a key product for you guys which maybe your competitors may not have, bringing an APU to the server market for high-performance servers?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [86]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, I think it's fair to say that we do believe we can combine high-performance CPU with the high-performance GPU. As we look at our GPU compute in general, sort of our both professionals graphics and server markets for GPU, I think that will increasingly become an area of focus for us as we continue to grow the graphics business.
+So I think the answer is yes. I mean, obviously, it will come in time, but it's an area where combining the two technologies makes a lot of sense.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jaguar Bajwa,  Arete Research - Analyst    [87]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [88]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [89]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator, that concludes the question-and-answer session. If you wouldn't mind wrapping up the call, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [90]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Certainly. That concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2016-Oct-20-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,478 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2016 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 20, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Ruth Cotter
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer
+ * Lisa Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Matt Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity - Analyst
+ * Stacy Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst
+ * John Pitzer
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * David Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst
+ * Joe Moore
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Mark Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * Chris Rolland
+   Susquehanna Financial Group - Analyst
+ * Chris Hemmelgarn
+   Barclays Capital - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+ Greetings and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices third-quarter 2016 earnings conference call. 
+(Operator Instructions) 
+As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Ruth Cotter, Chief Human Resources Officer, for Advanced Micro Devices. Ms. Cotter, you may begin. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, and welcome to AMD's third-quarter conference call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at IR.AMD.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. This is a live call, and will be replayed via webcast on AMD.com. 
+I'd like to highlight a few dates for you this afternoon. Lisa Su will present at the Credit Suisse PMT conference on November 30 in Arizona. I will present at the NASDAQ investor program on November 30 in the UK. Devinder Kumar will present at the Barclays Global Technology Media and Telecommunications Conference in December in San Francisco. And our fourth quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, December 16, 2016. 
+Before we begin, let me remind everyone that third-quarter 2016 was a 14-week quarter, and we expect to record our extra week in the fourth quarter of 2016. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements, based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. 
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP figures during the call, except for revenue, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the press release and CFO commentary, posted on our website at QuarterlyEarnings.AMD.com. 
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You'll also find detailed discussions about our risk factors and our filings with the SEC, and in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 25, 2016. With that, I would like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Ruth, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. Our strong third-quarter results highlight the progress we have made across AMD this past year, as we improved our financial performance by delivering great products. Third-quarter revenue of $1.3 billion increased 27% sequentially and 23% from the year-ago period, driven by upside demand for our graphics products, and record semi custom sales. 
+In addition to the significant revenue growth, we also achieved several financial and operational milestones in the quarter. We strengthened our balance sheet and improved our P&L through a series of capital markets transactions that reprofiled and reduced our debt. We also signed a strategic amendment to our Wafer Supply Agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES that provides sourcing flexibility and financial predictability. Most importantly, we delivered non-GAAP net income in the quarter, based on strong execution of our product road map, and growing momentum across our business. 
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, we had solid growth in the quarter. Revenue increased 9% sequentially, and 11% from the year-ago period, driven by improved sales of mobile APUs and discrete GPUs. Mobile processor revenue and unit shipments increased for the fourth straight quarter, as 7th-generation APU shipments continued ramping, highlighted by the launch of our new PRO Series APUs earlier this month with HP. 
+Customer and partner excitement for our Zen-based desktop product, Summit Ridge, is growing as we successfully passed several key engineering and design win  milestones in the quarter. We provided our first competitive performance preview of Summit Ridge in the quarter, and believe we will have a very competitive offering for the $4 billion high performance desktop processor market. We are working closely with our infrastructure partners and customers, in preparation for the launch in early 2017. 
+In graphics, we had a very strong quarter, with discrete GPU revenue and unit shipments growing by double-digit percentages sequentially and year-over-year. The launch of our expanded family of Polaris desktop GPUs, and our first full quarter of RX 480 sales drove our highest quarterly channel GPU revenue and ASP since early 2014. Radeon RX GPUs now account for more than 50% of our channel GPU revenue. 
+Polaris GPUs continued to gain traction based on their leadership performance in VR and on the rapidly expanding number of software titles that feature the latest generation of APIs, like DirectX 12 and Vulkan. Our progress in the quarter was punctuated by Oculus, announcing a limited edition Oculus-ready PC, powered by an AMD FX processor, and Radeon RX 470 GPU that brings the cost of entry for a VR-ready system down to $500 for the first time. This is a meaningful milestone for consumers, and I am excited that AMD is enabling the ecosystem, and driving broader adoption of VR, by making premium experiences available at such an attractive price point.  
+We also delivered our fourth straight quarter of sequential revenue growth for our professional graphics products. In addition to solid workstation sales growth, we expanded our presence in the server GPU market, as HP announced availability of multiple Radeon options across their traditional and blade server offerings. And just last week, we announced the collaboration with Alibaba Cloud, China's largest cloud provider, to deploy Radeon PRO server GPUs across their datacenters to expand the scale and services of their global cloud offering. 
+We now have material server GPU engagement with multiple cloud datacenter providers, demonstrating that our strategy to grow our presence in this profitable market by delivering superior performance with Radeon PRO hardware, in conjunction with industry-standard programming tools and APIs, is beginning to pay off. Now, turning to our enterprise embedded and semi-custom segment. 
+Revenue increased 41% sequentially, and 31% from the year-ago period, driven by record semi- custom sales, which included the ramp of three new FinFET-based products powering the Xbox One S, updated PlayStation 4, and our new design win in the Sony PlayStation 4 Pro. We are on track to grow semi-custom unit shipments and revenue for the third straight year, demonstrating our leadership in high-performance gaming technologies for the very successful game console market. We expect fourth-quarter revenue to be down seasonally, as we transition from our annual semi custom sales peak in the third quarter. 
+Our embedded product sales grew sequentially, as our newer design wins reached production. In server, our Zen-based high-performance processor remains on track for introduction in the first half of 2017. We successfully passed several silicon and platform technical milestones in the quarter, and have secured multiple new design wins across OEM, enterprise, and cloud providers. 
+In closing, as I complete my second year as CEO of AMD, I am pleased with the solid progress we have made across the Company on multiple operational, product, and financial fronts. We are executing our long-term strategy, and a set of near term priorities that I believe provide AMD with significant opportunities over the next 18 to 24 months, to drive top line revenue growth, operating margin expansion, and free cash flow generation. 
+We have strengthened the core of the Company, by clearly defining the markets where we have technology and expertise to win; bringing a laser focus to our product execution around our graphics and microprocessor road map; creating deeper, more lasting relationships with strategic customers; monetizing our assets and valuable IP with two joint ventures in China; and reengineering our balance sheet to increase our cash balance and reduce debt. I want to thank the thousands of AMDers whose determination this past year has allowed us to put in place the financial and operational foundation to drive growth and profitability. 
+In 2017, with Zen and Vega, we are focused on delivering our strongest product portfolio in over a decade, capable of unlocking multiple growth pillars for our business across the data center, gaming, and high performance graphics and PC markets. I am proud of what we have accomplished, and I believe that the best is yet to come. Now, I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder, to provide some additional color on our third-quarter financial performance. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Lisa, and a very good afternoon to everyone. In the third quarter, we achieved another milestone in our progress as we return to non-GAAP net income profitability. The third-quarter financial performance was driven by strong demand for our semi custom SoCs, higher graphics revenue, and positive free cash flow. 
+We executed a series of capital markets transactions that have significantly improved our balance sheet, and turned that profile, and will reduce interest expense beginning in Q4. We also finalized a long-term strategic Wafer Supply Agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. 
+Third-quarter revenue was $1.3 billion, up 27% sequentially, driven by higher sales of our record semi custom SoCs and higher graphics processor sales. The year-over-year revenue increased 23%, driven by higher sales of our semi custom SoCs, client mobile processors, and graphics processors. 
+Non-GAAP gross margin was 31%, flat from the prior quarter, driven by a richer mix of PC and graphics products, offsetting lower margin semi custom product. Non-GAAP operating expenses were $353 million, up $11 million from the prior quarter, due to increased R&D investment. We recognized $24 million of net licensing gains, associated with our server JV with THATI. Non-GAAP operating income was $20 million this quarter, up $67 million from the prior quarter. 
+Third-quarter other net expense was $63 million, mostly consisting of a $61 million loss related to debt retirement. The equity loss in the ATMP JV was $5 million based on our 15% JV ownership stake. Non-GAAP net income was $27 million, with earnings per share of $0.03. 
+Non-GAAP EPS was calculated using 865 million diluted shares of common stock, which includes 12 million shares associated with the equity offering that closed late in the third quarter. Included in our GAAP operating loss and GAAP net loss is a $340 million charge associated with our fixed amendment to the WSA with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Adjusted EBITDA was $103 million, compared to $36 million in the prior quarter. 
+Now, turning to the business segments. Computing and Graphics revenue was $472 million, up 9% from the prior quarter, and up 11% year-over-year, primarily due to increased sales of GPUs and client mobile APUs. Computing and Graphics segment operating loss was $66 million, compared to $81 million the prior quarter, primarily due to higher revenue. 
+Enterprise embedded and semi custom revenue was $835 million, up 41% from the prior quarter, and 31% higher year-over-year, driven by higher semi custom SoC sales. Operating income of this segment was $136 million, up from $84 million in the prior quarter, primarily driven by higher revenue. 
+Turning to the balance sheet, our cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.3 billion at the end of the quarter, up $301 million from the end of the prior quarter, including $274 million remaining from the proceeds of our capital market transaction. Excluding this amount, the cash was $984 million, as compared to $957 million last quarter. Free cash flow was a positive $20 million in the third quarter. 
+Inventory was $772 million, up $29 million or 4% from the end of the prior quarter, in support of holiday season GPU and semi custom product sales expectations in the first part of the fourth quarter. Total wafer purchases from  GLOBALFOUNDRIES in third quarter were $168 million, and we continue to expect overall wafer purchases of approximately $650 million in 2016, including $155 million purchased in early 2016, as part of the fixed amendment to the WSA. 
+Debt as of the end of the quarter was $1.6 billion, down from the prior quarter, due to our significant debt reduction effort. During the third quarter, we raised approximately $1.4 billion in cash, as a result of issuing $690 million of common stock, which includes the exercise of an underwriter's option to purchase 15% or $90 million of additional common stock, and the issuance of $700 million in 2 1/8% convertible notes due in 2026. We used the majority of these funds to redeem outstanding term debt through cash tender offers, and we paid off the outstanding ABL balance of $226 million. 
+In addition, early in the fourth quarter, another $105 million of convertible notes were issued as part of the exercise of an underwriter's option, bringing the total principal amount of the 2026 convertible notes to $805 million. We also redeemed the remaining principal debt balance of $208 million of the 2020 senior note, which was our most expensive debt. This debt has now been fully paid off. 
+The debt reductions and issuance of the new convertible notes due 2026 that occur in the third quarter and early in the fourth quarter will result in approximately $55 million of annualized cash interest savings, beginning in the fourth quarter. Please refer to today's CFO written commentary for further details of the capital markets transactions and debt on the balance sheet. Free cash flow in the third quarter was a positive $20 million, compared to a negative $106 million in the second quarter of 2016, primarily due to increased revenue, improvement in working capital, and a reduction in capital expenditures. 
+Now turning to our fourth quarter 2016 outlook, a 14 fiscal week quarter, as it has an extra week. We expect revenue to decrease 18% sequentially, plus or minus 3%, primarily driven by a seasonal decline in our semi custom business, and an improvement in our CG business. Revenue at the midpoint of guidance would be up 12% year-over-year. Non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 32%. 
+Non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $350 million. IP monetization licensing gain to be approximately $25 million. To maintain non-GAAP operating profitability, non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $32 million. Cash and cash equivalents to be up, in line with our guidance of ending 2016 with positive free cash flow, excluding cash from capital market transactions, and the net proceeds from the ATMP JV. 
+Inventory to be down to approximately $660 million. Basic share count to be approximately 930 million, including 115 million shares related to the third-quarter equity issuance. And we now expect full-year revenue growth to be up approximately 6% from 2015, based on the midpoint of fourth quarter revenue guidance. 
+In closing, we are very pleased with the progress we have made in the third quarter. With focused execution we continue to build a solid financial foundation for the Company. In just the last three months alone, we achieved non-GAAP net income profitability, amended the WSA with GLOBALFOUNDRIES across multiple years, and deleveraged and derisked the balance sheet with our capital markets transaction, such that over the next five years, there is less than $200 million of term debt due. 
+We look forward to continued execution, and further improving our financial performance. With that, I'll turn it back to Ruth. Ruth? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we would be pleased to poll the audience for questions, please. 
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) 
+Our first question today is coming from Matt Ramsay from Canaccord Genuity. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. Good afternoon. Obviously a lot has gone on in the last quarter. I figured I would ask a couple things about Zen, since that's been one of the things that's most topical, in my conversations with investors. 
+Lisa, you talked about in your prepared remarks, there are  multiple OEM engagements and design wins for desktop, and also the same on server. Maybe you could do a little bit to expand upon those? The timing of launch of each, and in particular in the server market, the focus, whether that be enterprise, or whether that be cloud-based. Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Absolutely, Matt. Thanks for your question, and as you said, it's been a very busy quarter for us. As it relates to Zen, we are on track to launch in the first half of the year, for both our desktops and our servers. The desktop launch will go first, and it is on track for the first quarter, and then the server launch will go in the second quarter. 
+We've had a wide amount of sampling that's gone on in the third quarter. We have multiple customers on both the PC side, as well as the server side, who have working hardware now in their labs. They're bringing up their platforms and software, and we're very pleased with how smoothly it's coming up, actually. 
+So you asked specifically about the server side. Our focus on servers is really across the OEM business, including enterprise, as well as the cloud data centers. And I think the key for us is we're getting a lot of interest from our partners, and we continue to work with them to bring up their systems. But I think we are optimistic about where we are in the Zen bring-up, and the Zen launch cycle. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you for that. That's helpful. I guess as a follow-up there, in the server market, I think obviously your GPU primary competitor has had some very stellar traction with server acceleration around GPUs, and you highlighted in the prepared remarks some wins and engagements that you had on Polaris, and I assume on Vega for server acceleration. 
+Maybe you could expand on that commentary a bit, what you're investing there, how the GPUOpen, or the OpenCL Environment is developing relative to the CUDA environment in server acceleration, and just what proportion of your GPU business could be driven by that server opportunity in the long term? Any commentary there would be great. Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So let's talk overall about our graphics business. So when you look at our graphics business, certainly we're very pleased with the progress that we've made on the consumer side, with Polaris. But we've also mentioned that we've made good progress on the professional graphics side, including both workstations, as well as server GPUs. 
+I think the market is certainly very receptive to growth in the server GPU area. I was just at the Alibaba Cloud computing conference last week, where we announced our collaboration with them. They're actually using parts that are pre-Polaris and pre-Vega. We were demoing a GPU-based cloud server based on some of our FirePro technology, using hardware-based virtualization. 
+I think the main feedback that we've gotten from them, as well as multiple other cloud engagements, is the hardware looks very good. We're working with them on  the overall infrastructure and software to bring that up, and we believe that the products are very competitive in this market. And the market is nice because it's certainly margin accretive, to the consumer side of the business. 
+So we do expect as we bring out Vega in the first half of 2017, that will certainly strengthen the product portfolio. But there's a lot of interest in the cloud space around what we're doing with Radeon PRO and on the server GPU side. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. I'll get back in queue. Appreciate it.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank. Please proceed with your question.  
+(Operator Instructions) 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We can go to the next caller, operator. Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Certainly. Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I had two questions. First one, on the Alibaba deal, so this is not a new set of products you're developing, it's products you already have. And can you talk about, to the extent this is   a cloud services offering versus  deep learning applications, that they might be doing with your products? And I guess when I think about the architecture, I normally think about having an X86 processor sitting next to the GPU. I was wondering is it logical to assume that Zen is the natural X86 pairing with your GPUs in the Ali deployments? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Mark. So again, I think on the Alibaba deployment, it is the beginning of what we expect to be a long-term collaboration. So the work today is being done on a pre-Polaris base, but we do expect that will upgrade as we go forward. 
+I think the key is, there are many, many applications, but what we're starting from is a GPU base cloud server application, so in virtualized environments, you can imagine cloud gaming or remote workstation-type environments which need a lot of graphics horsepower, as well as virtual desktop environments. And I think as we go forward, certainly, we view the opportunity to expand that into a broader set of workloads, as well as obviously on the CPU side as well. We think the cloud is a very important market for us to focus on, on both the GPU and the CPU side, and we're ramping up our efforts there. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. A follow-up if I may. Last night Tesla announced that it was using NVIDIA for their self-driving car, but on the conference call Elon Musk, I think the expression he used, was that it was a tight decision between NVIDIA and AMD, which suggests that you're further along in solutions for deep learning and neural networking than most, including myself, thought. 
+And so I was wondering, can you talk about your efforts in deep learning and artificial intelligence, how big is that business now? Do you have anything in that business now? And how do you grow that, going forward? Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Mark. So look, there is a lot of interest in the deep learning space overall, and certainly our GPUs are very applicable to that space. So when we look at competitiveness and all that stuff, we think we can be very competitive there. 
+We will be talking more about our strategy in the coming quarters, so maybe let me refer to that, Mark. But I think suffice it to say, I think we looked at GPUs as overall secular growth, whether you're talking about consumer, professional workstations, server GPUs, or any of this machine learning area. So we're going to continue to invest and lean in, in those areas. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question today is coming from John Pitzer from Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa, Devinder, nice job on the quarter. I guess, Devinder first. Just going to the December quarter guidance, you're characterizing it as seasonal. 
+I know  the trappings of talking about normal seasonal, because there's so much variance around it, but it does seem like in prior quarters, where you had a 14th week, that extra week actually did help revenue a little bit. I'm just kind of curious within the context of the December quarter guidance, how you're thinking about that extra week, both on the revenue line and on expenses. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think if you look at a 14-week quarter, I think, John, you're right, it depends upon many factors. Our 14-week quarter is in the Q4 time frame, which is this quarter we are in. On the revenue side, I would say looking at it overall, there's not much of an impact, as the extra week falls during the holiday season, when a large portion of our operations and our customers are in shutdown mode. There is an impact on the expense side, but that's already contemplated within the guidance of OpEx that I gave, the $350 million due to the extra week. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That's helpful. And then Lisa, a little bit longer term. Over the last  several quarters, you've been somewhat forced to try to manage profitability levels to that breakeven line, given the lack of revenue growth. 
+But now that you're on this path of more sustainable revenue growth, I'm just  curious as you think about R&D specifically, how should we think about your desire to want to invest in higher rates, as revenue begins to grow from these levels? Because clearly, as Mark talked about on the last question, you've got a lot of potential new areas and opportunities to go after. Can you give us a sense as to what -- to what degree you think you've been under-investing in R&D and how we should think about R&D investments over the next several quarters, as revenue growth  resumes? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Absolutely, John. I think it's fair to say that we've been very prudent in how we've invested overall. If you look at our operating expenses, 2016 to 2015, although we've been relatively flat overall, we've actually increased R&D, relative to other elements of the P&L. 
+But as we see revenue growth and as we've seen progress over the last couple of quarters, I think you've also seen us increase our R&D spend. I think there are several areas that we see as very large opportunities, and we talked about some of the graphics areas in the previous question with Mark. I also think in the data center, there's a large opportunity for us on the CPU side, as Zen fully comes to market. 
+So I think we have an opportunity to invest a bit more in R&D as our revenue grows, but we're still going to be very prudent with how we do that. I think the key metric there in terms of being net  income profitable this quarter, ensuring that we get free cash flow positive from operations for the full year, those are all important metrics for us, and we're going to continue to manage very diligently. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That's helpful. Thank you. Congratulations.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question today is coming from David Wong from Wells Fargo. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Do you expect GPU sales will grow sequentially in the December quarter, and what about computing revenues? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, so David, I think we would expect overall that the CG business or the Computing and Graphics business will grow in Q4. The EESC business will be down. And then within the Computing and Graphics business, I would expect growth on both the graphics, as well as the computing side. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. And do you have any new semi custom wins you can tell us about, or at least give us some idea of what the momentum is in the pipeline? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, I think on the semi custom side, David, I will say that we previously announced three, and that's the number that we'll talk about today. Two of them are now known, and they're both in the game console area, one is outside of game console. I will say that we have some very good active discussions on   future products and applications, and we'll update more as we get further along. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thanks. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, David. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Hemmelgarn,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+This is Chris Hemmelgarn on for Blaine. With Summit Ridge launching in Q1 of 2017,   how would you expect the channel to ramp that? Do you see it ramping pretty fully in the first couple quarters of the year, or are you looking for more normal PC seasonality? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I would expect that there will be a relatively good initial demand for Summit Ridge, that may be not quite at the seasonal patterns. From where we see, Summit Ridge is playing in a space in the high end desktop, that we currently aren't offering a product. So we believe we'll be competitive certainly with Core I5 as well as Core I7, and we will be launching in those areas. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Hemmelgarn,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks very much. Then looking at the GPU side of things, you saw some pretty nice share gains in the first half of this year with the legacy portfolio. Any metrics you can give to help frame how the business did in the first full quarter with Polaris? And any further color you can provide on how you see  the share situation progressing into the year-end. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We're very happy with how Polaris ramped in Q3. The customer demand across all geographies was very strong. Q3 was primarily a channel-based quarter. With our board partners, and as some of you noted, in the early part of Q3, we actually had some supply constraints, given the customer demand. We did catch up towards the end of the quarter. 
+So very pleased with how that's ramped. I think it's a very competitive market. We've leaned into VR, and we've leaned into  our work with CX12 and I think you can see in some of the benchmarks that we're doing very well there. As we go into Q4, in addition to the channel partners continuing to ramp, you should expect some OEMs launching in Q4 more broadly. And so Polaris is off to a very strong start. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Hemmelgarn,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks very much, Lisa, and congrats on the strong quarter.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I first wanted to ask about the second sourcing ability embedded in the new Wafer Supply Agreement. So you've said that you're going to be doing some second sourcing,  starting in 2017. I wonder, did that push to actually seek out that supply diversification come from you, or was it from specific requests from your customers? And given that, how do you  make the decision on which products to manufacture at GLOBALFOUNDRIES versus manufacture somewhere else? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Stacy. Let me start with that. I think, relative to our second sourcing or our supply sourcing flexibility, I think we make it on a product-by-product basis, based on where we are in the business. So we will have multiple products in 14-nanometer and 16-nanometer that will be sourced across foundries, and similarly when we talked about the Wafer Supply Agreement, we mentioned 7-nanometer as being a key target node for that. 
+Relative to how we make the decisions, I think it's a combination of factors. It includes the complexity of the product. It includes the timing, customers, all kinds of things. So I think that's part of our product planning process. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. But did the customers themselves have a hand in driving you to make that push to second source? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think that's one element, but frankly, I think what's more important to me is, I need to commit a strong, five-year product road map to the customers, and so we want to make sure that we have all the flexibility to ensure nothing happens. I'll give you just a little bit of context, Stacy, because I think you know our business well. 
+In this past six months, we've ramped five new FinFET products. It's the fastest transition we have ever made in a process node, and it's gone really, really well. And I think what's helped us with that is the fact that we've had two sources ramping at the same time. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. For my follow-up, I just want to get some clarification on the timing of the Summit Ridge and Zen launches. You said Summit Ridge launches obviously in Q1  2017. You had said before that you were going to be shipping at least some product in Q4 of this year. Is that still true? And around the server launch in Q2, does that mean the volume is actually in Q3? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So I think our expectation is, we may ship some production samples in Q4, but the volume launch for desktop will be in Q1, and that's consistent with everything that we've planned into the business. And as it relates to server, I think it's a little early to tell. I think we'll go through our process, and our customers' processes, and we'll have more color on that, as we get into next year. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. Thank you.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question today is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+In your prepared remarks, you mentioned semi custom's decline and computing graphics to be up. Implies you'll have a pretty rich mix for Q4. Why is GM guided up only 1% given the really strong mix for 4Q? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+If you look at it from an overall standpoint, let's talk about Q2 to Q3, first of all. Q2 to Q3, we had a significant ramp in the semi custom space, which led to significant revenue in the EESC side,  and we were able to manage the margin flat quarter on quarter, which we are pleased with. Going to Q4, essentially with the Computing and Graphics business, that's what Lisa said ramping, and then EESC business, in particular semi custom coming down. The gross margin is up a percentage point, primarily due to the mix in revenue between the two segments. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. And for a follow-up, a question on the cash balance. Looked like you're guiding cash to be up in 4Q, and looks like you have some excess cash after the transactions you've done in the quarter, and looks like you might be up over your $1 billion target balance. How do you plan on using the excess cash, or where would you reinvest that cash? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO and Treasurer    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I think right now, as you observe, it's through the end of Q3 we did have some remaining net proceeds from the capital market transactions. After completing what we did in the early part of Q4, we have about $162 million of remaining net proceeds. 
+What we plan to do with it, I think from a long-term strategy, that hasn't changed. Our plan is to continue to delever the balance sheet, reduce debt towards our longer-term targets getting to the net debt cash neutral that I talked about previously, and getting the leverage ratio down to about 2 times from a longer term standpoint. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator, we'll take two more questions, please. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Certainly. Our next question today is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa, you talked about a $4 billion performance desktop opportunity. What's your thinking in terms of what you can eventually attain of that, just how are you thinking about your potential for market share? And can you give us some sense for, when you have a chip like this, that you have enthusiasm about, how quickly it can ramp into that segment? Thank you. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So I think if you look at our PC market share, as it's published by Mercury, we're talking about somewhere around 10%, plus or minus. I think we view that historically we've been higher than that in the PC market, and certainly the desktop market, especially the desktop channel market. We're fairly well-known by that customer set. 
+So we're enthusiastic about Summit. We think the performance is right on the mark with what we wanted to achieve. And we're hopeful that as we launch into the first quarter, that there will be a good, solid ramp in that business. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Great. And then, how are you thinking about as you think about bringing that chip to market, when will you make it available for third party benchmarks and sort of get a broader marketing program beyond the launch you've done? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I would expect certainly there are a lot of confidential benchmarks at the moment, but in terms of third party benchmarks, you would expect that in the first quarter. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you very much. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our final question today is coming from Chris Rolland from Susquehanna Financial Group. Please proceed with your question. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  Susquehanna Financial Group - Analyst    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Congrats on a great quarter, and nice to see it all coming together. We don't have September sell-through data yet. It's  hard to predict holiday season, what it's going to look like for consoles. Perhaps the past two quarters' growth in EESC might be outpacing  expectations for consoles. 
+So  my question is, first of all, is that right? Is there something that's helping your guy's units here, like initial channel stocking for the PS4 Slim or the PS4 Pro? And how should we think about the size of the benefit that you're going to get from initial channel stocking there? 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So, Chris, I think the game console shouldn't be really looked at on a quarterly level, when you're looking at sell-in and sell-out. It's so different from the other markets. I would say on an annual basis, everything trues up. The thought process is, in Q2 and Q3, there is a bit of build ahead as the customers are really building for the holiday season. And the customers do so much of their business in the last six weeks of the year. That's when all of the inventory is drained. 
+My view is that if you look on an annual basis, the game console business is doing quite well. We expect units to be up. We expect revenue for the business to be up for us, and the quarterly transitions are less important. It's more, we want to ensure that we're meeting our customers' build cycles, so that they get to build everything that they want, and get it into their channels. But from my standpoint, I think it's a very well-managed system. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  Susquehanna Financial Group - Analyst    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Congrats on a great quarter.  
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Chief Human Resources Officer and SVP of Corporate Communications and IR    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator, that concludes today's call. If you could  wrap it up, please, that would be great. 
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Certainly. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We do thank you for your participation today. 
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2017-Jan-31-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,642 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2016 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 31, 2017 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate Vice President, IR
+ * Lisa Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Matt Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity - Analyst
+ * Mark Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Stacy Rasgon
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Ross Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank - Analyst
+ * Vijay Rakesh
+   Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Joe Moore
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Chris Rolland
+   Susquehanna Financial Group / SIG - Analyst
+ * John Pitzer
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * Kevin Cassidy
+   Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst
+ * Chris Hemmelgarn
+   Barclays Capital - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices Q4 and full-year 2016 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
+It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves, Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate Vice President, IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you and welcome to AMD's fourth-quarter and fiscal year-end conference call. This is Laura Graves. I recently joined the AMD IR team as Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations and I'm pleased to join you on today's call.
+By now you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at ir.amd.com.
+Participants on today's conference call are Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer, and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on amd.com.
+Before we begin today's call, I would like to share with you that first-quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, March 17, 2017. And that we will host out financial analyst day on Tuesday, May 16 in California. Lastly, let me remind everyone that the fourth quarter of 2016 was a 14-week quarter and that first-quarter 2017 will be a 13-week quarter.
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions, and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP figures during this call, except for revenue and segment operating income or loss, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the press release and CFO commentary, which is posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.amd.com.
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 24, 2016.
+With that, I'd like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. In 2016, we made meaningful progress across the Company, strengthening our product offerings, regaining share in key markets, and creating a solid foundation for sustainable growth.
+Fourth-quarter revenue of $1.11 billion grew 15% from the year-ago period based on a substantial increase in computing and graphics segment revenue. Revenue decreased 15% sequentially based on seasonally lower semi-custom SoC shipments, while we achieved our second straight quarter of computing and graphics segment revenue growth. For the full year, growth across both of our business segments resulted in a 7% increase in annual revenue, non-GAAP gross margin expansion, and positive free cash flow.
+Looking at our computing and graphics segment, on a full-year basis, CG annual revenue grew for the first time since 2011 as our focus on strengthening this key part of our business gained momentum. Fourth-quarter revenue increased 28% from the year-ago period based on strong GPU and mobile APU sales growth. Our CG quarterly revenue was the highest in 2 years, our client revenue was the highest in seven quarters, and we delivered our highest graphics processor revenue in 11 quarters.
+Mobile APU shipments and revenue growth accelerated, as strong adoption of our seventh generation notebook APUs drove notebook share gains in the quarter. Desktop processor sales increased sequentially and declined from a year ago in advance of our Ryzen desktop processor launch this quarter.
+At CES, we highlighted broad design win and ecosystem momentum for Ryzen. 17 different system integrators unveiled Ryzen-based gaming and enthusiast systems. And multiple ecosystem partners announced plans to offer a broad range of premium Ryzen motherboards.
+We have also secured a number of high-end design wins for Ryzen with our global OEMs. We remain on track to launch Ryzen in early March, with widespread system and channel availability expected on day one.
+In graphics, strong sales increases across all of our product lines drove a double-digit increase in GPU processor revenue from a year ago. Desktop GPU shipments and revenue increased by double-digit percentages from a year ago based on growing OEM and channel adoption of Polaris GPU's. Polaris processor sales were particularly strong in the performance and enthusiast portions of the market, resulting in our highest channel GPU sales in more than two years.
+Mobile GPU sales growth outpaced desktop in the quarter, and we believe we gained further share in this part of the market as the first Polaris-based notebooks launched. We also launched Radeon Pro 400 mobile GPUs in the quarter. These ultrathin performance GPUs are ideal for mobile content creators and are powering Apple's latest premium MacBook Pro notebooks.
+And in professional graphics, we finished off a record year with record quarterly revenue and unit shipments. Traditional workstation GPU sales grew in the quarter, as HP, Dell, and others began offering systems powered by our recently launched Radeon Pro WX GPUs.
+We also continued to make progress in the server GPU market, with sales increasing significantly to support new mega data center deployments. As a part of our strategy to drive Radeon GPUs into the data center, we announced our Radeon Instinct family of machine intelligence accelerators and detailed our plans to expand the market for machine learning based on AMD's unique combination of high-performance GPUs, CPUs, and open source software.
+Turning to our enterprise embedded and semi-custom segment, revenue increased 4% from a year ago, driven by growing embedded processor sales and ongoing demand for AMD-powered Microsoft and Sony game consoles. As we expected, revenue declined sequentially following the annual sales peak in the third quarter. 2016 game console sales aligned with our expectations, resulting in new records for semi-custom annual unit shipments and sales.
+Embedded processor sales grew by double-digit percentages sequentially and from the year-ago period based on adoption across our targeted vertical markets. And development of our next-generation server CPU, ""Naples"", is on track as we continue to expand the breadth of our customer and partner engagements to enable broad platform, ecosystem, and software validation work in advance of launch.
+""Naples"" is meeting our performance targets, and customer response to our competitiveness and differentiated feature set continues to be overwhelmingly positive. As a result, we expanded our design win momentum in both traditional and cloud servers as well as in the embedded infrastructure and communications markets.
+As we look back on 2016, we successfully accomplished our key priorities, including growing discrete graphic share led by Polaris GPU adoption; regaining client compute share led by our seventh generation APUs; growing in adjacent markets with record annual semi-custom game console revenue and professional graphics; and strengthening the financial foundation of the Company by achieving annual non-GAAP operating profitability, reducing debt, and increasing cash.
+All of our work the past two years has been designed to strengthen the technical, operational, and financial foundation of the Company. We enter 2017 with strong revenue growth and margin expansion opportunities as we prepare to launch our "Zen"-based CPUs and Vega GPUs that can return AMD to the high-performance markets where we have not materially participated in recent years.
+The production ramp, customer adoption, and ecosystem support for our Zen-based desktop processor Ryzen are all mapping to our plans. We also remain on track to expand "Zen" into the data center market in the second quarter, followed by the embedded and notebook markets in the second half of the year.
+Our Vega GPU development is also progressing to plan. Vega is designed to scale beyond the limitations of current GPUs to enable PC gaming, professional design, and machine intelligence experiences that traditional GPU architectures have not been able to effectively address.
+We provided our first performance preview of Vega GPUs earlier in the quarter in advance of the launch planned for the second quarter of this year. Bringing all this together, based on our current market expectations and the strength of our upcoming products, we are confident we can grow annual revenue, expand gross margin, and deliver non-GAAP net income in 2017.
+Now I would like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our fourth-quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. 2016 was a good year for AMD as we grew revenue, improved our financial performance, and strengthened the financial foundation of the Company.
+AMD annual revenue grew 7% year-over-year with growth in both business segments. We expanded gross margin, maintained essentially flat operating expenses, achieved operating profitability, and reduced net losses significantly.
+In addition, we improved our balance sheet with strategic capital market transactions that reduced and re-profiled debt, and lowered interest expense. Finally, we generated positive free cash flow and ended the year with cash and cash equivalents of $1.26 billion.
+Now let me provide the specifics of the fourth quarter of 2016 together with quarterly year-over-year comparisons. Revenue was $1.1 billion, increasing 15% year over year due primarily to higher GPU processor sales, and declining 15% sequentially, driven primarily by seasonally lower sales of our semi-custom SoCs, partially offset by higher sales in the computing and graphics segment. Gross margin was 32%, up 2 percentage points year over year and up 1 percentage point from the prior quarter due to higher computing and graphics segment revenue.
+Operating expenses were $357 million compared to $323 million a year ago and $353 million in the prior quarter. Both increases were due to ongoing targeted investments in R&D to support our new products. Net licensing gain associated with our server JV with THATIC was $31 million, up from $24 million in the prior quarter.
+Operating income was $26 million in the fourth quarter of 2016 compared to an operating loss of $39 million a year ago and operating income of $70 million in the prior quarter. Operating income is down from the prior quarter due to lower revenue.
+Fourth-quarter net interest expense, taxes, and other was $34 million, down from $40 million a year ago and $43 million in Q3 2016, primarily due to reduced interest expense. Net loss was $8 million or loss per share of $0.01, calculated using 931 million shares of common stock. This compares to a net loss of $79 million or $0.10 a year ago and net income of $27 million or $0.03 in the prior quarter.
+Adjusted EBITDA was $60 million compared to adjusted EBITDA of minus $5 million a year ago and adjusted EBITDA of $103 million in the third quarter of 2016.
+Now turning to the business segments. Computing and graphics revenue was $600 million, up 28% year over year and up 27% sequentially, primarily due to higher GPU and client processor sales. Computing and Graphics business segment operating loss was $21 million, improving significantly from a loss of $99 million from a year ago and a loss of $66 million in the prior quarter, primarily through higher sales in the fourth quarter of 2016.
+Enterprise embedded and semi-custom revenue was $506 million, up 4% year over year and down 39% from the prior quarter, primarily due to lower sales of our semi-custom SoCs. Operating income was $47 million, down from $59 million a year ago and down from $136 million in the prior quarter. The year-over-year decrease was primarily driven by higher R&D investments in Q4 2016, partially offset by an IP monetization licensing gain.
+Turning to the balance sheet, our cash and cash equivalents total $1.26 billion at the end of the quarter compared to $785 million a year ago and $1.26 billion in the prior quarter. Inventory was $751 million compared to $678 million a year ago and $772 million in the prior quarter. Inventory levels were higher from one year ago in support of product transitions and higher revenue in the first half of 2017. Total wafer purchases from global foundries in 2016 were $665 million and $239 million in the fourth quarter.
+Long-term debt on the balance sheet as of the end of the quarter was $1.44 billion, down from $1.63 billion in the prior quarter, primarily due to debt redemptions. The principal debt amount of $1.77 billion, down from $1.93 billion as of the end of the third quarter of 2016, is reflected on the balance sheet as the carrying value of debt after netting the unamortized discount of our convertible debt and issuance costs.
+During the fourth quarter of 2016, we redeemed $268 million principal amount of debt. In addition, we issued $105 million principal amount of 2 1/8% convertible notes due 2026. As a result of the underwriters exercising the option to purchase an additional 15% of the original issuance, bringing the total principal balance of the convertible notes to $805 million. Free cash flow in the fourth quarter was $167 million, a significant improvement from $27 million one year ago and $20 million in the third quarter of 2016.
+Turning to our outlook for the first quarter of 2017, which is a 13-week quarter, we expect revenue to decrease 11% sequentially plus or minus 3%. The midpoint of guidance would result in Q1 2017 revenue increasing approximately 18% year-over year; [non-GAAP] gross margin(added by company after the call) to be approximately 33%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $360 million; [non-GAAP] interest expense, (added by company after the call) taxes, and other to be approximately $30 million; inventory to be approximately flat sequentially. We look forward to sharing additional 2017 and long-term guidance parameters at our financial analyst day in May.
+In closing, we are pleased with the progress we made in 2016. As we begin 2017, we look forward to introducing several new leadership products and remain focused on further improving our financial and operational performance.
+With that, I will turn it back to Laura. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate Vice President, IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, with that, we are ready for our first question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Mark Lipacis, Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my question. Lisa, I'm hoping that you can help me understand the dynamic of desktop microprocessors ramping down in front of the Ryzen ramp. My understanding was that Ryzen was the higher-end SKU that comped against the Core i5 or Core i7, which is above where the existing microprocessors competed in the stack.
+So I'm wondering if we should think about Ryzen either cannibalizing the existing desktop microprocessors at a higher ASP or are you kind of ramping down the lower end? Or should we think about Ryzen layering on top of the existing lower-end desktop microprocessors? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Mark. Thanks for the question. So look, you are absolutely right. Ryzen is really a high-end desktop product. And I think the comment was really around our overall channel inventories in desktop, so we wanted to ensure a very smooth transition.
+No question that Ryzen will layer on top, competing well in the Core i7, Core i5 range. But we also will eventually see a full lineup of Ryzen throughout the desktop portfolio.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. And a follow-up, if I may. Is it fair to assume that as Ryzen ramps into the enthusiast stack that you would expect to see attach rates of AMD graphics cards also -- I guess I would expect to see higher attach rate of AMD GPUs with the Ryzen. Is that fair?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, if you look at our product lineup in the first half of the year, I think we have Ryzen launching in early March, and then we will have Vega, our enthusiast GPU, launching in the second quarter. And so as we go through the year, I think we are quite pleased with the performance that we are seeing on both of those products.
+And so we should see Ryzen doing very well in the high end as well as Vega. And by nature, since both of those high-end markets are markets that we don't have significant presence today, there will be an opportunity to both gain share as well as increase attach rates in those markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. Very helpful, thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Matt Ramsay, Canaccord Genuity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, since we understand that Ryzen launching here in March is going to lead into relatively the same core that these -- the server microprocessor that launches in the second quarter, maybe you can give us a little bit of update on timing to the specifics that you can on the server launch. And specific, what segments of that market, maybe in terms of, I don't know, application segments or percentage of the server TAM, that you might be going after in the first several quarters after you launch the server product. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, absolutely, Matt. So as you stated, Ryzen and "Naples" share the same core, the same CPU core, which is our Zen core. Our performance on that core has done very well. We've actually met or exceeded our expectations.
+So Ryzen will launch in early March. "Naples" will launch in the second quarter. We have made very good progress, actually, in the last few months with customers really testing the performance capability on their own software and their own application workload, so we feel good about where the product is positioned.
+We expect that the key workload - ""Naples"" is really has broad applicability in the server market, but we are especially targeting workloads that will benefit from more threads, higher memory, as well as I/O bound applications. So we expect cloud, Big Data applications, as well as traditional enterprise. And our focus is both with OEMs as well as ODMs to ensure that we have a strong ecosystem ready for that launch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thank you. And then a couple follow-ups for Devinder, if I could. I noticed that quite a big ramp year over year in growth in the computing and graphics segment, but it's still a slight operating loss on the P&L.
+Maybe you could talk through maybe as the new product launches and the GPU and CPU segments of the year, how do you think about gross margin in that computing and graphics segments and getting that back to profitability. And then quickly, I think you guys guided to $50 million in THATIC IP revenue. Any help about how that is distributed through the year would be really helpful. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me cover the second one first on the THATIC IP licensing gain. You know, we had $88 million of that in 2016. As you observed, we guided $50 million in 2017. It is really dependent upon milestone deliveries, but I can share with you that based on tracking to those milestones, where we expect to recognize approximately half of that, call it $25 million, in Q1 of 2017.
+And then as far as the second question, on the segment, Computing and Graphics: yes, very good progress I think year over year and quarter over quarter. We are very pleased with that. The segment loss has gone down significantly from Q4 2015, where we were about $100 million, so about $20 million.
+And with the new products that are coming up, in particular, the Ryzen product we just talked about, with better gross margins and other products in the graphics space, we expect to continue to make progress in that segment, and reduce the losses and get back to profitability.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Matt, and if I can just add to that. I think the key for the computing and graphics segment is our participation at the higher end of the market for both CPUs and GPUs. And as we do that, the margin expansion as well as the revenue growth opportunity are critical to get that business to profitability.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matt Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Vivek Arya, Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my question. Good job on the execution. My first question, Lisa, is on the gaming cycle. Because it seems like we have had a number of good years. So what is your sense of where we are in that cycle?
+And just near term, what is your perspective on GPU channel inventory? And how you are making sure the channel is not overstocked as you go into your next-generation product cycle?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely Vivek. So on the console market, I think you are right. I think the last few years have been very good from a console cycle standpoint. We finished 2016 with both units and revenue up.
+As we going to 2017, this is going to be the fifth year of the cycle. So normally, if you look at historicals, it would say that hardware sales might be down. This cycle is a bit different with both the PlayStation 4 Pro that launched a couple quarters ago and then the Scorpio -- Microsoft Scorpio that will launch later this year.
+So we will need to see how they do through the year. But I think from our standpoint, the console business has been a strong business performer for us and we are pleased with that.
+Relative to the GPU market, we were very pleased with the performance in Q4 and actually throughout 2016. We got both nice desktop channel as well as notebook acceleration as we went through the year.
+In terms of channel inventory levels, actually they looked quite normal. I would say we drained a little bit of inventory in Q4. We would expect a seasonal slowdown as we go into Q1 ahead of our product launches, but nothing unusual in the channel inventory on the GPU side.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Very helpful. And as my follow-up, if you compare AMD versus your top two competitors, Intel and Nvidia, what are the biggest gaps? Because it seems like you are making good progress on the hardware side with a number of new product launches. What about software? How soon do you think you can close the gap there? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So in terms of our strategy, I think on both the CPU and the GPU side, we have been on a fairly deliberate path to ensure that we got to a very competitive roadmap. So on the CPU side with Ryzen and "Naples", we believe we will be quite competitive. On the GPU side, as we launch Vega, we will have a full stack top to bottom with new hardware.
+We continue to invest in software, and our approach to software is really around open source and using the ecosystem and using the community and focused on the new APIs. So in gaming, we are very focused on DX12 and Vulcan.
+And on the professional graphics and on the GPU server side, really using our GPUOpen. So we will continue to invest in software; no question that that is really critical for the graphics market. But we feel we are making good progress.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Stacy Rasgon, Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my questions. First on the gross margins, I was a little surprised, given the fairly powerful mix shift between computing and EESC that you had, that they weren't higher. In fact, they came in about 20 basis points below guidance. Could you elaborate on the drivers in the quarter and the drivers going forward into next quarter which we will -- what we should expect.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think Stacy -- good question. It is basically the product mix of it in the quarter. Q4 -- if you look at Q4 in particular, we were at 31% gross margin. Q2 and Q3 and Q4, it stepped up to 32%. In Q1, we are guiding at 33%, but really it's a function of the product mix.
+And you can recall that if you are talking about Q4, this is ahead of launching the products we just talked about in terms of Ryzen, which we expect to be shipping in the early March time frame.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it, thanks. For my follow-up, I know you talked about EESC being seasonally down and we are expecting it to be down, but how did it stack up actually versus your expectations overall? Why was there such a big deceleration year over year versus Q3, where you went from kind of up 31% year over year to up 4%?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, actually, Stacy, it was very much in line with our expectations. If you look at our Q3, our Q3 was actually very strong, and that was the quarter where there were significant builds ahead of the holiday launches.
+So when you look at the console cycle in general, they tend to build really for holiday. And so July, August, September, October are big build months, November is like half a month, and then it decelerates in December. So it was not unexpected and actually performed in line with our expectations.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So why was the build so strong in Q3 than relative? Was that - year-over-year. Was that just like the PlayStation Pro or was there something else going on in Q3 that took it up so much year over year versus Q4?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, it was new product. And if you looked, in addition to the PS4 Pro, they also -- both console manufactures had new systems that they launched in that time frame as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Rasgon,  Bernstein - Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Thank you, guys.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ross Seymore, Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Seymore,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for letting me ask a question. Lisa, one for you or Devinder. For the first quarter, and then perhaps more importantly for the full year, can you just talk a little bit about the dynamics between your two segments?
+You guide down 11% for the first quarter, which is above or below that number. And then how does mix change throughout the year, as you have a bunch of new products launching on one side of the equation, but perhaps not as many on the EESC side.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Ross. So for Q1, I think if you look at the -- overall, the guidance sequentially down 11%, you would expect that the semi-custom business should be down more than that. And you have seen that in our numbers the past couple of years, so it is behaving as it normally would.
+Sequentially, you would expect that the Computing and Graphics segment would be better than seasonal, given that we will have one month of Ryzen in the market. On a year-over-year basis, I would say the computing graphics business is where you are seeing the majority of the growth as we go into Q1 with both GPU as well as Ryzen driving that growth.
+As we go forward in the year, I think the expectations are that the product launches tend to be faster in the CG segment. In other words, from launch to revenue ramp is faster because it's more consumer-based. So as we launch Ryzen in first quarter and Vega in second quarter, but then the notebook and embedded in the second half, you would expect to see that reflected.
+On the EESC side of the business, we do have our Microsoft Scorpio design win that will ramp in the year. That's an important one from the semi-custom side. And we will see "Naples" ramp as well, albeit server will tend to be a little bit slower from design win to revenue ramp. We would expect some contribution in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Seymore,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thanks. And then for my follow-up one, perhaps for either of you again, how do we think about the OpEx side of things as we go through the year? And I know you purposely didn't guide to it in your 2017 as a whole, but conceptually when you are launching a bunch of new products, is it fair to assume that the SG&A side of things to support those launches increases? Any sort of color you can give about your philosophy on OpEx will be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think our philosophy, first of all, is to be very disciplined about managing the OpEx. We did that, as you saw, in the 2014/2015 time frame. In 2016, we made some very targeted investments to products, which is -- with the launches that are happening in 2017, I would say they are going to pay off in terms of all the products we have on track to launch in 2017.
+We have invested in software. We have got obviously some go-to-market expenses as we get into 2017. But I would say that you see our guidance for Q1 2017 at $360 million. So you will see a trend of continuing investment in product roadmap, new product launches, software.
+R&D, if you look at it on a year-on-year basis, is up actually close to $50 million. And SG&A was down, even though we were essentially flat on OpEx 2015 to 2016. And I think as you look at 2017, we will continue to stay lean in SG&A and prioritize investments in R&D for the go-forward execution of our plans going into future years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Seymore,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Chris Rolland, Susquehanna International Group.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  Susquehanna Financial Group / SIG - Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the server side, you guys talked about "Naples". And Lisa, you mentioned more threads, higher memory, and I/O. With these products, do you anticipate taking more share in the cloud? Or how do you think you are going to fare versus enterprise storage comms, high performance? Is it going to be a lot more cloud-centric?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Chris, the great thing about "Naples" is it really is a general-purpose product, so we will play in all of those segments. I think the cloud tends to move a bit faster in terms of just, again, from design win to revenue. So we certainly are very focused in the cloud, but I'm also quite enthusiastic about our opportunities in traditional enterprise as well as some of the storage and networking spaces.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  Susquehanna Financial Group / SIG - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And then with, let's say, Summit Ridge and Vega and "Naples" all coming online here, can you guys talk about where these products -- the gross margins are versus either your corporate average or a comparable product now? And if things ramp the way you expect them to, when might you hit the low end of your long-term gross margin range?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So maybe, Chris, I will start and Devinder can add. Clearly you mentioned some of the key products that are margin drivers for us. So Ryzen in high-end desktop, our server CPUs, server GPUs, professional graphics are all north of the corporate average. We still have game consoles, which will be a significant piece of our business that will be less than corporate average.
+So our expectation is that we will make progress with margins as we ramp these products. Relative to when we will hit the long-term guidance, I think we will defer that perhaps to our analyst day and note that the target is still to be within the 36% to 40% range on a long-term model.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Rolland,  Susquehanna Financial Group / SIG - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks so much and great quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Blayne Curtis, Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Hemmelgarn,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Chris Hemmelgarn on for Blayne. Thanks for very much for letting us on to ask a question, and congrats on the good quarter and guidance.
+I guess first of all, a number of questions have touched on this, but with Ryzen launching and then Vega in Q2, you presumably see some pretty big channel fill in Q1 and into Q2. Could you just talk about how you see that impacting seasonality through the rest of the year. Q3, Q4 are normally bigger quarters for PC sales, but you got big product launches in the first half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, we're certainly looking forward to those product launches. And the way we view it is yes, there's some bit of channel fill, but I think there's also some pent-up demand for really great products in the gaming space. Both Ryzen and Vega are targeted at those enthusiast gamers. So certainly we do expect -- normal seasonality would say that the second half would be stronger.
+Note that on Ryzen, we are starting first in the channel and with system integrators, and then OEMs will launch shortly thereafter. So you would expect a stage launch of our partners.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Chris Hemmelgarn,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's very helpful, Lisa, thanks. And then just as a follow-up, so you have announced your first non-game console semi-custom win launching this year. As that business has matured, can you talk how you see further opportunities to grow outside of the core game console market there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so we have talked about three design wins and those are in progress now. In terms of ongoing engagements, we have a nice pipeline. We continue to view semi-custom as a strategic way for us to utilize our IP in our design capability. And so we will continue to view that is one of our go-to-markets for the IP that we are developing. And we will talk more about the semi-custom opportunities as we go forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          John Pitzer, Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good afternoon, guys. Lisa, congratulations on the strong results for 2016. I guess I wanted to go back with my first question to the OpEx line. If you just look at total dollars spent, you are spending well below your two main competitors.
+And I'm just kind of curious. As revenue growth starts to reemerge in the model, how should you think about -- or how should we think about OpEx growth relative to revenue growth? Is there a target that you can give us that you'd like OpEx to grow half as fast as revenue?
+Or are you at a point now where you see a lot of incremental investments that are worth doing that might have OpEx growth that are growing faster than that? Any guidance there would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, certainly, John. Look, I think we have shown that we can be very disciplined with OpEx, and I think we will ensure that -- OpEx will certainly not grow faster than revenue. So that won't happen.
+I think the opportunity for leverage does exist longer term in our model, but in the short term, I am very focused on ensuring that we execute our product roadmap really, really well. And so this year, it is about our product launches, making sure that we have the right software investments and go-to-market.
+We are going to see improvement in the financial performance as a result of the margin expansion. And we'll look to find leverage on the OpEx line I think in the longer term as we continue to make progress. But again, we will be very disciplined on the OpEx line.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful, Lisa. And then I guess as my second question, just going back on the gross margin for Ryzen and Vega. I guess can you help me understand, just given where in the stack those two parts will compete, why they shouldn't have gross margins that are more comparable to your two closest peers. Is that kind of the internal target or is that how we should be thinking about it? Or any guidance there would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so I think for the high-end parts, both Ryzen and Vega, and "Naples", frankly, we should expect that they are well above our corporate average in terms of margin. As it relates to our competitors, I think that's a harder question, but our goal is to make sure that we have very competitive product on a pure performance basis. And so that has been the goal, and that is certainly how we are viewing it.
+But we will also have some opportunity for price-performance leverage as we gain share in the market. So I think where we are positioning the products is the right place and the right balance between revenue growth and margin. And we will certainly look for every opportunity to improve our margins over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Pitzer,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, guys.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Joe Moore, Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I guess the question I get most frequently is Zen looks pretty exciting in 2017, but you are competing with Intel, who has got 10-nanometer product coming. How do we think about this on a multiyear basis, Zen as a springboard to compete with them? And anything you can share in terms of the product roadmap and the longer-term competitiveness of these products you are introducing now?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Joe. So look, we do think Zen is very, very competitive for where we are. In terms of our longer-term roadmap, I think, as with anything for top OEM customers, especially server data center customers, they are investing in a roadmap. So they are not just buying a point product. And we have a multigenerational roadmap that we are working on, including the Zen 2 and the Zen 3 follow-on.
+From our standpoint, process technology, we ramped 16-nanometer and 14-nanometer really well last year and into this year. We are actually in the process of developing now in 7-nanometer and we think the 7-nanometer foundry roadmaps are available, are very competitive, and will ensure that we have a strong multigenerational roadmap.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joe Moore,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Vijay Rakesh, Mizuho and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, guys. Sorry to beat upon this, but when you look at the Radeon Instinct GPUs and the Vega architecture in 2Q 2017 and first half 2017 here, are the gross margins more in the 40% to 60% range as they go into data center versus what your existing margins are?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, Vijay, I think it's fair to say that both professional graphics and our Radeon Instinct line are higher than normal the GPU products -- the consumer GPU products in terms of margin. And now, we view the data center GPUs as a great growth opportunity for us. And so it's a key area of focus.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA - Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And you mentioned GPUs seeing traction in multi-threaded applications. And so with that strength, there especially with [deplaning exit], what are your expectations for growth in that market if you were to -- obviously you are going from zero. But incrementally, what should that drive for -- in revenues for AMD? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So again, we view GPU servers as a very good growth opportunity for us. We are starting from a small base, but we have had some really good engagement with cloud customers. And we had some meaningful revenue in the second half of 2016, and we expect it to be a growth driver for us into 2017 and beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Kevin Cassidy, Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my question. On your Zen product lineup, you will have an APU in the second half of the year. And what kind of GPU does that have on it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Kevin, we will have an APU, we call it Raven Ridge, in the second half of the year off of the Zen processor core. And we haven't announced details of the graphics just yet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Will that be targeted for both desktop and notebook?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President and CEO    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, it will be. But it's a very strong notebook part when you think about the high-end notebooks, two-in-ones and those types of things. But yes, it can also be used in desktop.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Cassidy,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ambrish Srivastava, BMO.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had a question on inventory, Devinder. You did give us the reason for why the inventory is higher. But what I'm trying to understand is why the delta between the guidance that you had given, which was supposed to be in the $660 million amount, which you guided to.
+Was there a change in what you were expecting for the roadmap? Where there uncertainties that you had guided to $660 million, and now you came up to the number that you reported on the fourth quarter? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP, CFO, and Treasurer    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think it's fair to say that from the time I gave the guidance, $660 million coming into $750 million, that there were some changes, but let me explain.
+First of all, it was higher than anticipated due to product ramps, product mix, and also our higher expected revenue in the first half of 2017. We also had an opportunity to purchase some inventory in a tight PC supply environment at commercially favorable terms. And we took the opportunity to go ahead and purchase the inventory, given what we see from a revenue standpoint for the first half of 2017.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets - Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate Vice President, IR    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, anyone? Thank you very much. Thank you, operator. Thank you, everyone, for joining us on our call today. We look forward to speaking with you throughout the quarter. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2017-Jul-25-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,571 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2017 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 25, 2017 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Graves
+    - 
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Kevin Edward Cassidy
+   Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director 
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Vijay Raghavan Rakesh
+   Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - Principal and Senior Analyst
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to Advanced Micro Devices Second Quarter 2017 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Second Quarter Conference Call. By now you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at ir.amd.com.
+Participants on today's call are: Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on amd.com.
+I would like to highlight a few key dates for you. Mark Papermaster, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer will present at the Canaccord Genuity Global Growth Conference on August 9; Raja Koduri, Senior Vice President and Chief Architect of Radeon Technologies Group, will present at the Jefferies Semiconductor, Hardware and Communications Infrastructure Summit on August 30; Forrest Norrod, Senior Vice President and General Manager of our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom Business group, will present at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference on September 12. And our third quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, September 15, 2017.
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP financials during this call except for revenue and segment operating income or loss, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release and CFO commentary posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.amd.com.
+Please refer to the cautionary statement in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You'll also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended April 1, 2017.
+Now with that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. Q2 was a strong quarter for us as we continued to ramp our high-performance product portfolio. Second quarter revenue increased 19% to $1.22 billion, and gross margin improved year-over-year. Importantly, we returned to non-GAAP net income profitability in the quarter, driven by strong growth in our Computing and Graphics segment. 
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, we made excellent progress in the quarter and reported operating profitability for the first time in 3 years based on our leadership Ryzen processor and GPU product offerings. The expansion and growing adoption of our Ryzen CPUs, combined with our sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year graphics revenue growth, resulted in a 51% increase in Computing and Graphics segment sales year-over-year.
+Client computing revenue increased by strong double-digit percentage from a year ago, driven by a significant ramp and strong sell-through of our Ryzen CPUs in the first full quarter of sales. Our Ryzen family of processors drove a richer mix of shipments, and client ASPs improved significantly from a year ago. All major PC OEMs have announced premium Ryzen-based desktop systems with widespread availability expected for the back-to-school and holiday seasons.
+As we move into the second half of 2017, we are on track to complete the full family of Ryzen processors, including Ryzen 3 processors targeting the mainstream and value market segments with on-shelf availability later this week; Ryzen ThreadRipper products for the high-end desktop markets with global component channel availability in early August; Ryzen PRO-based offerings targeting the commercial client segment with availability in Q3; and Ryzen Mobile APUs, which will be available for the consumer market later this year.
+In graphics, GPU revenue increased by a strong double-digit percentage from a year ago with higher unit shipments and ASPs driving growth across our desktop and mobile GPU products. Demand for Radeon RX GPUs was strong in the quarter driven by gaming and cryptocurrency mining.
+In June, we began the introduction of our Vega GPU architecture with the launch of the Radeon Vega Frontier Edition, delivering a powerful professional workstation graphics card designed to tackle demanding design, rendering and machine intelligence workloads. Apple announced that our Radeon Pro Vega product will power the new iMac Pro, a workstation-class product line designed for creators running the most demanding workflows. In addition, Apple also announced expanded iMac offerings, which are powered by the Radeon Pro 500 series.
+We will launch additional Radeon Vega products at Siggraph next week, expanding further into premium portions of the consumer and professional GPU markets. 
+Our investments in GPU compute and Radeon Instinct are continuing to build momentum. We introduced our first Vega-based Radeon Instinct data center products in June. These new GPU accelerators will significantly increase performance, efficiency and ease of implementation for machine learning and high-performance computing workloads. 
+We also showcased a server powered by AMD's EPYC SoC and 4 Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerators, working together to deliver groundbreaking performance of 100 teraflops. Interest and excitement are high as we recently started shipments of our Radeon Instinct MI25 accelerators to strategic data center customers.
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue declined 5% year-over-year and increased 44% sequentially. The sequential revenue gains were primarily based on higher semi-custom product shipments due to seasonality. In addition, we reached an important milestone in the quarter, delivering initial EPYC server revenue.
+In our semi-custom business, unit shipments were up sequentially and down year-over-year as we enter the fifth year of the current game console sales cycle. This console cycle continues to outpace previous cycles as Sony recently passed a milestone of 60 million PlayStation 4 consoles shipped. Last month, Microsoft announced the new Xbox One X with availability in November. This system will be Microsoft's smallest and most powerful Xbox ever made and will be based on the combination of high-performance CPU and GPU IP that only AMD can provide. 
+As we look at the remainder of the year and given the maturity of the current game console cycle, we expect semi-custom revenue to be down for the full year.
+In our server business, last month, we launched our EPYC family of high-performance data center processors, reentering the incredibly important $16 billion data center market and setting several new industry performance records. With up to 32 high-performance "Zen" cores and an unparalleled feature set, our EPYC family of processors deliver greater competitive performance at every price point across a full range of integer, floating point, memory bandwidth and I/O benchmarks and workloads. Our 2-socket and 1-socket EPYC CPUs are designed to deliver industry-leading performance on critical enterprise, cloud and machine intelligence workloads and provide a substantial TCO advantage.
+At our EPYC launch event, we were joined by more than 20 leading server manufacturers and global ecosystem partners who showcased optimized support and EPYC-optimized platforms. We received compelling endorsements from OEM, cloud providers and mega data center operators, including HP Enterprise, Dell, Baidu, and Microsoft Azure with more than 20 EPYC-based platforms announced at launch. And we expect an additional 20 EPYC platforms to be available in the second half of 2017. With the strong global ecosystem and customer interest we have built around our EPYC processor family, we are on track to reenter the data center market in a major way.
+In closing, we are very pleased with the trend of our quarterly results and how our products are positioned heading into the back half of the year. Our business foundation and growth opportunities are strong based on our high-performance product portfolio and our expanding customer traction. Given our first half 2017 performance and our visibility into the third quarter, we are happy to report we are progressing ahead of our annual revenue guidance, and we look forward to a strong year overall.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our second quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. For the second quarter of 2017, AMD revenue grew 19% and gross margin expanded on a year-over-year basis, driven by a 51% year-over-year revenue increase in our Computing and Graphics segment. We achieved non-GAAP profitability on both an operating and net basis with net income of $19 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.02. Let me provide more specifics for the quarter.
+Gross margin was 33%, up 2 percentage points year-over-year due to a richer product mix and a higher percentage of revenue from our Computing and Graphics segment, driven by the first full quarter of Ryzen processor sales. Operating expenses were $381 million compared to $342 million a year ago. The increase was due primarily to higher graphics and data center R&D-related investments.
+Net licensing gain from our server JV with THATIC was $25 million compared to $26 million a year ago, and we have recognized a total of approximately $140 million of net licensing gain to date. The remaining payments are related to production milestones, and I expect it to occur in 2018 and beyond.
+Operating income was $49 million in the second quarter of 2017, a significant improvement from an operating income of $3 million a year ago.
+Second quarter net interest expense, taxes and other was $30 million, down from $43 million a year ago, primarily due to a lower overall interest rate and a lower debt balance. Net income was $19 million or diluted earnings per share of $0.02 as compared to a net loss of $40 million or loss per share of $0.05 a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $84 million compared to $36 million a year ago and $28 million in the prior quarter.
+Now turning to the business segments. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $659 million, up 51% year-over-year and up 11% sequentially. The year-over-year increase was driven by demand for our Ryzen desktop processors and graphics processors.
+Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $7 million, the first quarterly operating profit in 3 years, compared to a loss of $81 million a year ago. The significant improvement was primarily due to higher revenue and an improved product mix.
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $563 million, down 5% year-over-year, primarily due to lower semi-custom SoC sales. Revenue was up 44% sequentially due to the seasonal semi-custom ramp. Additionally in the quarter, we reached an important milestone and recognized initial revenue from EPYC data center processor shipments. Operating income was $42 million, down from $84 million a year ago due primarily to lower revenue and higher data center-related R&D investments.
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities total $844 million at the end of the quarter compared to $943 million at the end of the prior quarter due primarily to changes in working capital, largely driven by wafer purchases in anticipation of stronger revenue growth in the third quarter. Inventory at the end of the quarter was $833 million, down slightly from the prior quarter of $839 million. Long-term debt on the balance sheet was $1.38 billion. Total principal debt, including our secured revolving line of credit, was $1.74 billion.
+In Q2, we repurchased $40 million of term debt, utilizing our lower-cost secured revolving line of credit. Free cash flow was negative $94 million due primarily to changes in working capital largely driven by wafer purchases.
+Turning to our outlook for the third quarter of 2017, which is a 13-week quarter. We expect revenue to increase approximately 23% sequentially, plus or minus 3%. At the midpoint, this equates to revenue growth of approximately 15% year-over-year. We now expect annual 2017 revenue to increase a mid- to high-teens percentage year-over-year compared to our prior guidance of low double-digit growth, non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 34%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $400 million, non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $28 million and inventory to be down sequentially.
+Third quarter diluted share count for modeling non-GAAP EPS is expected to be approximately 1.14 billion. This includes shares related to our 2026 convertible senior notes and the warrant held by a Mubadala entity. Additional information regarding diluted share count calculation can be found in the CFO commentary.
+In closing, Q2 was a strong quarter, and our financial performance continues to improve. As Lisa shared in her remarks, our business continues to strengthen as we ramp new high-performance products and expand our presence in premium markets. We are pleased with the strong growth in revenue coupled with improving gross margin on the back of focused execution, financial discipline and ongoing strategic investments in the business.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Thank you, Devinder, and operator, we're ready for our first question to begin Q&A.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The question is on EPYC, and I'm hoping that you can provide us some more color about how the reception is going, how we should think about milestones going forward. And I'm wondering if you can tell us about the number of different trials or where you're seeing the most traction and when you would expect this to ship into production environment in the Super 7 cloud guys.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. Thanks for your question. So we are very pleased with the reception to EPYC. The launch that we did in June was very well received. We had a number of customers as well as partners, OEM providers, ODM guys as well as cloud providers who participated in that. The general reception has been very positive. I would say that interest level is very high. In fact, we're adding additional customer support to really ensure that we help customers get their platforms up and running. In terms of what to expect in the revenue ramp, we started shipping early volume in the second half of June. We would expect that we'd continue to ramp that revenue in the second half of the year. We would expect some additional customer announcements in the second half of the year, and then, as we stated with both cloud and enterprise accounts, depending on their qualification cycles, it can take anywhere up to 4 quarters to qualify the parts. But so far, so good. I think very good traction, and we continue to lean in hard on the data center opportunities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's very helpful. And a follow-up if I may. You mentioned crypto as helping the GPU side. That can be a dual-edged sword, and I was wondering if you can help perhaps quantify like what that did to the upside. And is there any way to manage the risk of the minors breaking down their systems and putting it into the secondary market when the currency comes back down?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. So certainly, the overall quarter for graphics was strong. Q2 tends to be seasonally down, and we were up in the quarter. So it was better than seasonal. I would say the better performance was due to 2 things. First of all, we did launch our RX 580 and 570 gaming cards in April, and those cards are very, very well positioned in the market. So they're doing well with gamers. Relative to cryptocurrency, we have seen some elevated demand. If you look at GPUs across the world, the inventory in the channel is actually quite lean, and so we're working on replenishing that inventory. Our priority though really is on our core market, which is the gaming market. And so couple of things that we are certainly doing are we're prioritizing supply towards the gaming market, so you'll see system integrators as well as on some of the major e-tailers, we have bundles with Ryzen and Radeon. And then some of our partners are also offering mining-specific cards that have a different feature set such that we're really segmenting the market between gaming and mining. But it's important to say we didn't have cryptocurrency in our forecast, and we're not looking at it as a long-term growth driver. But we'll certainly continue to watch the developments around the block chain technologies as they go forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Matt Ramsay from Canaccord Genuity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - Principal and Senior Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wanted to ask a little bit about the longer-term road map in your businesses across the CPU and GPU side. It occurs to me, and through some of the conversations we've had, particularly in the enterprise markets of high-end desktop and server, that some of the purchasing decisions made by your customers might be sort of dictated by how confident they are in the long-term road map that you guys are putting together as you move to 7-nanometer versus just the products that you've launched so far. So maybe you could talk a little bit about the road maps, how they're developing and the progress that the team is seeing on the 7-nanometer front.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Matt. So look, I think the overall road map execution has been very good, very solid. I think our customers see that the Ryzen performance, the EPYC performance on the CPU side and then certainly the Vega performance on the GPU side have met our commitments. And the important thing, particularly in the enterprise market as well as the commercial market, having a road map, a strong road map with multiple generations is important. We stated at our Financial Analyst Day that we're already investing heavily in 7-nanometer. The 7-nanometer will be key for us on both the CPU and the GPU side, and I would say that development is progressing well. We're working with multiple foundries on that. We have multiple design teams that are working, and we expect that, that would give us a strong competitive road map for the next several generations.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - Principal and Senior Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And a couple questions, quickly, for Devinder. The -- I guess, the first one is on share count. There was obviously some movement higher in the share count, either the -- in the in-the-money converts. Maybe you could talk us through, if you were modeling maybe your business on a long term, from an earnings power perspective, how would you think about modeling that share count? And then secondly, on the operating expense line, there's plenty to invest in here. But how should we think about that as we move through the year and into next year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Thank you, Matt. I think on the share count, basically, beyond the basic shares, the dilutive impact come from 3 components. You have the employee equity grants. You have the 75 million share warrant that we issued to Mubadala in 2016. And you have the 101 million shares underlying our $805 million convertible note. The good news is that you start making money and you get beyond inflection point. All of that gets included in dilute share count. So I think given what we have laid out as guidance, in particularly in the Financial Analyst Day, the assumption should be, as you model profitability in the company, those shares get included. We have provided color in the commentary, and for Q3, we are estimating that the total share count is about $1.14 billion (sic) [1.14 billion]. As far as the OpEx is concerned, we are obviously, with the strength in the business, performing stronger. We are making targeted investments, particularly in R&D. We have included and invested in targeted R&D areas. And also, in 2017, I think there are some employee-related performance incentives that are included in our current guidance given the fact that the business is performing stronger than anticipated. Lisa, anything you want to add?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. No, I think you covered it, Devinder. On the investment front, Matt, just to give you a little bit more color on that, I think we see tremendous opportunity in the data center around both CPU and GPU compute, and so we're taking the opportunity with some of the strength in the business to make sure we lean in to those resources and fully pay off the product investments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, one for you first on the client ASPs. I know the Ryzen side, the mix had to go up, and those carry much better ASPs. But the client category as a whole, the ASPs went down. So if you just think about going forward, when do the size of the buckets work, that the Ryzen contribution will be big enough to offset whatever was the headwind against that in the second quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Good question, Ross. When you take a look at our client business, think of it as desktop and mobile, and then within the desktop segment, it's channel and OEM. So Ryzen performed very well. I think the ASP contribution is very evident on the desktop line item. But when we look at where we are in the progression of the Ryzen rollout, we're still in the early innings. So we had our first full quarter of Ryzen desktop in the channel. The OEMs launched their desktop products in about mid-June, and so they just started selling at the end of June. And that will flow through into the second half of the year. And the mobile products are still our legacy products. So you saw the mobile ASPs were down slightly as we went from Q1 to Q2, and that was just a mix on some of the legacy business. But the desktop ASPs were quite strong, and we should expect that, as we go into the second half of the year and we have Ryzen really take off in the OEM sectors as well as once we introduce Ryzen Mobile towards the second half of the year, is when you'll see sort of more of the full portfolio over to Ryzen. Does that help?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It does. And a related follow-up on that is just transitioning those ASP and mix commentaries over to the actual gross margin. The full year revenue guidance is increased again. Just recently, you guys did it at the Analyst Meeting. Now you're doing it again, so that's clearly a positive. It seems like the C&G side of things is what's driving that given your commentary on the game console side being down. So given everything you just said about the mix improving in the back half of the year and the revenues now being higher, I'm a little surprised the gross margin guidance didn't change for the year. So if we translate everything you just said, Lisa, to a gross margin dynamic, can you help us kind of make all of that make sense as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think you summarized the revenue guidance well. I think we see the Computing and Graphics business accelerating on the strength of the new products. We do have a bit of a year-over-year headwind when we compare game consoles. When you look at our Q3 margin guidance, we are certainly up year-over-year 3 points, and so I think that's the strength of the product portfolio. I think as we get into the Q4 guidance, we'll talk more about the margin progression, but the -- what we expected in terms of margin expansion with the premium products is certainly playing out, and that's helping the Q3 guide.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from David Wong from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you give us some idea of whether your September guidance assumes any meaningful contribution from Vega sales for gaming in the September quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, David. We will be launching Vega actually in a week at Siggraph, and yes, there will be -- Vega will be shipping into gaming, into professional workstations as well as into the GPU compute segment in the third quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And can you update us on your expectations for launch timing of Ryzen notebook chips and if you expect there to be revenues from Ryzen notebook in December?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Ryzen notebook is on track to launch for the holiday platform sales, and so you should see OEMs launching Ryzen Mobile for the holiday period. So yes, we will see revenue in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research and Senior Research Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          My question, first one was on free cash flow. It's negative again, and for the first half, minus $420 million if my math is right. So Devinder, when does free cash flow turn positive? And then I had a follow-up, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think 2016, if you go back and look at the full year, because of the seasonality of our business, we were positive. From a viewpoint of midpoint of 2017, we do see strength of the business. You're right. Cash is down with the changes in working capital, and it's largely driven by wafer purchases in support of the stronger second half and in particular, the stronger business that we are seeing. We expect cash to be up for the quarter -- this quarter and to be free cash flow positive for the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research and Senior Research Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then my follow-up is, Lisa, on the crypto question that Mark had asked earlier. I'm not sure you gave an answer to -- or maybe Mark didn't ask that. Are you seeing follow-on strength from that in the current quarter? And then why -- and we realize it's not a core part of your business. But why or why not this is not similar to what happened in '14?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Ambrish. So I think, from an overall standpoint, we see strong demand in graphics for the third quarter. I think that's a mix of a couple things. That's a mix of gaming being seasonally stronger in the third quarter. That's a mix of inventories being very low in the channel, and there is a crypto -- probably a cryptocurrency component as well relative to overall demand. When we look at it as a whole though, we think that the growth in the business is really on the strength of the products and how the design wins, both OEM and -- as well as system integrators, are improving. Now how is it different than sort of a couple of years ago? I think we understand the market much better from the standpoint of the products are significantly stronger. And so if you look at the product portfolio, not just the current sort of Polaris or RX 5-series products but the Vega product coming in, really opens up a larger TAM for us. And we are working with our add-in-board partners to segment the markets in terms of the feature set that go into the cards as well as prioritizing some of the gamer ecosystems, so in terms of system integrator supply as well as bundling and OEM supply. So I think we are doing quite a bit to make sure that we protect against any downside as it relates to cryptocurrency, but overall, I would view it as GPUs are strong. And we see GPUs continuing to be strong, and so it's a great market to be in.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Kevin Cassidy from Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Edward Cassidy,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director     [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe just as a follow-up to that. Inventories being down going into this quarter and with all your new product ramps, is that -- is it down mainly just because of GPUs? Or is there something else?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think it's -- if you look at the inventory, in fact, if you look at it from my standpoint and the strength of the business, there's revenue growth, we are obviously buying wafers in support of the stronger revenue. Some of the ramp in new products does have an impact on the inventory and obviously, we want to support all of new product ramps. It's down marginally in the quarter, but I expect that in Q3 it will go down. And then we have previously guided down year-over-year, so I expect, when we end the year, it will be down in 2017 compared to 2016 while fully supporting the needs of the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Edward Cassidy,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director     [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And is -- I guess for the server side, how do you -- how are you building inventory for that? Or is that a longer design cycle so that you don't really start building inventory?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the server side is -- yes. It's a smaller portion. I mean, the ramp in EPYC, as you probably heard us say, is slower than in other businesses. So from -- if you look at a total inventory, the server portion of inventory is not that huge.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, for my first question, if I go back in history, at one point, AMD had a 20%-plus share in server CPUs, and I appreciate we are far off from that point right now. But I just want to know conceptually what are you doing or can do to recreate those conditions? Or do you think the environment is very different this time around?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Vivek, I think we are actually very pleased with sort of the conditions around the server market for us. I mean, it all starts with a good product or a great product, and so I think the EPYC product performance is very important. But I think the other conditions that are different and perhaps even more favorable than in the past is the fact that the cloud data center guys are making up such a large piece of the market, and they tend to move faster in their qualification cycles given the fact that they have sort of more control of their own software environment. So I think our differentiation is strong. I think we have -- we put out a product that is not only strong on basic CPU performance but also offers much more flexibility in terms of what you can do with memory and I/O. I think that value proposition is recognized by the customer set, so we certainly are looking to ramp the revenue as fast as possible.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And for my follow-up, as you're starting to become more competitive against Intel and NVIDIA, are you seeing any competitive response from them in terms of pricing or features or go-to-market strategy that you might need to respond to?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Obviously, we continue to watch the competitive market. It's been an exciting market. Some would say that, from a product standpoint, there has been a bit of back-and-forth already. We feel good about how our products are positioned not just today but how they will be positioned over the next 18 to 24 months. And so we're going to be very focused on ensuring that we lead with the product message. Of course, there's a go-to-market element and all of that around that, but I think the competitive environment right now is very focused on product competitiveness.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And maybe a quick follow-up on that, Lisa, if I might. When Ryzen initially rolled out, I think some of the benchmarks and -- were not up to par. Have you seen an improvement in that? And as you -- especially as you roll out EPYC, are you seeing the ecosystem come and work around your products, so those benchmarks are not going to be an issue this time around?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think, Vivek, you're referring to when we initially launched Ryzen 7, there were some games, particularly in 1080p resolution, that were not as good as some of the higher resolution. And I believe we worked around a lot of that. We've seen game developers, content developers really sort of support the Ryzen ecosystem. I've actually been very happy with how they've jumped on the support of it. We have been continuing to improve the ecosystem. So if you look at the motherboards and if you look at the memory capability, they've significantly improved just in the last 3 or 4 months. I think you'll see, as we go through ThreadRipper launch, which is coming up very shortly, that the Ryzen ecosystem is strong. And as it relates to EPYC, I think the -- very similar comments. I think the ecosystem has been very supportive of the EPYC processor family, and so I don't see that as an issue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Wonder if you could talk a little bit about -- as we think about EPYC for next year, how do you think we should frame that opportunity? Is it mostly a cloud -- sort of top-tier cloud customer that's going to drive that revenue? Is it sort of next level down of cloud customer going to drive significant revenue and then enterprise next year? I mean, how would you sort of bucket those 3 things in terms of where the EPYC potential lies?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I would say, Joe, we have a broad set of customers that we're engaging with. So definitely, we see top-tier cloud guys very engaged with EPYC and talking about a number of different instances. Microsoft Azure was at our launch event, and Baidu was at our launch event. And we're working with a number of other cloud vendors as well. But we also have a very strong OEM support base as well. So with HPE and Dell putting out a number of platforms with EPYC, I think that will ramp enterprise customers in 2018 as well. So I view it as really both sides of the equation are important for 2018. I think we will see cloud be a little lumpier. So certainly, they tend to buy in stages, so they may be a little bit lumpier. But I think, overall, we are very focused on both cloud and enterprise accounts.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then circling back quickly to the inventory issue that you talked about in graphics. It seems like they're quite lean and in some cases, in shortage. Is that completely a function of demand? Were there any supply issues in the quarter? And how quickly if -- do you foresee that as an issue? And if so, like how quickly do you fix it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Joe, it was completely a function of demand and demand within lead time. I think from a supply standpoint, we've had a very strong supply chain across-the-board, across both CPU and GPUs. We are, as I said, in the process of catching up to demand, and so we're certainly increasing some of the production. And that was Devinder's comment about some of the working capital and some of the inventory comments. Overall though, I think we're going into a stronger second half of the year. So it's not unexpected for us to ramp up production. It's just demand was quite strong. Particularly in the April-May time frame is when we saw a spike and take some time to react to those signals.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, can you give us a sense of how EPYC is doing in virtualized environments because there might be some issues regarding compatibility with the other x86 suppliers and how you would go through that process over the next several quarters?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Again, Hans, I think we have been working closely with a number of different customers, including in virtualized environments. We see no particular issues other than just getting their platforms up and running. And so I think we continue to believe EPYC will do very well in those environments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then as a follow-up, can you give us a sense, now that EPYC is out, what the feedback is from your customers, cloud or OEM, regarding your packaging approach in terms of using a multi-chip module type approach versus a monolithic silicon approach?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Hans, actually, the feedback has been actually quite good, and I think the -- what we're able to do -- obviously, it's a decision to make, right? We could have built one big monolithic chip or -- we decided very strategically to build a modular approach because it just gives us so much flexibility when we talk about the combination of CPU cores and I/O. So, so far, so good. I think there is some work to do to make sure that the latencies are appropriately taken care of, and the customers are working with us on that. I think the flexibility is really, really appreciated, particularly when you look at what we can do with single-socket servers as well. So we feel very good about where EPYC is positioned. I think the customer feedback continues to be very strong, and our goal is to get as many platforms out as possible with EPYC this year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from John Pitzer from Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, notwithstanding the possibility that you guys beat your revised guidance you just gave today, if you just go by the revised guidance, it's kind of implying calendar fourth quarter revenue down about 10% sequentially, which is about in line with seasonal. Just kind of curious, just given where you are in the product cycle for Ryzen and EPYC, why a seasonal quarter wouldn't be something that you could beat? And I guess, equally important, are you planning to stay profitable in the calendar fourth quarter if it is down seasonal just given the trajectory of OpEx?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So yes, John, let me answer that. When you look at our typical seasonality, as you said, we tend to be down in Q4. Semi-custom is still a large, large piece of our business and semi-custom will peak in Q3. And it will come down in Q4. I also think that we want to be cognizant of the fact that some of the graphics demand that we see might be temporal, so we're not counting on that staying through the full year. We'll see what happens. Frankly, I think we'll see what happens with the whole mining stuff. But I think when you look overall, I think that it shows that the business is strengthening. And so we like the growth very much. Ryzen will continue to grow through the second half. EPYC will continue to grow through the second half. Vega and our GPU business will continue to grow through the second half, and the only headwind that we have is through the game console business just as part of normal seasonality. And then relative to the profit statement...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think it's hard to predict that right now, John. I think if you look at our guidance, as we said, revenue, mid- to high teens, which, from our standpoint, is 16, 17-ish increase. And we'll get to Q4 when we get there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful. And then, Lisa, for my follow-up, R&D ticking up, which is absolutely the right thing to do for the longer-term health of the business, but I'm just kind of curious if you could help me understand your sort of R&D priorities. To what extent is this uptick in R&D really to help bolster your position in existing markets versus sort of R&D dollars to go after new markets, whether that be acceleration, machine learning or autonomous driving? How should I think about that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think there are a couple points, John, that I want to make sure that we're clear about. Although OpEx is going up and R&D is going up, we're doing it in a very thoughtful fashion. And so staying within the confines of the business model is really important. And as Devinder said earlier, our model that we laid out at Financial Analyst Day for 2017 has us, let's call it, at approximately 31% ER, and we're going to stay within that model for sure. Now relative to priorities in R&D, it is very much focused on sort of the new growth areas for us, very much focused on data center and very much focused on GPU computes around machine learning and sort of the entire compute space on the GPU side. It is fairly incremental in terms of adding things like customer support, field application engineering, software support given that we're familiarizing people with our architecture. So I think it's good. We're happy that the business affords us the ability to increase R&D in this time frame, and we're using it to accelerate our growth in these high-margin markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vijay Rakesh from Mizuho.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Perhaps, Lisa, when you look at the EPYC, I know you said 20 customers already and then 20 more in the second half. Do you think that gets to 5% of your revenues, just the EPYC side of your revenues as you look at the third quarter? And should we assume pretty incrementally [about --] not the 50% margins on your EPYC product, especially as it goes in the data center side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So Vijay, without getting too granular about percentage of EPYC revenue, I think what we've said is our target for EPYC, we sort of have -- the midterm target is to get back to double-digit market share, so over 10%. We think that we have a product and a customer set in an environment that does support that. It will take longer than this year to get there. So I think this is a multiple-quarter ramp for us. But in terms of how we've laid out the business model, I mean, that's all contemplated sort of in our overall growth model for 2017. As it relates to margins, again, without being very specific, I would say the EPYC margins are highly accretive even at our current sort of pricing, which offers, I would say, significant value to the customer. I think it also gives us significant credit for the capability of the product. And so the margins are accretive to our business model.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Very helpful. Just on the Radeon Instinct side, too, can you give us some similar commentary on how you see in terms of customer adoption and what the response has been similar to EPYC?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, yes. The Radeon Instinct similarly has a lot of interest from the marketplace, a number of different applications. We started shipping actually in July to some strategic data center customers. We see that interest continue to ramp. There, I think it is -- this is definitely a lumpy business. And so it goes, as a cloud guy puts on a new instance, you would see a larger buy, and that's the way it would work. But again, very good market. I think we're in the very early part of the growth trajectory for AMD in these markets, and we'll continue to invest and work closely with customers to ramp those platforms.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I just want to follow up on the -- your comments on the cryptocurrency market. Just curious what's your visibility into whether someone -- obviously, they buy a dedicated card. It would be easy to track. Just your visibility on the back end as to where the strength in the overall GPU market is coming from. You mentioned it as a third factor, I think, in September, but then mentioned it may impact December and if you can just talk about in that full year guide, are you factoring in any contribution in December?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We're being conservative in our estimates for what will happen as we get into the fourth quarter. I think the visibility is not -- it's anyone's guess at this moment. However, I think what we are doing very clearly is prioritizing sort of the core customer set so that we're segmenting the market. You can never segment it perfectly, but I think we are segmenting it well. And we continue to be very closely in tune with our partners and how this develops. And my expectation is that there will be a leveling off of the demand at some point. And as we fill the channel, that will become clear in what the level-off point is. But right now as we said, the channel inventories are very low, and so it's hard to call the absolute demand. And we're ensuring that we're not overcalling the demand.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then just a question for Devinder. The OpEx step-up in September, it's hard to tell from the full year guide, 31% can round a bunch of different ways. Just curious if you expect any follow-through in that increase in R&D into the December quarter? And then if you could just mention also timing of the JV payment. Obviously, you're not getting any in the back half of this year. Maybe you could talk about the milestones into next year and when those should come back as offsets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Let me take the JV one first. I mean, as we said in the commentary in my prepared remarks, $140 million licensing gained on the THATIC server JV to date. We got $52 million this year, and there's nothing more this year. The remaining payments are based on some production-related milestones, and those are in 2018 and beyond. And we'll update that as we get closer. As far as the OpEx is concerned, I think we've said a lot, and we stand by what we said. We'll manage within our guidance of expense-to-revenue ratio of approximately 31% for the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thank you very much, operator. We appreciate everyone being with us today. We look forward to spending more time with you in the coming quarter, and thank you for your time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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Transcripts/AMD/2017-May-01-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,607 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2017 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+MAY 01, 2017 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Graves
+    - 
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Christopher Adam Jackson Rolland
+   Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst
+ * David M. Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist, Global Technology Sector Head, and Semiconductor/Semiconductor Capital Equipment Analyst
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - Principal and Senior Analyst
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices First Quarter 2017 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Laura Graves, Corporate Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's First Quarter 2017 Conference Call. By now, you should've had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at ir.amd.com. Participants on today's conference call are: Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on amd.com. 
+Before we begin, I'd like to highlight a few dates for you. We will host our Financial Analyst Day on Tuesday, May 16, at our headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. Lisa Su will present at the J.P. Morgan Global Technology Media & Telecom Conference on May 22. Jim Anderson, our Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing and Graphics, will present at the Stifel Nicolaus Conference on June 5. Mark Papermaster, Chief Technology Officer, will present at the BofA Merrill Lynch Global Technology Conference on June 6. And our second quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, June 16, 2017. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. 
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP financials during this call, except for revenue and segment operating income or loss, which is on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in the press release and CFO commentary posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.amd.com. Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You'll also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular, AMD's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016. 
+Now with that, I'll hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all of those listening in today. First quarter revenue increased 18% from a year ago to $984 million based on growth across both of our business segments. Gross margin also improved, driven largely by the success of our recently launched Ryzen CPUs. I am pleased with our first quarter product execution and improved year-over-year financial results, which demonstrate the revenue growth and gross margin expansion potential with our strong set of new products. 
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment. We delivered our fourth straight quarter of double-digit percentage year-on-year revenue growth. Strong demand for Ryzen CPUs and improved GPU sales resulted in CG revenue increasing 29% from the year-ago period. CG revenue declined 1% sequentially, which was better-than-normal seasonality as significant growth in desktop processor sales, driven by the first month of Ryzen CPU sales, largely offset seasonal declines in GPU and notebook APU sales. 
+Solid demand for our family of premium Ryzen 7 processors, including our flagship Ryzen 7 1800X offering, which is the industry's highest performance 8-core CPU, drove our highest desktop processor revenue in more than 2 years. Ryzen CPUs have been consistently ranked among the top-selling processors at global e-tailers and retailers. And press reviews and end-user sentiment have highlighted the strong performance and value proposition. 
+In early April, we launched our enthusiast-class Ryzen 5 processors and received overwhelmingly positive reviews that demonstrate our multi-threaded leadership and unmatched value proposition. 
+The Ryzen CPU partner ecosystem also continues to strengthen. We have seated more than 300 software developers to support their work optimizing for Ryzen CPUs and have already seen double-digit performance gains across a number of top-tier gaming titles. Last week, the first Ryzen-based OEM gaming desktops were announced, and we continue the rapid rollout of Ryzen-powered systems with additional launches planned for major OEMs later this quarter. 
+In Graphics, GPU sales increased by a strong double-digit percentage from a year ago based on growth across all of our product lines. The ramp of Polaris-based notebook design wins drove increased mobile GPU sales while our desktop growth was led by improved channel sales. 
+In early Q2, we launched 4 new Radeon RX 500 GPUs, featuring our Polaris architecture that deliver improved performance. These new mainstream GPUs provide a compelling solution for the millions of gamers looking to upgrade their PCs to support advanced display technologies and deliver optimal gaming experiences. 
+We also saw higher professional graphics revenue from a year ago, driven by expanding channel sales and growing data center wins, as we continue to increase our GPU-compute footprint with leading cloud service providers. 
+We remain on track to launch the first products from our next-generation Radeon Vega family later this quarter. Vega is a forward-looking architecture that combines a revolutionary memory subsystem, next-generation compute engine, advanced pixel engine and new geometry pipeline to dramatically improve performance and energy efficiency for the next generation of GPU workloads. Customer excitement is building as we focus on bringing significant competition to the high-end GPU space across the PC gaming, professional design and GPU compute markets. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment, revenue increased 5% from a year ago, driven by the latest game console offerings from Sony and Microsoft and our third straight quarter delivering year-on-year embedded revenue growth. We see solid demand for our latest FinFET-based semi-custom offerings in 2017, including the planned holiday launch of Microsoft's 4K-focused Project Scorpio console featuring a new AMD SoC. 
+On the data center front, in March, we demonstrated that our upcoming Naples server CPU would offer more cores, I/O and memory bandwidth when compared to the highest-end dual socket x86 server CPUs currently available, resulting in better performance across multiple workloads. 
+Naples platform development work continued to accelerate in the quarter. We are in the final stages of preparation in advance of launch and are very pleased with the status of our silicon and customer engagements. We have now seated thousands of Naples processors across an extensive set of OEMs, end users and partners, and remain on track for our first Naples products to launch this quarter. 
+In closing, we started 2017 delivering significant year-on-year revenue growth and margin expansion based on solid product execution and strong market and customer reception to our new leadership products. Our focus in 2017 remains on launching our Naples server CPU with broad customer, partner and ecosystem support. Naples is the first step in our long-term plan to deliver a leadership data center product road map. 
+Complementing the success of our mainstream Polaris-based GPUs with our high-end Vega GPUs, extending our Zen core into the mainstream desktop and premium notebook markets with the launches of our Ryzen 3 CPUs and Ryzen mobile APUs in the second half of the year, and expanding our participation in the fast-growing market for GPU compute with the launch of Radeon Instinct accelerators midyear. 
+2017 is an important year for AMD, and we are well positioned for solid revenue growth and margin expansion based on bringing performance, choice and innovation to an expanding set of markets. I look forward to discussing more about our long-term strategy at our Financial Analyst Day later this month. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our first quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. We had a good start to 2017 as we expanded gross margin, increased revenue 18% year-over-year to $984 million and reduced losses year-over-year. 
+Computing and Graphics segment revenue increased 29% year-over-year, driven by the launch of our high-performance Ryzen desktop processors and our strengthened GPU product portfolio. Our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue increased 5% from a year ago. 
+Let me provide some specifics for the first quarter of 2017. Gross margin was 34%, up 2 percentage points year-over-year, driven by a higher overall mix of revenue from our Computing and Graphics segment and a richer product mix within that segment, due to Ryzen desktop processor sales. 
+Operating expenses were $364 million compared to $332 million a year ago. The increase is due primarily to R&D investments in Graphics and our server business. Net licensing gain from our server JV with THATIC was $27 million compared to $7 million a year ago. Operating loss was $6 million in the first quarter of 2017, a significant improvement from a $55 million loss a year ago. 
+First quarter net interest expense, taxes and other was $32 million, down from $41 million year-over-year, primarily due to a lower overall interest rate and a lower debt balance. Net loss was $38 million, or loss per share of $0.04 calculated using 939 million shares of common stock as compared to a net loss of $96 million or $0.12 a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $28 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA of negative $22 million from a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segments. Computing and Graphics revenue was $593 million, up 29% year-over-year and down 1% sequentially. The year-over-year increase was primarily due to higher Ryzen desktop, CPU and graphics processor sales. The better-than-seasonal quarter-over-quarter decrease was due to lower mobile and graphics processor sales, largely offset by Ryzen desktop processor sales. 
+Computing and Graphics business segment operating loss was $15 million, a significant improvement from a loss of $70 million year-over-year, primarily due to higher revenue. 
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $391 million, up 5% year-over-year, primarily due to higher semi-custom SoC sales. Operating income was $9 million, down from $16 million a year ago, due primarily to higher server-related R&D investments, largely offset by an increase in the THATIC JV licensing gain. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $943 million at the end of the quarter compared to $1.26 billion at the end of 2016. The sequential decrease was driven primarily by the timing of sales and cash collections, debt interest payments and increased inventory. 
+Inventory ended at $839 million compared to $751 million at year-end in support of the ramp of new products and increased semi-custom SoC sales in the second quarter. 
+Long-term debt on the balance sheet was $1.41 billion, down from $1.44 billion at year-end, primarily due to debt reduction activities. The principal debt amount was $1.73 billion, down $34 million from the prior quarter as a result of debt reduction actions. 
+Turning to our outlook for the second quarter of 2017, which is a 13-week quarter. We expect revenue to increase 17% sequentially plus or minus 3%, non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 33%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $370 million, licensing gain associated with our server JV to be approximately $20 million, non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $30 million, and inventory to be down sequentially. 
+For 2017, we now expect revenue to increase low double-digit percentage from a year-over-year basis and CapEx to be approximately $140 million, including the capitalization of production mask sets beginning in Q1 2017. Additional 2017 guidance can be found in the CFO commentary document. 
+In closing, we remain focused on continuing to improve our financial performance on the strength of new product introductions, continued financial discipline and ongoing strategic investments in the business. I look forward to sharing further details on our longer-term prospects at our upcoming Financial Analyst Day on May 16. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready to begin the Q&A portion of our call.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Matt Ramsay from Canaccord Genuity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - Principal and Senior Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wonder if you could spend a little bit more time talking about the Ryzen desktop launch, how you would characterize that it's gone so far? Maybe any kind of quantification you can give on revenue for the 1 month you had in the first quarter and then for the second quarter guidance? And then anything that might have limited sales in the quarter. We heard things about, shortages of motherboards from the SKU suppliers, et cetera. So any kind of additional commentary around the Ryzen launch would be really helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, absolutely, Matt. So, look, we're very pleased with how the Ryzen launch well -- went. It was a big launch for us. We did Ryzen 7 first in early March and then Ryzen 5 here in the middle of April. All of the feedback that we've gotten so far from both our customers and from end users has been very strong. I think the value proposition is very strong at both the Ryzen 7 8-core devices as well as the Ryzen 5 4- and 6-core devices. Relative to how it performed in the quarter, actually it performed as we expected. So with the global launch, we were reaching many distributors and many channel partners, and I think that's going well. We did see some early shortages in terms of motherboards, and that was our motherboard partners ramping their supply in line with our CPU supply. But that was really dissipated after the first couple of weeks. So nothing out of the ordinary there. So we feel really good about where it is. I think the important thing is as we go into the second quarter, we not only have the channel sales, but we also have the major OEMs that will be launching their systems in the second quarter. So I think that's the next piece of the Ryzen launch for us. But overall, I would say it went quite well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - Principal and Senior Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And just as my follow-up question, wanted to ask a little bit about gross margin. Lisa, you talked in your prepared remarks about as the new product roll out across the different parts of the company through the year that margins should expand. Yet your -- with a full quarter of Ryzen, you're guiding gross margin down slightly sequentially. I know the new gaming console business starts to ramp for the upcoming season in that quarter as well. So any kind of puts and takes around that gross margin? Because for some reaction I got from investors tonight that sequentially down gross margin surprised a couple of folks. So any clarification there would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Absolutely, Matt. So if you look at our gross margin progression, given the mix of our business, clearly we made actually very nice progress year-over-year. So if you look at Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016, we expanded margin by 2 points and that was really on the strength of Ryzen. When you look sequentially, because of the mix of our business, game consoles were at the lowest point in the first quarter, and there will be a ramp of game consoles going into the second quarter. So the relative mix of the business sees more game consoles in the second quarter relative to the first quarter. So that's the reason for the sequential guidance. But again, if you look year-on-year, Q2 '17 to Q2 '16, you see again a nice margin expansion as a result of the strength of the products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Wanted to follow up on the Ryzen launch, not only in the quarter, but also in the guide, and specifically, any color you could provide on the channel inventory, how that exited the quarter and what your plans are for adding or boiling down some of that inventory in Q2?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, So, sure, Ross. So as we go into the second quarter, we certainly are adding both the Ryzen 5 in addition to the Ryzen 7. So if we look at the forward guidance, up 17% quarter-on-quarter, that is driven by additional Ryzen as well as the semi-custom ramp that I just talked about. We are early in the ramp. Everything that we see is -- we're getting a positive reception throughout the ecosystem and we're going to continue with go-to-market activities and, as I mentioned, the OEM components of that will kick in, in the second quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And I guess as my follow-up, 2 quick ones for Devinder. The inventory went up sequentially by about 11%, 12%. And you had an explanation for that, but if I recall right, you thought it'd be flat. So I'm just wondering what changed there? And then with the share count, I think as you approach breakeven, the share count might change. So any color you could give us on the share count going forward would be helpful as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Why sure. And you're right about the inventory. The ramp of new products and especially the ramp of the semi-custom product revenue that Lisa just talked about was the main reason for the high inventory. We also had the opportunity in the quarter to put [those wafers] in Q1 ahead of Q2 sales and took advantage of the opportunity leading to the inventory at the $839 million. On the share count, you're right. As we go ahead and look at the share count on a basic share basis, we have 939 million, but there are 2 parts to it. If we were profitable, the warrants that we issued to Mubadala last year as part of the WSA, those get converted depending on the stock price, and that would be in there depending on profitability. And then the second thing is a convertible, obviously, as you know, how that works, is, if converted, then obviously those will be included in the share count, otherwise it will depend upon dilution or not, depending on the EPS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Perhaps a question for Lisa and one for Devinder. Lisa, can you talk about whether or not you're getting the right capacity and expected yields from your foundry as Ryzen launches? And for Devinder, as your customers take higher ASP processors in the game console business, I seem to remember when you originally launched, I thought that the -- maybe the initial yields or maybe the initial margins were not as good but the margins improved over time. And I'm wondering if, assuming I remembered properly, if that's something also we should be thinking about as your customers take the higher ASP game console processors?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. So on your first question, relative to the margins and how those look, I think they are -- the yields are as expected, so both the 16-nanometer and the 14-nanometer have done really well. And so in terms of the new product ramp, the yields are as expected and per our margin structure.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, on the semi-custom, Mark, as far as the margins are concerned, you are referring to the operating margins, I think we're pretty pleased where we are. And it's a mix for us in terms of transition to some of the products, for example, the Sony PlayStation Pro that we launched sometime last year and obviously, the older game console that we launched in 2013. The ASPs do come down over time, although we are able to manage the cost down, too, and therefore, offsetting the ASP decline.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and, Mark, maybe just to finish off the comment. I think -- to your question, I think we feel pretty good about our cost structure. We're always going to continue to try to reduce the cost structure over time. But in terms of the margin expansion story as we go through the year, it's going to be about the mix of business. And as we get into the higher ASP, stronger product portfolio and that ramps to a larger piece of the business, that will be the margin expansion story.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from David Wong from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David M. Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you give us some idea of where Vega sits? Does it focus on the price points above Polaris? Or does it provide a refresh also within the lower price points where currently you have Polaris?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, David. So Vega is really a new architecture, so it is focused on the price point above Polaris. We expect Vega to be a broad product for us that will go across the gaming segment, the professional workstation segment as well as GPUs in the data center, and we will be launching products across all of those segments with the Vega architecture in the next couple of months. So the Polaris refresh for us is the RX 500 series that we launched just a couple weeks ago. And that is what we would use in sort of those mainstream price points in 2017.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David M. Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And could you give us any specifics on when in the second half you expect to launch notebook and desktop processors [within cores] and integrated graphics?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so we are on track to launch the rest of the Ryzen portfolio in PCs. We'll launched Ryzen 3 sort of earlier in the second half, and then we will launch our Ryzen mobile towards the holiday cycle for the second half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For the first one, I'm a little surprised on the [CSG] business, you said -- I mean, sales were roughly flat, sequentially, give or take. You said Ryzen sales made up for seasonally lower GPUs in notebooks we have -- should have materially lower margins. I'm just amazed -- I'm just very surprised that the loss in the business barely got any better. Can you give us some indication for where Ryzen margins are today versus the product that they're replacing? And give us a little bit of color on why the CPU margins didn't actually get much better just given the ramp?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Stacy, maybe let me start and see if Devinder has some comments to add. I think certainly the rise in gross margins are substantially better than the legacy portfolio. So I think that is true. I think when you look at the sequential, there was 1% sequential decline, and there was a $7 million or $8 million sequential improvement in operating loss. There was also some additional R&D in that segment as we're ramping up both product expenses as well as some sales and marketing and go-to-market expenses in the quarter. Yes, so overall, it was as we expected. Maybe, Devinder, do you want to add to that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think the other thing I would add, Stacy, is on the Ryzen piece of it. The ASPs are better, the margins are better. And as you can see from a segment standpoint, we made some pretty good progress year-over-year from a viewpoint of the operating loss getting better or the results getting better year-over-year from a segment standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. For my follow-up, I guess maybe it hints at the OpEx a little bit, but it looks like you're capitalizing your masks now. You took your CapEx side up by $60 million for the year. You went from $80 million to $140 million. Is that all the mask? And if so, were those mask costs actually in OpEx before? And if that's the case, have you actually taken your OpEx guide effectively up by $60 million for the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, 2 parts to it. First of all, on the mask piece, okay, you're right. The mask costs, as our product development becomes profitable, I think the mass costs have gone up. Especially with the latest technology, we went ahead and decided to capitalize the production mask set cost. From a geographic standpoint, the mask costs, but as they would have been an R&D previously, would be sitting in the COGS side of the P&L, and therefore, amortized in the COGS side related to the production of the unit. And the difference in the CapEx guidance, $80 million to $100 million, and $40 million is primarily the max costs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. So what does that mean for, I guess, how you guys are tackling gross margin now if they would have been directly in the COGS before, and now they're being capitalized over time? Is that a margin -- I guess, effective margin boost even though it's not anything on the cash side? And if so, I guess, the same question then, why are margins down this quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, I think margins, as Lisa said earlier, year-on-year, we're pretty pleased with the progress, 2 percentage points up. Q2 is a mix of the business, and then as we get to the end of -- to the second of the year, we'll see the full impact of, not just the Ryzen product, but also both Naples product that's coming up at the tail end of Q2, and then maybe into the second half of 2017.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Stacy, maybe I just want to clarify because I want to make sure that we were clear. So the masks were in OpEx and now they're going to be capitalized as they go into production. So they weren't in COGS before.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So you have effectively taken your OpEx up then, because it doesn't look like your OpEx is coming down by the same amount. So you're spending more?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think it really is a full year statement, and I think it's a recognition of, as we transition from 14-nanometer to 7-nanometer, 7-nanometer masks are substantially more expensive than 14-nanometer. So I don't think you can exactly put it the way you put it. But I think -- overall, I think what we're trying to do is basically, as the masks sets becomes more sizable on the production level to capitalize them.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research and Senior Research Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I actually wanted to just continue with the discussion on margins. So would the margin profile then as we exit the year, should we expect margins -- gross margins to trend up for the second half versus what you reported, i.e., or what you're guiding to, i.e., would that be the lowest point for the year? And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Ambrish, I think you should expect that we will expand margins as we go through the year. We do have this mix effect between semi-custom and new product revenue. But certainly, our exit velocity as we ended the year, we should see -- when you compare year-on-year sort of Q4 '17 to Q4 '16, you should see the margin expansion.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research and Senior Research Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, and then for my follow-up, in your full year guide, on the top line, now you're giving a -- you're quantifying it versus what you had before. I just wanted to get a little bit more clarity or to the extent you guys can share on the assumptions that you have baked in there for the various segments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so the full year guide is low double-digit revenue growth, '17 to '16. I think, given our product portfolio being very much influenced by the PC -- the Ryzen in PCs, Vega for GPUs as well as Naples from a server standpoint, we expect that the Computing and Graphics segment will be -- will grow more so than the EESC segment overall on a year-over-year basis, just given some of the consumer markets move faster than some of the data center and server markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, can you give us a sense of the introduction of Naples into the second half and next year? Is that going to reflect or be similar to what you're doing with the Ryzen 7 and then 5 and then 3? And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So look, we're really pleased with where we are with the Naples program right now. Overall, from a performance standpoint of the product and the customer engagements, it's going as we would expect. We will launch here in the second quarter. So we'll start some low-volume of revenue shipments here in the second quarter that will ramp gradually into the second half of the year. And so overall, I think that is how the server outlook will be. I think I have said before, and I did still say, that the server market has a longer design win to revenue conversion cycle. And so we would expect it to take a couple quarters for us to ramp the Naples product over time. And you should see a number of customers announcing with AMD platforms over the next couple quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And then as a follow-up on the server side, what's the strategy in terms of positioning of the product? I mean, traditionally, in most cases, it's been more of, like, a me-too product at the low end of the market. What's the strategy here? If you can share that with us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we believe we're highly differentiated with Naples in the sense that we have more cores, we have more memory bandwidth, we have more I/O than our competition. So for certain workloads, I think Naples is going to do very, very well, certainly, in the cloud as well as in certain HPC workloads and big data workloads that can use all of that memory and I/O bandwidth. We will be talking more about the positioning of Naples and the key workloads as we go through the next couple of months prior to launch. But certainly, we feel that it's, again, like Ryzen, on the strength of the Zen core, we have a very, very strong foundational product. And now it's about making sure that we help our customers get to market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist, Global Technology Sector Head, and Semiconductor/Semiconductor Capital Equipment Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, guys, can you hear me?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, John.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist, Global Technology Sector Head, and Semiconductor/Semiconductor Capital Equipment Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, can you hear me?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist, Global Technology Sector Head, and Semiconductor/Semiconductor Capital Equipment Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Just quickly, Lisa, given that mix is now becoming quite important in trying to understand gross margin, I'd be kind of curious, what percent of your compute business in the March quarter was based on Ryzen? And I guess, if you assume that all of it transitions to Ryzen eventually, had that occurred in the March quarter, can you give us an understanding of how much better gross margins would have been? And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right, John, that might be hard for me to answer very specifically. But let me give you the high-level view. So, look, we started selling Ryzen on March 2, and a good piece of it was basically for us positioning into the distributors. We take revenue on a sellout model, and so you should think about -- although we shipped a number of Ryzens, we didn't necessarily revenue them all in the quarter, just given that we're on a sellout model for our revenue recognition. In terms of where we are in the transition, Ryzen, non-Ryzen, we still have a long ways to go. I mean, the way you should think about it is Ryzen 7 was at the very high end. We're going to -- Ryzen 5 has started, we have Ryzen 3 that will come next and then we have the entire mobile portfolio as well. So it will take us through this year to really transition the majority of the product over to Ryzen. I think everything that we've seen, the ASP uplifts are definitely very beneficial. And so we're pleased with sort of the pricing that we're commanding for the product and the reception for the product. So I think it's just that it will take us a couple quarters to transition the overall portfolio over to Ryzen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist, Global Technology Sector Head, and Semiconductor/Semiconductor Capital Equipment Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, Lisa, as a follow-up to that, I know you guys are coming up with an Analyst Day next month and some of these targets might change. But to the extent that your old gross margin target was sort of 36% to 40%, I'm just kind of curious to what extent can you get to that sort of 38% midpoint just by moving your current market share mix towards Ryzen? And to what extent does getting to 38% or above imply either market share gains in the compute business on the desktop notebook side or on the server side? How do I think about that dynamic?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So the long-term guidance at 36% to 40%, I think we have multiple ways of getting there. Certainly, on the PC side, it is not anticipating that we gain a significant amount of share over our historical numbers. So I think the idea on the PC side is, again, I think 2017, a large percentage of the margin story is around PCs. I think as you go into 2018, you'll see a larger percentage of that be in servers. But to the fundamental question, I think we feel good that the mix dynamics are there, the product is strong enough to command the right ASPs that we can get to the long-term margin target several different ways.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, for my first one, back to Ryzen. When I look at your Q2 outlook, it's going up about $170 million or so sequentially. And when I look at the last few years, generally Q1 to Q2, just the console side, has gone up over $100 million or so. So is it fair to assume that Ryzen perhaps is contributing something in that $50 million, $60 million, $70 million? And if that is the case, how does that compare to your original expectations? Did they change throughout the quarter because of whatever pricing action [people] might have taken? Just that this $50 million, $60 million, $70 million, if this is right, is this a run rate number for Ryzen? Or how should we put this in the context of what Ryzen can be as it becomes a bigger part of your portfolio?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So without commenting on the exact numbers between semi-custom and Ryzen, I think it's fair to say that the semi-custom business will have a reasonable ramp in the second quarter as will Ryzen. In terms of relative to our expectations, it's actually very close to our expectations of what we expected the ramp rate to be as we're going into this new segment. As I think I mentioned on one of the previous questions, we don't expect to be at peak run rate in the second quarter. I think we will be continuing to ramp Zen-based product in the PC business throughout the year as we bring more and more SKUs online. And so I think the second quarter is -- will certainly be higher than the first quarter, and I would expect the second half to be higher than what we're seeing in the second quarter, as we ramp more and more SKUs, as more OEM platforms come online. As you guys know, the PC business is -- it tends to be a very back-half loaded business. So as we get into back to school, the retail segments and holiday, you would expect that both channel and OEM PC sales to benefit from the stronger product portfolio.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as my follow-up, how do you feel about the PC gaming market for this year? I know just near term, there have been some concerns about excess-GPU inventory in China. Have you -- are those concerns based on fact? Or are they just perception? And have you seen anything abnormal in the demand or supply for PC-GPU product, in any region or any customer segment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, on the GPU side, we actually haven't seen anything abnormal. We normally see the seasonality going from the Q4 to Q1, that sales go down. We saw something very normal to that. From an inventory standpoint, we think it's normal to maybe even slightly lean because we were going through a transition from our 400 series to 500 series. So we see the gaming segment as healthy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And any comment for the full year? Last year -- last, actually, couple of years have been quite strong in PC gaming. I know you probably may not quantify it, but just how do you feel about the overall PC gaming market? Do you think the trend persists in terms of both unit and pricing expansion this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. From what we see, I think we feel good about the gaming segment overall. Graphics continues to be a strong segment. For, us it's not just a channel business, but it's the ramp of our OEM business. So we have a number of new OEM systems that are also ramping here in the first half of the year. As it relates to ASPs, we are excited with the launch of Vega that will see a significant improvement in our ASPs, just given our current presence in the high-end segment of the GPU market. So yes, overall, I think we feel good about the market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Actually 2 related ones. Just wanted to go back to the OpEx in terms of, not only is it up sequentially but then you're getting extra from the move of the mask sets. Can you just talk about where that OpEx dollars are going? And if it's, in fact, servers, can you just talk about the spend required to get at the market? And then just I wanted to clarify on the expense, it should hit gross margin, but can you just talk about 7-nanometer as a whole and timing as those would come through? Is it a back -- is the CapEx back-end loaded when you're doing the $140 million? And then just talk about the impact to the gross margin with the higher 7-nanometer spend now hitting gross margin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Maybe let me start on the OpEx and then have Devinder comment on the second piece of the question. So on the OpEx, we are making targeted investments in several different areas. The key areas are in GPUs and server. And it's both on the R&D side as well as on some go to market. So from our standpoint, these are very strong products. We want to make sure that we have enough customer resources to help our customers ramp into production. So I think they're targeted investments, but as we've been in the past, we'll be very prudent with where the OpEx goes. And then relative to the...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the CapEx, you asked about the front end -- back end. I think it's pretty balanced. Maybe it's about $40 million, $60 million, first half, second half to $140 million, but it's pretty balanced.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Then just in terms of the impact to the gross margin as the mask sets roll through?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CFO, SVP and Treasurer    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          They're all contemplated. I think we've had a lot of discussion on the gross margin improvement year-over-year and sequentially. And Lisa has referenced about improving gross margins as we go through the year and the move of the other expenses from the OpEx side related to the mask costs capitalization to the COGS side of it, which impacts gross margin, is all contemplated in that gross margin improvement.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joseph Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wonder if you could talk about what the CPU mix looks like over the course of the year. And you've talked a lot about the Ryzen ramp, but what's happening to the older products? Do you see a long tail on that? Or is there a coexistence between the 2 product portfolios? Or are you sort of rotating everything to Ryzen on a faster basis?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So, Joe, the way to think about that is for the Ryzen 7 and a good portion of the Ryzen 5, we really didn't have a competing product in that segment, so it's really additive. I mean, we've actually added [SAM] to our CPU market coverage. The legacy products will continue in the market. They would certainly continue through this year, and that's all contemplated in the model. So we feel that they're very complementary products. And different geographies move at different rates. We have still a significant installed base of motherboards out there from our previous generation, so we'll keep supporting both products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. That's helpful. And then as you've talked about getting better Ryzen penetration over the course of the year, how do you think about Intel's new products in the back half? And you know, they've talked about sort of a 15% performance per clock improvement on their new 14-nanometer product. Is that contemplated in your guidance? And how are you thinking about the Ryzen products stacking up against that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we're very pleased with where the Ryzen product is positioned now. We think, from a value proposition standpoint, performance, performance per dollar, it's very strong. We obviously have -- other products are -- we're going to be launching throughout the year to ensure that we have strong product positioning throughout the year. And I think the more important thing, Joe, and we'll talk more about this at our Financial Analyst Day, is we have a long-term road map, whether you're talking about PCs or GPUs or servers, to ensure that we continue to refresh our product plans and our product road maps over time. So I think we feel good about where we are positioned today and we're going to ensure that we continue to roll out products to strengthen that positioning over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Chris Rolland from Susquehanna.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Christopher Adam Jackson Rolland,  Susquehanna Financial Group, LLLP, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wanted to ask about the staggered launch to the major PC OEMs. Was that like just a modest supply constraint on the rollout? Or if not, then why not just launch to the enthusiast and the major PC OEM market together? And do you plan to do the same on Ryzen 5 and 3?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - CEO, President and Non-Independent Director    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Chris. So there was no particular supply constraint. I think it's more of the ebb and flow of the market. When you think about the channel market or the DIY market, you can basically introduce your product any time during the year. The OEMs have a very set cycle. They typically launch new products in Q2 for the back-to-school season, and so that was just the timing of when the OEM platforms were ready. And then again, when you're launching so many different SKUs, I think launching Ryzen 7 first, then Ryzen 5, then Ryzen 3 was absolutely our plan to make sure that we hit all of the logistics and stuff on plan. But overall, like I said, nothing different than what we expected. I think we're pleased with where -- the overall launches, and we'll be rolling out many more products over the coming quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa. Thanks, everybody. And thank you to everyone on the call who joined us today. We look forward to speaking with you again. As a reminder, our Financial Analyst Day will be Tuesday, May 16, at our corporate headquarters in Sunnyvale. We look forward to speaking with you again. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2017-Oct-24-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,586 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2017 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 24, 2017 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Graves
+    - 
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Tristan Gerra
+   Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Wayne Loeb
+    - 
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Kulin Patel
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Associate
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Vijay Raghavan Rakesh
+   Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to Advanced Micro Devices Third Quarter 2017 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Third Quarter 2017 Conference Call. By now you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on AMD's website at ir.amd.com.
+Participants on today's call are: Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on amd.com.
+I would like to highlight a couple of important dates for you. Lisa Su will present at the Crédit Suisse 21st Annual Technology, Media and Telecom Conference on Tuesday, November 28, and our fourth quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, December 15, 2017.
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date, and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations.
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP financials during this call, except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release and CFO commentary posted on our website at quarterlyearnings.amd.com. Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You'll also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended July 1, 2017.
+With that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. Q3 was a strong quarter for us, demonstrating the significant growth potential of AMD, driven by our high-performance products, leadership IP and long-term strategy.
+Revenue increased 26% from a year ago to $1.64 billion. Gross margin also improved significantly year-over-year as we achieved profitability and generated positive free cash flow in the quarter.
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, we made excellent progress in Q3 as the continued success of our Ryzen family of CPUs, combined with significant graphics growth, resulted in a 74% increase in Computing and Graphics segment revenue year-over-year.
+Client computing revenue increased by a strong double-digit percentage from a year ago as we expanded our Ryzen processor family and saw increased demand in the desktop market. Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processors have ramped well in the desktop channel market, reaching 40% to 50% desktop market share at strategic e-tailers worldwide. In addition, OEM adoption is accelerating as customers ramp shipments in advance of the holiday sales cycle.
+In the quarter, we launched additional Ryzen CPUs, including Ryzen 3, expanding our reach in the mainstream and value market segments; Ryzen Threadripper processors, returning AMD to the high-end desktop market; and Ryzen PRO-based offerings, which have been adopted by all major commercial PC providers, including Dell, Lenovo and HP, expanding our presence in the commercial space.
+Also in the quarter, we qualified and began early shipments of our Ryzen Mobile processors, combining our Zen CPU cores and Vega GPU cores in a high-performance APU designed to power ultra-thin and 2-in-1 notebooks. Acer, HP and Lenovo plan to launch their initial Ryzen Mobile-based systems in the coming weeks, and we expect an expanded assortment of premium notebooks to launch in Q1 2018. 
+In graphics, we achieved record GPU revenue in the quarter based on significantly improved ASPs and higher unit shipments from a year ago. These financial improvements were driven by the launch of our Vega-based GPUs and its strong demand for our Polaris products across both gaming and blockchain markets. In the quarter, we expanded further into premium portions of the graphics market with new consumer and professional GPU solutions. Our Radeon RX Vega family of GPUs launched in the channel, targeted at the enthusiast class gaming segment. Revenue from initial shipments of these products is significantly outpacing previous premium Radeon GPUs.
+Radeon Instinct MI25, our GPU compute solution, also began shipping in volume to mega cloud data center customers, and Radeon Pro WX 9100 professional graphics cards, targeting the high-end professional content creation market, started shipping late in the quarter. In addition, we saw expanded AMD Radeon adoption with cloud customers in the quarter, driven by our investments in GPU compute. Amazon Web Services announced that they have deployed AMD Radeon Pro technology to power Amazon AppStream 2.0, driving GPU-accelerated cloud delivery of virtual applications. We also announced a collaboration with Baidu to build more flexible and powerful AI computing platforms based on the deployment of our Radeon Instinct GPUs in their data centers.
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue was approximately flat year-over-year and increased 46% sequentially. Sequential growth was based on a seasonal increase in semi-custom revenue as well as growth in server revenue from our EPYC data center processors. Our semi-custom business continues to perform as expected for the year, and we anticipate seasonal demand to remain healthy as our customers enter the holiday sales cycle with Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro and Microsoft's Xbox One X.
+In our server business, the server revenue increased from a year ago as we began ramping sales of our EPYC data center processors to key cloud and OEM customers. Customer engagement with our EPYC processors is growing as the true performance and features of the new platform are tested and implemented, with Tencent and JD.com joining the list of data center customers planning to deploy EPYC processors.
+In a short period, 3 of the Super 7 mega data center providers have publicly announced plans to deploy EPYC-based products into their Hyperscale environments, including Baidu, Microsoft Azure and Tencent, and we have strong engagements with other major cloud providers. In addition, HP Enterprise and Dell are in the process of bringing their first EPYC-based platforms to market in Q4, and we are actively engaged with them to accelerate testing and validation of EPYC-based systems in data centers across a broad number of large and medium enterprise customers. We remain confident and focused on the steady expansion of our data center presence over the coming quarters based on the high performance and rich feature set of the EPYC product.
+In addition, as a part of our ongoing strategy to monetize our differentiated IP, we successfully closed a patent licensing transaction in the quarter.
+In closing, we are very pleased with our third quarter results. Throughout 2017, we have delivered significant year-on-year revenue growth and margin expansion as we achieved multiple major product, customer and market milestones. As we head into the final quarter of the year, we look forward to continuing to accelerate our business. 2017 annual revenue growth is now tracking above our previous estimates, and we remain confident in our ability to make AMD one of the premier long-term growth companies in the tech industry.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our third quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. I'm pleased with our performance for the third quarter of 2017. We increased revenue 26% year-over-year, expanded gross margin and achieved both operating and net income, with net income of $110 million and diluted earnings of $0.10 per share. We are executing well with our strongest portfolio of products in many years, including our Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon Vega offerings. Let me provide some specifics for the third quarter.
+Revenue of $1.64 billion grew 26% year-over-year and 34% sequentially. This is our highest quarterly revenue since the fourth quarter of 2011. Year-over-year growth was primarily due to our Computing and Graphics segment, while sequential growth was driven by the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue seasonality as well as higher Computing and Graphics segment revenue. We also took another step in our IP monetization efforts by closing a patent licensing agreement that had a positive impact on both our segments.
+Gross margin was 35%, up 4 percentage points year-over-year, primarily driven by the benefit of IP-related revenue and a richer mix from the Computing and Graphics segment, which were partially offset by cost associated with our GLOBALFOUNDRIES Wafer Supply Agreement for wafers purchased at another foundry. We continue to make good progress on the ramp of our new high-performance products, which had a positive impact on our gross margins.
+Operating expenses were $419 million compared to $353 million a year ago. The increase was primarily due to higher R&D-related investments and expenses related to annual employee incentive programs driven by our better financial performance. Operating income was $155 million in the third quarter of 2017, a solid improvement from $70 million a year ago. Third quarter net interest expense, taxes and other was $45 million, up slightly from $43 million a year ago. Lower interest expense from a year ago was largely offset by withholding taxes for licensing revenue.
+Net income was $110 million or diluted earnings of $0.10 per share as compared to $27 million or $0.03 per share a year ago. The diluted earnings per share calculations for the third quarter of 2017 was based on 1.143 billion shares, which includes 100.6 million shares related to our 2026 convertible notes. Adjusted EBITDA was $191 million, compared to $103 million a year ago.
+Now turning to the business segments. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $819 million, up 74% year-over-year, primarily due to strong sales of our Radeon graphics and Ryzen desktop processors. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $70 million compared to a loss of $66 million a year ago. The solid improvement was primarily due to higher revenue.
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $824 million, approximately flat year-over-year due to lower semi-custom SoC sales partially offset by IP-related revenue. Additionally, server revenue increased from a year ago driven by the increased sales of EPYC products. As you heard earlier from Lisa, customer interest and deployment plans are strong. Operating income was $84 million, down $52 million from $136 million a year ago, primarily due to higher costs.
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $879 million at the end of the quarter, up from $844 million in the prior quarter, primarily due to higher revenue. Inventory at the end of the quarter was $794 million, down 5% from $833 million in the prior quarter.
+Long-term debt on the balance sheet was $1.36 billion. Total principal debt, including our secured revolving line of credit, was $1.74 billion. In the third quarter, we used $28 million from our lower interest secured revolving line of credit to pay down long-term debt, which has a higher interest rate. Free cash flow was $32 million compared to $20 million in the year-ago period.
+Before turning to our outlook for the fourth quarter of 2017, which is a 13-week quarter, let me remind you for comparative purposes that the fourth quarter of 2016 was a 14-week quarter. For the fourth quarter of 2017, we expect revenue to decrease approximately 15% sequentially, plus or minus 3%. At the midpoint, this equates to revenue growth of approximately 26% year-over-year; non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 35%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $410 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $30 million; and inventory to be down sequentially. We now expect 2017 annual revenue to increase by greater than 20% over 2016 compared to the prior guidance of mid- to high-teens percentage growth. We do not anticipate significant changes to the diluted share count in the fourth quarter, and you can find additional information regarding the share count in the CFO commentary, which is posted online.
+In closing, the third quarter was a strong quarter, and we are pleased with the momentum of our new premium products. We are making solid progress towards our growth and margin expansion objectives, and as our financial performance improves, we remain committed to investing in our multi-generational road maps and achieving our long-term financial targets.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the Q&A session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first question, please.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For the first one, I was wondering if you could help quantify the benefit of your IP license in the 2 different segments. And is this a one-off? Or do you see ongoing benefits in Q4 and beyond?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Vivek. Hey, thanks for the question. We did close a IP-related transaction. It was a patent licensing transaction. The revenue and benefit was spread over both segments. When we look at it going forward, we have a pipeline of IP deals, and we're constantly looking at them. And from our standpoint, we're working several deals in progress. So we believe that IP-related revenue will be a factor as we go forward, but our primary focus is on the product-related revenue and the product-related growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So Vivek, just to remind you, I mean, in line, you've heard us talk about our IP monetization efforts, and this is very much in line with that. And as Lisa said, the benefit is spread over both segments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And then for my follow-up, Lisa, when I look at your Q4 outlook, it's sort of in line with seasonality, perhaps somewhat better. Can you give us some more color around the adoption of your -- the new Ryzen Mobile portfolio, but more importantly, your EPYC products? When will we start to see a more tangible contribution from your EPYC product sales?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Vivek. So look, we are very pleased with how the revenue ramp is going in general on our new products. When you look at the Q4 guidance, year-over-year, we'll be up 26%, so we're really accelerating the business as we go into the second half of the year. As you know, our business is typically seasonal. And so Q3 is the peak, and then we're down seasonally from Q3 to Q4 due to some of the semi-custom revenue. But what we see going into the fourth quarter is we see a strong ramp of new products. We see Ryzen continuing to ramp. We will ship volume of Ryzen Mobile in Q4 and then more in the first half of the year. We will see a ramp of EPYC, and we will also see an OEM ramp of Vega. In terms of the headwinds, we have the semi-custom seasonality, and we're also predicting that there will be some leveling off of some of the cryptocurrency demand. As we look at it, it continues to be a factor, but we've seen restocking in the channels and stuff like that. So we're being a little bit conservative on the cryptocurrency side of the equation.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next question is coming from David Wong from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you give us some idea of whether you have any semi-custom wins that might bring in new revenue streams in 2018? And specifically, are you in any discussions with potential customers for semi-custom designs in autonomous driving or data center processor and accelerator applications?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, David. So look, the semi-custom business continues to be a business that's performing well for us. So we are -- as we go into 2018, we are expanding the customer set beyond our traditional Sony and Microsoft game consoles. Actually, this past quarter, we announced that Atari will be adopting a customized processor for their next generation. We also have a number of new opportunities that we continue to work, and they are in markets outside of game console, including some of the markets that you mentioned. So overall, we do expect there will be some puts and takes in the semi-custom business as we go into 2018 and there will be some product revenue that will ramp, particularly in the second half of 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First one on the gross margin outlook for Q4, it looks like it's flattish versus Q3, and I guess I might have expected the -- a sequential increase given that you will likely have a better mix. So I'm hoping you can reconcile that. I'm wondering if licensing had an impact on that or it's just fixed cost absorption.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Let me start, Mark, and then maybe Devinder will add. So look, we have multiple puts and takes in the business as we look at gross margin. When we look at gross margin in Q3, we were pleased with the gross margin progress, and that came from both the richer mix of our Computing and Graphics revenue year-over-year as well as some benefit from the IP-related transaction. As we go into Q4, we have new products continuing to ramp, so you'll see Ryzen, Vega and EPYC ramp. And the primary driver for the Q4 gross margin is the product revenue, and we do have sort of the headwind of not having the benefit of the IP revenue in Q3. So those are the puts and takes. But the main point is the new product revenue is ramping and the gross margins are accretive, and that's contributing to our Q4 gross margin outlook.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Mark, if you can -- if I can just add, if you look at the margin trend compared to 2016, 2016, we had 31% gross margin and we expect to be at 34% this year, and that's primarily based on the strength of the new products that Lisa referenced. And from a long-term model standpoint, we are on track with what we laid out in the Financial Analyst Day of going from 31% to 34% and then expecting to be greater than 36% in 2018 on the strength of the new premium products that are ramping into 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And a follow-up, if I may, on the EPYC server side. Can you help us understand to what extent you're shipping to customers who are going through testing right now versus shipping into customers who are actually deploying EPYC in live data center applications?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Mark. So look, we're pleased with how things are going with the EPYC ramp overall. So we have been shipping to both cloud as well as non-cloud customers in Q3, mostly early platform type testing. In Q4, we will -- we expect to see some level of deployment, again, both in cloud and non-cloud applications. With the new platforms coming in from HP Enterprise and Dell, what we're seeing is actually a ramp of new seeding opportunities, particularly in medium and large enterprise customers. So overall, the EPYC ramp is going well, and we expect more deployments as we go into Q4 and into next year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulin Patel,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Associate    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Kulin Patel calling in for Ambrish. You highlighted in your PR that you had a GM headwind related to buying wafers at another foundry. Do you expect any meaningful external purchases in Q4 or going forward into 2018 that could be a headwind to gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the way I look at that is, if you look at Q3 from a volume standpoint and the volume is pretty high, and that's why it's highlighted from a viewpoint of the cost, the way you want to look at it going forward, Q4 and beyond, is all of the costs are related with the WSA that's referenced in the script. So it's contemplated within our guidance and our long-term models.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kulin Patel,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Associate    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And I had a question on -- you launched the Radeon Instinct MI25 [maybe] last quarter. Can you discuss the traction you're seeing in that product? Are you seeing any meaningful revenues in 3Q and in your 4Q outlook?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So the Radeon Instinct MI25 is Vega for the cloud data centers. We did actually start shipping volume in Q3 to multiple customers. We do see very high interest in the product portfolio, and so we expect that to continue to ramp into Q4. And there's a lot of focus on increasing the software usability and software flexibility, and so we continue to invest in those areas. But overall, I'm actually very pleased with the interest in MI25, and it's coming from multiple customers in a number of markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I was interested in your comments that the sequential growth in the Computing and Graphics business was driven primarily by graphics. How literally should we take that? And I guess, if graphics is up close to $150 million sequentially, is that business now on par with the CPU business? Can you just give us a general sense of the size of the 2 businesses there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So overall, the growth in Computing and Graphics, when you look over the past few quarters, has been very strong. And we've seen growth both on the Ryzen side, particularly in the desktop side of the business, as well as on the graphics side. So in terms of size of the business, again, I think we stated in the prepared remarks that the GPU business had a record quarter for us, and we're seeing very strong growth. We're seeing strong growth as a result of the new product launches. So the Vega product actually did very well for us in the quarter as well as overall Polaris in both gaming and blockchain markets. But yes, we're pleased with the graphics performance. But I'll also say, Ryzen did very well in the quarter. We look at the progress that we're making in the desktop channel when you look across retailers and e-tailers across the world and in the sort of Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 segment, we're seeing significant share gain in those parts of the business. So I think both parts of the Computing and Graphics business are doing well, and we continue to expect growth as we go forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And is it possible to size the blockchain portion of that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the blockchain tends to be -- again, it's hard to separate because it goes through some of the same channels as gaming does. I will say that blockchain sort of behaved as we expected in Q3, so we didn't see anything that we didn't expect. We did see some benefit of channel restocking, so if you look at the -- our channel inventories today compared to July, we have healthier channel inventory levels. And we expect that consumer blockchain will level off a bit as we go into Q4, but there's also a commercial blockchain component that we believe is interesting and likely to continue into the medium term. As we look into Q4 though, we also see growth from just the OEM side of the GPU business as we start ramping Vega into OEMs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, apologize, I'm kind of juggling a couple calls like everyone else. I apologize if this is a repeat. But I'm just wondering, just given the qualitative success of Ryzen and the accretive ASPs and gross margins, I'm wondering if you could just help us understand, on a more quantitative basis, how much of your PC unit business is now Ryzen. And I guess, more importantly, how do we think about that progressing over the next several quarters? And kind of where's the tipping point where you think we'll start to see some significant leverage relative to the accretive ASPs and the accretive gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, John. So look, we are really pleased with how Ryzen is performing competitively and -- in the market. It's fair to say, though, that we're still at the early stages of the Ryzen ramp, so primarily in Q2 and Q3, Ryzen has been a desktop channel phenomenon. So most of the sales have been in the desktop channel. We have started ramping OEMs in the desktop space, and we will continue ramping OEMs as we go into Q4. But it's nowhere near the majority of the client revenue. You should expect that Ryzen will continue to ramp for us through the first half of next year because we're adding more and more platforms as we speak, both on the consumer and also on the commercial front. And -- so we see -- again, it's ramping well. The ASPs are good, so actually, we saw some ASP increase in Ryzen as we went from Q2 to Q3, and we launched the high-end desktop version as well as Ryzen 3. And we'll continue to ramp into Q4 and first half of next year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then, Lisa, just as my follow-on, kind of a similar question around EPYC, and just I know you guys have kind of talked about potentially exiting the end of next year at about a 2% share. I'm just kind of curious how you think about the ramp of EPYC. And if you can differentiate between sort of your Hyperscale customers who might take it a little bit sooner versus more the -- the more traditional OEM channel, how should we be thinking about that on EPYC?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So John, I'm not sure we ever said 2% by the end of next year, but what I would say is that we expect EPYC to be a sizable portion of our revenue in 2018. So the second half of this year, we're doing early pilots and we're doing some early deployments. The Hyperscale guys are aggressive, and they are first. We will start seeing some enterprise revenue here in Q4 as the early platforms launch, but I expect more of the enterprise to fill in as we go into 2018. And I think the important point is, as we look at the product, as we look at the competition and where we're positioned, the product positioning is strong, and so the customer engagements are growing. And we're seeing significant interest from enterprise customers ramp now as some of the OEM platforms are becoming available and starting their seeding. So overall, EPYC will continue to ramp into 2018 and should be a sizable -- we expect it to be a sizable portion of our revenue in 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I want to go back to the mix of the business and specifically in the Computing and Graphics segment. The client ASPs were down sequentially, and you highlighted that being because of mobile. Somewhat similar to John's question, Lisa, when do you expect to see the ASPs in that segment of your business start to turn to be a positive driver as opposed to a bit of a headwind?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So definitely, desktop ASPs are up. Mobile ASPs are down. I think we will see -- again, there will be an initial ramp of Ryzen Mobile in Q4, but I think in the first half of the year, you should see a significant amount of the volume that we ship into notebook be with Ryzen Mobile. So when I look at sort of the rate and pace of the ramp, I think it's going as we expect with desktop channel first, then desktop OEMs and then commercial desktop and then, same, consumer notebook starting in Q4, ramping into Q1, and then we'll see commercial platforms in the first half of '18 as well. So I think there should be a steady ramp of ASPs as we go forward. We're also taking some opportunity, as you can imagine, to clean up some excess inventory as we transition to the new product, and so that's part of what we're doing to just ensure that we have a strong launch as we go into the new product portfolio. But overall, behaving as we expected and in some sense, we're very pleased with how we're positioned competitively with the product.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And I guess, as my follow-up, switching to one for Devinder on the OpEx side of things. OpEx was a little bit higher in the third quarter. It's dropping sequentially into the fourth quarter. You've talked in the past about a 31% OpEx to revenue guide range for this year. You're probably not going to guide for '18 by that much -- with that much precision tonight. But is there any sort of puts and takes we can think of as far as how you guys are considering your investment philosophy as we move into 2018?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No. I think the first thing I'll say is we do want to invest in the business, especially with the growth of opportunities we have and primarily targeting the OpEx investments towards R&D. They are -- in the current moment, there's a lot of products ramping just in the last few months. You heard about the Ryzen ramp. You heard about EPYC. We talk about Vega, and obviously, their go-to-market costs will ramp up new products. But as far as our 2017 guidance is concerned, I have said previously 31% has potential of revenue, but I think right now where the numbers are coming out, especially with the strength of the revenue side of the equation, we think we end up at about 30% on an expense-to-revenue ratio in 2017, of which you -- as you probably recall, is at the upper end of what we are setting of a long-term target model, which is 26% to 30%. So actually, I'm pretty pleased because, if all else, if everything works out in the Q4 guidance that we gave and in 2016 would have been a 32% of revenue, in 2017, approximately 30%, and then obviously, we'll see where we get into 2018 but very pleased from a viewpoint of being able to make the investments in the business to support the product road map, the go-to-market cost for the ramp of new products and at the same time, bring down the percentage of OpEx over revenue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Matt Ramsay from Canaccord Genuity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - MD    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wanted to ask a little bit about the forward road map, particularly in the processor group. I know that you guys have talked quite a bit about taking the road map down to 7-nanometer next year, and I think Mark gave some public comments about doing some stuff on 12-nanometer with GF. So I think it'd be helpful if you could talk to the extent that you can about some of the feature road map and things that might be follow-on to the products that are ramping currently.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Matt. So 7-nanometer, we've talked about, is a very important node for us, and it's an important node for the industry. It's a major node, so we have a lot of engineering resources on that. And you should expect that, that will be across all of our businesses, and we're actively working on those products now. We do see an opportunity with 12-nanometer. 12-nanometer is a relatively small engineering lift, and I would view it as a performance enhancement to our current road map. And so we are working, taking some of our products -- I would say, a subset of our products into 12-nanometer in 2018 to augment the performance of our client and graphics road map. But I think the significant resources are on 7, and that's progressing well. We're overall pleased with how the performance on that is looking, and then we will opportunistically look at some products to go into 12-nanometer as it makes sense for the road map.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Canaccord Genuity Limited, Research Division - MD    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And Devinder, I wanted to press a little bit harder on the gross margin impacts of a few things that you called out, particularly -- I mean, is there any way that you can quantify for us at all the impact of the IP revenue on gross margins either in the third quarter or comparatively into Q4? And second, I think a lot of us are aware of the forward charges you'll get for using wafers from other foundries, but I assume that, that applies also to the gaming console business that comes out of TSMC currently. If you could clarify those 2 things, that'd be great.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think if you look at it from an overall standpoint, if you look at the cost impact, it's all within our guidance. I think if you look at IP from that standpoint, we have several IP deals in the pipeline. For Q3 specifically, we thought it was likely that we would be able to close an IP-related deal in the quarter, and that's how it turned out. And you see the benefit across both the segments. And from a go-forward standpoint, despite the costs being there, we look at it overall from a viewpoint of the trend of the margin. Major provider of the gross margin uplift is the premium new products that we are launching. And then, obviously, there's opportunities from an IP standpoint to benefit the P&L, we go ahead and put that in the equation.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just want to better understand the December guidance a bit, maybe if you can talk about it between the 2 segments. The Embedded business last year was down 40%. It's been tracking down slightly year-over-year. So is that the right way to think about that segment this December? And then maybe you can talk about on the graphics side. I just want to understand the commentary. You said that crypto or blockchain was kind of flattening out and that you were kind of getting some restocking. Just to kind of understand, when you look at growth in that segment, what are the moving pieces?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Blayne, let me answer that question. So overall, I think our business does have the seasonal pattern where the Q3 is a peak, and we're down in Q4 primarily due to the semi-custom business. I believe those dynamics are the same. I've -- we've looked at sort of how the business will perform on a year-over-year basis. We believe that semi-custom revenue will be down a little bit on a year-over-year basis, and that's expected. We're in the fifth year of the cycle, and you would expect that units to be down, although we have some positive mix because of the new launch of the Microsoft Xbox One X console, which is a higher ASP product for us. When you look at the graphics business, again, overall, we see the business as quite strong. We see Vega ramping as we go into Q4. We see that from an OEM ramp standpoint. We see that from a GPU compute standpoint, and that's offset with a little bit of leveling off of the blockchain demand. But overall, I think we see sort of Computing and Graphics continuing to grow as we go into Q4.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - Director and Senior Research Analyst    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then just maybe a second question following up on some of the questions on process node. You had high reuse with the server product this time. When you see -- how do you think about the R&D cost in terms of if you were doing a core at TSMC versus doing one at GLOFO, a dual track? As you look into '18, how should you think about the OpEx required to do that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So it's part of our engineering model. So we've -- we sort of engineered a model where we can use our IP at multiple foundries, and that will continue as we go into 7-nanometer. So if you look at this year, we have multiple products in 16-nanometer and 14-nanometer. As we go into 2018 and beyond, it's the same thing. So there are no additional costs related to our dual-sourcing strategy. I think from an overall R&D standpoint, as Devinder said, we will look to ramp our spending in line with revenue, and primarily, it's around continuing to invest in our new market opportunities, continuing to invest on the GPU side and what we're doing in the compute markets, continuing to strengthen our sales and marketing as we go to market with these broad new products. But it's -- there's no particular OpEx impact of using multiple foundries.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Security.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, can you give us, in terms of timing, 7-nanometer for next year? And what products would be the focus initially for that node?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Hans. So I'm not going to comment directly on timing of products because, obviously, there's a lot of R&D yet to be done. But I would say that our product portfolio, in general, will take advantage of 7-nanometer. You should expect our server portfolio,  our graphics portfolio and our client portfolio to all take advantage of 7-nanometer at some point in time. And we like the performance as well as the power and the density strength that we get from it. And so again, we think it'll really help to improve our competitive positioning as we look forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. And then as a follow-up, if you can answer this, and maybe it was already answered, so forgive me. The -- on the IP front in Q3, did you indicate what end market or what type of application or what geographic location the IP relationship is all about?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we did say that the IP transaction was a patent licensing-related transaction, so that's different from the technology licensing, for example, that we did with THATIC. This was a straight patent licensing. And the great thing about our patent portfolio is, beyond sort of our core markets, it's -- it has applicability across a broad range of markets, and so this was a patent transaction and not a technology licensing transaction.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Vijay Rakesh from Mizuho.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I was just wondering on the data center side, when you look at -- you mentioned EPYC was strong. I was wondering if your breakout [comments] (inaudible) EPYC and what -- how it grew sequentially. And (inaudible) [have you seen it going] into the December quarter at all?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, yes. You broke up a little bit there, Vijay. But I think I got the question. So the question was sort of the strength of EPYC and where do we see it -- how do -- where do we see it going in Q4. Look, I think EPYC had a good quarter. Obviously, it's growing off of a small base since we had a small base for the server revenue, but we certainly saw growth in unit shipments and revenue into Q3. We will see more growth or we expect to see more growth into Q4, especially as some of these trial runs turn into more deployment activity. And as more OEMs ramp our platforms, the platforms will be more available in the industry, and we're seeing growing interest from a number of enterprise customers as well. So -- but we should think about EPYC as a long-term growth driver. So yes, we will see growth into Q4, but it will be a sizable portion of our revenue as we go into 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. (inaudible) and then you start breaking out that enterprise [data center] out of the semi-custom like your peers are doing as you grow that market? Lastly, just wondering how channel inventory in graphics side GPUs are.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the question was whether we would begin breaking out enterprise separately as a segment, and I don't know that we've made any decision to do that. And then second question was very hard to hear, Vijay. We'll ask you to repeat it, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Just channel inventory in GPUs. How do you see channel inventory on the GPU side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Okay, so for your first question, I think, as Laura said, we haven't made any determinations about a different segment reporting. But we will give you markers on how the business is growing, and I think it will be clear just given the accretive nature of EPYC. As we start ramping that product, you'll see more impact of the product-related revenue. The second question is as it relates to channel inventory in graphics. I believe that channel inventory is healthier in graphics here in October than it was in July. We've certainly restocked some of the channel both for Polaris as well as the Vega products. I would still say that channel inventory might be a little bit light. It's not fully restocked yet, but it's certainly healthier than it was in the July time frame.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Chris Danely from Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wayne Loeb,   -     [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Wayne Loeb for Chris Danely. Can I ask you how you feel you did share wise in CPU and GPU in Q3?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we will have to wait until, obviously, the share results come in. I think when we look at the CPU side of the business, we feel really good about how Ryzen is doing in the desktop channel, so we think we definitely made progress there. As you look, overall, we have to see how the overall results come in. And on the GPU side, again, we shipped a significant volume. It was a record quarter for us, and we saw strength across our new products as well as our current products, and we saw significant ASP growth, which is important for us. But again, I would wait until the overall results come out in a few weeks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wayne Loeb,   -     [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Could you also give your view on the overall PC industry? Was it better, worse, the same as expected?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think that's a good question. I think the overall PC industry is about what we expected, maybe a tad bit better, but I would say about what we expected. We see good geographical -- sort of the geographies are doing well, particularly North America and Europe. There's a little bit of softness in China, particularly at the low end of the market, and I think there's some change in dynamics in China. But overall, I think the PC market was about what is expected, and that's a good thing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Tristan Gerra from Baird.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tristan Gerra,  Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You've announced some design wins for EPYC. Have you seen the number of design wins increase in the quarter? And is what you have enough to reach that longer-term target of 10% market share? Or do you need to line up more design wins to get there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. That's a very good question. So we have seen design wins and customer engagements increase in the quarter. We've seen customers who started with one platform now looking at multiple platforms with EPYC. And then in terms of design win coverage, we believe we have design win and platform coverage to meet or exceed our share goal targets. So it's not a design win statement. It's really a conversion of design wins to revenue as we help our customers ramp in the coming quarters. So very happy with the customer progress, very happy with the number of platforms that we have, and we continue to expand those platforms and the customer base over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tristan Gerra,  Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then my quick follow-up will be, how do you see the opportunities of fitting EPYC and Vega in notably in enterprise platforms? Is that a fitting factor? Do customers value this as a system solution versus just one architecture?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, we have seen good interest from both OEMs as well as end customers on looking at EPYC and our MI25 product together. We actually have a working machine, the P47 petaflop machine that we announced at SIGGRAPH, and we have actually a number of customers using that to trial their software and their application. And so yes, I do think it's a selling point. I do believe that customers do want some integrated system solutions. But as we always say, the products operate very well standalone, and they work with other products as well. But we will continue to work on those system-level solutions for customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Thank you, operator, and thank you, ladies and gentlemen, everyone, for joining us today. We appreciate you joining our call. We're proud of these results and appreciate your support of AMD.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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Transcripts/AMD/2018-Apr-25-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,626 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2018 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 25, 2018 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Graves
+    - 
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri
+   Macquarie Research - Senior Analyst
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Harlan Sur
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Auguste Philip Richard
+   Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices First Quarter 2018 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves. Laura, please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's First Quarter 2018 Conference Call. By now, you should have had an opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slide presentation. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investors Relations page of AMD's website at www.amd.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+I would like to highlight a couple of important dates for you. Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer, will present at the 46th Annual J.P. Morgan Global Technology Media and Communications Conference on May 15. Mark Papermaster, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, will present at the Cowan 46th Annual TMT Conference on May 30. And our 2018 second quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, June 15, 2018. 
+During our call today, we will focus discussion on key metrics and year-over-year trends in our business, as we believe this is the most meaningful way for analysts and investors to evaluate our growth trajectory. We have expanded the slide content and eliminated the written CFO commentary document. For those of you on social media, we will be sharing key messages from this call on our Twitter feed, @AMDNews, at the conclusion of this call.
+Please be reminded that AMD adopted revenue recognition standard ASC 606 effective 2018, using the full retrospective method as of Q1 2018. All prior period results have been adjusted to adopt this new standard, and our comments on today's call reflect these adjustments. For more information and historical financial statements, please refer to our 8-K filing on February 27, 2018. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial metrics during this call, except for revenue, gross margin and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release posted on our website. Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and, in particular, AMD's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 30, 2017. 
+Now, with all of that out of the way, I'm happy to turn the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura. And good afternoon to all of those listening in today. We started 2018 with excellent financial results as we delivered our third straight quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. First quarter revenue of $1.65 billion grew 40% year-over-year. Gross margin improved 4 percentage points, and earnings per share increased significantly based on very strong operating and net income growth. 
+Our strong first quarter financial results demonstrate that our long-term strategy is paying off. We are executing consistently on our product roadmap. Our customers are increasingly adopting our new products, and we are strengthening the foundation of AMD with the right long-term investments.
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment in the quarter. Excellent momentum for our premium product portfolio drove double-digit year-over-year and sequential revenue growth. Client processor sales were significantly better than seasonality, as Ryzen processor shipments grew year-over-year and sequentially. Ryzen processors accounted for 60% of our overall client processor revenue, up from the low 40%s in Q4, with desktop and notebook client processor ASPs increasing. Product execution was strong in the quarter as we expanded our Ryzen processor portfolio with new high-performance products. We launched the first AMD Ryzen desktop APUs, combining the power of our Zen CPU and Vega GPU on a single chip, delivering the world's most powerful graphics on a desktop processor, with the Ryzen desktop 2400G. Initial sales were strong in the component channel, which contributed of the significant Ryzen processor sales increase in the quarter. Additionally, we began shipments of our second-generation Ryzen desktop CPUs based on our 12-nanometer Zen Plus architecture, delivering outstanding gaming performance and best-in-class multiprocessing leadership for gamers, creators and hardware enthusiasts. Ryzen mobile unit shipments also ramped in the quarter ahead of OEM system launches planned for Q2, driving double-digit increases in our mobile processor unit shipments, both year-over-year and sequentially. Initial Acer, HP and Lenovo platforms had strong sales in the quarter, and Dell released new notebooks and 2-in-1s in early April that further expanded our Ryzen portfolio. Additionally, our first Ryzen PRO commercial notebooks are expected to launch in Q2. Dell, HP and Lenovo are all planning to offer AMD-based commercial notebooks based on the excellent performance and features of this new APU. 
+Overall, the number of Ryzen-based systems from OEMs continues to grow. In Q2 alone, we expect 25 new Ryzen-based consumer and commercial notebooks to launch, and our customers remain on track to bring a total of 60 Ryzen-based systems to market by the end of the year. 
+In Graphics, we delivered strong year-over-year revenue growth as ASP and unit shipments increased significantly. On a sequential basis, revenue increased and we outperformed seasonality with strong Radeon Vega and 500 series channel sales, driven by both gaming and blockchain demand. Gaming continues to be a top priority for us, with growth being driven by the expanding number of PC gamers and increasing demand for graphics performance to deliver more immersive experiences. Demand for our Radeon series of graphics products remained strong as new AAA game titles, such as Far Cry 5, were released. We continued our investments in gaming software and released our Radeon e-sports experience, providing a performance uplift on popular e-sports games such as Fortnite, PUBG, Dota 2 and Overwatch. We continue to see a significant demand for our Radeon Vega graphics family, as customers accelerate their RAMs based on increasing availability of our high-performing GPUs, with more supply coming to market. 
+In professional graphics, HP and Dell both expanded their AMD Radeon Pro workstation portfolio offerings in the quarter, including HP's launch of new Zbook thin and light mobile workstations powered by the AMD Radeon Pro WX 3100. 
+Our machine learning strategy continues to gain momentum. Mega data center partners are validating and testing our Radeon Instinct MI25 for deep learning applications, and we introduced our Radeon Open Compute ecosystem, ROCm 1.7, a top-to-bottom open solution software stack for machine learning. I'm also happy to report that our next-generation 7-nanometer Radeon Instinct product, optimized for machine learning workloads, is running in our labs, and we remain on track to provide samples to customers later this year. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Q1 revenue decreased year-over-year, due to lower semi-custom revenue, as expected, based on a maturity of the current game console cycle, and increased sequentially. In the quarter, Microsoft announced support for our industry-leading Radeon FreeSync technology in their Xbox One S and Xbox One X consoles, delivering stutter free gaming experiences. Server revenue increased double-digit percentage sequentially across mega data center, OEM and channel customers. EPYC processor unit shipments nearly doubled from the previous quarter. We continue to grow our data center momentum with dozens of new design wins across key workloads, including HPC, storage, virtualization and cloud applications. Dell EMC launched 3 of their newest PowerEdge platforms, powering virtualized storage area networks, hybrid cloud applications, dense virtualization and big data analytics with EPYC 7,000 series processors. Recently, supercomputing leader, Cray, announced that it added EPYC processors to its Cray CS500 line of HPC offerings. The Cray announcement pops off a very active quarter in HPC and big data, building on workload momentum in automotive simulations, university clusters and health care. And multiple mega data center customers passed key production milestones as they look to expand their deployments of EPYC-powered instances this year. 
+To date, there are more than 40 EPYC-based platforms in market, and we are actively working with OEMs, system integrators and channel partners to increase deployment to end customers. We remain focused on achieving mid-single-digit server unit share by the end of 2018.
+Our Embedded business delivered increased revenue, unit shipments and ASPs, year-over-year and sequentially, as we introduced 2 new product families: the EPYC Embedded 3000 and the Ryzen Embedded V1000 processors, to enable a new class of thin clients, IoT and other Embedded solutions. 
+In closing, we are extremely pleased with our first quarter financial results and strong product execution. We believe 2018 is shaping up to be an excellent year for AMD with continued revenue growth and margin expansion driven by significant demand for our high-performance Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC products. Looking forward, we are confident that we have the right long-term strategy to deliver sustained revenue and profitability growth. The market TAM in high-performance computing will grow to over $75 billion over the next few years, including high-growth segments, like gaming, data center, machine learning and artificial intelligence. We have built a strong execution engine, and we will continue to make significant investments in hardware and software to deliver an even more compelling roadmap for our customers in 2019 and beyond. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder, to provide some additional color on our first quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa. Good afternoon, everyone. The first quarter was a strong quarter for AMD. Year-over-year, we grew revenue 40%, expended gross margin by more than 400 basis points, significantly improved net income and earnings per share, and achieved GAAP and non-GAAP net profitability. 
+Total revenue of $1.65 billion was driven by strong demand for our new products, with Ryzen and Radeon products growing double-digit percentage year-on-year, Ryzen sales coming in higher-than-expected, and EPYC server processors ramping. 
+Gross margin was 36%, up 420 basis points year-on-year, driven by a higher proportion of revenue from new products. Operating expenses were $446 million compared to $371 million a year ago. Operating expenses were 27% of revenue, lower than our prior guidance of 28%, and down 4 percentage points from 31% a year ago, as we continue to make strategic R&D investments, launch new products and invest in our multi-generation product roadmaps. 
+Operating income was $152 million, up sharply from $34 million a year ago, and operating margin was 9%, up from 3% a year ago. 
+Net income was $121 million, or diluted earnings of $0.11 per share as compared to a net income of $2 million a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA was $196 million compared to $68 million a year ago and, on a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $496 million. 
+Now turning to the first quarter business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $1.12 billion, up 95% year-over-year due to strong sales of both Radeon and Ryzen products. Our Ryzen offerings outperformed our expectations in Q1, accounting for approximately 60% of client processor revenue and contributed to strong sequential double-digit percentage growth in client revenue. The strength in Radeon products was driven by both gaming and blockchain demand. We believe blockchain was approximately 10% of AMD revenue in Q1 2018. 
+Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $138 million compared to a loss of $21 million a year ago. This significant turnaround was due to strong revenue growth and improved operating expense leverage. 
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $532 million, down 12% year-over-year, with lower Semi-Custom revenue partially offset by higher Server and Embedded revenue. As a reminder, revenue in both Q1 2018 and Q1 2017 includes Semi-Custom revenue related to quarter-end inventory, associated with noncancelable purchase orders as required under the ASC 606 revenue accounting standard. EESC operating income was $14 million, down from $55 million a year ago, primarily due to a licensing gain in Q1 2017 as well as increased operating expense investments in our data center business. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.04 billion at the end of the quarter, down from $1.18 billion in Q4, and up from $943 million in the year-ago quarter. Free cash flow was negative $132 million in the first quarter. Inventory was $715 million, up slightly from the prior quarter. Total principal debt, including our secured revolving line of credit, was $1.7 billion. We deployed cash to repurchase $14 million of debt in the first quarter as we continue to reduce term debt and interest expense. 
+Now turning to our financial outlook. For the second quarter of 2018, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $1.725 billion, plus or minus $50 million. This is an increase of 50% year-over-year, driven by the growth of Ryzen, Radeon, EPYC and Semi-Custom revenue. On a sequential basis, we expect Q2 revenue to benefit from continued strength in our Ryzen and EPYC product families and a seasonal increase in Semi-Custom revenue partially offset by a modest decline in graphics due to blockchain. 
+As a reminder, for comparative purposes, Q2 2017 revenue was $1.15 billion under the ASC 606 revenue accounting standard. In addition, for Q2 2018, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 37%. Non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $460 million or 27% of revenue. Non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other, to be approximately $35 million. And inventory to be up slightly on a sequential basis in support of higher revenue. 
+Our financial progress in the first quarter is attributable to the ongoing strength of Radeon and Ryzen products as well as continued early contributions from our EPYC products. Our business is strong, and we look forward to continued revenue growth, margin expansion and increased profitability year-over-year. 
+Based on the strength of our business momentum for the full year 2018, we now expect revenue to increase by mid-20% over 2017, driven by the ramp of our new products. Blockchain revenue to be mid- to high-single-digit percentage of revenue for 2018. Non-GAAP gross margin to be greater than 37%. 
+In summary, the first quarter was excellent. We are pleased with the momentum within our business execution and strong financial results, which we believe lay the foundation for a strong 2018. We are focused on delivering our long-term target financial model as we execute our monthly generational roadmaps and introduce and ramp high-performance computing products.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the Q&A session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much. Appreciate that, Devinder. 
+Operator, we're ready to go.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations on the strong results, especially on getting to the double-digit top margins in your Computing and Graphics segment, it's been a while since we saw that. For my first question, Lisa, on EPYC server sales, you mentioned they doubled sequentially. If you could give us some sense of what the magnitude is, so we at least have some ballpark sense on where you are right now? But importantly, what are the remaining pushbacks from customers in terms of what they would like to see before they adopt EPYC in a more meaningful way? Is it just a matter of time? Is it a performance or a pricing gap? Or what else do you need to deliver on to get EPYC to a more meaningful level?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Vivek. Thanks for the questions. So look, on EPYC, we did make a very nice progress in the quarter. I think when you look at it from a revenue standpoint, it's a strong double-digit percentage. There is -- we certainly view that the units increasing is also very positive thing. The traction actually is across all areas. So we saw traction in Enterprise sort of end-user deployments. We saw some channel and system integrator deployments as well as hyperscale deployments. And our goal is to get to mid-single-digit share by the end of this year. I think we are making good progress towards that. What we're working with customers now is just going through their various stages of qualifications. So they go from proof of concept to initial deployment then to large volume deployment. And we're in that initial deployment phase. And so I think we're making good progress, and it is -- there are no real pushbacks other than just time going through the classification process and working with them in their environments to make sure that we get fully qualified.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as a follow-up, if I look at your server ASPs in the past, they were sort of in the $300 to $400 range, well below what your competitor had. As you look a lot of these engagements that you are participating in now, how should we think about pricing trends that you're seeing in that market? Are you able to sell in a higher-value segment than you were able to do in the past?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Vivek, I think the very strong part of our roadmap right now is we're really playing across the entire portfolio. So from, let's call it, the low end of the server market, the entry level, all the way through the high-end 2-piece SKUs. So the pricing on -- that we're seeing in the market is very reasonable. From our standpoint, they are -- we're providing value to the customer, but they're also very accretive to the margins of our own overall business. So yes, the pricing environment is good.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Lisa.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Vivek.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next question, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First question on the rise in notebook effort. It sounds like's it's really starting to hit its stride. I was hoping you could give us a little bit more color, which segments does it seem to resonate with? To what extent is it a commercial versus a consumer product? And do you think that the Ryzen notebook opportunity, is it bigger than the desktop opportunity ultimately in your minds?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Mark. So look, we -- we're making very good progress on Ryzen. I think we're very pleased with the Q1 results and then what we see going into Q2 in the second half. It is true that up until this quarter, much of our progress has been in the channel and in the desktop portion of the business. We saw a nice increase this quarter in notebooks and what it is, is many of the OEMs are actually launching systems in Q2. And with that, we had -- they're basically building up their production for the second quarter launches. What you're going to see in the second quarter is a number of impressive premium consumer designs, thin and light designs that, I think, are representative of the strength of the product. And we will also see the first launch of the commercial systems from the top OEMs. And the expectation is that the commercial notebooks will kick in, in the second half of the year. Q2 is more of a consumer cycle. But overall, I think we're seeing that the notebook OEM opportunity is a good one. We have strong design wins. The customers are working closely with us. We're doing a lot of work with retailers and the overall go-to-market to ensure that the notebook opportunity is important. And notebook is larger than desktop overall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. That's helpful. And a follow-up, if I may. On EPYC, the product has been in the market for a while. I understand that you have to go through the testing phase and then pilot programs and initial deployments and then, hopefully, larger scale deployments. What -- how do you think -- or how should we think about the cadence of updates on this product? Is this a similar cadence that you would see on the desktop or a notebook side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. So on the service side, the cadence of deployments does tend to be longer. I think we're well into the cadence, and so I think the EPYC work with the OEMs, you saw the culmination of that with HPE announcing in December, and then Dell announcing in the first quarter. That will now move over into Enterprise customers, who are then taking their systems into their labs and doing their initial deployments. So I think the cadence is over a number of quarters. I will say, for the first-generation EPYC, we're seeing really nice customer interest, and it's quite broad. And so it is across Enterprise as well as the hyperscale customers. And we view this as a multigenerational play, so we're very excited about what EPYC can do over the next couple of quarters. But we also believe that this is the right investment to make with the customer set as we bring out the second generation of EPYC and the third generation of EPYC, obviously, it would go a little bit faster because the customer set is familiar with our system.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Devinder, impressive year-over-year gross margin growth in the March quarter of 400 basis points. I'm just kind of curious, clearly, Ryzen has had a positive impact. Can help break down the 400 basis points year-on-year growth between kind of new products and the fact that Semi-Custom sort of declined as a percent of the mix pretty significantly from '17 to '18? And then how do we think about the incremental margin leverage as EPYC comes in and perhaps Ryzen, too?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, a good question, John. Actually, if you look at it from a margin standpoint year-over-year, the Semi-Custom revenue was actually down, so that was helpful. But beyond that, if you look at the new products, fundamentally, the new products is what's driving the margin. Ryzen, EPYC, GPU compute retail all higher than corporate average, those are driving the increase in the margin. As we get to the rest of the year, as you observed, the momentum and the products are there for the new products. They're going to go ahead and contribute to the margin increase and that's why from prior guidance, we just updated our margin to say maybe greater than 36% the last time, we updated it to say greater than 37% this time for the year, and that's fundamentally all with the momentum that we have for the new products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful, Devinder. And Lisa, for my follow-up. I appreciate kind of quantifying blockchain for both the first quarter and for last year, and also, your commentary about it being -- it looks like down sequentially, at least embedded in your June guidance. I'm just kind of curious, just given how hard it is the track where these GPUs are really going, how do you get a sense of what's a blockchain application versus something else, one? And two, do you see this as a viable long-term market, or do you believe that as this market develops, it's going to have to move from proof of work to proof of stake, which might just negate mining altogether and if that scenario were to play out, how worried are you about sort of secondary cards coming back to the market and kind of hurting pricing either the second half of this year or into 2019?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, John. So look, on the blockchain, there is a lot of discussion about this. From our standpoint, we stay very, very close to the customer set with -- in the graphic space. And so we spend time with the commercial miners as well as spending time with our partners. And the way we look at this, our first priority when we look at allocation of graphics cards is to gamers. And so that's through OEMs, that's through system integrators that's also working with key e-tailers to make sure that they are prioritizing the gamers segment, and we're going to continue to do that. And so that's one piece that we know well. We also work directly with the commercial miners. And so we see kind of what their forecasts are and they work with us. And so that's -- that we have good visibility on. There is a piece that go through retail that it's hard to tell whether that's gaming or mining, but we believe we have a good sense of what that is. So it is an approximation, but we think it's a good approximation of where we are. And then to your longer-term question, I do think the blockchain infrastructure is here to stay. I think there are numerous currencies, there are numerous applications that are using the blockchain technology. We don't see a significant risk of GPU -- secondhand GPUs coming into the market. I think what you find is that, one, there are number of different currencies; and two, a lot of these users that are buying GPUs these days are actually buying them for multiple use cases, both commercial and consumer. So they're not necessarily buying just for mining. And I think for that reason, we do think this is a different cycle. That being the case, we do see a bit of volatility in it and that's why we are putting into our forecast for the second quarter and the second half, a little bit lower blockchain demand but that's more than made up for by the other new products and the way the new products are ramping in the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Operator, next question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from David Wong from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you give us some idea of what your June guidance assumes in terms of sequential microprocessor sales growth compared to discrete graphics growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, David. So in our second quarter guidance, we're actually assuming that Ryzen and EPYC are up, and Semi-Custom is also up seasonally, and we expect graphics to be down modestly based on some of the blockchain demand.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Excellent. Can you give us an update on what new products you plan to launch through the rest of this year and next year? And when these are scheduled to come out?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. That's a lot, David, but let me say a couple things. I think relative to our CPU business, and we are launching additional Ryzen-based products in the second half of the year, we just launched the second-generation Ryzen desktop in 12-nanometer. And that launch has gone really well. I mean, we're very happy with the positioning and how customers are reacting to that. In the second half, we'll have some commercial systems and some other updates to our Ryzen lineup that we will launch. We have a 7-nanometer GPU based on Vega that we'll sample later this year. We have a 7-nanometer server, a CPU that we'll sample later this year. And then obviously, we have a number of products that are planned for 2019 as well. So it's a very, very busy product season for us, but we're pleased with the sort of the execution on the product roadmap.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First around OpEx, are you still looking for a 28% of revenue for the full year on a higher revenue base? And given that -- if that's your -- what areas are kind of key for investment then as we get through the rest of the year and going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me take that, and then Lisa can add. So yes, we are targeting 28%. As you see, Stacy, we have a long-term target model of 26% to 30%. The year has started out well, we came in at 27% in Q1, and targeting around the same for Q2. But we do -- we are still in investment mode, and obviously, investing in R&D and the product roadmap. And Lisa can maybe add some of the details in terms of where we're investing in terms of OpEx.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Stacy. So I think from the investment side, certainly we're investing in R&D on the CPU and the GPU side, but a key focus for us is in software, and particularly, machine learning software. I think there's a high demand of people wanting to use our GPUs in the compute space, and so we're increasing our investments in software around machine learning.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. For my follow-up, I had a question on the ASC 606. I know last quarter, you kind of gave some historicals for how that was a headwind versus a tailwind versus what would have been normal seasonality, particularly in Semi-Custom. Is the ASC 606 into Q2, is that a headwind or tailwind on the guide? And how should we think about that as we go through the second half as well versus what we would have seen without the accounting change?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Fundamentally, ASC 606, from a revenue standpoint, what happens is the seasonality and the profile of the Semi-Custom revenue changes. Some of the revenue that we used to get in the second half moved to the first half, so I would say, it's a little bit more balanced between the first half and the second half, as opposed to the peak revenue we used to see in Q3. So that is the primary effect on the profile of the revenue, not necessarily the annual revenue. ASC 606 has started earning a significant impact on our annual revenue, it's more of the profile of the revenue within the quarters. As far as impact is concerned, if you're comparing year-over-year, for example, in Q1 of 2018, Semi-Custom was down because we had more revenue in Q1 of 2017. And then Q2, it is slightly up but very balanced from where we see it from an overall standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So last year in Q2, it was like -- I forget how much, like a $75 million headwind versus what would have been otherwise? Is it a similar amount of headwind this time in Q2? Or is it less? Or is it a tailwind?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wouldn't -- I would say that it was a headwind last year. This year, from an overall standpoint, if I compare year-over-year, it is up slightly from where we were in Q2 of 2018. So if you're comparing Q2 '17 to Q2 '18, it's a benefit the revenue in Q2 of 2018 in our guide.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Timothy Arcuri from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had 2. I'm curious about your comments just now on blockchain, and I'm a little surprised to hear that you think that there would be limited risk that, that product would come back into the market. Can you, again, go over why you think that is? Because you're selling more of a general SKU, right? And then I guess, also, how you handicap the potential for there to be some ASP effect on that too? I know you've captured some of the rising ASPs in the channel, so how do you handicap that looking out throughout the rest of the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Tim. So look, when you look at -- I think most people are comparing this sort of -- this blockchain time period to the last one, which is a couple of years ago. And I think there are a couple of important differences. I think the first one is that there are multiple currencies and multiple applications that are being used. And what we've seen is that people who are mining do go from one currency to another depending on what's happening. We're also seeing that many users on both the commercial and consumer side are actually buying GPUs for multiple use cases. And from that standpoint, again, we see that there is good demand for, not just blockchain, but for gaming, for the cloud and for those things as well. And so I think it's a balanced assessment of where we are. I think the breadth of the blockchain applications and also the breadth of the customer base give us that belief. Now as you go forward, there's also a -- when we look at the Graphics business go forward minus blockchain, we actually see a very good environment. We see a good environment for gaming growing, we see a good environment for GPU compute growing. And frankly, on the gaming side, some of those users have not been able to get access to GPUs and so, again, that's -- those are all positives as we go forward. And then you had a second question, Tim?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I did, yes. I think you said the 7-nanometer product is in the lab, and it's going to launch later this year? That's the product at TSMC, correct? And I guess, I'm just wondering on that front, do you feel comfortable that you can get capacity from that vendor?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So our foundry strategy is to use both TSMC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES on the first 7-nanometer product. We are using TSMC for that product, and we have a very strong relationship with them. And so we do see a good momentum on it from what we see, and I'm not concerned about capacity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Harlan Sur from JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harlan Sur,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just a follow-up on the Semi-Custom business. On the June quarter guide, you mentioned sequential growth in Semi-Custom. But if I look at your ASC 606 reconciliations for last year, it looks like the Semi-Custom business was actually down double-digits percentage point sequentially going from Q1 to Q2? So like-for-like on their 606, why are there different shipment profiles this year, Q1 to Q2?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I can explain that. So in Q1 of '17, there was a strategic buy of wafers that we did in Q1 '17, so it had a bigger impact in Q1 '17 and then the effect caught up in Q2. So the impact Q1 to Q2 was significant. This year, it's more balanced. And from that standpoint, when you compare year-over-year, Q1 to Q1, it's down, but Q2 to Q2, it's up. So there was a different profile in Q1 '17 just based on the way the wafers were purchased in '17 versus the way in '18, where it's a little bit more balanced.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harlan Sur,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Question for Lisa. Embedded solutions contributed to the year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter growth in EESC, I think that this is kind of an often overlooked part of the business because Embedded is nice because it gives you guys exposure to kind of a diverse set of their market applications. Can you just help us understand where the team is seeing good demand traction in Embedded? And maybe give us a rough idea on kind of overall revenue contribution to EESC?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Harlan. So Embedded is a nice segment, you're absolutely right. I think it's a margin-accretive segment to us. The end markets that we ship into, there are thin clients, they are places where you need graphics for displays, so there's some Embedded displays that we ship into there. It's still a small business for us, but we actually believe, in addition to the goodness around Ryzen and EPYC, when we launch those products, Ryzen and EPYC Embedded, we actually saw very strong interest from customers. And so we think as the product strength in our PC and our server business increased, they will also help that Embedded solutions business overall. So I would think it's still a small piece of the business, but we believe it will be a nice growing margin accretive portion of the business over the next couple of years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Srini Pajjuri from Macquarie.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri,  Macquarie Research - Senior Analyst    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, question on the ASPs. I think you said the ASPs went up because of the Ryzen mix improving. Can you give us some more color as to where Ryzen is, in terms of the mix? And then with Ryzen 2, do you expect that to be accretive to ASPs and margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So in terms of the client business, we saw units up overall. We saw ASPs up overall, and they were up in both desktop and mobile. And when you look underneath that, I think, what -- the main thing is we're seeing a larger mix of the business become Ryzen. So in the fourth quarter, we had stated that the Ryzen mix of the client business was kind of in the low 40s. And so we had in notebook a lot of legacy product that we're still shipping, and in desktop, we had some legacy product that we're still shipping. As we move over to the first quarter, the notebook mix has mixed nicely into Ryzen, and the desktop is now mixed very nicely into Ryzen as well. So overall, that's what led to the ASP increase. I think the second generation Ryzen is a very, very good product. I think it's -- it actually -- when you look at the first generation Ryzen, we were very good on multithreaded performance, but there were some detractors around single threaded and gaming performance. I think the second generation Ryzen is actually much more competitive on gaming performance. So we do see an opportunity for that to help us increase share in the desktop business, and certainly, that would be accretive to margin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri,  Macquarie Research - Senior Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And then one question on the server business. I guess, your target is to get to a mid-single-digit share by end of this year, which is a fairly gradual ramp. I'm just curious as to when you expect the 7-nanometer part to be available in the market? And when that happens, do you see an inflection to your share gains or do you continue you expect gradual share gains?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So all of the sales this year will be around of the current generation of Ryzen, and so that gets us to the mid-single-digit share. 7-nanometer Zen 2-based product we'll sample later this year to customers and that will be in production in 2019, and we do believe that the adoption rate of the second generation could potentially be higher than the adoption rate of the first generation, mostly because customers will be more familiar with our systems and our products. And so we'll see how it goes, but we certainly -- our overall goals are ambitious in the server space. And so this year, its first generation Ryzen, next year, we'll mix in the 7-nanometer, second-generation -- I'm sorry, first generation EPYC. And next year, we'll mix in the second generation of the EPYC products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          My first question's on the competitive landscape in the AI space. I was just wondering how you're thinking about your positioning relative not only on your biggest competitor there, NVIDIA, but also new entrants that potentially can be working on custom solutions? And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So the AI market is certainly growing very, very fast. Relative to the competitive landscape, we are a new entrant. I think our GPU compute hardware is very good. I think we have a strong roadmap that we are -- we're putting in place for that. I think on the software side, we have more work to do, and we're making significant investments in some of the machine learning frameworks, such as Tensor Flow and Caffe, and some of these key frameworks, to ensure that we make it easier to adopt our solutions. But we see this is a multiyear, really, opportunity for us. So GPU compute will continue to be a focus area for us. We think we can be very competitive and we're going to continue to invest in this area. As it relates to, let's call it, non-GPU solutions, I think there will -- the landscape says there will be some ASIC solutions in the marketplace, but I view that as complementary to the GPU solutions and, from that standpoint, I think we have the CPUs, we have GPUs, and then we have the ability to connect heterogeneously to these other elements. So yes, from our standpoint again, we see this as a market that very much fits our capability, and we will continue to invest in it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And then my follow-up's on the upcoming shareholder meeting. And then one of the proposals is to increase the authorized share authorization by about 700 million shares. Obviously, my understanding is that, that wouldn't be dilutive initially, but just wondering how you're thinking about potential uses of those -- that share is?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So you're correct. There is a proposal in the -- at the shareholder meeting. It is not going to be dilutive to begin with, and it's really good housekeeping. We don't have any particular plans at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Next question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2 questions. One was just a follow-up to what, Lisa, you were talking about on the machine learning side. When do we see -- or so just give us an update of where you are in traction and should we expect any meaningful revenues on that front from AMD in this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think last year, we announced a partnership with Baidu to do software optimizations of -- for machine learning. And we have several other partnerships with others in this area. So there's a lot of interest. I think the time for meaningful revenue, we will see some revenue in the second half of the year and that's part of the growth in the margin expansion story. And I think into 2019 and 2020, this will be continue an area of growth for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then for my follow-up, just getting back to the discrete graphics in the quarter reported. The channel was really dry heading into the first quarter. So where are we on the channel inventory? And is there any way for you to help us understand how much of the growth was driven by the buildup in the channel in the March quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so the channel inventory did -- the channel inventory was at very, very low levels going into the quarter, and frankly, it was hard to get the GPU -- it was hard to get GPUs. I think if you look now on typical retailer/e-tailer sites, the channel inventory is good. And I think there was an element of channel replenishment, but from what we see of inventory levels today, they're, I would say, normal.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And what is the normal level, Lisa, in terms of weeks?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe somewhere between 4 and 5 weeks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, a couple questions. Can you comment qualitatively about the competitive dynamic that you're seeing in microprocessors? And as a second question, can you give us an update on Spectre, in terms of the impact it's had on the business going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Hans. So on the microprocessor side, I think, with the competitive landscape, as we see it, Ryzen and EPYC are very competitive. And we've seen that in head-to-head design opportunities. I think from a CPU standpoint, we're very pleased with that. I think second generation Ryzen in 12-nanometer actually improves the overall performance, and so we like how that positions us on the PC side. I think as we look forward, and I think this is important, we believe that the 7-nanometer capability of The Foundry ecosystem is very good, and that puts us in a good competitive spot from a manufacturing standpoint. And then on the design side, obviously, we have things that we're planning. And so I see the competitive environment as one that is as good, and we're going to work very hard to make sure that it gets better over time. Obviously, we take the competition very seriously. Oh, yes, and the second question -- sorry, about that, Hans -- on Spectre. We have spent a good amount of time with our customer set to make sure that they're fully protected on Spectre. We've actually released a number of software mitigations already to our OEM customers and to our partners. They're in the process of deploying. So I think it took a lot of energy, certainly, we spent a lot of time on it and our customer set spent time on it. But we don't see any long-term effects. It's more that we want to make sure to get the work done quickly, and that's been our focus.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Lisa. Thanks, Hans. Operator, we have time for 2 more questions, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wanted to ask you, I think you mentioned double-digit sequential growth in the CT business. I was just kind of curious what stage you're on in terms of channel fill for Ryzen Mobile business? And then I have one more follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we did, and as I mentioned, have some mobile product shipped ahead of OEM system launches in the second quarter. But we see this really as the beginning of the Ryzen ramp. So my expectation is that the client or the Ryzen portion of our business will be up in the second quarter and it will be up in the second half. And so it's the beginning of the notebook ramp.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And I wanted to ask just on the OpEx side, Devinder. Just in terms of licensing gains that have been OpEx offset, do you expect any of those gains this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think there could be, but it's hard to tell because it's kind of dependent upon the milestone that come into play. There was the OpEx offset last year that got reversed, but we'll see it when it happens from a milestone standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, Blayne, just as a point of clarification on this point. From an IP standpoint, we're not forecasting IP either here in the second quarter or into the second half. I think as Devinder said, we do have some IP arrangements that we're working on, and depending on when those milestones complete, we will then sort of forecast it into the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Gus Richard from Northland.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Auguste Philip Richard,  Northland Capital Markets, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Real, real quickly, can you just tell me if the 12-nanometer is a die shrink or just performance improvement?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It is -- yes, Gus, it is primarily performance improvement, and it is some design improvements. So you see some of the latency improvements and so on. It is not a die shrink.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's it for our call for today. We thank you very much for joining us. Look forward to seeing you at the Morgan Stanley conference and at the Cowan conference. And as always, we thank you for your support of AMD.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. That does conclude tonight's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+represents a verbatim report of the call.
+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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+content of the call has been transcribed accurately and in full.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2018-Jan-30-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,606 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2017 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 30, 2018 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Laura Graves
+    - 
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri
+   Macquarie Research - Senior Analyst
+ * Tristan Gerra
+   Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Brett William Simpson
+   Arete Research Services LLP - Senior Analyst
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices Fourth Quarter 2017 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves. Please go ahead, Laura.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much, and welcome to AMD's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2017 Conference Call. By now you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and the CFO commentary and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, www.amd.com.
+Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website.
+I would like to highlight a couple of important dates for you. Dr. Lisa Su will present at the Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference on February 26, and our first quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, March 16, 2018.
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs 
+(technical difficulty)
+assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.
+Additionally, please note that we will be referring to non-GAAP financials during this call, except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release and CFO commentary, again, both posted on our website.
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in today's earnings press release and CFO commentary for more information. You'll also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2017.
+Now with that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. Three years ago, we set out a strategic plan to reshape AMD to become a high-performance computing leader through great products, deep customer relationships and a simplified and focused business strategy. 2017 marked a key product and financial inflection point for AMD. Our newest wave of high-performance products and consistent execution created significant momentum for our business over the last year. Fourth quarter revenue of $1.48 billion grew 34% from the year-ago period, and we significantly expanded our gross margin and improved profitability. For the full year, we increased annual revenue by over $1 billion, resulting in 25% annual revenue growth. We expanded gross margin and achieved full year profitability.
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment in the quarter, we delivered very strong Q4 results as we continued the ramp of our Ryzen CPU and Radeon Vega GPU products. Computing and Graphics segment revenue increased 60%, and we significantly improved operating income from a year ago.
+Client computing revenue increased both year-over-year and sequentially. We outperformed seasonality in Q4, driving strong double-digit sequential revenue and unit growth based on very strong sellout of Ryzen processors throughout the holiday season. We expanded our Ryzen CPU family further into the consumer market with the introduction of the AMD Ryzen Mobile processor with Radeon Vega graphics, combining the power of our Zen CPU and Vega GPU architectures into the fastest processor in the industry for ultra-thin notebooks. Ryzen Mobile-based notebooks are currently available from Acer, HP and Lenovo with multiple new systems expected from all top 5 PC manufacturers in the first half of this year.
+In graphics, we delivered our second straight quarter of record GPU revenue with significantly improved ASP and increased unit sales from a year ago, driven by strength across our entire graphics product portfolio. We saw strong demand for our Polaris products across both the gaming and blockchain markets, and Radeon Vega GPU revenue more than doubled from the prior quarter driven by strong gaming demand in the add-in-board channel as well as strength with strategic OEMs.
+Apple launched the new iMac Pro, the most powerful Mac ever made, featuring AMD's Radeon Pro Vega product in the quarter. We also began shipments of a new semi-custom GPU that is integrated into an Intel multi-chip processor package. This semi-custom product opens up a complementary market for our high-performance graphics products and expands the power of Radeon graphics to more gamers and premium PC buyers.
+Our professional graphics business had its best quarter ever based on growing data center sales highlighted by strong Radeon Instinct MI25 sales to a major cloud provider. For the full year, Computing and Graphics segment revenue increased 54% over the prior year as we launched more than 40 new high-performance CPUs and GPUs.
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue increased 3% from a year ago driven by the ramp of our EPYC processors. Q4 server revenue and unit shipments increased sequentially and from a year ago as the market continues to qualify and deploy our family of high-performance EPYC processors. We closed dozens of new server deals in the quarter, securing key design wins with education, financial services and hosting companies.
+We also had several key announcements in the quarter as we continued to see a steady drumbeat of adoption. Microsoft Azure became the first public cloud instance powered by AMD with their L-series of virtual machines for storage-optimized workloads. Hewlett-Packard Enterprise began volume shipments of the EPYC-based ProLiant DL385 Gen10 server, which recently set world records for floating point performance. Baidu deployed AMD FX single-socket platforms into their data centers to power AI, Big Data and cloud computing services. And Dell EMC has completed the qualification phase for their EPYC-based systems and will be sharing more on launch plans shortly.
+Our reentry into the server market remains on track with a steady ramp of new platforms and deployments across our OEM and hyperscale data center customers. Our semi-custom business performed as expected in the quarter as unit shipments declined from a year ago as we completed the fifth year of the current game console cycle.
+Before I close, I'd like to address the recent important security issues facing our industry. Security is and always has been a fundamental focus for AMD across all our products. We are vigilant about security in both our product design and throughout the product life cycle. As new exploits arise like we have seen with Spectre and Meltdown, we are dedicated to responding with speed and focus to keep our customers and partners informed and protected. As a reminder, we believe Meltdown is not apropos to AMD processors.
+For Spectre variant 1, we continue actively working with our ecosystem partners on mitigations, including operating system patches that have begun to roll out. We continue to believe that variant 2 of Spectre is difficult to exploit on AMD processors. However, we are deploying CPU microcode patches that, in combination with OS updates, provide additional mitigation steps. 
+Longer term, we have included changes in our future processor cores starting with our Zen 2 design to further address potential Spectre-like exploits. We continue to collaborate closely with the industry on these vulnerabilities and are committed to protecting AMD users from these and other security threats as they arise.
+In summary, we are very pleased with our quarterly and full year results. We made significant progress in 2017 as we completely reshaped AMD's product portfolio and launched a highly competitive set of new products. In 2018, we expect to increase our momentum with the next wave of premium products and expanded go-to-market activities to increase our market penetration. 
+In the client market, we will expand our Ryzen portfolio with new product launches, including: AMD Ryzen desktop processor with Radeon Vega graphics, which is expected to deliver the industry's highest performance graphics engine in a desktop processor; our second-generation Ryzen desktop CPU based on our higher-performance 12-nanometer Zen Plus architecture; and for business notebooks, our AMD Ryzen PRO Mobile processors with Radeon Vega graphics.
+We are also expanding our go-to-market activities with our OEM and retail partners, and we expect to launch more than 60 new Ryzen OEM systems throughout 2018. In graphics, the launch of Radeon Vega Mobile products will expand our Radeon Vega lineup into high-end notebooks. Later this year, we plan to sample our first 7-nanometer Vega GPU optimized for machine learning. In addition, we will continue increasing our software investments around machine learning to address the growing demand for an open ecosystem in the GPU compute space.
+In the server market, we will continue to work closely with major cloud vendors and OEMs to ramp their first-generation EPYC-based systems while also completing key development milestones on our next-generation Zen 2-based server platforms. Our Zen 2 design is now complete, and we will be sampling to our customers later this year.
+2018 is clearly a defining year for the ramp of our server business, and we remain focused on our goal of achieving double-digit market share in this important market segment. 2017 laid a solid foundation with strong financial results and significant progress towards achieving our long-term goals. I am even more excited about 2018 as we continue our journey to position AMD as one of the premier long-term growth companies in the tech industry.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our fourth quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. 2017 was a pivotal year for AMD. We grew annual revenue 25% over 2016 with revenue growth increasing every quarter on a year-over-year basis, culminating in growth of 34% in the fourth quarter of 2017. In addition, we expanded gross margin by 3 percentage points and achieved GAAP profitability for the year.
+Computing and Graphics annual revenue grew 54% in 2017, while Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-custom annual revenue was flat. Both segments posted operating profits for the year, and it is particularly noteworthy that the Computing and Graphics segment was profitable for the first time in 6 years. Based on the overall strength of the business and our new high-performance products, we have set a strong foundation for achieving our long-term financial model.
+Now let me turn to our results for the fourth quarter of 2017. Total revenue of $1.48 billion grew 34% year-over-year, driven by strong Radeon and Ryzen product demand. On a sequential basis, revenue declined 10%, better than expected, driven by seasonally lower semi-custom sales and partially offset by strong demand for new CPU and GPU products. Gross margin was 35%, expanding 3 percentage points year-over-year, primarily due to a larger portion of revenue coming from Computing and Graphics, driven by our new high-performance products.
+Operating expenses were $412 million compared to $357 million a year ago. The increase was driven primarily by R&D and new product go-to-market investments, partially offset by an R&D credit related to a technology development agreement. Operating income was $103 million, up significantly from $26 million a year ago, and operating margin was 7%, up from 2% a year ago.
+AMD received a onetime tax credit of $18 million as a result of U.S. corporate tax reform, which resulted in a net tax benefit of $8 million in the quarter. Net income was $88 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.08, as compared to a net loss of $8 million or $0.01 per share in the year-ago period. Adjusted EBITDA was $142 million compared to $60 million a year ago, and adjusted EBITDA for 2017 was $445 million.
+Now turning to fourth quarter business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $958 million, up 60% year-over-year due to strong sales of our Radeon graphics and Ryzen desktop processors. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $85 million compared to a loss of $21 million a year ago. The strong improvement was due to higher revenue.
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $522 million, up 3% year-over-year, driven by server revenue. Operating income was $19 million, down from $47 million a year ago, primarily due to the absence of a licensing gain and ongoing R&D investments, partially offset by the benefit from a richer product mix.
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.18 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $879 million in Q3 due to significantly higher cash flow from operations. Inventory was $739 million, down slightly from the prior year and down 7% from the prior quarter. Total principal debt, including our secured revolving line of credit, was $1.7 billion.
+In the fourth quarter, we deployed cash to repurchase $38 million of long-term principal debt resulting in a total reduction of long-term debt of $138 million in 2017. Our gross leverage ratio has improvement from 10x in 2016 to 3.8x at the end of 2017.
+Free cash flow was $339 million, up sharply from $32 million in the prior quarter. Q4 is typically our strongest cash flow quarter, and for the year, free cash flow was $45 million negative due to increased working capital in support of higher revenue.
+Before we turn to guidance, I want to highlight that we are adopting the new revenue recognition accounting standard effective 2018. We are adopting this standard under the full retrospective method, which we believe is most helpful to our investors. For the full year 2017, the impact of the accounting change to revenue was immaterial, and we expect the impact to be immaterial on 2018 annual revenue.
+For the first quarter 2018, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $1.55 billion, plus or minus $50 million, an increase of 32% year-over-year, primarily driven by the strength of the ramp of Ryzen GPU and EPYC products. For comparative purposes, under the new accounting method, Q1 '17 restated revenue was $1.18 billion and Q4 2017 restated revenue was $1.34 billion. In addition, for Q1 2018, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 36%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $435 million or approximately 28% of revenue; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $30 million; and inventory to be up sequentially in support of higher revenue.
+For 2018, we expect double-digit percentage growth in annual revenue, greater than 36% non-GAAP gross margin, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately 28% of revenue. In addition, we expect a tax rate of approximately 10% of pretax income for 2018.
+In summary, we made significant progress in 2017. We are pleased with the momentum in our business and delivered outstanding top line revenue growth, margin expansion and achieved profitability for the year. We continue to make strong progress towards our long-term target financial model, and our goal in 2018 is to deliver significant revenue growth and increase profitability as we continue to invest in our multi-generational high-performance product road maps.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you please give us the puts and takes for the Q1 guide? There are lots of moving parts, and so I think that would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Hans. Thanks for the question. So our Q1 revenue guidance was up 32% year-on-year, and if you take a look at that, it's actually significantly better than our typical seasonality. Primarily, that's due to the new product strength. So we see GPUs, Ryzen and EPYC, all up in Q1, and that's contributing to the strong guidance. We do expect that the semi-custom business will be down in Q1 relative to the first quarter of 2017 just due to the fact that we're in the sixth year of the cycle. So if you actually take the new product strength, the guidance is actually over 32% year-on-year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then the seasonality of semi-custom will continue to be weaker on a year-over-year basis for the rest of the year. Is that the way to model that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So what you should be -- expect with semi-custom is, on a full year basis, the revenue will be likely down compared to 2017 just due to where we are in the cycle, and units will be down. There will be a bit of an adjustment to the seasonality as we move over to the new accounting regulations with 606, and so we'll see, let's call it, a bit more revenue in the first half and a bit less revenue in the second half. So for the year, it is very similar, and then we'll see a little bit of shift in the quarterly profile. But again, back to the -- your question -- your initial question on the Q1 revenue guidance, it is really driven by new product strength.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from David Wong from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Following on from your answer to Hans' question, Lisa, can you give us some feel for the revenue, the new product momentum in terms of sales in the fourth quarter '17? And in particular, any numbers on Ryzen, EPYC or Vega? Absolute sales dollars or sequential growth in Q4 would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, David. So we had a very strong Q4. If you look at the overall business, it was up 34% year-on-year. If you look underneath that, the Computing and Graphics business was very strong. So we saw 17% sequential growth, significantly better than seasonality. That was up on client, particularly Ryzen desktop, had a very strong holiday. We also started initial shipments on Ryzen Mobile. And then on the graphics side, we saw strength in all product lines, so we saw strength in the channel for both gaming as well as blockchain. We saw strength in OEMs as we ramped Apple with our Vega processors. We also saw strength in professional graphics as we launched some GPU compute into the data center. So overall, those were the puts and takes. Semi-custom was down sequentially, and again, that's as expected given the typical seasonality of the semi-custom business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And Devinder, it might have been nested in what you -- your prepared remarks. But do you expect your net debt will grow in the seasonally weak first half of 2018? And if so, how much might net debt go up?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Net debt, when you say net debt, just explain that, David. What do you mean by that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, debt minus cash. Presumably, well, do your cash balances fall during the first half of the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The debt levels came down in 2017 because we did repurchase some of the long-term principal debt to the tune of $134 million. And in the guidance we provided, we said that 2018 would be free cash flow positive. So if anything, I guess, the net debt, as you look at it, would come down as we get to the second half of 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Technology and Services Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          But any help in the first half? What happens to the net debt in the first half?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Typically, we invest in the business. As you saw in the guidance, I expect inventory to be up in Q1. And obviously, with the strength of the business momentum that Lisa just talked about, we're prepared to go ahead and purchase product, a way for us to go ahead and fund the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I was hoping you could give us a little more color on EPYC. Are we starting to get past pilot programs now and getting deployed into production environments? And can you give us a sense of the take of EPYC in the cloud versus enterprise?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Mark. So well, we are pleased with where we are with EPYC. We think we've made a very nice progress as in the fourth quarter. We announced that the large OEMs are now qualified and starting to ship to end customers. And so we have seen some very nice design wins in sales at some marquee end customers. If you look across education, financial services and the hosting business, those are looking good. On the cloud side, we have publicly talked about Microsoft Azure as well as Baidu adopting EPYC in their cloud of environments. We are working with a number of the other cloud players to adopt EPYC, and we're working on some of the optimizations required there. So overall, we're very pleased with the momentum. I think we always knew that there was a qualification cycle to go through, but we've gotten through some of the major qualifications here in the fourth quarter and especially as we looked in December, we actually closed a number of new deals with the platforms being available for sale.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful. And then on the C&G side, very impressive growth. Can you give us a sense of to what extent that growth was driven by Ryzen products versus Radeon? And then on the Radeon side, can you give us a sense of what blockchain was to the contribution and how you're viewing the sustainability of that? It seems like it's getting consistently strong. So appreciate any updates on your view on that segment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Mark. So look, on the Computing and Graphics segment, we grew about $140 million sequentially, and if I look at that growth, it was across Ryzen and Radeon. If you look at blockchain in particular, our estimates are that it was about 1/3 of the growth, 1/3 of the $140 million, and then the rest of the 2/3 are around the GPUs -- the other segments of GPUs and Ryzen. When I look going forward, clearly, blockchain is a little bit of a fluid and dynamic market. We did see some strength as we went into December. We see strength as we're going into the first quarter. I'm sure many of you have seen that the graphics channel is very low, and we're certainly working to replenish that channel environment. So we think that graphics in general is going to be strong into the first half, and that's some of what's contributing to our strong Q1 guidance. But overall, my comments are we're seeing nice momentum across Ryzen and all of the GPU segments, which is important for us as we go into 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          My first is on gross margin. Can you give us a feeling -- do you expect Q1 to be the trough for gross margins through the year given you're guiding in line to maybe a little above for the year, where you're guiding Q1? And can you give us some feeling on the puts and takes of gross margins as we go through the year, particularly around things like business mix, lower seasonality and lower growth on semi-custom versus some of the new products for example?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Stacy, I can take that, and then Lisa maybe can add. As we start the year, as Lisa said, we do see momentum from the new products, the Ryzen, the GPUs and EPYC, and the margin is up on a sequential basis. We're starting off the year at 36%. We previously said that, for 2018, we expect margin to be greater than 36%, so it is a good start to the year, starting off well with a 36% guide. Obviously, the new products are having benefit then. And then the one thing I will add from what Lisa said earlier, in particular with the semi-custom business timing, is there is some incremental semi-custom revenue that gets recognized in Q1 as compared to the past from a timing in the year standpoint. But overall, I think the 36% is where we are starting off in Q1 and very pleased with that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Stacy, the only...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So you do believe Q...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sorry, go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I was just saying, so you do believe Q1 is probably a trough in terms of gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Clearly, Stacy, the first half of the year is usually the weaker half of our business because we are a consumer-led business. So as we -- starting off with 36% margin in Q1 is a good start. And we do expect that the new products will continue to ramp as we go through 2018. So I think that's how we view the puts and takes going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For my follow-up, I know your competitors saw some unusual strength in the enterprise market and enterprise spending in Q4. I understand your exposure at this point to those enterprise wins is certainly less. But what are you seeing in terms of enterprise ramp? Are you seeing anything unusual or more or less sustainable in terms of strength versus what you'd ordinarily expect to see this time of the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Stacy. I think your question is about the market, and our market share is still relatively low. So our exposure with EPYC is there's a lot of activity, so there's a significant amount of activity with customers, both in all segments, cloud and enterprise. Although I wouldn't say that, that's necessarily a market trend. I would say that's sort of where we are with our EPYC qualifications and ramp. And so we don't see -- for example, we don't see that Q4 was especially strong, and there will be a drop-off in Q1. In fact, we expect that EPYC should grow as we go through Q1 and the rest of 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For my first one, just a clarification. I know it's been off a few times. But what would your Q1 sales and gross margin outlook have been under the older accounting methodology?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Vivek, we're adopting the new revenue accounting standard under what is the full retrospective method because we believe this is most helpful to the investors, and for good measure, we have provided the Q1 '17 and Q4 '17 on a restated -- we restated the revenue and obviously, the Q1 2018 guidance under 606. We will publish the restated numbers as part of our 10-K. And from a Q1 2018 standpoint, if you look at the numbers, let's say, you compare to Q4 '17 on a seasonal -- on a sequential basis, the revenue is up quarter-on-quarter, and largely that's the strength of the new products in Q1 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. I ask that -- you're starting the year at a very strong 30%-plus base, and you're saying double-digit growth for the year. And double digit is a very, very wide range. So Lisa, could you help us at least get some level set of what double-digit growth means for the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we are starting the year strong, Vivek. I think maybe to give you a little bit more color on your question as it relates to the Q1 guidance. We are -- as Devinder said, we are giving all guidance and forward-looking comments on 606. However, the largest impact, particularly as it relates to revenue, is really sort of the semi-custom business. As you know, our custom business is a little bit unique because it's a singular customer, and so under the new revenue recognition rules, we would actually take revenue with non-cancelable POs. So that impact in the first quarter sort of guidance would have been about, let's call it, $100 million or about thereabouts. And so that might help you calibrate where we are. I think the -- any way you look at it, the new product strength is the most important factor, but we also want to be clear on what the accounting rule impact would be. Does that help you, Vivek?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Lisa, very helpful. And for my follow-up, traditionally, there has been a very large price delta between in your and Intel product, sometimes 50%, 60% plus on PCs and servers. As you look ahead with the new products, are you starting to see some of that price conversion? Like, are you being positioned in segments where you had not been previously, so you can get the benefit of much better ASPs than you've had historically?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Vivek, absolutely. So if we look at 2017 full year and look at our ASPs in the client business, the graphics business and the server business, albeit it's early, we are definitely seeing a significant ASP expansion as a result of the fact that our products are now covering the higher end of the market. So we're competing very well in the higher end of the market. I expect that there's still a delta, but that delta is converging given our product coverage.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, while the year-over-year gross margin improvement has been strong both in the calendar sort of third quarter, fourth quarter and now on the guide in the first quarter, the sequential gross margin leverage is perhaps a little bit less than I would have thought, especially as you move into Q4 and Q1 and semi-custom comes down. Now I know there's been sort of a lag effect as Ryzen grows as a percent of the mix, but maybe you can help me understand where we are as far as Ryzen as a percent of the mix being a positive influence on gross margin. And then just relative to your long-term gross margin target of 40% to 44%, how far does Ryzen get you before you become more dependent on EPYC ramps later this year into 2019 and beyond?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So a lot of different questions there, John. Let me try to unpack it there. So let's talk about sort of Ryzen and sort of the margin both Q4 and Q1. On the Ryzen -- to give you sort of a flavor of where we are in terms of the new product ramp, Ryzen Q4 was probably in the high 40s percentage of our overall client business, and we expect that, that will be over 50% starting in the first quarter of 2018. And so that ramp definitely helps, and it's part of our sequential 100 basis point improvement from Q4 to Q1. I think in terms of overall new product revenues, if you take Ryzen, EPYC and then our new graphics products in totality, in Q4, they were about 33% of our revenue, and we expect that to ramp nicely as we go into 2018. So I think we are getting the margin leverage. The margin leverage certainly from Q4 to Q1 is due to the fact that we have strong products. And the thing that's a little bit different this quarter is because we are guiding under 606, and as a result of that, semi-custom, which is typically seasonally down Q4 to Q1, in this case, is actually up a little bit Q4 to Q1. And so that's a headwind on the margin, but overall, we're still up 100 basis points. Does that kind of get to the gist of your question?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, that's helpful, Lisa. And then maybe a second question just on the OpEx. Revenue for the calendar first quarter, significantly above where the Street was expecting but so was OpEx. And I'm curious, is there any sort of unusual expenses around Spectre or Meltdown that's going on? And then to continue that, for the full year, you're guiding OpEx about in line with your long-term target. So is there opportunity that your long-term target can come down and maybe 28% of revenue on OpEx comes down over time? Or how should we think about that leverage?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So look, so relative to OpEx, I think our long-term guidance was 26% to 30%. Calendar year 2017, we were roughly approximately 30% if you look at it for the full year basis. We're guiding 2018 to approximately 28%, so we're starting to see some of that leverage granted we're starting off in Q1, which is usually a low quarter for us. And then as we go forward, we're certainly looking at more leverage in the model, but we are investing in sort of the key new products. We are investing in software, and I think that's absolutely the right thing for us to do. As it relates to any unusual expenses with Spectre and Meltdown, there are no particular unusual expenses related to that. I think what we are doing is we're investing in the business. We believe strongly in the product road map that we have, and given the significant revenue growth, we believe we can afford to invest in the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the product that you announced with Intel over the course of Q4, the semi-custom graphics product. I guess, interesting to see a few companies working together. Can you put that product into context for us? Are there things that you could do going forward? And then just is that going to be in the semi-custom part of revenues or in the compute part?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Joe. So the product that we announced with Intel was a semi-custom graphics product. So what we're doing is we're selling silicon to them. And then they're packaging it in a multi-strip module, and they're marketing it and selling to end customers. From my standpoint, this is an excellent way to get more Radeon GPUs in as many applications as possible. And so our strategy is we'll build our own standard products. We will build custom products for customers and then look for how do we get Radeon in as many places as possible. For this graphics revenue, because it's very similar to discrete graphics, we're actually reporting it in the Computing and Graphics segment, and we did see some initial revenue from that in Q4. But it is -- as I said, it's a semi-custom chip that is sold to them with their -- to be packaged with their products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, one for you back on the crypto side of things. It was great to see the incremental color that you gave. But is there any way you could give an absolute dollar amount, whether it be in the fourth quarter or just full year '17 and how much you believe crypto contributed to your revenues?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Ross. So it is hard to estimate. I think we said before it's hard to estimate just given some of the crypto -- sort of GPUs are sold through the same channels as our gaming channel. I previously said we thought it was about mid-single digits percentage of our annual revenue. It may be a little bit higher than that. Let's call it 1 point or so, but it's really a lot of our growth is outside of the blockchain market. What we see in the market though is, because I know there's a lot of conversation about this out in the market, it is an important market. I mean, we're now seeing it from the standpoint of there is a lot of dynamic movement in the market, but it is consuming a lot of GPUs. It's a good part of our business, and we intend to sort of work with the large players to better forecast that business going forward. But I don't want that to take away from the fact that we had significant growth in the GPU business outside of blockchain as we really ramped the Vega product line, as we ramped our GPU compute product line, as we ramped our Apple. And so those are all important pieces of our GPU story.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Perfect, that's helpful. As my follow-up, I wanted to go back to a statement you said in answering a prior question about the semi-custom business being up sequentially and then saying it was about $100 million benefit. Is that up sequentially you're talking about relative to the fourth quarter pre or post the ASC adjustment? Just trying to tie this altogether and kind of get the moving parts behind your guidance because it is much higher than, I think, where many of us expected it to be.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So let me try, and Devinder may keep me -- make sure that we're clear here. So the $100 million that I referenced was relative to the Q1 '17 adjustment, which was approximately $200 million or so. If you look at it on a sequential basis, it won't be up $100 million. It'll be up somewhat less than that, but typically, we're quite -- we're down quite a bit in semi-custom. And so it is a different seasonal pattern than we would normally see.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Brett Simpson from Arete Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brett William Simpson,  Arete Research Services LLP - Senior Analyst    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just had a question on crypto. I mean, if I look at the amount of hash compute being added to Ethereum in January, I mean, it's more than the whole of Q4. So we've seen a big start to the Q1. So I'm just wondering, what's the balance or the sort of mix in your C&G division between GPU and CPU sort of looking at Q4 and how it changes at Q1? And is there any sort of acute shortages here? I mean, can your foundry partners -- do they have the capacity to support you with the ramp of GPUs at the moment? And is there enough HBM2 DRAM to source as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, right. So in relation to your question about client and graphics, look, both the client business and the graphics business grew sequentially in Q4. So both of them were strong businesses for us, and as I said, there are -- crypto was one driver, but there were numerous other drivers as well. Relative to just where we are in the market today, for sure, the GPU channel is lower than we would like it to be. So we are ramping up production. At this point, we're not limited by silicon per se, so our foundry partners are supplying us. There are shortages in memory, and I think that is true across-the-board, whether you're talking about GDDR5 or you're talking about high-bandwidth memory. We continue to work through that with our memory partners, and that will be certainly one of the key factors as we go through 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brett William Simpson,  Arete Research Services LLP - Senior Analyst    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And just a follow-up on 7-nanometer. I mean, a lot being talked about at 7 with the TSMC ramping fairly shortly and also Intel being perhaps a little delayed on 10-nanometer. Can you talk about what your plans are for 7-nanometer in 2018? Can you ship a CPU platform based on 7-nanometer in -- this year? Or is there -- are you also seeing some delays in 7 with your foundry partners?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So relative to 7, 7 is a very important node for us. We're doing very active development to the 7 across our GPU and our CPU portfolio. Relative to shipment dates, I'll wait until we get closer to production before we talk about that. But what we have said is that we will sample a GPU here in 2018 targeted at machine learning, and that will be in 7-nanometer technology. And we are also actively working on CPU products in the 7-nanometer technology as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Tristan Gerra from Baird.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tristan Gerra,  Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You've mentioned that you expect very strong demand from blockchain in the first half. How aggressive are you in terms of embedding that type of trend in your Q1 guidance? Just trying to get a sense of the contribution from that segment in your Q1 guidance. And also, is the margin profile any different than the rest of your GPU business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I think as we said on the Q1 guidance, it is really strength across our new products, so it's not just the blockchain or crypto conversation. That's one factor, but we do see strength across the rest of our GPU business as well as our CPU business with Ryzen and EPYC. So of course, we take into account what we believe the demand will be here in the first quarter, and we think we're fairly balanced with that. And overall, given the current lead times, I think we have good visibility into what the order pattern is and so on and so forth. So I think the key point is crypto is strong right now but we do believe that it is a very dynamic environment, and so we have to watch that step very closely. And there are numerous other product drivers in our Q1 guidance, including the CPU business, which is an important driver.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tristan Gerra,  Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And as a quick follow-up, in terms of the ramp of EPYC, should we look at a linear ramp throughout this year? Or is there more of an inflection point at any given time that you would expect or any given quarter that you would expect this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I do expect a steady ramp of EPYC as we go through the year. Our target is to be at mid-single-digit unit share by the end of 2018, and so there would be significant revenue from EPYC as we are in the second half of '18. But certainly, I would expect a steady ramp throughout the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Srini Pajjuri from Macquarie.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri,  Macquarie Research - Senior Analyst    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just a couple of clarifications. First, I guess, Devinder, the accounting change, you kind of gave us an explanation how the seasonality works for Q1. I'm just curious as to how your seasonality changes as we go into Q2, Q3 and Q4 because, historically, you were down in Q1 and kind of flattish in Q2 and then up in Q3 and Q4. So just trying to understand how the accounting change impacts that seasonality.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think the more significant change is from our semi-custom business. So we're going to see acceleration of revenue in the first half as opposed to where it used to be weighted towards the second half of the year. And that's just a timing issue within the year. Annually, there's not much impact. It's pretty immaterial from that standpoint. But timing-wise, you will see recognition of revenue earlier in Q1 and Q2, and then, obviously, we still have it in Q3 and Q4. So seasonality for the semi-custom business changes. As Lisa stated earlier, typically, Q4 to Q1 is down, and now Q4 to Q1 is up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. But I would add, though, just for that seasonality question. I think what you'll see is perhaps a little bit of a flatter profile. We used to have a very high peak in Q3, and now I think you'll see a little bit of a flatter profile with sort of second quarter still being higher than first quarter, third quarter or higher than second quarter, and then fourth quarter, we would expect to be down.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri,  Macquarie Research - Senior Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And then, Lisa, just another clarification on Ryzen. Obviously, you're seeing very strong ramps. I would have expected you to see a little bit of ASP benefit in Q4, but it looks like ASPs came in flattish. I'm just curious as to why they're only flat, not up sequentially.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure. So I think when you look at the ASPs, it's very dependent on the actual mix. And so underneath the client ASPs, we actually saw desktop a little bit lower, and that's because the desktop sales in the holiday season were a little bit more weighted to Ryzen 3, which has a lower ASP than some of the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7. But we actually saw mobile ASPs up because we saw the beginning of the shipments of Ryzen Mobile, which pulled ASPs up. So it's just a -- the detailed mix of the business. But overall, I think we saw very strong growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Devinder, I just had a question on free cash flow since I pester you so much on it. Good to see a solid quarter on that front. But my question really is how should we -- you've guided for an increase in free cash flow for next year. Should we expect the same kind of dynamic that you've had this year, seasonality in Q4? And then also, you had to build up working capital and inventory specifically because of the dynamics on memory and the tightness earlier on the year. So what are some of the puts and takes there if you could please help us with that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think as you rightly observed, I mean, our strong quarter from an overall standpoint where cash is concerned, and cash from operations are very strong in Q4 and free cash flow was $339 million, ending at the $1.18 million, there is typically pressure on cash in the first half of the year just given the fact that the revenue is there, and we buy the wafers to support the business. And then it gets better in the second of the year. As far as working capital is concerned, it's a little bit early to tell. I think it depends upon how the revenue unfolds. Obviously, we have managed it pretty well, but supporting the higher revenue from the strength of the business is going to be the key from that standpoint. But to your point, I do feel very good as to where the cash ended up. I do feel very good with how we have done from managing the balance sheet for working capital and the debt levels. And 2018, we are guiding to free cash flow being positive for the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And a quick follow-up for you, Lisa. If we look at the double-digit growth for this year, what are the absolute dollar drivers in terms of which product categories do you expect within EPYC GPUs for machine learning or for Ryzen if you were to rank order those in terms of absolute dollar impact this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So if I were to rank order those, I would say that both EPYC and Ryzen, as we deploy Ryzen more into the notebook form factor, which is very significantly ramped, are very key for that. I think GPUs in machine learning are also a strong growth driver for us. But just given sort of where we are from the base that we're starting with, I think the other 2 are just more significant.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura Graves,   -     [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa. Thank you, Devinder, and to everyone who joined our call today. We appreciate you joining the fourth quarter conference call. We look forward to speaking with you again soon.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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Transcripts/AMD/2018-Jul-25-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,647 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2018 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 25, 2018 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Kevin Edward Cassidy
+   Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Wayne A. Loeb
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - VP
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Second Quarter 2018 Conference Call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, www.AMD.com.
+Participants on today's conference call are: Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer.
+This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. I would like to highlight a couple of important dates for you. Jim Anderson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing and Graphics, and Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President of HR, Worldwide Marketing and Investor Relations, will attend the Jefferies 2018 Semiconductor, Hardware and Communications Infrastructure Summit on August 28. Also, Devinder Kumar, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, will present at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference on September 12. And our 2018 third quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, September 14, 2018.
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and, as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations.
+We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial metrics during this call, except for revenue, gross margin and segment operational results, which are reported on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in the press release posted on our website. Please refer to cautionary statements in today's press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC, and, in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.
+Now with that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. We ended the first half of 2018 strong, delivering our fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit year-over-year revenue growth, driven by increased demand for our high-performance products.
+Second quarter revenue of $1.76 billion grew 53% year-over-year, and gross margin improved more than 3 percentage points, resulting in our highest quarterly net income in 7 years. We are very pleased with the year-over-year financial performance across both of our business segments as we continue to gain share driven by strong customer adoption of our new products in the PC, gaming and data center markets.
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, second quarter CG segment revenue increased 64% year-over-year, driven by strong demand for our Radeon GPUs and a significant ramp of our Ryzen mobile processors. Ryzen unit shipments grew strong double-digit sequentially, as Ryzen mobile processor shipments more than doubled in the quarter. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung launched dozens of Ryzen processor-based notebooks, which position us well to continue growing Ryzen mobile sales heading into the back-to-school and holiday seasons.
+In the commercial PC market, we launched our Ryzen PRO commercial mobile APUs in the quarter. For the first time in our history, all 3 major commercial OEMs: Dell, HP and Lenovo, now offer enterprise-class notebooks and desktops powered by AMD, and we are seeing strong initial interest as customers evaluate these new systems.
+Continuing our strong roadmap execution, we launched our second generation Ryzen desktop CPU to very positive reviews in April, just 13 months after the first Ryzen desktop processors were released. Additionally, in June, we delivered the first public demonstration of our second generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors with the industry's first 32-core PC processor designed for the high-end desktop market. We are on track to launch our second generation Threadripper processor in August, with leadership performance for the enthusiast and content creation markets.
+Overall, we are very pleased with the market adoption of our Ryzen processors. 44 consumer and commercial Ryzen-based desktops and notebooks have been launched this year, and our customers remain on track to bring a total of 60 Ryzen-based systems to market in 2018.
+In Graphics, strong channel and data center demand drove significant year-over-year increases in revenue and ASPs. Sequentially, graphics revenue was down, primarily driven by lower blockchain-related sales, partially offset by stronger data center sales. Sales into the high-end enthusiast and performance portions of the gaming market grew substantially year-over-year based on the adoption of our latest Radeon RX 500 and Vega series GPUs. We continue to execute our software strategy to provide the best gaming experience in the industry with new AMD Radeon GPU drivers published for every major game launched in the quarter, and expanded partnerships with Ubisoft, Capcom and Rebellion to optimize their next generation of games on Radeon graphics.
+On the hardware side, we continued to expand the adoption of our Radeon Vega architecture with the introduction of new OEM systems and AIB cards in smaller and more mobile form factors. Samsung also announced they added our FreeSync technology to many of their high-end TVs, giving PC and console gamers the ultimate big screen gaming experience. The AMD FreeSync ecosystem is the broadest in the industry, with more than 400 FreeSync-enabled monitors and TVs in market to date.
+Data center GPU revenue increased significantly in the quarter, driven by Vega-based Radeon Instinct MI25 shipments. Our GPU engagements with large cloud customers continued to expand as we increased our investments in hardware and open software solutions in this important space. At COMPUTEX this year, we showed the first public demonstration of our next-generation 7-nanometer Radeon Vega GPU, which includes new features optimized for the artificial intelligence and machine learning markets. We started sampling of this product in the second quarter and we are on track to launch this next-generation product, the world's first 7-nanometer GPU, later this year.
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Second quarter segment revenue increased 37% year-over-year, primarily driven by strong semi-custom sales and growing adoption of our EPYC data center processors.
+Starting with our server business, we celebrated our 1-year anniversary of the launch of our EPYC server processors with an increase of greater than 50% in both revenue and unit shipments sequentially. We have over 50 customer platforms now in market, including Cisco, who announced their highest density server offering ever powered by EPYC processors; and HP Enterprise who launched their first EPYC-based single-socket ProLiant server, which delivers significantly lower cost per virtual machine than the leading dual socket competitor.
+We also saw strong progress with our mega data center partners, as Tencent Cloud announced immediate availability of their SA1 Cloud service, delivering 30% lower cost per VM with outstanding performance across key workloads. Shipments for mega data center customers more than doubled in the quarter as we made significant progress towards qualification of production instances at multiple cloud providers in anticipation of deployments planned in the second half of this year. We're also seeing momentum from Tier 2 next wave cloud service providers that have the ability to ramp quickly with a noted preference for the value and capability that our EPYC single-socket offering brings.
+Turning to large enterprise customers. We added dozens of new end customers in the quarter. Our value proposition continues to be strong in segments like HPC, data analytics and in general-purpose virtualized enterprise environments. We are extremely focused on accelerating EPYC processor adoption in these targeted segments in the second half of the year.
+Finally, I'm very pleased with our execution against our long-term roadmap. We received first silicon of our next-generation 7-nanometer EPYC processor with Zen 2, codename Rome, in the second quarter, and the silicon quality and bring up has gone very well. I am happy to report that we recently started sampling Rome to select partners for early validation, and we are on track to launch in 2019, strengthening our already outstanding competitive position in the market. We remain focused on our near-term milestone of achieving mid-single-digit server unit share by the end of 2018 on the path to our midterm goal of double-digit market share.
+Moving on to our Semi-Custom and Embedded businesses. Semi-custom revenue increased year-over-year and sequentially in support of Sony and Microsoft game consoles. We are proud that Microsoft and Sony have collectively shipped well over 100 million AMD-powered game consoles in the current cycle. The game console market continues to be an important segment for us in the long term and we are well-positioned based on our strong partnerships and differentiated IT and design capabilities. Embedded sales increased by double-digit percentage year-over-year, driven by growth across the embedded gaming, industrial and medical imaging markets. We also saw strong initial design wins for our new EPYC and Ryzen Embedded product families following their launch last quarter. 
+In closing, we are very pleased with our second quarter financial results. We delivered strong revenue growth, and margin expansion as demand for our new high-performance products continued to accelerate. Most importantly, we believe our long-term technology bets position us very well for the future. Several years ago, we made important decisions around our CPU and GPU roadmaps to drive leadership at the 7-nanometer node. We now have line of sight to those products coming to market and we see incredible opportunities ahead based on the competitive positioning and customer interest in our upcoming 7-nanometer products. We are confident that with continued execution, we are on an excellent trajectory to drive market share gains and growth in revenue and profitability. We are focused on that continued execution as we make significant investments in our hardware and software roadmaps to deliver even more compelling products to our customers in the 2019 and 2020 timeframe.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder, to provide some additional color on our second quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone.
+Q2 was another strong quarter for AMD. Year-over-year, we grew revenue 53% and expanded gross margins 37%, while significantly growing operating margin and earnings per share. Quarterly revenue of $1.76 billion was higher year-over-year, driven by strength across all product lines. Gross margin was up 360 basis points year-over-year, driven by the ramp of new products.
+Operating expenses were $467 million or 27% of revenue, down as a percentage of revenue from 34% a year ago. We are delivering operating leverage while launching new products and making strategic R&D investments to support our multi-generation -- multigenerational product roadmaps. R&D investments in the first half of 2018 increased 25% as compared to the first half of 2017 in support of our future product roadmaps.
+Operating income grew to $186 million from $23 million a year ago. Operating margin was 11% and both our business segments reported double-digit operating margin percentage. Adjusted EBITDA was $228 million compared to $58 million a year ago, and, on a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA has grown considerably to $666 million, resulting in gross debt leverage of 2.5x.
+Net income was $156 million, a significant improvement compared to a loss of $7 million 1 year ago. This is our highest quarterly net income since 2011. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share was $0.14 using a diluted share count of 1,147 million, compared to a loss of $0.01 per share a year ago.
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $1.1 billion, up 64% year-over-year, led by strong sales of both Radeon and Ryzen products. Ryzen products accounted for approximately 60% of client revenue, and we saw a particular strength in Ryzen Mobile processors in the second quarter as new notebook products continued to ramp.
+Strong channel and data center demand drove year-over-year graphics revenue increases. Sequentially, graphics revenue was down, primarily driven by lower blockchain sales, partially offset by stronger data center sales. We believe blockchain-related revenue declined from approximately 10% of our revenue in the first quarter to approximately 6% of our overall revenue in the second quarter.
+Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $117 million or 11% of segment revenue compared to operating income of $7 million 1 year ago. The significant increase was due to strong revenue growth coupled with improved operating expense leverage.
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $670 million, up 37% year-over-year, driven primarily by semi-custom and EPYC processor sales.  These results include higher-than-anticipated semi-custom revenue in Q2 due to higher inventory, with noncancelable purchase orders in accordance with ASC 606. EPYC processor units revenue grew greater than 50% quarter-over-quarter, primarily driven by mega data center sales. EESC operating income was $69 million or 10% of segment revenue, up from an operating income of $16 million a year ago on higher revenue. Q2 2017 operating income for EESC also included a licensing gain of $25 million.
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $983 million at the end of the quarter. Free cash flow was negative $88 million in the second quarter due to working capital requirements in support of recent revenue growth. Inventory was $750 million, up slightly from the prior quarter. Total principal debt, including our secured revolving line of credit, was $1.7 billion.
+Now turning to our financial outlook. For the third quarter 2018, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $1.7 billion plus or minus $50 million. This would be an increase of approximately 7% year-over-year, primarily driven by higher sales of Ryzen and EPYC products, partially offset by lower sales of GPU products in the blockchain market. Sequentially, this would be a decrease of approximately 3%, with higher Ryzen and EPYC processor revenue offset by lower GPU revenue.
+In addition, we now expect semi-custom revenue to be lower sequentially in Q3 following higher-than-expected Q2 revenue. As a reminder, for comparative purposes, Q3 2017 revenue was $1.58 billion adjusted for ASC 606 revenue accounting standards.
+In addition, for Q3, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 38%, up from 36% in the prior year, driven by the ramp of Ryzen and EPYC product sales; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $470 million or 28% of revenue; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $35 million; and free cash flow to be positive.
+For the full year 2018, we continue to expect revenue growth of mid-20s percent, gross margin in excess of 37% and to be free cash flow positive.
+In closing, Q2 was an excellent quarter, and 2018 is expected to be a solid year. I am pleased with our business execution and financial results, driven by the strength of our high-performance product portfolio. We remain focused on executing our long-term financial model for revenue growth, margin expansion and improved profitability.
+Now with that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first question here in the room.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Mark Lipacis with Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, for you. On the -- it seems Intel seems to have pushed their 10-nanometer volume ramp out into 2019, and I think a lot of people view your foundry 7-nanometer kind of the same ZIP code as their 10-nanometer. So I'm wondering if you could give us some context and/or color on what does this mean? Does -- is it -- if you're at parity with Intel -- has AMD ever been at parity before with Intel? And does that change the conversation with your customers in terms of their interest in your products?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Mark. So look, in terms of our roadmaps, both on the CPU and GPU side, we made some important technology decisions a couple of years ago and we bet heavily on 7-nanometer. We thought 7-nanometer would be a big node for the industry and it would be important for us to be early in the adoption of 7-nanometer. So when you look at where we are today, especially on the CPU side, we have first silicon of our Rome product. It looks very good. We also have a good number of architectural improvements and enhancements in Zen 2 that will come with 7-nanometer technology. So we're very pleased with where we are and where the competitive positioning is. And I would say, to your question about how is it perceived, I think customers are very interested in where we are. I mean, clearly, we have to execute. But with our current generation Naples, customers have certainly gotten to understand our architecture with the improvements that we have going into 7-nanometer with Rome. I think there is enhanced interest and from a competitive positioning standpoint, we do believe we have an excellent competitive position going into 2019. So we are very, very excited about that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          A follow-up, if I may. As we look at the double-digit bogey for next year on servers, is that -- do you need EPYC 2 to get to that? And what are the risks on bringing that to market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Mark, we view the double-digit share goal as an important share goal. I think it certainly will come with the second generation of EPYC, so the Zen 2 product. But I view that as a journey, right? I mean, we have now sort of 3 generations that we have: we have Zen 1 that's in the market today, we have Zen 2 that's well into the productization phase and then we have a very strong roadmap around Zen 3 as well. So we feel good about our competitive position and the path to double-digit market share. I think this is all about rate and pace and we're working very, very closely with our customers to accelerate that ramp. And actually, I was very pleased. I mentioned in the prepared remarks earlier that in the second quarter, we saw some nice acceleration of the mega data center customers so we saw units there more than double, and that's an indication that were getting the right level of engagement and progress with our large customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of John Pitzer with Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wonder if you could just give us a little bit more detail into the foundry strategy at 7-nanometers. And kind of how much flexibility do you have between your 2 foundry partners? And to what extent if one of them is having trouble on the 7, does the Wafer Supply Agreement kind of give you the ability to move capacity without having to pay for wafers?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, John. So a couple of years ago, we did amend the Wafer Supply Agreement. It was a very strategic agreement for us as we look over the long term. So at 7-nanometer, we are engaged with both TSMC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. I would say that we do have, on a product-by-product basis, the choice between the foundries and we make those decisions on a product-by-product basis. But in terms of our long-term roadmap and how we feel about it, both on the GPU and CPU side, the main message is, we don't believe process technology is going to be a gate for us. We have a lot of architectural work, a lot of architectural improvements, but we don't believe process technology is a gate for our roadmap.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then Lisa as my second question, can you help me better understand, because one of the things I know you've been working on aggressively with the launch of EPYC 2 is your ability to cover a broader swath of workloads and just increase kind of the server TAM you can go after. So can you help quantify to me kind of as you go from EPYC 1 to EPYC 2 what that growth in workload coverage looks like? And importantly, as you continue to broaden out, how do we think about the R&D burden from here?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, John. So when we go from the first generation of EPYC to the second generation of EPYC, I do think that there are some improvements that we'll make in the architecture that will expand the TAM. But from a TAM standpoint, we are not limited. I mean, I view our coverage today as 80% of the TAM. And yes, some workloads are really clean kills, and other workloads are closer, but we are servicing a large portion of the TAM. I think the value proposition increases with some of the architectural improvements that we've made in the second generation of EPYC, but from the standpoint of TAM, I think we feel good about it. From an R&D standpoint, and Devinder made the comment on our prepared remarks, that we did increase R&D by 25% year-on-year, but I think we've done it in a very responsible way. So we have revenue growth. We're seeing margin expansion, which is a very, very key piece of our business model. And then we will increase R&D and go-to-market resources effectively. But I don't believe that we will ever increase our OpEx ahead of revenue. I think it's a balance between each of those lines. So we have these -- I think, we have a strong roadmap at this point, and we'll look for opportunities to increase R&D, particularly on the software side, actually. I think we have a lot of opportunity on the software side across CPUs and GPUs to accelerate some of our machine learning work. And so that's where incremental R&D would go.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then if I could sneak one last one in, Lisa, just on the GPU side, I think this is the second or third quarter in a row that you've highlighted incremental gains inside of the data center. Can you help size what that represents as a percent of revenue today? And I guess, more importantly, as you bring to market the 7-nanometer GPU part, how you're think about exploiting that in the data center and kind of the TAM expectations, the revenue expectations we should have over the next kind of 4 to 8 quarters?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So on the GPU side, there's no question that the demand for GPUs in the data center are growing very quickly, even faster than on the CPU side, for sure. And our data center engagements -- our focus on the GPU side is very cloud-centric. So large customers, places where are GPU capability can be well targeted. I would say the size of the business is still small, so we are growing, but it is still small. But there's lots of interest in our current generation MI25. And there's even more interest in our 7-nanometer Vega GPU that's coming to market later this year. So we expect an opportunity to grow that segment over the next 4 to 8 quarters. And as you can see in the market, overall, the GPU segment is growing quite a bit in data centers. And so we'll continue to invest heavily in this area.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Vivek Arya with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wanted to just start with a clarification and then I have a follow-up. What's the assumption for blockchain revenue in Q3 and for the full year? And just if you have an updated view of overall 2018 sales growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Vivek. So let me take that, and then Devinder can add as necessary. So for Q2, we were approximately 6% of revenue for blockchain. For Q3, we're planning very little blockchain, so we expected it to be down in the second half, but we're planning very little in Q3. And so if you update that on a full year basis, for 2018, blockchain will be lower than what we had previously discussed in the last earnings call. So I would say, previously, we said mid- to high-single digits, I think this will be a more on the mid-single digit side. And we'll continue to watch the market develop over the next couple of quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. And then, Lisa, have you seen any competitive response from Intel so far in either PCs or servers? For example, some of your desktop parts saw some ASP decline. Was it just mix or price competition? Or anything else that we should keep in mind?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Vivek. So let me take each of the segments separately. So if you look at the PC segment, what we have seen is basically a ramping of our product portfolio. Certainly, in desktop, we had some mix here in the second quarter where we increased the percentage of the APUs that were being sold into the desktop channel segment, and so you saw a little bit of a mix to -- a bit softer desktop ASPs. But overall, when I look overall, I would say that the competitive situation is about what I would expect. There's product competition, and we see that. We do ensure that there is good transition of products. So when we moved from our first generation Ryzen to our second generation Ryzen, we had some channel programs to make sure that we manage channel inventory on the first generation. But we've seen nothing that I would call unusual. And on the notebook side, actually, I'm pretty pleased, because we're really seeing the notebook side of the business pick up and so mobile ASPs were up. The percentage of Ryzen units in mobile were up and we see that continuing into the second half of the year. And then on the EPYC side, again, I would say that the competition is really product based and for us, there's some workload optimization that we do with customers, but I haven't seen anything that's unusual relative to the pricing environment and, in fact, as EPYC ramps, our ASPs are going up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. And one last quick one, if I may. When should we expect to see the breakout quarter for EPYC, Lisa? Will that be Q3, Q4? What's the visibility around that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think we are very focused on ensuring we deliver that mid-single-digit unit share at the end of 2018. I think as we go into the second half of the year, I would still see it as fourth quarter would be a real important quarter for us. I think we'll see ramps into third quarter. And the key is, as you know, with some of these cloud partners, their -- it's actually important when they actually ramp these larger instances. And so lots of visibility into work being done and the exact timing will depend on our customers' ramps.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Matt Ramsay with Cowen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, a couple questions on the server business, and then I'll follow-up on a couple of PC things. In server, you guys have sort of laid out this mid-singles unit share number by the end of this year. And maybe you can walk us through that with a little bit of granularity, like how do you balance the what seems to be really high demand within the cloud customer base for Rome versus pushing volumes in the near-term of Naples? And I think some folks had asked a couple of questions around process nodes and you're obviously sampling already with Rome, so maybe you could be explicit about where you're manufacturing that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure. So a couple of different questions here, Matt. On the EPYC, your question is Naples versus Rome and how we manage that. Look, our focus from sales and go-to-market standpoint right now is on Naples. First generation EPYC, we have a lot of platforms in market, over 50 platforms in market. There are a lot of customers that have systems in their labs going through various stages of qualification, and we're very focused on supporting that and ensuring that we see that ramp into the second half of the year. Rome is really a 2019 story. I think the good part about it is I expect that customers perhaps took a little bit longer in their initial qualification and sort of work around Naples, and our hope is that, as we go into Rome, you'll see those qualification timelines tighten up a little bit. But no question that for 2018, it's a Naples story, and there's a lot of customer interest around Rome, and we will manage that. But we want to make sure that we also do as much of the validation work on our side before we sample too broadly. I think the good news is there's a lot of interest and it's really just on us to execute cleanly through the next couple of quarters. And Matt, you had some other questions or...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I mean, the last on there on server was about manufacturing for Rome, and then I'll just -- talk about some -- one thing on the PC side, particularly notebooks, one of the questions I'm getting most often from investors is as the product portfolio from AMD improves dramatically, and I think will again as you guys go to 7-nanometer, it seems like winning sell-in share with OEMs is something that you guys have a bit of control of. But I wanted to ask a little bit about sell-through and consumer adoption and sort of mindshare around your client products. Intel has wound down a little bit some of the Intel Inside marketing program, and I know you maybe have some opportunities there. Maybe you could talk about some of the steps that your marketing team is making to sort of maybe change and refresh some of the consumer perception of the products relative to how quickly they have improved fundamentally?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely. So Matt, on your first question relative to the manufacturing of the second generation of EPYC. So as I said earlier, we are working with both TSMC and GLOBALFOUNDRIES in 7-nanometer. As for the 7-nanometer Rome that we're currently sampling, that's being manufactured at the TSMC. And then your second question about where we are in that PS -- PC market, sell-in versus sellout share -- actually, it's a great question. It's a great question. And when I look at the PC market, we have great relationships with the OEMs. I mean, you can see it from the number of platforms that we have out there. But there's no question that there's opportunity for us to get the consumer perception and the commercial enterprise perception up. And so we've been very focused on that and that comes with additional investment in go-to-market expenses. So getting the Ryzen brand out there, getting the Radeon brand out there, it includes additional training at some key retailers to ensure that they know how to sell Ryzen and they know what the value proposition is. And what we see is some clear signs of early momentum in sellout. So as our platforms launched here in the month of June, we actually saw on quite a few of the outlets that they've actually sold out of our product and we've had to restock that here quickly. And as we go into the second half of the year, I think you'll see, in both back-to-school and in holidays globally, that we have a larger presence of assortment than we have had in the past. So that's a clear focus for us in the PC market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Stacy Rasgon with Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First, I wanted to ask about Ryzen share. I thought I heard you say that Ryzen was 60% of your CPU revenues in the quarter. I thought that's what you said it was last quarter as well. So how do I reconcile that with the other color around the sequential growth of Ryzen into Q2?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Stacy, it was approximately 60%. And when you look at it on a quarter-on-quarter basis, we had more units overall in desktop and notebook. Particularly in notebook, we saw an acceleration of Ryzen mobile units in the notebooks. So it's an approximate number, it's not an exact number, but it's approximately 60%. We also saw some legacy business increase, and that's why you see that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. So basically, it's maybe like a little below 60% before, and like a little above 60% now but kind of around 60%?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          In that range, exactly.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. For my second question, you said you had EPYC up more than 50% sequentially. I think it doubled last quarter, it's up 50% this quarter. But I think you're still running, call it, 1%, maybe little kind of in that ballpark of share. So if you're going to get 5% [x] in the year, I mean you've got to probably triple or more the current run rate by Q4. And I know you had mentioned earlier that Q4 was going to be kind of like an important quarter. Is that the kind of, I guess, ramp rate or run rate you're actually thinking about this EPYC business into the back half of the year in order to meet your targets?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Stacy. I mean, I think, we view an acceleration as we go into the second half of the year, particularly as some of these guys go into larger production. But yes, there are a significant number of more units. I think we just see a pipeline that can accomplish that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. One quick housekeeping, just why did the accounts receivable go up so much?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sorry, I didn't get the question, Stacy?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Accounts receivable.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sorry. Accounts receivable, why did they go up so much?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. It went up, primarily, it's higher revenue and timing of collections. So that's the main reason. In addition, there was an increase in this associated unbilled AR for semi-custom revenue, which, as you know, is recognized under ASC 606. That -- those parts have not shipped, but they get recognized as revenue, and that's it says, unbilled AR under the AR line.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Joe Moore with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe if you could talk a little bit about the Chinese JV and the product that's being developed there that you've licensed? Can you talk about when you expect to see that product emerge? And how do you think about that sort of AMD proper competing with the JV within those Chinese customers? Are you agnostic to who wins or just how should we think about that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Joe. So we did start this Chinese JV a couple of years ago and the whole idea was to get more share in the domestic China market. The partnership has gone well, the product development is going well. We view the product as complementary to our current portfolio. So I think from that standpoint, we will continue to sell sort of AMD EPYC into the China market. And then for a certain domestic China applications, I think the China JV product will be available. They have not yet announced the exact timing of that, so I'll wait until the official announcement of it. But so far, it's gone as expected and I think the product development has gone quite well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next question?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, a couple of questions. The timing of the Ryzen version of 7-nanometer after EPYC, when will that happen in 2019? Is that a quarter after or 6 months, just the timing? And the second question is, how many of the mega data center guys are you actually engaged with at the moment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, okay. So Hans, on the timing of the 7-nanometer Ryzen, I would just keep it as it's after the 7-nanometer EPYC. So we'll launch 7-nanometer EPYC first. I wouldn't say it's very far out, but I would say it's after. And then in terms of mega data centers, we are engaged with all of them in some way, shape or form across CPU and GPU. On the CPU standpoint, I would say we are heavily engaged with 5.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Kevin Cassidy with Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Edward Cassidy,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Question. Just again on EPYC, you are very clear that it was going to be about 4 quarters in qualification before your customers would start deployment. With EPYC 2, are there any programs in place or can we expect there to be a shorter amount of time before that could be deployed?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Kevin. So I believe -- and, of course, we'll have to see how this plays out. But I think with EPYC, there were some customers who waited for us to completely qualify before they started, let's call it, their own evals, and that's to be understood because we were sort of returning to the market. I think with the second generation of EPYC, one would expect that there would be some customers who would do, let's call it, parallel qualifications with our own qualifications. And so I think there is an opportunity to sort of overlap some of that work, and certainly, that's part of the reason that we've started early sampling as early as we have to try to parallelize some of that activity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Edward Cassidy,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And on the GPU traction you're getting in the data center, is there a high attach rate with your EPYC processors? Or is that just an independent traction?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I would say, at the moment, sort of for 2018-type revenue, they are independent engagements at the moment. I think, as we move into the 7-nanometer node with both EPYC and our Vega 7-nanometer, there will be more of an attach rate, and there is more interest, frankly, in that attach.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          How should we think about OpEx growth over the next several quarters? It seems like you've been growing OpEx kind of in the 20%-plus range? Should that moderate going forward or should we expect that to stay relatively stable?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, the first thing is if you look at our model that we've laid out, we've said the long-term target model to stay within the range of 26% to 30%. This year, with the revenue guide at the Q in the mid-20s, we're guiding to about 28% OpEx to revenue. Year-over-year basis, you're right, we have increased it, and largely, those increases have been in R&D. If you look on the first half of 2017 to the first half of 2018, OpEx is up, but it's largely weighted towards the R&D side. We are pleased with the operating leverage that we are getting from a company standpoint with the increase in revenue, but at the same time, targeted investments very heavily in the product roadmaps, and some of the things that you heard Lisa just talked about from the products and all of the multiple levers that we have to increase revenue, we are definitely investing in those areas.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And as a follow-up, Lisa, it's been a little bit over a year since you laid out your long-term financial model. I realize crypto has been sort of a tailwind since then. But is it fair to say that you guys are on track to hit the $0.75 and above EPS number ex crypto?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think, Toshi, if you look at the long-term financial model and put aside sort of temporal things, and we feel that we are on track towards that long-term financial model. In some places, we are ahead; in some places, we are on track; but overall, I think we feel good about where we are towards the long-term financial model.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Chris Danely with Citigroup.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wayne A. Loeb,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - VP    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Wayne Loeb for Chris Danely. What kind of performance improvement will 7-nanometer EPYC have over the current one?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Wayne, I think we are -- we're not yet getting into details of what the performance improvement is of the 7-nanometer EPYC. So I think we'll have more details on the architecture and where we are in performance later this year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Wayne A. Loeb,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - VP    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          As a follow-up, you talked about your goal of mid-single-digit share for EPYC by end of the year. At end of the year, what do you think your share would be in desktops and notebooks?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think we'll continue to make progress in desktops and notebooks. In particular, I think, we expect that the notebook share will increase as we go into the second half of the year. Obviously, the PC market overall is doing a little bit better than most people expected and so we'll have to see how the market does. But from our standpoint, we don't have a specific share target out there for end of this year. We believe we'll continue to gain share based on what we see in design wins at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Ambrish Srivastava with BMO Capital.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'm sorry, if you addressed it earlier on the call. What is the timing for the 7-nanometer GPU? And then my related question on GPU is, could you just update us on what's the progress on the software ecosystem, and specifically, in competition with the mode -- seemingly, huge mode that Nvidia has built with CUDA.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Ambrish. So our 7-nanometer GPU is -- started sampling here in the second quarter, and we will launch it later this year. So it will launch -- we expect it to launch in 2018. As it relates to the software ecosystem, we're making good progress. We're making incremental progress each quarter. And the important thing and the reason -- our strategy right now in GPUs in the data center is to engage with sort of large cloud guys who have the ability to work with us and, in some sense, we're focusing our software efforts on their needs first. And that allows us to kind of do this sort of vertical by vertical. So I think we're making good progress. It's a multiyear effort, and we are very clear that it's a multiyear effort, but we have seen some initial positive momentum and we're going to continue to invest in this space. So it's the #1 investment priority for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So in data center, Lisa, sorry, just a quick follow-up. What areas have you been able to gain traction in within the -- and it's a pretty large area, but within machine learning, where specifically have you been able to wedge yourself in?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, again, we're working with several cloud vendors on sort of key applications in their data center.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Ambrish. Operator, we have time for 2 more questions, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No problem. Our next question comes from the line of Aaron Rakers with Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just -- I apologize to continue to go back to EPYC, but just curious, as we think about the ramp, you've mentioned that you have over 50 platforms now in the market. I'm just curious if you were asked to characterize how many of those were shipping in volume, and what your expectation would be through the course of the remainder of this year in terms of those turning into true meaningful volumes?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so I'm thinking about that. I would say a number of those platforms -- a large majority of those platforms are shipping to multiple customers. So volume, of course, is all relative. But -- and the way we count platforms are, obviously, platforms from the OEMs as well as platforms from ODMs and a number of the cloud guys are doing their own platforms or specific platforms. So I would say a large number of those, the majority of those would have -- are shipping to multiple customers. And production -- sort of the scale of the production is what -- is customer dependent. So some of them are in hundreds of units, some of them are in thousands of units, some of them are in tens of thousands of units and -- different scale of numbers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, fair enough. And then as a quick follow-up, as we think about the ramp of some of your new platforms going forward and we kind of tie that to your long-term gross margin target of, I think it was 40% to 44%, can you just remind us again of how we can think about the mix in terms of the margin profile of some of the new businesses ramping? And how quickly maybe we should consider that 40-plus percent target of gross margin?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, we're guiding the third quarter to 38% gross margin. That's largely on the strength of the new product portfolio. I think what we said before, which still holds, is our Ryzen, our EPYC, our Radeon data center products are all, in aggregate, over 50% from a gross margin standpoint. They're well above the corporate average. I think we're starting to see the mix and that margin accretion of the new products, and so we'll continue to do that over the next couple of quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So, I guess, it's fair to -- yes, I guess I'm just trying to -- I guess given the commentary around the fourth quarter and EPYC, really that being an important quarter, could we assume that gross margin from here continues to trend higher?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, I think it's fair to say that, as we go into the second half of the year, our new products will be a larger percentage of our overall product revenue. And that is positive from a margin standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question comes from the line of Tim Arcuri with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had 2. I guess, when I look at the stock there's not -- I'm not sure that there's a lot of doubt about the share gain targets this year. But maybe there is some question about the ability to sustain those targets next year and the year after. So I guess the question -- first question is, what are you doing differently this time that was not done in the Opteron cycle? Are you giving customers more visibility to your roadmap?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Tim, I think the major thing that we're doing differently as a company and certainly around EPYC, is we are doing what we said we were going to do. We laid out a 5-year roadmap to what we wanted to do in servers. We told them what first generation EPYC would look like. It came out a little bit better than they expected. We told them when to expect second generation EPYC and what we were trying to do with that. And I'm really pleased to say that we're exactly on track to what we said we were going to do. And we have a third generation behind that. So our focus is to execute really, really well and provide the customers the differentiation in the value proposition to consider us as a long-term partner. We are not after what happens over the next 2 quarters. I mean, this is extraordinarily -- it's a journey for us with EPYC, and I think we feel good about what we've done and the entire team is focused on delivering what we said we were going to do.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it, Lisa. And I guess, just the last question is really around the strategic foundry roadmap beyond 7-nanometer. Clearly, you have a lead now that -- because Intel is going to really, I think, functionally skip over 10-nanometer, which is great, and maybe it was -- it's a little bit unexpected given when you began development of these parts. But how do you think strategically beyond 7-nanometer as you move to 5-nanometer with your partner? And where Intel will be at that time?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [77]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          What we see in the foundry roadmap is actually a very nice cadence of technologies. So we do believe 7-nanometer will be a large node. There will be derivatives of 7-nanometer: 7-nanometer, 7-nanometer plus. We have seen the first view of 5-nanometer, and we think 5-nanometer is very competitive as well. So again, our goal is to use the best that process technology can offer in the foundry market, and then differentiate on architecture and sort of product positioning and those kinds of things.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [78]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes our question-and-answer session. And I would like to turn the call back to Laura Graves for closing remarks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [79]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, operator. And to everyone who joined our call today through Q&A, thank you very much. Appreciate your time and we'll speak to you again soon.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [80]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This concludes today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2018-Oct-24-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,648 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2018 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 24, 2018 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Harlan Sur
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the AMD Third Quarter 2018 Financial Results Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Laura Graves. Please go ahead, Laura.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and, yes, welcome to AMD's Third Quarter 2018 Conference Call. By now, you should have had an opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, www.amd.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are: Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+I would like to highlight some important dates for you. AMD's next Horizon event is scheduled for Tuesday, November 6, 2018, where we will discuss innovation of AMD's products and technology specifically designed for the data center on industry-leading 7-nanometer process technology. Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer will present at the Crédit Suisse 22nd Annual Technology, Media and Teleconference on Tuesday, November 27; and our 2018 fourth quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, December 14. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and, as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. 
+We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial measures during this call except for revenue, gross margin and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced today are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release posted on our website. Please refer to the cautionary statements in our press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and, in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2018. 
+Now with that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. We executed well on the third quarter. We continued to build momentum for our new products as strong sales of our Ryzen and EPYC processors offset soft GPU channel sales and drove our fifth consecutive quarter of year-on-year revenue growth, increased profitability and margin expansion. Third quarter revenue was $1.65 billion, an increase of 4% from a year ago. 
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, third quarter CG segment revenue increased 12% year-on-year, driven by significant growth in both client processor and OEM GPU sales that offset a larger-than-expected decline in channel GPU sales. Ryzen processor sales increased to more than 70% of our total client revenue in the quarter. We delivered our highest processor unit shipments in nearly 4 years and believe we gained desktop and notebook client processor unit share in the quarter, driven by growth with both OEMs and in the channel. 
+In desktop, we had strong demand for our higher-end Ryzen 7, Ryzen 5 and Ryzen Threadripper processors, helping to drive a double-digit percentage year-over-year and sequential improvement in client processor ASP. We expanded our desktop offerings in the quarter, bringing our Zen processor core and Vega graphics to the entry-level part of the market with the Athlon APU and launching our flagship 32-core Threadripper 2 processor. With these new introductions, we now have a top to bottom lineup of client processors based on our high-performance Zen architecture. 
+In notebooks, Ryzen Mobile processor unit shipments doubled sequentially for the second straight quarter as OEMs ramped production of their latest AMD-based notebooks. 54 of the 60 Ryzen processor-based notebooks planned for 2008 (sic) [2018]  have launched, with the final notebooks expected to go on sale this quarter. Based on the success of first-generation Ryzen Mobile notebooks, the expanded breadth of our customer engagements and our design win momentum, we are on track for an even larger assortment of AMD-powered notebooks in 2019. 
+In graphics, the year-over-year revenue decrease was primarily driven by significantly lower channel GPU sales, partially offset by improved OEM and data center GPU sales. Channel GPU sales came in lower than expected based on excess channel inventory levels caused by the decline in blockchain-related demand that was so strong earlier in the year. OEM GPU sales in the third quarter increased by a strong double-digit percentage year-over-year as new design wins began to ramp, including first shipments of our mobile Vega GPUs to support new premium notebooks launching this quarter. 
+In professional graphics, revenue increased by a double-digit percentage from a year ago, driven by data center GPU sales as we continued to gain traction in this important part of the market. We launched the Radeon Pro WX 8200 GPU for workstations in the quarter, delivering the world's best workstation graphics performance under $1,000 on real-time visualization, VR and photorealistic editing workloads. We remain on track to launch the industry's first 7-nanometer data center GPU this quarter. Customer interest in the product is strong based on its performance and differentiated feature set, and we have already secured multiple data center wins with shipments expected to begin in the fourth quarter. We continued to increase investments in GPU hardware and software to deliver industry-leading products that we believe will drive growth in the gaming, professional and data center markets. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Third quarter revenue decreased 5% year-on-year primarily based on semi-custom sales declining, as expected, as current generation consoles entered their sixth year. 
+In server, we delivered our third straight quarter of strong double-digit percentage sequential revenue and unit shipment growth. We are seeing the largest demand for our top of the stack 24- and 32-core EPYC processors, which combine industry-leading core count and I/O to deliver performance advantages across cloud, virtualization and HPC workloads. We continued to accelerate engagements with our cloud service providers, highlighted by yesterday's announcement that Oracle launched new AMD-powered emphasis that offer significant TCO and performance advantages on general-purpose cloud workloads and Oracle applications. We expect additional Tier 1 cloud service providers to announce availability of new EPYC processor deployment this quarter. We secured multiple new customer wins on the HPC front, including Microsoft's announcement they would offer an EPYC processor-based supercomputing instance, and that Haas Racing has chosen Cray to build an EPYC-powered supercomputer to improve their computational fluid dynamics modeling for future cars. 
+Turning to enterprise adoption. We continue to build a strong pipeline and accelerate the ongoing ramps of EPYC-based offerings from the major OEMs, including Cisco, Dell and HP Enterprise. In the third quarter, we added dozens of new end customers across oil and gas, health care, aerospace, banking and other industries based on the superior performance of EPYC processors in both data analytics and general-purpose virtualized workloads. We began sampling our next-generation Rome server chip broadly across our customer base in the third quarter, and the feedback on this leadership product is very strong. As a result, cloud and OEM customers are engaging earlier, deeper and more collaboratively with us on both Rome and our long-term data center road map. We remain on track to exit the year with mid-single-digit server unit market share based on cloud customer adoption. And based on our strong competitive position and broad customer engagements, we believe we can achieve double-digit server unit share with Rome.
+In closing, 2018 remains an inflection point for AMD as we expect to exit the year with well over 50% of our revenue coming from new products, driving significant margin expansion. The foundational changes we have made across the business to strengthen our execution, and the investments we have made to deliver a leadership Computing and Graphics road map are paying off. Our current generations of high-performance CPUs and GPUs are doing very well in market, putting us on track to increase profitability, grow revenue and expand margin for the second straight year. We see significant opportunities to build on this momentum as we transition to our next generations of high-performance products and launch the industry's first 7-nanometer x86 CPUs and discrete GPUs over the coming quarters. Demand for our high-performance computing offerings remains strong, and our product portfolio and competitive positioning are getting stronger. We remain focused on executing our strategy and delivering our leadership product road map. 
+Now I would like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our third quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa. Good afternoon, everyone. Q3 was a good quarter for AMD as revenue, operating margin and earnings per share grew year-over-year. Gross margin was 40%, highlighted by the continuing ramp of our new Ryzen and EPYC products. We strengthened the balance sheet, reduced long-term debt by $97 million and further improved our gross leverage. Quarterly revenue of $1.65 billion was up 4% year-over-year, driven by higher Computing and Graphics segment revenue with higher client revenue more than offsetting global graphics revenue; third quarter revenue including IP-related revenue, of which $86 million was related to our THATIC joint venture. 
+Gross margin was 40%, up 390 basis points year-over-year, primarily driven by the ramp of new products, including Ryzen and EPYC processors. On a sequential basis, gross margin was up 280 basis points primarily driven by IP-related revenue and the ramp of new products. Excluding IP-related revenue and memory and inventory-related adjustments, third quarter gross margin would have been 2 percentage points lower. Operating expenses grew 12% year-over-year to $476 million, driven by R&D investments in our product road maps and incremental go-to-market investments. Operating income grew to $186 million from $148 million a year ago. Operating margin was 11%, and both business segments recorded double-digit operating margin percentage. Net income was $150 million compared to $100 million a year ago. Non-GAAP diluted earnings per share, using a diluted share count of 1,177,000,000, was $0.13 compared to $0.09 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $938 million, up 12% year-over-year. Revenue growth was driven primarily by strong Ryzen product sales as we expanded our client compute offerings in the quarter. Ryzen products accounted for more than 70% of client revenue, up from approximately 60% last quarter as we saw strength in both desktop and notebook offerings across OEM and channel partners. In graphics, channel GPU sales were down year-over-year, partially offset by strong Radeon data center and OEM GPU demand. For comparative purposes, third quarter 2017 blockchain-related GPU sales were approximately high single-digit percent of overall AMD revenue, while blockchain revenue in the third quarter of this year was negligible. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $100 million or 11% of segment revenues compared to operating income of $73 million a year ago. The increase was primarily driven by a richer client product mix and IP-related revenue, partially offset by lower graphics revenue. 
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $715 million, down 5% year-over-year. The year-over-year revenue decrease was driven primarily by lower semi-custom product and IP-related revenue, partially offset by higher server sales. For the third quarter in a row, EPYC processor units and revenue grew by strong double-digit percentages quarter-over-quarter. EESC operating income was $86 million or 12% of segment revenue. This is up from operating income of $74 million a year ago primarily due to a richer server and semi-custom product mix. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.06 billion at the end of the quarter, and we generated free cash flow of $62 million. Inventory was down sequentially from $750 million to $738 million. Total principal debt was $1.6 billion as we reduced our long-term debt by $97 million in the quarter. Term debt due in March 2019 is down to $66 million, and beyond that, there are no term debt maturities until 2022. Adjusted EBITDA was $227 million compared to $184 million a year ago, and on a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $709 million, resulting in gross debt leverage of 2.2x. 
+Now turning to our financial outlook. For the fourth quarter 2018, AMD expects revenue to be approximately $1.45 billion, plus or minus $50 million. This would be an increase of approximately 8% year-over-year driven by sales growth of Ryzen, EPYC and data center GPU products. For comparative purposes, Q4 2017 revenue was $1.34 billion adjusted for the ASC 606 revenue accounting standard and included blockchain-related GPU sales of approximately low double-digit percent of overall AMD revenue. Sequentially, the midpoint of fourth quarter revenue outlook would be a decrease of approximately 12%, driven primarily by lower semi-custom sales. In addition, for Q4 2018, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 41%, up from 34% in the prior year driven by the ramp of Ryzen, EPYC and data center GPU processor sales; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $465 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $30 million; and free cash flow to be positive. For the full year 2018, we continue to expect annual revenue growth of mid-20s percent and to be free cash flow positive, and we now expect non-GAAP gross margin in excess of 38%. 
+In closing, the third quarter was a good quarter as we continue to ramp our new products. This momentum is driving improvement in our financial results against a backdrop of expanding customer demand as we prepare to ship and launch our first 7-nanometer GPU products before the end of the year. We are executing on our strategy and investment and financial priorities as we continue making excellent progress towards our long-term target financial model. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First question, if I may, Lisa, as you look into the fourth quarter and maybe discuss also the third quarter, can you just review the important puts and takes on the revenues, on the microprocessor and GPU side separately? And I know you don't like to discuss the competition, but I think there are some unique things going on in the competitive environment. I think there's a view that Intel is capacity-constrained in -- with NVIDIA's new product launches, how is that impacting how we should be thinking about the revenues?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Mark, thanks for the question. So let me take those in order here. So if we just look at the third quarter revenue, I would say that we did see a shift in our revenue mix as we went through the third quarter. Looking at the individual product lines, we had expected that the client business would be strong as we were ramping quite a few new notebook OEM systems as well as we have strong desktop product portfolio. And we saw the client business was strong. It was actually up probably a bit stronger than we expected. The server business also performed quite well. In the graphics business, we had our OEM and data center compute business performing well, but we did see the softness in the channel that was larger than we expected, and that was due to some of the channel inventory comments that I made earlier. 
+Now as you shift into the fourth quarter, I think what we see is that our fourth quarter revenue mix really mixes towards the new products. And so what you see in the product lines are -- you'd see the client business continue to grow, and client is usually seasonally down into the fourth quarter. So we're doing better than seasonality with the client business. We expect the server business to grow as well as we get more traction with our EPYC products, especially in the cloud. And then we would expect, with our graphics business, that, that will also grow sequentially primarily on the strength of new products around our data center GPUs and the semi-custom business actually will decline sequentially. Semi-custom business always declines in fourth quarter. I would say this fourth quarter is a bit more pronounced. It gets a bit more pronounced as we get later in the cycle as well as the fact that the 606 accounting regulations tended to pull some of the revenue earlier in the year. But hopefully, that gives you a view of sort of the puts and takes around revenue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's very helpful, and if I follow up if I may. I think I heard Devinder say that you're expecting to ship EPYC 2 before the end of this year. And if I think back to a dozen years ago when you had the second-generation server product, that kind of signaled an opportunity for an inflection in the revenues. How should we think about EPYC 2 as we go into early next year? And what does EPYC 2 bring to your customers that EPYC did not?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Mark, maybe just a correction. So I think Devinder's comment was that our 7-nanometer GPU would ship here in the fourth quarter, and we're on track to launch that here shortly. The second-generation of EPYC, our 7-nanometer CPU, will ship in 2019. We are broadly sampling it now. I think from what we see, the performance is very competitive. And also, many of our customers have had a chance to really spend time with the first generation of EPYC, get to learn our architecture and do much of the platform bring-up. So we're excited about what the second generation of EPYC can do for us. We're -- and we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a couple weeks at our data center event, but we believe that our competitive position gets stronger as we get into 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, can you give us the puts and takes -- or Devinder or both, on the gross margin dynamic in Q3? And also, in Q4? Is there an IP component in Q4? And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me -- maybe let me start and then Devinder can add. So on the gross margin for the third quarter, I think we were up 4% year-on-year. We did have an IP component in this year as we had an IP component in the third quarter of last year. The majority of the improvement though was due to the positive product mix, sort of the client and server business really growing year-on-year and with that, improving the product mix. As we go into the fourth quarter, there is no IP-related revenue that's planned right now. So with the guide at 41% margin, we really are at the -- let's call it, the low end of our long-term guidance. And again, that's on the strength of the product mix. It's a very positive product mix for us. The processor business, as we've always said, the new products are accretive to margin. And so the client business is expected to grow. The server business is expected to grow. The data center GPUs are expected to grow. And then there is a portion of that, that is the semi-custom business declining sequentially, but I would say that's the smaller portion. It's really the positive product mix that's going into the Q4 guide. And maybe, Devinder, is there anything you wanted to add?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, I think you covered it, Lisa. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And then a follow-up. If you don't mind as a follow-up. As we look into early 2019, what can we expect in terms of seasonality for the semi-custom part of the business and on the PC side just because there are some constraints out there that -- from Intel and so on?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So look, if you -- Hans, our typical seasonality is the second half of the year is stronger than the first half of the year. As we go into 2019, you would expect that the semi-custom business will be down relative to this year and then you would expect that we're still going to need a bit of time to work through some of this graphics channel inventory that we have. But on the positive side, we do see strength in our processor business in both the client and the server side. As it relates to the current supply environment, we did see some pockets of constraints in the supply chain around PCs. We saw that towards the end of the third quarter. We are increasing our production such that we can satisfy some of that demand. And I think that's a short-term statement, but I think on a midterm statement, it's an environment where we're partnering very closely with our OEMs to make sure their requirements are met.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Matt Ramsay from Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wanted to follow up a little bit on the last, I guess, couple of sentences in your prior answer there. There's a lot of things moving in the model near term, but as we think about how you're positioning the company in the client business over the next, I don't know, 24 months or so, with some supply constraints at Intel and some changes in their marketing support for OEMs for some of those programs and their spending, how do you think about how you're positioned with the key top 5 or 6 OEMs in terms of both PC and, I guess, desktop and notebook over the next 24 months? And sort of what are the puts and takes of how much you're really willing to lean into that business in order to gain unit share?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Matt, thanks for the question. So on the PC business particularly around client processors, I am bullish on that business. It's a good business for us. Our products are very well positioned when you look at both the desktop and notebook segment. It was important for us to get these new platforms out into the market, and so we have 54 new notebook platforms that are out in the market with a few more to go as we enter -- finish up here the fourth quarter. I think the traction that we see in terms of unit shipments, the metric around Ryzen being 70% of our client business -- over 70%, and we expect that to continue to accelerate. So we're bullish on the client business as a good business for us to grow over the next 12 to 24 months.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. That's helpful. And just as a follow-up, I understand in a couple of weeks, you'll probably be talking a bit more about the data center GPU portfolio. But I guess there's been a lot of movement in software ecosystem as you've been working, and the team has, to develop the MIOpen product in terms of software. Maybe you could give us a little bit of an update on how you feel that's positioned for Caffe and Tensor, which, I guess, are the 2 key development environments for AI. And what do you think the long-term prospects for that business are over the next couple of years?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So on the data center GPU business, this will continue to be an area of investment for us. I think we've made very nice progress this year. I think as we finish up the year, we expected to again make good progress. We have invested in -- on both the hardware and the software side. So I think the 7-nanometer GPU starting shipments here in the fourth quarter is important for us. And on the software side, yes, we will also be updating the status of our software environment. I think the nice thing is, as we say, the data center is just an enormous opportunity, whether you're talking about CPUs or GPUs, and we're engaging deeply with cloud customers who are spending the time and the resources to optimize to our architecture. So again, I think it's -- data center tends to take longer from design win to revenue, but we're starting to see some nice signals there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had 2 of them really quick. So first is actually on the CPU side, the server side. So is there any reason why a 10-nanometer chip wouldn't be able to outperform your 7-nanometer product given that you've already been able to do some of the testing on the server side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe I would answer the question this way. When we look at our 7-nanometer product and its positioning in 2019 across the server landscape, we feel very good about the positioning. I think it's not just 7-nanometer. 7-nanometer is important, but we've also made some significant changes to the architecture as well as how -- sort of the system. So I think overall, we feel, with the design and process capabilities, that our 7-nanometer products will be quite competitive.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And then secondly from me, in terms of production, I know you guys have kind of given the mid-singles and kind of double-digit market share opportunity in the server side. So is that due to capacity constraint at TSMC? Or is that just due to your own estimates of what type of share you think you can get?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, we have a great relationship with TSMC. I think they're very supportive of our road map in 7-nanometer. So it's not due to any supply constraint. It's just due to the time that we believe that we'll take for vendors to really qualify new systems.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Just -- and just one last really small one from me. The graphics business, the highest blockchain or cryptocurrency quarter was Q1 of '18. Is that correct?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The highest -- it was between Q4 and Q1. They were pretty close.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For the first one, Lisa, can you help us kind of quantify how much of a headwind was that excess -- the graphics inventory in Q3 and maybe also in Q4 so we can reconcile some of the differences between what you are reporting and guiding versus some of the consensus expectations out there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Vivek. So the best thing I can say is when we look at the CG segment, that's a segment -- we're down about $150 million here in the third quarter. We had expected the segment to be down, but we probably expected it to be down about $50 million or so. And if you look at that difference from when we started the quarter, that's entirely the GPU channel. We had some other puts and takes in there, but it's basically the GPU channel. As we go into the fourth quarter, we do expect graphics to be up, and that's primarily on the strength of the data center GPU business, and we're modeling the channel as, let's call it, roughly flattish. It's seasonally about flattish, but given some of the inventory in the channel, that's how we're modeling. Does that help?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So basically, you're saying this problem kind of goes away in Q4 or you're done with it by now. Or can it continue to be a headwind in Q4?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, we are expecting that it might take a couple of quarters to completely get back to, let's call it, a normal channel. However, it is factored into our Q4 guidance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. And then the second one, Lisa, is on the server business. So you outlined the target to get to mid-single digit exiting this year. Is the next 5% share easier or tougher to get? How do you think your competitor will respond? And how important is it to ramp your 7-nanometer product next year to get towards that -- to make that jump from the 5% to the next target of 10% share?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I -- the way I look at it, Vivek, is it's really a continuum. And the continuum is we have a number of customers that are very actively working with EPYC. I think the first 5% does include some cloud customers ramping, and that's important. And then as we go beyond that, we would expect that they're more used to our architecture. Our architecture is socket-compatible between the first and second generation. We're sampling it now. And so I think the idea is we would like to see some acceleration in that as we bring in the 7-nanometer product, but we'll certainly have to go through that process.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First, I wanted to ask about graphics trajectory in the next year. I mean, given my math -- I know you talked about maybe $100 million light versus your expectation, but my math suggests that might have fallen as much as $250 million sequentially if you're going to get it at least to the level that it was last year. Now if I look at what that trajectory means going further and if I ask you whether or not you thought graphics revenues to be down 20% year-over-year in 2019, like how would you feel about that? What's your response to that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Stacy, let me make sure I clarify the first comment and then I'll certainly answer the comment. My comment was at the segment level. So at the segment level, I said we were about $100 million light, and I also said that client performed a little bit better than expected. So I think you can say that it was probably -- if you -- that should help quantify sort of Q3. When I look at it going forward, I would not expect that type of decline on a year-on-year basis. I think what you'll see is some funky seasonality, right. So the first half of the year was very strong for graphics. I think the first half of '19 will not be very strong for graphics, but we have a number of product launches coming up, and we're pretty excited about some of those product launches. And so I would view that -- we need to work off some of this channel inventory that's in place and then go back to sort of a more typical seasonality, which would see the second half stronger than the first. Does that help?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. That does help. For my follow-up, I want to ask about the data center GPU. So you've been talking a lot about that. You've actually been calling it out as driving, like, some of the growth in the current quarter and going forward. How big is that today? I mean, you're calling it out, but like can you give us an order of magnitude? I mean, is it more than $20 million in the quarter at this point? Where do you see that going into Q4? And like what are your expectations as you ramp the 7-nanometer product in the next year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You always have a way of asking the most granular questions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I don't think it's that granular.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It is more than $20 million. We do see it as a driver. We do see it as more of a driver as we go into 7-nanometer. And this is one of those cases where typically, the data center products ramp slowly, but as you know, the deployments can sometimes be lumpy and there's good traction on some early design wins. And so we expect it to be a meaningful contribution in Q4.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And just one more really quickly. How do you feel about your $0.75 in 2020? You're still holding to that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          There are no changes to our long-term financial model at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, not today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Not today, okay.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just want to go back to the IP side of things. You gave some color about the fact that it's not contributing anything in the fourth quarter, and that's helpful on the gross margin side. But one other detail, Devinder or Lisa, is I think the $86 million you talked about, you said that was a portion of the IP and then you had some other inventory-related changes. Can you just give us a little bit more color on the size of those different buckets? How big was IP overall? Anything there would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. On the IP, I think as we talked about, this $86 million is associated with our THATIC joint venture. There were some other IP, call it, about -- approximately about $35 million in the quarter, and that is why we talked about it in 2 parts.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then as my follow-up. As I'm looking at the GPU side of things, not to kind of beat the dead horse there too much more, but the ASP side of that equation or pricing side, is the channel inventory clearing dynamic something that also manifests itself on pricing pressure? Or is it just a matter of time to absorb that inventory, which, Lisa, I think you said, was going to be a flat dynamic in the fourth quarter but it sounded like it was going to be returning to a headwind in the first half of next year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes -- no. If that's how it sounded, that's not what I meant. So I would say that the GPU -- let's call it, the weakness in the GPU channel or primarily in the sell-in is, let's call it, for the -- we might see that for the next quarter or 2. But as you look through the overall business, I think -- gamers are still buying GPUs. And so this is really a matter of just absorbing some of the first half, let's call it, oversupply as it relates to GPUs and that's translating into a bit weaker sell-in. But we are still tracking the sellout and the sell-through, through the -- to the end customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And if I could sneak in one quick one. Just OpEx intensity, I know you're not going to guide for OpEx for 2019, but the 26% to 29%, how do we think about where you are in the investment stage where, whether it's the EPYC or the other new products -- EPYC 2, I should say, or the other new products where you kind of get over the hump and you don't need to invest as much? Is that a framework we should think about? Or do you believe the opportunities are big enough and the competitors are spending enough that, that OpEx intensity in that range is likely to persist?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, I think, Ross, if you look on an annual basis for 2008 (sic) [2018] , we'll be approximately 28% of OpEx to revenue. And I think what we've said in the past is we will grow OpEx but we will grow it slower than revenue growth on an annual basis. And that's still our philosophy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. If you said this, I may have missed it, but can you talk about how much servers grew sequentially in Q3? I guess you were fairly specific on that point in Q2. I think you said double digits this quarter. Do you expect to be sort of -- as you talk about it, mid-single digit next quarter, are you kind of half way to that target this quarter? Just help us calibrate where server is.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think, Joe, it'd be fair to say that we have strong double digits this quarter and we'd just say we're about half way. I mean, I think that's reasonable, plus or minus.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And then with regards to the 7-nanometer, I know you're going to talk more about this at the product launch, but can you talk about what 7-nanometer itself gives you? Is it -- do you expect there to be a higher sort of clock speed on the microprocessors in the GPUs? Is it a better transistor budget? Is it better cost per transistor? Just what are -- obviously, there's a lot riding on you guys being early in both segments on 7. Can you just talk about the benefit to that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. And we will go this -- go through this in a lot more detail on November 6, but at a high level, I think 7-nanometer gives us better density. So for a given system, we can put more cores on it. It gives us better power. So that gives us total cost of ownership, and it does give us better performance as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, congratulations on the strong gross margin results. I just wanted some clarification. The calendar fourth quarter guidance, does that include IP revenue in the gross margin? And clearly, gross margin is being helped in December by the growth in new products, but it's probably also being helped by the sharp falloff in semi-customs. Should we think about kind of the gross margin level in December as being the new floor off of which you can continue to grow sequentially even as semi-custom comes back seasonally? Or how do I think about that? Then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So on the gross margin, you know, that was Q4 guidance, there is no assumed IP-related revenue. So that's all product. We do have, as I said earlier, a very positive product mix related to processor side of the business, so the client, the server as well as the data center GPUs. We are helped somewhat by the fact that semi-custom is down, but I would say the much larger piece of that is the product-related growth in new products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So is this the new floor, Lisa? Or is it too hard to tell?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I don't know if I would say it's the new floor. I would say that we're very pleased that we're at the lower end of our long-term guidance. And certainly, we'll see what the puts and takes are as we go from a quarterly standpoint into 2019. But on a full year basis in 2018, I think Devinder mentioned this in his prepared remarks, we're now over 38%, and we've really grown margins every quarter over the last number of quarters. And we're happy with that. I think that's the strength of the model. We've always said that the strength of the model is improving the product mix, and I think that's what we see here today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then Lisa, I apologize if I missed it, but just relative to your Q4 guidance, given some of the capacity issues that your competitor is having, is there any share gain -- incremental share gain assumptions based upon shortage of CPUs? Is that something that should be a tailwind in Q4? Or does that take longer, it might be something we don't see in sort of calendar first quarter? Any commentary around that would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we do see some pockets of shortages. We are ramping up production. I do believe we see some incremental benefit here in the fourth quarter, but I don't want to take away from the fact that we have a strong portfolio and we have a lot of platforms ramping. So the client business was always going to be up for us in Q4. And are we benefiting a bit from, let's call it, some of the pockets of shortages? Perhaps.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2 as well, if I can. I wanted to go into the semi-custom segment, and we've talked about kind of an elongated or near the end of the life from some of these gaming platforms. I'm just kind of curious as how you guys think about that piece of the business as we start to look into 2019? And is there a point in time where we can start to kind of think about product cycles as driving reacceleration of growth in that segment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure. So again, without commenting on any specific design wins, what I would say is in 2019, we will be in the seventh year of the game console cycle. And so we do expect it to be down. And if you look at the cycles, you'll see that it's very consistent with previous cycles. When we look forward, when I look at what happens beyond 2019, I like our semi-custom business. I think it's a good business for us. I think it continues to be a place where we differentiate ourselves because of our ability to customize for various customers. And I do see it growing again beyond 2019, and it will continue to be an important part of our business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then on the channel inventory dynamic, there's a lot of kind of moving parts right now in the market. And we've seen, obviously, with the U.S.-China tariff situation, there's then some questions around demand pull-forward or any kind of element around the tariff situation that's impacted demand. I'm just curious, have you seen anything from your customers that have suggested that there's any -- been any kind of sort of demand pull-forward and any effects on your business as it relates to U.S.-China especially as we start to look into next year, the potential for increased tariffs further?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we're monitoring the tariff situation very closely. There's a lot of activity around that. I would say from what we see today, we don't see anything material as it relates to the tariffs, whether it's pull-ins or just the overall impact of tariffs. But we are doing quite a bit to adjust our supply chain, as I'm sure many others are. So we already had a supply chain that was highly multi-sourced, and so that's very helpful. And we're adjusting our supply chain to ensure that we have further options such that the tariffs are not a significant impact on our business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Harlan Sur from JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harlan Sur,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the weakness in the channel-based GPUs, I'm just wondering if some of the weakness is due to the gaming bans in China. It looks like China is hindering the introduction of new games, but I'm not sure if it's impacting actual GPU sales and sort of the enthusiast gamers' motivation to kind of move up the stack?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I don't think we see that specifically, Harlan. I think what we're seeing is more -- just we had very strong demand in the first half of this year. And as the supply chain build up, we're just seeing some excess inventory that needs to be worked through right now. We're not seeing anything specific relative to that China issue you mentioned.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harlan Sur,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thanks for the insight there. And then on the Wafer Supply Agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES, now that they're not going to be supporting 7-nanometer, you'll be moving, I think, most of your 7-nanometer client products to TSMC, and as of right now, I think you guys still need to pay them a fee for every 7-nanometer product you produce at TSMC, can you just give us an update on the new Wafer Supply Agreement that doesn't include 7-nanometers? Obviously, this should be beneficial for your gross margins.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So look, GLOBALFOUNDRIES is a good partner. They continue to be a very important partner for us. We are in discussions with them about how to update our agreement post their strategy updates. And we're making good progress on that. So we'll give you more detail as we get closer. But overall, they -- GLOBALFOUNDRIES continues to be an important partner for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just a question to follow up on that THATIC, the $86 million. My understanding is you had original agreement, you were getting an OpEx off that, and then eventually, if there was product revenue, you'd recognize that revenue with your portion of your ownership on those wafers. So I'm just kind of curious, what's this $86 million? Is it additional IP? And any color on as to what it's for, if possible.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Blayne. So it is related to some additional IP with THATIC. And we've completed some technology milestones in this past quarter, and so that's what that was.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got you. And then I want to ask you -- it's well known that there is graphics inventory. You mentioned that graphics pricing was down. I'm just kind of curious of your expectation for that discounting as we get into the end of the year here. What have you seen and what are you expecting as you look into December?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. We're not expecting any significant changes from an ASP standpoint if that's what you're asking. I think what we see is the inventory just has to be worked through, and it's working through the system.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [77]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I did join a little bit late. So I do apologize if you addressed this. Lisa, I just had a question on the client CPU business and how you think about market share versus profitability going forward. Given some of the shortages near term, I'm sure you have the opportunity to pick up share if you wanted to but perhaps at a lower gross margin. So as you think about the client business over the next year or 2, how do you balance market share versus profitability?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [78]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, so the client business is a good business for us from a margin standpoint. And as we look forward, we look at it as an end-to-end portfolio. So -- and we really do have an end-to-end portfolio across notebook and desktop. And our goal is continue to improve the profitability of that business. 
+As it relates to unit share, I think unit share is certainly important. We look at revenue growth overall as important for that business, but I believe we'll be able to do that at good margins and continue on our margin path.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [79]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [80]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much for joining our conference call today, everyone. This does conclude our call.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [81]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2019-Apr-30-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,570 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2019 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 30, 2019 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Kevin Edward Cassidy
+   Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices First Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's First Quarter 2019 Conference Call. By now, you should've had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, amd.com. Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+I would like to highlight some important dates for you. In celebration of AMD's 50th anniversary on May 1, 2019, Dr. Lisa Su and members of AMD's executive leadership team will host a panel discussion reflecting on 50 years of innovation by AMD. This will be held at the NASDAQ MarketSite in New York City. Dr. Lisa Su, President and Chief Executive Officer, will also be delivering a keynote address at COMPUTEX in Taiwan on Monday, May 27; Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, HR and Investor Relations will present at the Bank of America Global Technology Conference on Tuesday, June 4; and our 2019 second quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, June 14, 2019. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial measures during this call except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced on this call are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release, which is posted on our website. Please refer to the cautionary statements in our press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and, in particular, AMD's annual report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 29, 2018. 
+Now with that, I would like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. We had a solid first quarter. Revenue was in line with our expectations at $1.27 billion, down 23% year-over-year. Ryzen and EPYC Processor and Data Center GPU revenue more than doubled year-over-year, helping expand gross margin by 5 percentage points and partially offsetting graphics channel softness and lower Semi-Custom revenue. 
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, revenue declined year-over-year as higher Client Processor sales were offset by lower Graphics sales to the channel. Client Processor sales increased by a strong double-digit percentage from the year ago period as unit shipments increased significantly and our new products drove a higher client ASP. As a result, we believe we gained unit market share for the sixth straight quarter. 
+In the desktop channel, demand for our highest end Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPUs was strong, with sales increasing sequentially and outperforming seasonality. Ryzen Mobile Processor adoption continues to accelerate. Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and other OEMs have launched more than a dozen new Ryzen mobile notebooks so far in 2019, helping us deliver our fifth straight quarter of year-over-year Mobile Processor growth. Our customers are on track to increase the number of Ryzen Notebook models by more than 50% from 2018. The majority of these new systems are planned to launch in the second quarter in advance of the seasonally stronger second half of the year. 
+In Graphics, revenue decreased year-over-year driven largely by lower channel sales partially offset by a significant increase in Data Center GPU sales. Radeon Vega GPU shipments grew by a strong double-digit percentage both year-over-year and sequentially based on increased adoption across OEM, gaming and data center customers. Apple introduced 2 new iMac systems featuring upgraded Radeon Pro Vega GPUs that deliver up to 80% faster graphics performance than the previous generation. We believe we made good progress improving channel inventory levels. Sell-through accelerated sequentially driven by sales of both our mainstream Radeon RX GPUs and new high-end Radeon VII gaming GPUs. We are well-positioned to grow GPU revenue in the second quarter and through the second half of the year as we expect to introduce our first 7-nanometer Navi gaming GPUs in the third quarter. We delivered another quarter of strong data center GPU sales based on increased adoption across large customers. Our progress was highlighted by Google's announcement that they selected high-performance Radeon GPUs and AMD's software development tools to power their upcoming Stadia game streaming platform. Stadia is a great example of how we are expanding the depth and breadth of our data center customer engagements. We are seeing growing customer interest in our differentiated platforms for game streaming, machine learning and HPC workloads that combine our high-performance GPUs with open source software tools. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-custom segment. Revenue decreased from a year ago as expected due to lower Semi-Custom revenue as we enter the seventh year of the current game console cycle. Our Semi-Custom business model continues to play an important role in our long-term growth as our strong IP portfolio enables the industry's biggest brands to create differentiated solutions. The latest example is Sony. We are honored that Sony has selected a custom AMD SoC based on our Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU architectures to power its next-generation PlayStation console. Our Server CPU revenue grew significantly from the year ago period, as EPYC processor adoption across cloud, HPC and Enterprise customers continued to grow. Overall in the data center, our CPU and GPU sales accounted for a mid-teens percentage of quarterly revenue. Our work with cloud leader, Amazon, continues to expand as they rolled out AMD-based offerings to additional regions and launched 3 new EPYC processor-powered EC2 instance families, including the first T3 Series instance. Growing HPC and regional cloud service provider deployments resulted in EPYC processor channel sales increasing sequentially. In the Enterprise, we added dozens of new customers across the aerospace, health care, automotive and telecom industries based on the superior performance of EPYC processors in big data and general-purpose virtualized workloads. 
+Turning to our next-generation Rome processor. We made excellent progress in the quarter, achieving key production milestones with our largest OEM and cloud customers. We are very excited about the performance of Rome, which is on track to deliver 4x the floating-point performance and double the compute performance per socket compared to our current generation EPYC processors. We are on track to begin Rome production shipments in the second quarter to support a third quarter launch. 
+In summary, I am pleased with our first quarter financial results based on the strong execution engine we have built across the company. 
+Tomorrow is an important day in AMD's history, as we celebrate our 50th anniversary. This is a significant milestone for any company, but especially significant for a technology company. 2019 is arguably the most important year in our history as the $75 billion market for our high-performance Computing and Graphics products has never been larger. And our product portfolio has never been stronger. We are right where we planned to be with our multiyear road map, including our upcoming 7-nanometer Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processors that can drive our next wave of revenue growth and share gains. We remain confident in our ability to continue delivering on our ambitious leadership road map for the PC, gaming and data center markets. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder, to provide some additional color on our first quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. The first quarter of 2019 was a good start to the new year. Revenue was $1.27 billion and gross margin of 41% was up almost 5 points from the prior year. This was the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year gross margin expansion driven by the ramp of our strong portfolio of high-performance products. Quarterly revenue was down 23% from a year ago. Strong sales of Ryzen and EPYC processors and data center GPUs were more than offset by lower graphics channel sales and lower Semi-Custom revenue. Gross margin was 41%, up 470 basis points from a year ago, primarily driven by Ryzen, EPYC -- Ryzen and EPYC processor sales as well as data center GPU sales. Operating expenses grew 12% year-over-year to $498 million, primarily driven by go-to-market activities and investments in our product road map. Operating income was $84 million, down from $152 million a year ago, primarily due to lower revenue and higher operating expenses, partially offset by a $60 million licensing gain from the joint venture with THATIC. Operating margin was 7%, down from 9% last year. Net income was $62 million, compared to $121 million a year ago, and diluted earnings per share was $0.06 per share compared to $0.11 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $831 million, down 26% year-over-year, as strong Client Processor and Data Center GPU sales were more than offset by lower Graphics channel sales. Ryzen Products continued to ramp driven by strong growth across both desktop and mobile processors. 
+In Graphics, sales were down year-over-year due to lower Graphics channel sales and negligible blockchain-related revenue in the quarter, partially offset by strong Radeon Data Center GPU sales. 
+Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $16 million compared to $138 million a year ago. The decrease was due primarily to lower revenue and higher OpEx. 
+In the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment, revenue was $441 million, down 17% from the prior year. Server revenue growth was more than offset by anticipated lower Semi-Custom revenue. EESC segment operating profit was $68 million compared to $14 million a year ago. The improvement was largely due to an IP licensing gain of $60 million associated with the joint venture with THATIC. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.2 billion at the end of the quarter. During the quarter, we received $448 million of cash related to Mubadala's warrant exercise. We used $64 million of cash to fully extinguish the 2019 term debt and $100 million of cash to retire other term debt. The principal debt balance as of the end of the quarter was $1.4 billion as compared to $1.7 billion a year ago, and we have no long-term debt maturities until 2022. Free cash flow was negative $275 million in the quarter primarily due to higher inventory and the timing of collections. We expect to be free cash flow positive for the full year. Inventory was $955 million, up $110 million sequentially, primarily due to an increase in inventory of new products in anticipation of higher revenue. Adjusted EBITDA was $130 million compared to $196 million a year ago due to lower quarterly earnings and, on a trailing 12 month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $737 million. Gross leverage at the end of the quarter was 1.8x. 
+Turning to the outlook for the second quarter of 2019. We expect revenue to be approximately $1.52 billion, plus or minus $50 million, an increase of approximately 19% sequentially and a decrease of approximately 13% year-over-year. Sequentially, the increase is expected to be driven by growth across all businesses. The year-over-year decrease is expected to be primarily driven by lower Graphics channel space -- sales, negligible blockchain-related GPU revenue and lower Semi-Custom revenue. In addition, for Q2 2019, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 41%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $510 million, as we invest in our new products and upcoming product launches, non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $25 million. 
+For the full year 2019, AMD continues to expect high single-digit percentage revenue growth and non-GAAP gross margin to be greater than 41%. 
+In closing, the first quarter was a good start to the year. We remain focused on executing our plans for the remainder of the year and look forward to unveiling a strong portfolio of next-generation products to drive financial growth and customer momentum throughout 2019. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first conference -- for our first call?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Matt Ramsay from Cowen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations, Lisa, to you and your team on the 50th anniversary. I guess, the first question from me is, it was encouraging to see you guys reiterate the full year growth expectation. Obviously, one of your large server competitors had a bit of a hiccup on some of the outlook and talked about maybe a bit of a softer server market for the full year. Maybe you could give an update on what you guys are seeing for the servo macro environment and the confidence that you might have in the product's ramping?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Matt. Thank you for the question. So yes, as it relates to how the year is developing, it's developing largely as we expected when we started the year. So relative to our Q2 guidance, we are guiding up 19% sequentially and every business is growing. That's coming from, if you look across the businesses, our client business is growing due to new platforms that are launching. Our Graphics business, the channel inventory has improved since we started the year, and we have our Server business which is really starting some early shipments of Rome in the second quarter going to the second half of the year. As it relates to the full year guidance and how we look at it, again, it's largely as we expected as we're laying out the year. There certainly is some discussion with our customers about some inventory in the Data Center especially here in the first half. When we developed them, our plan, our Data Center business was always more second half weighted, and continues to be so, because much of that is dependent on platforms that are launching around our Rome product portfolio. So we're going to continue to watch the Data Center overall environment, but at this point, we're focused on our products and our customers continue to have a very strong pull. There's a lot of interest in Rome. We're doing well on our qualifications and so we feel good about how that's developing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as a follow-up, you mentioned the 19% sequential guidance for Q2. It seems like a bit of a transitional quarter for the company with a lot of things going on towards product launches that will happen to feed the back half of the year. So maybe you could talk a little bit more granularly about the drivers of Q2, just given that it's a bit of a transition for a whole new portfolio rolling out, and if there's any kind of color on contributions from older or newer products in the second quarter guidance, that would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Matt. So, yes. As we look at Q2, it is a bit of a transition in the product portfolio. It's an important quarter for us as we are preparing to launch our 7-nanometer products. In terms of the overall business, as I stated earlier, each of the businesses is growing for different reasons. I think starting with Server, again, it's the greatest percentage of growth, and it really is the start of some shipments of Rome. We expect that Rome will launch here in the third quarter and there's some preparations that need to be done for that. As we look at the Graphics business, again, the channel inventory situation has improved and so that we expect that the channel will be up here in the second quarter and then into the second half as we launch Navi. And in the Client business, we have a large number of platforms with our OEM customers that are launching here in the second quarter around our second-generation Ryzen mobile processors, and we're also in preparations for our third-generation Ryzen desktop as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Your next question comes from Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I guess, first question, and I do have a quick follow-up, is when you kind of lay out Rome and the expectation of a ramp going forward, can you just remind us of how you currently see the setup with regard to market share opportunities or market share gains that you would expect? And where do you think you fell off this last quarter in terms of market share in the overall server space?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Aaron. Look, as we look at the server market, we know very well that the data center market takes time to ramp with any new product. And so that's the way we have sort of built our plans. What we have previously stated is that, from, let's call it, at the beginning of this year, we'd expect that over the next 4 to 6 quarters, we would continue to ramp our server market share with a goal of getting to double-digit percentage share. As it relates to the Q1 quarter, again, we'll have to wait to see how the numbers come out. The Data Center business, for us, on the CPU side behaved as expected in Q1. But we did see some product mix shift, so Q4 was a large quarter for us in the Cloud business for our EPYC processors. And Q1, the mix shift did more to Enterprise and channel. And from that, the ASPs were higher, the units were lower and so again, largely as we would've expected.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then as a quick follow-up, congratulations on the announcement with Sony. I'm just curious, I think last quarter, you had suggested that you expected that Semi-Custom business to decline by 20%-plus this year. Assuming that, that's still the case, number 1. Number 2, how do we now start to think about the growth profile of that looking into next year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Sure. So yes, we are very pleased with our partnership and expanding our partnership with Sony on their next-generation consoles. As we see the Semi-Custom business at this point, we still believe that it's going to be down substantially in 2019. Let's call it approximately 20% plus. And then as we go into 2020, without talking about any specific customer, we believe that Semi-Custom will return to a growth business for us in 2020 and beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, we continue to hear about the CPU shortage, which is obviously primarily caused by your competitor. I'm curious, are you seeing any impact on your business in the near term? And more importantly, as we go into the second half and they ramp capacity, are you concerned at all that, that could disrupt your business, whether it be market share swings or pricing pressure? And I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So as it relates to CPU shortages in the market, look, we see a little bit of that. I would say there are pockets of shortage, mostly at the low-end of the market, frankly. So from our standpoint, I don't believe it's a huge contributor to our business. As we look at the PC business, both in the first half and the second half of the year, we believe that the PC business can be a growth business for us. From a market environment standpoint, we believe the market is not too bad. We call it flat to slightly down. When we look at our product portfolio in the notebook space with our second-generation Ryzen platforms, I would believe we have much stronger platforms that are ramping through this year. And then in the desktop space, we believe we'll be very competitive as we've launched the third generation of Ryzen desktops. So I view the PC business as an important growth driver for us in 2019 and we see it as a good market for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then on the follow-up, in your prepared remarks, you mentioned that Data Center CPUs and GPUs accounted for about mid-teens percentage of your revenue in the quarter. Like last quarter, can you give us a rough split between the 2 and related to that, I was hoping you could help us size the game streaming opportunity long-term. Obviously, you're involved with Google today. How does that business with them evolve over the next 12 to 18 months? And what's your opportunity elsewhere in terms of broadening your customer base?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So, as we stated, that the Data Center CPU and GPU business was about mid-teens percentage of revenue for us. Both businesses were down, as expected, in Q1 and much of that was the strength of the Q4 quarter, especially around the cloud. We mentioned in Q4 that the split between CPUs and GPUs was close. So they were close. As we look longer term for Data Center GPUs, and your question about the cloud streaming opportunity, we're very pleased with our partnership with Google. It's a result of several years of effort, where we were optimizing both hardware and software together. And so we think it's an important vertical for us. We are working with other customers in the cloud streaming area as well. So again, I think it's an interesting and important market over the next couple of years. We also have a number of other workloads that we feel good about as it relates to data center GPU, including HPC, especially when you combine our CPU and GPU portfolio together. We think HPC is a great workload for us and -- as well as machine learning. And we're working with, in machine learning, with a couple of leading cloud customers to, again, optimize our software to their needs. So again, the data center GPU market will continue to be an important driver for us over the next couple of years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have a question on your gross margin guidance. I'm a little confused why it's flat sequentially into Q2 on a pretty meaningful revenue lift. You talked about all business is growing and you mentioned a number of them, but you didn't mention Semi-Custom. I mean, is this just a matter of mix? Is Semi-Custom driving a lot of the growth or is there something else going around -- on about your intra-business mix or pricing or something? Like what's going on with the gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Stacy, let me start and I'll let Devinder comment. I should have mention Semi-Custom in that list as well. So Semi-Custom is going through a seasonal build. So although it will be down substantially year-over-year, it's still a seasonal build for us as we go from Q2 -- from Q1 into Q2. Devinder, maybe you want to comment as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          By the quarter, maybe? Like with the growth by business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can I rank order the growth by business? That's probably a bit more granular than I would like to get, but I think it's fair to say that all businesses have to grow a decent amount to get to 19% sequential growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's right, Lisa. So fundamentally, Stacy, it's the product mix in the quarter that's driving the flat gross margin. Add the 41% guide. It is an improvement of 4 points year-on-year. Now, as you know very well, we have businesses that are higher than corporate average gross margin and lower than corporate average and the mix of the businesses, with Semi-Custom that we just talked about lower than corporate average, is driving the 41% guide for Q2.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You would also -- I'm sorry, Stacy, I would just add. You would also expect Graphics is also a bit lower than corporate average on the consumer side.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, so it's fair to say that a good amount of the growth is coming from Graphics and Semi-Custom as it is as well with the other stuff?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, it's really across all of the businesses.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For my follow-up I had a question on OpEx. You're guiding 29% for the year-on-year, $510 million in Q2, and obviously, high single-digits for the full revenue. So if I had revenue of 8% for the full year, that would imply OpEx in Q3 and Q4 of $510 million of flat to Q2 levels. Do you think that's realistic? Does OpEx actually stay flat for the rest of the year from Q2 levels? Or does it need to go higher and if it goes higher, does that imply that the revenue growth embedded in your guidance for the year has to be about 8%?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think, Stacy, the way you want to look at it is the first half of 2019, we do have incremental R&D and go-to-market activities in the first quarter and even in the second. As you know, we are preparing for a strong series of significant 7-nanometer product launches this year and also share gains as we get to the back half of the year. And that's obviously driving the OpEx. Overall for the year, we are comfortable in the 29% for the year of overall revenue from an OpEx standpoint. And as you have seen us in the past, we do have a way of modulating the OpEx as needed, but right now, we are investing in the road maps, we're embarking on product launches and the go-to-market activities and very focused to make sure that we are well positioned in the first half going into the second half where we see the revenue lift compared to the first half of 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Does that apply OpEx -- do see OpEx going up from current levels for the rest of the year then? Or does it go down or does it stay flat?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          $510 million is the guide for Q2, and 29% for the year is the layout all through the model.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from David Wong from Nomura Instinet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Devinder, can you give us an idea of what gross margins are currently running at for the client to data center processors and what direction these gross margins are moving in?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The client and data center businesses are higher than corporate average and the Semi-Custom business and Graphics, as we just said on the last question, are lower than corporate average especially on the Graphics Consumer side and the Data Center GPU side obviously is better.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And are gross margins rising for your Microprocessor businesses at the moment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think early in the year in the second quarter, we are getting the second quarter [at our] 41% guide and our guidance for the year is greater than 41% on an annual basis, is what we have stated so far.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And Lisa, my last question, in 2020, do you expect meaningful Semi-Custom revenues outside the game console space and if so, what types of applications will these Semi-Custom chips be used in?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, David, so as it relates to the Semi-Custom business, as we go out in time, we do expect additional applications other than consoles, but consoles are a large piece of the business, and so you would expect that they would continue to be a large piece of the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Your next question today is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just 1 quick historic one. I've got 2, but the first on the historical side, for March of '18, did you guys provide a rough breakout of how much your revenue was server-related?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No. We wouldn't have done that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, we haven't done that. Not that specific. I think server is, if you're referring to the CPU side, it's within the EESC segment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then if I look at the second half of the year, you guys are trying to talk to like around 41%, 42% kind of gross margin rough level. So is it safe to assume that we should see a pretty big step function in September quarter on the gross margin? Or is that, I guess, is that incorrect or is that aggressive?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think you've got to look at it from a viewpoint of the product mix. I said we are shipping, like Lisa said, Rome in preparation of our launch in Q3. We have a couple of other new products that will start shipping in Q3 and we'll see how the margin comes out when we come in and talk about Q3 about 90 days from now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'm wondering if you can talk about gross margins in the Console segment. Obviously, that's been pretty low historically. You also have customers funding the R&D but as you look to the next generation of consoles, do you see opportunity to improve the gross margin in that space?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Joe. I think it's a bit early to talk about margins for the next generation. As you stated, the gross margins of the Console business are below corporate average. The operating margins are quite good because the customers are paying the engineering expenses for it. But I think the gross margins are below corporate average. We would expect, though, and I think you would expect this, as the company continues to grow, the percentage of the company that is Semi-Custom is lower than it has historically been.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, that makes sense. And then if you look at the GPU Data Center opportunities, the gross margin there, how does that compare to, say, the discrete Graphics portion of your business and how does it compare to corporate average, things like that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The GPU Data Center business would be above corporate average and above our Consumer Graphics business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had a couple of questions on the Server strategy longer term. Can help us understand ultimately what percentage of the workloads in the cloud do you expect to target? And -- that's the first part of the question. The second part of the question is, I was hoping you could provide some color on the customization strategy? I think Intel might argue that they are embedding IP blocks for their customers. Is that something that you do or you think about doing? Or to what extent does your customization strategy fall under your Semi-Custom model? And I was wondering are your customers on the server side asking you for like an APU-kind-of-a product where the -- you have microprocessor and graphics processor capabilities integrated together.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Mark. So look, when we think about our Server strategy and maybe our -- let me generalize it to our Data Center strategy overall. It is a multiyear, multigenerational road map. In terms of the workloads that we plan to address, we are -- in addition to the workloads that we do very, very well on, like, big data, data analytics and virtualization, high-performance computing, cloud workloads, I think we do quite well with general-purpose workloads too, as we move generations. So as we look at, for example, the Rome generation, the second generation of EPYC, we would expect address well 80%-plus of the workloads. As it relates to customization for server CPUs, there are varying degrees of customization that customers want, especially as you go through a number of the different cloud workloads that are out there. There are specific requirements that are there. We're very comfortable doing that. I think the customers have been deeply engaged with us since the first generation of EPYC. There is both software customization as well as some hardware customization that we go through. So -- and we feel very comfortable with our ability to address that across the Cloud and the Enterprise businesses. And then, as we go forward, I think we are also very excited about what we can do when we put our CPU and GPU portfolio together and really do system-level optimization for the Data Center. So we view that as a early opportunity for us but one where there is a lot of opportunity to help customers really optimize for very high-performance computing applications.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations on the strong results and the pipeline. These are 2 questions from me as well. First, you have Naples now and Rome server shipping soon. Intel has Cascade Lake with Optane. What are you hearing from customers on the pricing versus feature comparison? And where I'm going with that is, how well is AMD prepared if your competitor decides to perhaps become a little more aggressive on the pricing side? At what point does pricing matter, and at what point does your feature list matter more?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so Vivek, look, we understand that it's a very competitive market out there. It's always been very competitive and we are prepared for it to get even more competitive. When you look at our road map, I think we feel very comfortable with sort of our positioning. And the way I think about it, when it comes to the data center market, the price is only 1 factor and it's probably not the most important factor when people are choosing their next-generation products. The most important factor is really total cost of ownership, and the advantages that we have with our chiplet architecture and their 7-nanometer sort of process capabilities really have a great sort of power performance benefit. So we are -- as you say, we're prepared for a competitive environment, but we also feel that our product, from a performance standpoint and a positioning standpoint will be positioned quite well in the marketplace.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as a follow up, Lisa, you mentioned your goal of getting to double-digit market shares in Servers over the next 4 to 6 quarters. I assume that will require a greater contribution from Enterprise customers, and that is right. What pushbacks are you seeing from them now? Is it just a matter of time that you increase your Enterprise attraction? In general, what -- do you need to do anything extra to attract Enterprise customers?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. No, it's a great point. We certainly have deep engagements with both cloud and the OEMs. On the Enterprise customers, we sell through our OEM partners. The pushback that we get, I don't know if I would call it pushback. I would just say that Enterprise tends to move a bit more slowly than cloud. There are longer qualification cycles because there're qualification cycles on both the OEM side as well as the end customer side. We are continuing to build out our direct sales force as it relates to facing the Fortune 1000 customers and CIOs in that area. And I believe we will make progress in Enterprise. Certainly, as we go forward from the Naples generation into Rome, we'll have more platform coverage with our OEMs, and I think there will be more familiarity with our architecture as well as more software optimized to our architecture. So yes, we're very committed to the Enterprise market and expect that we will make progress with time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, was just curious on the Server product, you mentioned Enterprise was the bigger contributor in Q1. Just trying to think about the life cycle of EPYC 1. Enterprise takes longer to call, so I'm just kind of curious where you are in terms of rollout of that product. Obviously, Rome's going to come in at the end of the year. I'm just kind of curious how you see the tail on EPYC 1 throughout the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so Blayne, I think, as I stated a little earlier, I think the Data Center business does tend to move slowly. So we would expect that there will be a good amount of time where we will have both Naples and Rome in market at the same point in time, and that just depends on qualification cycles, platform needs and some platforms are being refreshed right away. Some platforms are going to take a little bit longer to be refreshed. And so, from my standpoint, I think that Naples will continue to be important for us in 2019, even as we ramp Rome with our launch in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got you. And then if I could just ask on the Data Center GPU product you had, the Google ramp, I think it started in Q4. Just kind of curious, your pipeline for that product and how you think about the slope of that business and the lumpiness of -- given that large customer?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so we do expect the Data Center GPU business to be a bit lumpy. We do have several sort of large customers that are ramping product with us, and there'll be some ebb and flow as we go on a quarterly basis. But on an annual basis, I think 2019 will certainly be -- we expect it to be significantly up from 2018. And the pipeline is good. So when we look at the pipeline, as I mentioned, cloud streaming is a good workload for us. Google is one customer, but we're working with other customers as well, and we also see HPC and machine learning as additional workloads that will be good for us in that business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Operator, we have time for 2 more questions, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Certainly. Our question is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, regarding Navi, if you can comment on it. What is the positioning of that particular product relative to the -- your current 7-nanometer GPU? And regarding Navi, can you tell us if it's going to include ray tracing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so Hans, we are excited about Navi. Navi is a new architecture for us in gaming. It has a lot of new features across the Navi architecture. Things are progressing well. We expect it to launch in the third quarter. From a positioning standpoint, I probably won't go through it in great detail right now other than to say that it is 7-nanometer Navi, but it will be positioned below where, for example, our Radeon VII is positioned today from a price point standpoint. And then in terms of ray tracing, again, we will talk more about our overall Navi road map as we get closer to the launch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Kevin Cassidy from Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kevin Edward Cassidy,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - Director    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations. As you're introducing the new generations of Ryzen, should we assume that ASPs will continue to go up or are some of these purpose built for lower price points?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Kevin. So as we look at the new generations of Ryzen, our goal is certainly to improve the mix of the products, and so we think, as we improve the performance of the product, that we can improve that mix. Now the actual mix will vary, of course, depending on a number of things as we go through quarter by quarter, but certainly, as -- our goal is to continue to improve our penetration at the higher end of the PC processors.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Kevin. Thank you, everyone, for joining us today. This concludes our call. We appreciate your time and attention to this earnings call, and certainly your support of our company. Have a nice evening.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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Transcripts/AMD/2019-Jan-29-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,587 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2018 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 29, 2019 / 10:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Vijay Raghavan Rakesh
+   Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to Advanced Micro Devices' Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2018 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Laura Graves. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2018 Conference Call. By now, you should have had the opportunities to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, www.amd.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are: Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. 
+This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+I would like to highlight some important dates for you. Dr. Lisa Su will present at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference on Tuesday, February 12. Also, Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President of HR Worldwide Marketing and Investor Relations will present at the Susquehanna Annual Technology Conference on Tuesday, March 12; and our 2019 first quarter quiet time will begin at the close of business on Friday, March 15, 2019. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and, as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial measures during this call except for revenue, gross margin and segment operational results, which are reported on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced herein are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release, which is posted on our website. 
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in our press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and, in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 29, 2018. 
+Now with that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. 2018 marked another year of strong financial performance, driven by our expanded high-performance product portfolio despite near-term graphics weakness. We grew annual revenue by 23%, with Ryzen, EPYC and data center GPU product revenue growing by more than $1.2 billion for the year. Our new products gained share and significantly expanded gross margin, leading to our most profitable year since 2011. 
+Looking at the fourth quarter, revenue of $1.42 billion increased 6% from a year ago, with approximately 65% of sales coming from our new products. We reached an important milestone in our business in the quarter as our high-margin data center CPUs and GPUs accounted for a mid-teens percentage of overall revenue. While we expect our data center revenue to be lumpy, the ramp of our data center business is beginning to contribute meaningfully to our financial results. 
+Looking at our Computing and Graphics segment, we delivered our eighth straight quarter of year-over-year segment revenue growth. Sales of Ryzen desktop and notebook processors and data center GPUs offset lower GPU sales as the channel continued working through elevated levels of graphics inventory. Client processor unit shipments grew by more than 50% from the year-ago period. We had our highest client computing revenue in more than 4 years, and we believe we gained client CPU unit share for the fifth straight quarter. 
+At CES, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung, all launched notebooks powered by our new second-generation Ryzen mobile processor with Radeon Vega graphics. The second-gen Ryzen mobile processor delivers more performance, enhanced features and longer battery life than any mobile processor we have ever built and is the fastest processor available for ultrathin notebooks. 
+The industry's first AMD-based Chromebooks launched earlier this quarter from Acer and HP. We expect additional AMD-based Chromebooks to launch later this year as we expand our participation in this growing portion of the PC market. 
+Based on the competitive positioning of our Ryzen processors, we expect the number of Ryzen systems that we'll launch in 2019 to increase by more than 30% from 2018, with a number of Ryzen notebook systems planned to launch increasing by more than 50%. 
+In graphics, GPU revenue decreased year-over-year, driven largely by lower channel GPU and memory sales, partially offset by a significant increase in data center GPU sales. We saw an improvement in channel GPU sellouts throughout the quarter as our partners continue to drain their inventory. There is still more work to do, but we remain confident we're taking the right actions to further reduce channel inventory. 
+We set a record for professional GPU revenue in the quarter, driven by multiple high-volume wins for our Vega-based data center GPUs. We started shipping our new 7-nanometer Radeon Instinct accelerators in the quarter and introduced a major set of enhancements to our data center GPU software that make it easier for customers to deploy Radeon GPUs for AI and machine learning workloads. 
+At CES, we highlighted the significant gaming momentum we are generating for Radeon across consoles, PCs and the cloud. For gamers and creators, we announced our return to the high-end GPU market with the new Radeon VII GPU. Powered by our second-generation Vega graphics core and featuring 16 gigabytes of second-generation high-bandwidth memory, our new 7-nanometer Radeon VII GPU delivers leadership performance in content creation and compute workloads, and is very competitively positioned when running the most demanding AAA games at 4K resolution. In cloud gaming, we announced that Google selected Radeon Pro GPUs to power their game streaming initiative, Project Stream. The performance and differentiated virtualization features of our Radeon Pro GPUs enabled Google to deliver an uncompromised high definition gaming experience on virtually any PC. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segments, revenue was flat from a year ago as a double-digit percentage decrease in semi-custom revenue was offset by strong growth in EPYC processor sales. As expected, semi-custom sales were down from a year ago based on where we are in the current console cycle. This console generation remains one of the most successful ever as Microsoft and Sony combined have now shipped well in excess of 120 million AMD-powered consoles. Fourth quarter server unit shipments more than doubled sequentially based on growing demand for our highest-end 32-core EPYC processors with cloud, HPC and virtualized enterprise customers. As a result, we believe we achieved our goal of mid-single-digit server unit share exiting 2018. 
+We had another strong quarter of cloud adoption, highlighted by industry-leader Amazon announcing new versions of their most popular EC2 computing instances powered by EPYC processors. Businesses can easily migrate their AWS instances to AMD and save 10% or more based on the technology advantages of our platform. 
+Microsoft Azure also announced general availability of their AMD-based storage instance in the quarter as well as a new HPC instance, powered by EPYC processors that is 33% faster than competitive x86 offerings. We secured multiple HPC wins in the quarter, including Procter & Gamble, the U.S. Department of Energy and one of Europe's largest supercomputers at the University of Stuttgart's High-Performance Computing Center. Lawrence Livermore labs also announced a new supercomputer featuring both EPYC processors and Radeon Instinct accelerators that will be used for machine learning and big data analytics workloads. 
+Customer interest in our next-generation Rome server processor remains very high. Rome is expected to deliver 4x the floating-point performance and double the compute performance per socket compared to our current-generation EPYC processors. We publicly demonstrated a single 64-core next-generation EPYC processor outperforming 2 of our competitors' highest-end server processors in multiple workloads. Rome development is proceeding very well, and we are on track to start shipments midyear. 
+I am also pleased to report that we concluded discussions with GLOBALFOUNDRIES on the seventh amendment to our Wafer Supply Agreement. The amendment affirms the strategic partnership with GF for products built at 12-nanometers and above and provides AMD with full sourcing flexibility at the 7-nanometer and below nodes. GF continues to be a critical supplier of AMD's current-generation products and will play a key role in our next-generation Ryzen and EPYC products with our triplet strategy. 
+In summary, 2018 was another strong year for AMD. Increased adoption of our high-performance products drove a second straight year of double-digit annual revenue growth, expanded gross margins and improved profitability. I would like to thank the more than 10,000 AMD employees whose dedication to building great products have made these results possible. 
+While headwinds remain in the graphics channel and macro uncertainties are causing some caution in the first half of 2019, we believe we are well positioned to gain share throughout the year and accelerate growth as we ramp our next-generation 7-nanometer products. 
+As we enter 2019, we are preparing to launch our strongest product portfolio ever. In gaming, we will launch our high-end Radeon VII GPU in February, followed by our next-generation Navi GPUs later in the year. In client computing, we started the year with our second-generation Ryzen mobile processors, and we are on track to launch our third-generation Ryzen desktop processors in the middle of the year. And in the server market, we expect to deliver a significant step function performance increase with the launch of our next-generation Rome processors in the middle of the year. 
+I am very proud of what we accomplished in 2018 and even more excited about how our long-term investments are set to pay off in 2019. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our fourth quarter and full year financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. 2018 was a strong year for AMD. New product introductions wrought the highest annual revenue since 2011 and a significant improvement in gross margin year-over-year. Earnings per share increased from $0.10 per share in 2017 to $0.46 per share in 2018. Full year 2018 revenue was $6.48 billion, up 23% year-on-year, driven by strong performance in the Computing and Graphics segment with significant growth in Ryzen processor sales. Although there was weakness in the graphics channel in the second half of the year, we saw strength in data center CPUs and GPUs. Gross margin was 39%, up 440 basis points from the prior year. Gross margin improvements are primarily driven by our new Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon products. Operating expenses were 29% of revenue, an improvement of 2 percentage points from the prior year. For the full year, operating income was $633 million, up $409 million from $224 million in the prior year. Net income was $514 million, up $411 million, compared to net income of $103 million in the prior year. On the balance sheet, we reduced principal debt by $171 million and improved gross leverage significantly from 4.6x a year ago to 1.9x at the end of 2018. 
+Let me turn to the details of the fourth quarter results. Fourth quarter revenue gross margin, operating margin and earnings per share all improved year-on-year. Quarterly revenue of $1.42 billion was up 6% from a year ago. Strong sales of Ryzen and EPYC processors and data center GPUs more than offset lower channel GPU and semi-custom sales during the quarter. Fourth quarter 2018 revenue did not include any IP-related revenue, and blockchain-related GPU revenue was negligible. 
+Gross margin was 41%, up 740 basis points from 34% a year ago. Year-on-year gross margin improvement was driven primarily by the ramp of Ryzen and EPYC processor sales. Gross margin has increased year-over-year for 7 consecutive quarters, driven by a higher percentage of revenue from new products. Fourth quarter 2018 gross margin excludes a $45 million write-down of all the technology licenses that are no longer being used. Operating expenses grew 9% year-over-year to $474 million and remained approximately flat as a percentage of revenue from the year-ago period. We continue to invest in our product road map and go-to-market activities as we gain market share in important markets. 
+Operating income was $109 million, up $90 million from $19 million a year ago. Operating margin was 8%, up from less than 2% last year. Net income was $87 million compared to $8 million a year ago. Q4 2018 net income excludes a withholding tax refund plus interest of $43 million related to an IP litigation settlement from 2010. Diluted earnings per share using a diluted share count of 1,180,000,000 was $0.08 per share compared to $0.01 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $986 million, up 9% year-over-year. Revenue growth was driven primarily by continued strong Ryzen desktop product sales and the adoption of second-generation Ryzen mobile processors, largely offset by lower channel GPU and memory sales compared to the prior year. Ryzen products continued to ramp and were greater than 80% of total client revenue, driven by OEM and channel momentum. In graphics, sales were down year-over-year due to negligible blockchain-related revenue in the fourth quarter of 2018 as well as elevated levels of [tropics] inventory in the channel. Total graphics revenue grew sequentially, driven by strong Radeon data center GPU sales. 
+Computing and Graphics operating segment income was $115 million compared to $33 million a year ago. The increase was driven primarily by strength in Ryzen product sales and significantly higher ASPs in both desktop and notebook compared to a year ago. 
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom revenue was $433 million, flat from the prior year. Server revenue growth was offset by lower semi-custom revenue. EPYC processor units more than doubled sequentially, driving significant growth in data center revenue in the quarter. EESC segment operating loss was $6 million compared to a loss of $13 million a year ago. The improvement due to higher EPYC processor revenue was partially offset by lower semi-custom revenue and continued engineering and go-to-market investments in the server business. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.16 billion at the end of the quarter. We generated free cash flow of $79 million in the quarter. Free cash flow was a negative $129 million for the full year primarily due to growth in inventory related to new products and the timing of collections. Inventory was $845 million, up $107 million sequentially, primarily due to the ramp of new products. Total principal debt was $1.5 billion as we further reduced term debt by $60 million during the [fourth]  quarter, resulting in total debt reduction of $171 million during 2018. We expect to pay off the remaining $66 million of 2019 term debt in March 2019, and beyond that, there are no long-term debt maturities until 2022. 
+Adjusted EBITDA was $152 million compared to $58 million a year ago, and on a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $803 million, more than doubling year-over-year. Gross leverage was 1.9x as we ended 2018, and we are pleased to have achieved our long-term gross leverage target of less than 2x. 
+Before turning to our financial outlook, let me discuss our Wafer Supply Agreement with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Today, the seventh amendment of the WSA spans from January 2019 through March 2024. It establishes purchase commitments and pricing at 12-nanometer and above for the years 2019 through 2021. The amendment also provides AMD full sourcing flexibility at 7-nanometer and beyond without any onetime payments or royalties for products purchased from other foundries. 
+Turning to the outlook for the first quarter of 2019. We expect revenue to be approximately $1.25 billion plus or minus $50 million, a decrease of approximately 12% sequentially and 24% year-over-year. Sequentially, the decrease is expected to be primarily driven by continued softness in the graphics channel and seasonality across the business. The year-over-year decrease is expected to be primarily driven by lower graphics sales due to excess channel inventory, the absence of blockchain-related GPU revenue and lower memory sales. In addition, semi-custom revenue is expected to be lower year-over-year while Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon data center GPU product sales are expected to increase. In addition, for Q1 2019, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 41%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $480 million, non-GAAP interest expense taxes and other to be approximately $25 million, and we also expect to record a $60 million IP licensing gain associated with the THATIC JV in the first quarter of 2019, which will be a benefit to operating income and recorded on the licensing gain line of the P&L. 
+For the full year 2019, despite near-term weakness in the graphics channel and a cautious macro environment, we expect high single-digit percentage revenue growth driven by Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon data center GPU product sales and as we ramp our 7-nanometer products throughout the year. We expect non-GAAP gross margin to be greater than 41%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately 29% of revenue and a non-GAAP tax rate of approximately 4% of pretax income. 
+In closing, we made excellent progress in 2018. We grew the top line by more than $1.2 billion, expanded gross margin and significantly improved profitability. We continue to execute our long-term financial model, driven by our new high-performance computing products that gained solid momentum last year. We are pleased to enter 2019 with a strengthened balance sheet and a strong portfolio of next-generation products capable of driving continued financial growth. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first question, please?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I had a question on your full year 2019 outlook. You guys are guiding revenue growth kind of in the high single-digit range. Embedded in that outlook, what kind of growth rates are you assuming for your core businesses, computing, graphics, semi-custom and server CPUs? And then on the gross margin side, 41% or greater, is the improvement year-over-year primarily a function of revenue growth and mix? Or is the amendment in the WSA playing a role there as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Thank you for the questions. So relative to the full year guidance of up high single digits, the primary growth drivers are Ryzen and EPYC, are the 2 largest growth drivers. With data center GPU also, we're expecting that to be up. And then we would expect that semi-custom will be down. If you look at the life cycle, semi-custom will be in the seventh year of the console cycle, and so we expect semi-custom to be down approximately 20% and then we would expect consumer graphics to also be down, let's call it, double digits as we really burn off some of the channel inventory that we see in the first half of the year. So Ryzen and EPYC are the large drivers of the growth. And that's as we launch our 7-nanometer products throughout the year. And then your second question, Toshi, was?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, in gross margins, 41% or greater, that's 2 percentage point or greater improvement year-over-year. Is that primarily a function of revenue growth and improvement in mix, given Ryzen and EPYC? Or is the WSA amendment providing a tailwind as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, it's primarily due to mix. So the mix of the higher-margin new products, Ryzen, EPYC, and the data center GPUs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Next question, please?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Matt Ramsay from Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I guess, I wanted to attack Toshi's question on the full year a little bit differently and maybe just talk about a little bit what share gain assumptions you guys are embedding for your 7-nanometer road map versus maybe some pragmatism or conservatism on the market just given the macro. I mean, Intel talked about a flat PC TAM in terms of units. And obviously, it's only, I guess, guided us to mid-single-digit growth for their sort of expansive server business for the year, and you guys are starting off down maybe 25% year-over-year in revenue for the first quarter given what's going on in the graphics business. So maybe you could just walk us through a little bit what you're thinking about the TAM growth of your 2 main growth markets for the year versus share gains you're embedding.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, absolutely, Matt. Look, I think, as it relates to the market, I don't think we would have a very different view of the market as others may have stated. Our story really is a share gain story. And when you take a look at sort of the progress that we'd made in 2018 and the design wins that we had in 2018, as we go over to 2019, when we look at both Rome as well as Ryzen, we look at sort of the breadth of OEM platforms that we have, the customer engagements by workload and sort of how we see that progressing. We feel very good about the opportunity to gain share as we go through the year, particularly given how competitive the products set is. Similarly, on the PC side, we've made nice progress over the last 4, 5 quarters. On Ryzen, we started strong on desktop, and then the last couple of quarters, we've made good progress on notebook. We see a broader portfolio with our OEMs as we go into 2019, and we also see a more competitive desktop product line as well as notebook product line. So that's how we're thinking about the year. To your point about starting a little bit with lower guidance in Q1, I think that's true. When we look at Q1, particularly on a year-on-year basis, there are a lot of moving pieces. But it's primarily due to the graphics channel. And that's both the reduced demand as well as the absence in blockchain revenue on a year-over-year basis as well as the semi-custom business. But as we move forward, as we go into Q2 and beyond, we see a significant opportunity with the ramp of our new products, and that's how we see the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it, that's helpful. Devinder, maybe just a couple of little things in terms of licensing gains and IP revenue, just I got asked a few times, and I just want to clarify here that the gross margin outlook for the first quarter does not include any IP or licensing gains. And then, for the full year, are you including any IP revenue in the revenue outlook, and are we -- how should we think about the rest of the THATIC licensing gains applied to sort of timing for when those might get recognized? I know there's a lot there. But lots of questions on just the moving pieces there tonight.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I can take that. License gain essentially does not impact gross margin. That sits on a separate line altogether on the licensing gain line in the P&L. So the gross margin is not impacted by that. As far as IP revenue is concerned in Q1, there's no contemplated IP revenue, so the gross margin at 41% guide is based on the products that we have. And for the year, at this point, outside of the THATIC JV IP licensing gain that we are expecting or recording in Q1, while there might be opportunities from an IP standpoint, but nothing substantial contemplated at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I'm curious as you look back at 2019 and the success you had with EPYC -- the initial success with EPYC. What was the mix of cloud versus enterprise? And then how do you think it trends in 2019 because of all the concerns around slowdown in cloud CapEx and so forth? And as part of that, if you could share with us what your market share assumptions are as we exit the year on EPYC.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Vivek. As we look through 2018, we were pretty pleased with our progress on EPYC, and coming off of the fourth quarter, actually, it was a fairly strong fourth quarter for us and the fact that we doubled the number of units for our server business. And when you look at that mix, it is more cloud-weighted. So we had some large deployments that went online here in the fourth quarter, and that was positive for us. That being said though, we're making nice progress in the Enterprise and HPC side of the business too. We've had a number of wins in the quarter as well as going into 2019. So as we look into 2019, I would expect that the early Rome deployments will also be cloud-based. We'll be the first ones, but we have a strong set of enterprise platforms, and as I mentioned earlier, it's the breadth of the OEM platforms that gives us good confidence that we're going to a broader set of workloads and having broader coverage in the market. In terms of share assumptions, we'll have to see how the market and the year play out, but I think what we've said before is that, after reaching the mid-single digit market share in the fourth quarter 2018, we would expect it would take another 4 to 6 quarters to reach 10% market share. And I think we're still in that range.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And for my follow-up, there were 2 things that came out on your competitors' last few public discussions, which is, one, this concept of CPU shortages, and I'm wondering if that has had any positive or negative effect on your strategy or positioning. And then Intel has also mentioned being a little more tactical when it comes to pricing, and I'm wondering how that figures into your full year outlook? So both the impact of CPU shortages and pricing, any color would be very helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Vivek. So look, on the CPU shortages, my comment is that there are some pockets of shortage, particularly at the low end. However, our focus has really been on ramping Ryzen. And if you look at the Ryzen percentage of our overall business, Ryzen, Devinder mentioned, was 80% of our client business. So we are really actually improving our mix in the client business. I think that, again, from my view, the shortages are temporary. But we look at it as really getting consistent share gain. And as we've gone through each quarter in 2018, we've seen consistent share gain, and we believe we gained share in the fourth quarter as well. So I think we're well positioned with the portfolio, and we'll certainly drive that into 2019. And then, the other?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Pricing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Oh, pricing, yes. Relative to pricing, look, when we think about pricing and when we put together our long-term model, we have factored in that pricing and competition will be aggressive. I think we know that to be the case. What we've seen in the market is consistent with that, but we also believe that particularly as you go into the data center, the single largest factor from a buying decision standpoint is the performance and the total cost of ownership of the product, and we believe that Rome will be very, very well positioned in 2019. And so we are cognizant of the competitive environment but feel good that we have the right set of assumptions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great to hit that mid-single digit milestone exiting the year. Lisa, as you start -- I just wanted to confirm, you expect to ship -- start shipping Rome midyear. And as you do, what's the biggest risk for Rome? Is it execution on delivering the product? Or is it the sales the process, convincing customers to take EPYC 2 in volume?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so I think the -- with Rome, our biggest opportunity/risk is adoption rate. I think, from a competitive standpoint, the product is very solid. Everything going through our development labs looks very good as well as our customer engagement. And so this is just about getting customers to production as fast as possible. We do expect though that the adoption rate for Rome will be faster than the adoption rate for Naples. And the reason for that is we are in a socket-compatible infrastructure. And so customers who don't necessarily need the newest features of the platform can actually use the same motherboard and system that they currently have with Naples and drop in Rome. And so I think that will help us accelerate some of the adoption, but right now, it's about helping customers in their environment. We are widely sampling Rome, and there is a lot of work to be done. But we feel good about the trajectory.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And a follow-up, if I may, for Devinder. So inventories, it looks like they were up about $100 million, going into a pretty healthy seasonal quarter that's declining. What should -- how should we read that, Devinder? And was there just some opportunity to get some wafers more cheaply? Or is there -- are you trying to stockpile product in front of launches, or -- and when can we expect the inventory to be a source of cash on the cash flow statement?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Matt (sic) [Mark]. So the inventory growth is primarily driven by our new products and in preparation for our 7-nanometer next-generation product launches later this year, as you just mentioned. We overall expect to manage the inventory in line with revenue but also in support of the new products that will be launching and ramping throughout the year. Lisa mentioned a few of the launches at CES and also in the script, and we prepared to support that from an inventory standpoint. And we'll see how the year progresses and then manage it from there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Mark. Next question please, operator?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Around the Q1 guide, obviously, you mentioned the GPU weakness, but you also mentioned seasonality across the businesses. Is my assumption correct that, that means everything is basically down sequentially, CPUs, GPUs, servers? Can you tell us, is that true? And if so, can you give us an idea of the magnitude, like at least what is down, I guess, most versus least, sequentially, Ryzen versus GPU versus EPYC?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Stacy. So the largest driver, as I've said, is the GPU channel situation on a year-over-year basis. On a sequential basis, typical seasonality for, let's call it, PCs and GPUs and data center is probably around 10% or so. We are forecasting -- or we believe that that will be a little bit -- down a little bit more than that. And in terms of the ranking, I would say GPUs are down a bit more than the other 2 segments. That's the way we currently see it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And for my follow-up, I had a question just on, general, EESC. So its revenues are flat year-over-year. The server revenues are up a bunch and it's still losing money. And I get it, there's some incremental investments and everything, but I guess, how do we think about the profitability of that segment? How big does EPYC or Rome with the server business need be to get before it's sustainably profitable, especially as semi-custom is going to continue to decline, you said, 20% in 2019?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think the key, Stacy, is going to be ramping the server business in 2019. You are right that year-over-year we look at it, it's lost little bit of money. But fundamentally, it's investing in the go-to-market programs and launching the new products, investing in the ongoing engineering work that's needed to make sure the customers bring out the product on time. And semi-custom, given the fact that it's in the seventh year of the cycle, we expect it to be down from 2018 to 2019. But we do expect to go ahead and ramp our server business, and that will definitely benefit the EESC profitability in 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Do you think it's profitable for the full year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Too early to tell. I won't -- I don't want to predict profitability at the segment level, but we'll see how it evolves over the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, a potentially different way to ask the same question on the full year 2019 guide. Late last year, at a few different events, you talked about the server business being second-half-weighted. If I go through the remainder of this year, it seems like you have to grow the better part of 20% plus sequentially in each quarter to get there. I know it's not going to be perfectly linear like that. But I guess, my overall question is, if the server side of the business is back-half-weighted, what sorts of businesses are helping the middle portion of the year? Is there some snapback on the GPU side? Is there something going on in the Ryzen side? Just trying to get somewhat of the shape of the year off of a base that's admittedly pretty low as your first quarter starting point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Ross. So yes, I think it is fair to say that our quarterly progression will have a lot to do with our product launches. So you would expect that server will be more second-half-weighted than the first half. In general, our business is more second-half-weighted, though, if you think about the consumer portions of our business. But think about it as we would expect sequential growth in PCs. We would certainly expect sequential growth in data center, although stronger in the second half. We would -- we're also -- as we see the GPU business right now, we see the first quarter as the low point in the business, with the channels getting -- improving as we go into the second quarter. And we have additional product launches there as well. So that's the way we would see the portfolio. And semi-custom, although it's lower on a year-over-year basis, we would expect it to also increase as we go from second quarter into third quarter as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Perfect. And a question on the GPU side, your big competitor in that market obviously is having some current issues and mentioned that the new product at the high end wasn't selling through. Are you at all concerned that the competitive landscape in that market, whether it's because China demand being weaker, as they cited, or them having to be a little bit more aggressive on pricing would do anything to your ability to penetrate the market with either existing or new GPU products as the year progresses?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so, look, when we look at the GPU market, and let's separate sort of gaming and data center, I think, on the gaming side, from what we are seeing, we did see sellout increase in Q4 versus Q3. So gamers are still buying GPUs. They may be more discerning about price points, and so I can imagine that there might be a bit more softness at the high end versus in the mid-range. But we believe that we have a good understanding of what's happening in the gaming side of the business. And it will be driven -- our gaming growth will be driven by new products. And we would see that as we go through this year with our Radeon VII launch as well as our Navi launches on the gaming side. On the data center side, we're making good progress in GPU data center, obviously from a low base, but the GPUs in the data center are very workload-dependent. There are some workloads that actually we do very well in things like cloud gaming and virtualization, and we have some early HPC wins. And so we see this as sort of customer acquisition redeployment. And so those are the sources of growth on the PC side for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just 2 questions, if I can, building on that last one. In your prepared remarks, you noted that you've reached the milestone of which GPUs as well as data center CPUs reached a mid-teens percentage of your total revenue. I'm curious as you kind of contemplated your full year guidance, where do you think that mix of business can go? And is there a point in time where we actually -- you foresee us kind of getting granularity on how big the data center GPU business is trending?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Aaron. So I think the mid-teens percentage revenue for us in Q4 was -- was a good milestone. I mean, I think that's a meaningful percentage of our revenue. And it was a contributor to our gross margin as we exited 2018. I think, as we go into 2019, again, we will continue to give you visibility into where the data center growth is. To be fair, my expectation is that the CPU side of the data center business will grow faster than the GPU side, just given what we see in terms of overall deployments. But I think both businesses will be meaningful for us and our key part of the growth story for us in 2019, and we'll continue to give color on how they develop as the year develops.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, that's very helpful. And just real quickly on the semi-custom side. As you kind of contemplated the guidance as well through the course this year and that 20% decline for the full year, is your assumption that Q1 kind of marks the bottom and we can grow seasonally off of that level? Or should we think about something differently from a progression through the quarters in '19?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Aaron, yes, that's the correct way to think about it. So Q1 will be a low, Q2 will be higher, Q3 will be higher, and then Q4 will come down again. That should be the seasonality of semi-custom.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, notwithstanding that the macro is extremely uncertain, making any predictions difficult. I'm just kind of curious, going back to Ross' question, how do you see sort of the cadence of growth sequentially throughout the year? Because as he pointed out, if you kind of divided it up equally by quarter, you're growing north of 20% in Q2, Q3, Q4, half-on-half growth, it would be somewhere around 50%. If you assume more seasonal, and seasonal is a little bit difficult to get to because of the change of accounting, I think you can get half-on-half growth as high as 75%. So as you think about the full year growth, is this something that's more like 50% half-on-half or 75% half-on-half?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, thanks for the question, John. It might be a little bit early for us to go there. But what I would say is the following. When we look at the year-on-year compares from 2019 to 2018, Q2 2018 was still a very strong quarter for us because we still had a significant amount of blockchain sales in Q2 2018. So I expect that we will grow sequentially into Q2, but I think that will still be, let's call it, a tougher year-on-year compare. But then when we get into the second half of the year, we expect to be fully ramped on the entire 7-nanometer portfolio. And so we would see a heavier weighting in the second half. So we see sequential growth into second quarter but more heavily weighted into the second half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's really helpful. And then, Devinder, on the profitability front, if you kind of run the numbers from Q1 guidance to kind of what you need to be exiting Q4 at to hit the full year number, you could see revenue up well over $1 billion, Q1 to Q4. I'm a little bit surprised that despite that, the gross margin guidance isn't a little bit better. I know you guided the full year to greater than 41% with Q1 at 41%, but I'm kind of curious, if you look at a Q4 run rate that's north of $1 billion higher than the Q1 run rate, how should we think about gross margin and operating margin exiting the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, John, if you look back the last many quarters, I think 7 quarters year-on-year, we've improved gross margin on the strength of the newer products. We ended the year quite well in 2018 and achieved gross margin in the fourth quarter that was nice. And now we start the year with 41%, and as we start the year, it's early guiding greater than 41%. I think you should expect that as the products ramp, in particular with the 7-nanometer product that Lisa referenced, our margins will continue to improve, and we'll see where we end up at by the end of the year. But we do expect that, year-on-year, margin goes up from where we ended in 2018 at 39% and greater than 41% for 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2, quickly. First, on the C&G side, I realized that there's going to be a lot of kind of sequential difficulties there, but when I think about the long-term growth rate, I know you guys have kind of talked to kind of high singles to double-digit growth. Is that still essentially where you think that business can grow at long term? And then secondly, in terms of the next EPYC 2, is there any reason why it would underperform an Intel 10-nanometer in a testing environment? And if so, why would that be?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me take the second question, and then maybe, Devinder, you can take the first question. So as it relates to our Rome product, when Rome was originally planned, we had planned that it would be competing against a 10-nanometer product. So that was the -- that was our expectation when we started. I think we've shown some of the generational performance advantages in terms of double the performance on a socket basis, 4x performance on a floating-point basis. And the other thing I would say is that, with our second-generation Rome, the customer set is now more used to our architecture, and so some of the architectural and software improvements that we've also spent quite a bit of time on over the last 4 to 6 quarters are coming into play. So I think we feel very good about the competitive positioning of Rome. And the other thing to keep in mind is we are deep in development of our next-generation beyond Rome. So the Zen 3 product portfolio is deep in development as well. So that's -- our goal is to ensure that we have a consistent cadence of very competitive products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and then as far as your question on the segment growth is concerned, relative to high-single-digits growth on a company level, in both of the segments, there are some factors that come into play. In Computing and Graphics, obviously, we feel good about the data center side of GPU. But on a compare basis, when you look at 2018 to 2019, we do have the impact of the blockchain and some memory sales from 2018 that don't happen in 2019 from a standpoint of where the market is. And then on the EESC side, semi-custom being down obviously is a factor when you compare year-on-year per segment. But good growth on the data center piece of it, in particular, but with the 7-nanometer Rome product launching in the back half -- I mean, ramping in the back half of 2019. And that's the way you kind of look at it. It is still early in the year from an overall standpoint. And where we ended up in 2018, we're projecting high single-digit growth at the company level for 2019 over 2018.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I just want to ask here, you laid it out a little bit, but in terms of EPYC 2, same socket, but -- and you have sampled it early. But in terms of getting over the finish line and getting these shipped, I guess, the customer still has to wait for production silicon. And then -- and typically, people talk about 6 to 12 months so they can kind of test it and make sure it does everything with the production silicon. So can you just walk us through the timeline because, obviously, you're baking in a pretty steep ramp in the second half?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so we started sampling EPYC actually last year, so the second half of last year, to some of the top cloud vendors as well as our OEM partners. We've had a significant amount of development with our ODM partners as well. So I think there is a good amount of overlap between the customer development cycle and our development cycle. Now as you said, production silicon is very key, and ensuring that the final specifications are locked in is work that we still have to do here in the first half of this year. But I think we feel good about it. We feel good about the platforms, the customer engagements, the current progress of development and so that is very much our plan from an execution standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just want to ask on the GPU side. It looks like your ASP was up substantially with the data center. I was just kind of curious, as you think about the mix of data center, do you think -- how do you think about the trajectory of that business? I mean, is it -- is that portion lumpy as well? Or is this kind of the go-forward kind of level after that pretty sharp initial shipment in December?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so on the data center side, we do expect that the data center GPU business will be a growth driver for us in 2019. It will be a little bit lumpy so I wouldn't say it's a straight line. But I would say, on a year-over-year basis, it's a important growth driver for us. And as it relates to the overall data center GPU ASPs affecting overall ASPs, I think that's true because the gaming ASPs are -- I'm sorry, the gaming business was lower than expected given the channel inventory situation. So I think it's also just weighted in terms of the units.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Blayne. Operator, we have time for 2 more questions, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It seems like the GPU data center business is doing pretty well. Can you give us some color, if you look at mid-teens exposure overall between the 2 data center businesses, CPU and GPU, can you give us some qualitative sense for how much of that is GPU at this point and what are the main applications? Is it mostly virtualization? What other applications are you seeing there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Joe. So for the mid-teens percentage of revenue in Q4, between CPU and GPU, it's actually roughly similar. And then in terms of the workloads, the GPU data center side, we do very well in cloud gaming, we do very well with our virtualization solutions, and we have some early traction in HPC.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. That's helpful. And I guess, just in terms of the business segmentation, I think you alluded to this earlier, but it seems like the conversation typically is around microprocessor, graphics and semi-custom as sort of 3 different opportunities. Have you thought about moving the segmentation to more align with that? And I realize that's easy to talk about and hard to implement, but what's your thought in terms of, over time, sort of migrating that more in line with the way you guys talk about the business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so we look at the business in all different cuts. As you can imagine, we look at it by segment, our CG and EESC. CG is very much a PC-driven segment and EESC with enterprise and semi-custom. And we are also, based on some of the feedback, trying to be a little bit more granular in terms of how the various businesses fall underneath that. So I think as the data center business becomes a larger piece of our business, we'll continue to look for how do we get -- give you guys more color and more transparency in how that is doing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vijay Rakesh from Mizuho.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just in terms of the GPU gaming side, you mentioned higher inventory levels. I was wondering if you can give us some number on where normal inventory GPU levels are and where are they running currently.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so when we look at the GPU channel inventory, we do believe our channel partners reduced inventory in Q4, and they will reduce inventories in Q1. We still think that Q1 levels are elevated, and there will be some spillover into Q2 where we will see some elevated inventory levels. We'll have to see how the sell-through really plays out. But my expectation is that, in Q2, we'll have sort of improved channel inventory levels and we will return to a sequential growth in the gaming side of our business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vijay Raghavan Rakesh,  Mizuho Securities USA LLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Research & Senior Semiconductor Analyst    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And on the 7-nanometer side, is the 7-nanometer GPU and CPU, as those ramp in the back half, are they accretive to this 41% gross margin levels?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so the 7-nanometer GPUs on the data center side started ramping in Q4 so that was part of the data center GPU revenue that we talked about. The 7-nanometer CPU will ramp middle of the year, and the 7-nanometer CPU and GPU are both above corporate average margins so you would expect that they're above the 41 points and would be sort of accretive to margin as that mix improves.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back to over to management for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much, operator. We appreciate everyone joining us here today. We're quite proud of the accomplishment in 2018 and look forward to seeing you all on the road in 2019. Have a great afternoon.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
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Transcripts/AMD/2019-Jul-30-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,696 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2019 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 30, 2019 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Ambrish Srivastava
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD
+ * Hans Carl Mosesmann
+   Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices Second Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Second Quarter 2019 Conference Call. By now you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, AMD.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+Before we begin, I would like to highlight some important dates for you. AMD will officially launch our second-generation EPYC data center CPU on Wednesday, August 7. On Tuesday, August 27, Forrest Norrod, Senior Vice President and General Manager of our Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Group will present at the Jefferies 2019 Semiconductor, Hardware and Communications Infrastructure Summit in Chicago. On Tuesday, September 10, Devinder Kumar, Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer will present at the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference in Las Vegas. And on Friday, September 13, 2019, our third quarter quiet time is expected to begin at the close of business. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. 
+We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial measures during this call, except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced today are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release, which is posted on our website. 
+Please refer to the cautionary statements in our press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and, in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 30, 2019. 
+Now with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Lisa.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. We made history in the second quarter, both as the first company to simultaneously launch high-performance CPUs and GPUs and the first to ramp 7-nanometer high-performance processors across PCs, gaming and the data center. I'm extremely pleased with our execution in the quarter as we ramped production on Ryzen 3000 CPUs, Radeon 300 GPUs and early volumes of our second-generation EPYC processors, in advance of their third quarter launch. 
+Looking at the second quarter, revenue of $1.53 billion increased 20% sequentially driven by growth across both of our business segments. Revenue declined 13% year-over-year in line with our expectations as client and server processor revenue increases were offset by lower graphics channel and semi-custom revenue. 
+Turning to our Computing and Graphics segment. Revenue declined 13% year-over-year as significantly higher client processor sales were offset by lower graphics channel sales. Mobile client processor revenue increased by a double-digit percentage year-over-year and sequentially driven by our highest quarterly unit shipments in 5 years. In desktop, we launched our industry-leading Ryzen 3000 processors featuring our new Zen 2 core to overwhelmingly positive customer response. Numerous third-party reviews highlighted the superior performance of our 7-nanometer Ryzen CPUs in both multi-threaded and single-threaded applications while consuming less power than competitive offerings. Ryzen 3000 processor customer demand has been very strong, with sales at global e-tailers and retailers outpacing our previous generations of Ryzen by more than 3x at the same point following their respective launches. 
+Based on the market response to our latest mobile and desktop processors and the growing number of AMD-powered commercial and consumer PCs, we expect to gain share in the high volume back-to-school and holiday periods. 
+In Graphics, revenue decreased year-over-year driven largely by lower channel sales partially offset by a significant increase in data center GPU sales. GPU revenue increased by a double-digit percentage sequentially driven by increased channel sales of our RX 500 series GPUs and the launch of our Radeon 5700 family. The Radeon 5700 series with our new RDNA architecture, delivers up to 1.5x more performance per watt compared to our previous generation. Initial demand for our new GPUs has been strong as third-party reviewers have highlighted our leadership gaming performance at relevant price points. We are well positioned for growth in the second half of the year as we continue to ramp our Radeon 5000 GPU family. 
+We had another quarter of strong year-over-year data center GPU sales growth driven largely by HPC and cloud wins. We continue making progress expanding this margin-accretive part of our business based on our strategy to focus on working closely with marquee customers. 
+We also announced a strategic partnership in the quarter with Samsung to bring Radeon graphics to their future smartphone and mobile SoCs. The partnership showcases our strategy to engage with industry leaders across the ecosystem to drive Radeon everywhere. We now have deep partnerships across the PC, game console, cloud and mobile markets that contribute to a growing developer ecosystem and installed base for our Radeon graphics architecture. 
+Turning to Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue decreased 12% from a year ago due to lower semi-custom revenue. In semi-custom, we have extended our game console leadership as both Microsoft and Sony have now both announced they will use custom AMD SoCs to power their next-generation game consoles. We are very proud to power back-to-back generations of the world's highest performing game consoles. 
+As we look into the second half of the year, we are seeing additional softness in game console demand, which is now reflected in our full year guidance. 
+In server, CPU revenue grew significantly year-over-year and sequentially driven by initial shipments of our next-generation Rome processors to lead cloud and OEM customers. First-generation EPYC processor-based cloud deployments continued to increase in the quarter. Amazon expanded availability of its EPYC processor-powered instances to the more than 15 regions and dozens of new configurations. And Microsoft launched general availability of its Azure HB supercomputing virtual machine that, for the first time ever, enabled customers to run demanding HPC workloads in the cloud. 
+Turning to our next-generation Rome server processor, Rome is on-time and exceed expectations, delivering leadership performance and TCO across a significantly expanded number of cloud and enterprise workloads. Customer excitement continues to grow. Compared to our first-generation EPYC processors, we have more than twice the number of platforms in development with a larger set of partners. We also have 4x more enterprise and cloud customers actively engaged on deployments prior to launch. As a result, Rome is on track to ramp significantly faster than our first-generation EPYC processor. 
+We are seeing particular strength in HPC, where we offer leadership compute density and I/O. We had multiple supercomputing wins in the quarter, including public announcements from Indiana University and Norway's National Research Network. Our supercomputing momentum was highlighted by the U.S. Department of Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, selecting both EPYC CPUs and Radeon Instinct GPUs to power their next-generation Frontier exascale supercomputer built by Cray. Frontier is expected to be the world's fastest computer when it launches in 2021. We look forward to providing more details on Rome at our launch event in August 7. 
+In summary, as we complete the first half of 2019, we have reached a significant inflection point for the company as we enter our next phase of growth with the most competitive product portfolio in our history. We have seen some uncertainties across our supply chain driven by tariffs, trade concerns and the U.S. entities list. In the second quarter, we stopped shipping to customers added to the U.S. entities list. While we remained cautious given the fluidity of the situation, the impact to date has been limited and offset by growing momentum in other parts of our business. 
+We are executing well to our plans and see a path to significant market share gains for our product portfolio across the PC, gaming and data center markets in the coming quarters. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our second quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa and good afternoon, everyone. We are pleased with the financial results for the first half of 2019, which provide a solid foundation for the second half of the year. Second quarter revenue of $1.53 billion grew 20% over the first quarter. Gross margin of 41% increased 4 percentage points from the prior year driven by the ramp of our strong portfolio of high-performance products. 
+Quarterly revenue was down 13% from a year ago. Strong sales of Ryzen and EPYC processors and our new Radeon RX 5700 GPUs were more than offset by lower semi-custom sales and lower graphics channeled sales associated with blockchain. Operating expenses grew 10% year-over-year to $512 million driven primarily by go-to-market activities and new product introductions. Operating income was $111 million, down from $186 million a year ago, primarily due to lower revenue and higher operating expenses. Operating margin was 7%, down from 11% a year ago. Net income was $92 million compared to $156 million a year ago. And diluted earnings per share was $0.08 per share compared to $0.14 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment result. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $940 million, down 13% year-over-year as strong client processor sales were more than offset by lower overall graphic sales due to negligible blockchain-related revenue in the second quarter of 2019. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $22 million compared to $117 million a year ago, primarily due to lower revenue. 
+In the Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment, revenue was $591 million, down 12% from the prior year. Semi-Custom revenue was lower and partially offset by significant growth in data center CPU revenue. EESC segment operating income was $89 million compared to $69 million a year ago. The improvement was largely due to growth in data center CPU revenue. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.1 billion at the end of the quarter. Year-over-year, we have reduced gross debt by $392 million, and in the second quarter, we also replaced our asset-backed loan facility with a $500 million secured revolving line of credit. 
+Free cash flow was negative $28 million in the quarter, while cash flow from operations was $30 million. Inventory was $1 billion, up $60 million sequentially, primarily due to increased inventory of our new 7-nanometer products in anticipation of accelerating product sales in the back half of the year. Adjusted EBITDA was $163 million compared to $228 million a year ago due to lower quarterly earnings. On a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $672 million, and gross leverage at the end of the quarter was 1.9x. 
+Turning to the outlook for the third quarter of 2019. We expect revenue to be approximately $1.8 billion plus or minus $50 million, an increase of approximately 9% year-over-year and 18% sequentially. The sequential and year-over-year increases are expected to be driven by Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon product sales, partially offset by lower-than-expected semi-custom sales. 
+In addition, for Q3 2019, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 43%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $525 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $30 million; and third quarter diluted share count is expected to be approximately 1.21 billion shares. 
+For the full year, we now believe revenue will increase mid-single-digit percent over 2018 driven by significant sales growth of our new Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon processors, partially offset by lower-than-expected semi-custom revenue. Revenue, excluding semi-custom, is expected to increase approximately 20% year-over-year. Full year non-GAAP gross margin is expected to be approximately 42%. 
+In closing, we had a strong first half of 2019. We remain focused on executing to our plans for the remainder of the year and look forward to ramping our new Ryzen and Radeon products as well as the upcoming launch of Rome. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready for our first question, please?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So my question is really just twofold. Number one, first on the gross margin side. So you guys have talked about semi-custom coming down pretty materially, and that's kind of the entire reason for the, I guess the mid-single-digit growth number. So why, I guess, aren't the gross margins expanding a little more if you're seeing more traction on the server side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, if we look at it from an overall standpoint, in Q2, we did 41%. In the third quarter in a row, 41% gross margin. And in Q3, you're right that the decline in semi-custom, there is benefit to the margin. And the margin guide for Q3, that's approximately 43%. I can tell you that the richer product mix, especially with the new products ramping in Q3, are going to drive the gross margin. Although there is a benefit from the decline of semi-custom also, the margin benefit is more weighted towards the non-semi-custom business, and that's where we end up with the 43% in Q3. We've also updated our guidance for 2019 and now are projecting 42% for the year 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I guess, just a follow-up on that. So the assumption is that by the end of '19, you guys have more share on the server side. So I guess just high level, if I assume that 2020 gross margins are going to start going up as well if you keep gaining share in server. Is that a fair assumption for the next year or so?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think what I would say is we're very pleased with the progress we have made on the margin in 2019. The product mix continues to get richer, and we'll see as we get closer to 2020 in terms of the specifics. But you're right, the product mix does get better. And even in the other businesses, including the client business, the product mix being richer benefits the margin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good to see the traction in the new products. Lisa, for my first question, I was wondering if you could give us some more color around the traction you're seeing in Rome, both from if you're able to quantify it somewhat, but importantly, the traction you're seeing with customers, whether there is any pricing pressure from your main competitor. And I think in the past, you have outlined targets to reach certain market share. Just now that the product is out in front of customers, how are you seeing that traction with both the cloud and the enterprise side?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Absolutely, Vivek. Thanks for the question. So look, we are very pleased with how Rome is coming up. We did ship initial shipments this past quarter in the second quarter to both cloud and enterprise customers. The feedback that we're getting from customers is that the performance is very compelling both from a performance standpoint as well as a total cost of ownership standpoint. We've gotten a number of wins on both the cloud and the enterprise side as well as HPC. From our standpoint, next week is a big week for us. Obviously, we're going to officially launch Rome on August 7. But from a customer pull standpoint, we see good customer pull. 
+Your question specifically about the pricing environment, the pricing environment is always competitive. We expect it to be competitive. That being the case, in servers, price is not the first variable in terms of a buying decision. And so we believe the value proposition that we have for Rome from an overall standpoint is very strong, and we see a good pricing environment for that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And as my follow-up, on the quantification side, I think in the last quarter, you had given us some color around data centers, CPU and GPU kind of around that mid-teens as a percentage of sales. I was hoping you could give us some sense of what it was in Q2 and just what the outlook is for 2019 or the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So in the second quarter, the percentages are similar to the past few quarters in terms of percentage of our business. We were more heavily weighted towards CPU versus GPU in the second quarter, so we saw data center GPU sequentially decline as expected. The CPUs grew as expected. As we go into the second half of the year, you should expect that the percentage of our revenue through the data center will increase as we ramp room.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, obviously, it seems like you're making a lot of progress with Rome or at least the initial feedback continues to be very positive. That said, the overall hyperscale environment seems pretty slow based on commentary from your peers and your customers, I guess. Could that impact the ramp into the second half? Is that a concern for you going forward? And then I have a follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So look, we certainly have heard the same conversation, especially around the cloud environment in the first half of the year. Our plan was always very heavily second half weighted. And from our standpoint, we have seen significant customer engagement and pull for the Rome product, and we see a number of new installations that will come online over the next couple of quarters. So I believe that there is some cloud digestion that's happening out there. I also believe that given where we are from the product cycle standpoint, we are well positioned to grow.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And then as a follow-up, I was hoping to learn a little bit more about the partnership with Samsung, the IP win in the quarter and also Frontier on the HPC side. Just from a modeling perspective, how should we think about those 2 deals, if you will, over the next couple of years and the accretion to the P&L?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So look, we're very pleased with both. They're both very significant announcements for us. On the Samsung side, it's a multiyear, multigenerational deal that we have across our graphics portfolio for mobile. In terms of 2019, the revenue is approximately $100 million that would be added. This was not originally in our guidance, and it offsets some of the headwinds that we talked about in semi-custom and in China. As it -- it's not pure IP, though, so the way you should think about it is there is some specific development expenses that are being -- that are part of that deal. And so those will be part of the COGS portion of that. As it relates to Frontier, Frontier again, very significant deal for us. It is NRE for the next couple of years to really get the software and infrastructure. I would say, that's not material. And it's a relatively smaller number. And then, the actual deployment will be in 2021. So the bulk of the CPU and the GPU revenue will be in 2021, with a small portion of that perhaps in the second half of 2020.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Your next question or is coming from Matt Ramsey from Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I think we'll be hearing plenty about Rome next week. I wanted to ask some questions about your PC business going into the back half of the year. The desktop momentum seems there. The notebook space, Intel is obviously going on to 10-nanometer for a portion of that portfolio. And it seems the 7-nanometer refresh on your side is a little bit later, yet the SKU coverage you've talked about, I think, is 50% higher than it was last year for back-to-school and holidays. So maybe you could talk a little bit about the momentum in the PC business into the back half and the differences between what you might see in desktop and notebook.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Matt. So we're pleased with the progress of our PC business. In the second quarter, we had notebook perform very well. We saw a ramp of our second-generation mobile product, and that is due to some of the additional platforms that we mentioned. Going into the second half of the year, on the desktop side, our third-generation Ryzen products are very well positioned. We expect to ramp significant production here in the third quarter. And we expect that to lead to share gains. And we're also feeling quite good about the mobile products into the second half of the year. We made progress on both consumer and commercial. We had always been strong in consumer, but on the commercial side, we have a number of new platforms as well, and those are ramping here into the second half of the year. So overall, I think the PC business continues to be a good opportunity for us to gain share through the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And as a follow-up for me, a couple things for Devinder. I wonder if you might talk about the margin or gross margin differential between some of the new 7-nanometer products that you're rolling out versus some of the predecessor products that were either on 12 or 14, just so we can get an understanding on magnitude. And before you take that, just congrats on cash positive for the company overall, even in some of the verticals.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Yes. So on the margin side, the new products, as we have said previously, in aggregate are greater than 50% margin. And so as we launch the new products, in particular on the 7-nanometer node, those are accretive. And that's why you see us updating the guidance in terms of the margin not just for the quarter in Q3 but also for the year. And from that standpoint, as the product mix gets richer with more 7-nanometer products ramping, that should benefit the gross margin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Hans Mosesmann from Rosenblatt Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congrats on the execution with the 7-nanometer. Lisa, are you guys constrained in terms of 7-nanometer at TSM?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hans, yes. So we do have a number of products ramping at TSMC in 7-nanometer and we are not constrained per se. I will say that cycle times of 7-nanometer are longer, and so it just takes more time to ramp up, but we are not constrained. TSMC has supported us quite well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hans Carl Mosesmann,  Rosenblatt Securities Inc., Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And can you give us a sense, if you can, on 7-nanometer high-end Navi and mobile 7-nanometer CPUs, if you can?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hans, you asked the good product questions. I would say, they are coming. You should expect that our execution on those are on track, and we have a rich 7-nanometer portfolio beyond the products that we have currently announced in the upcoming quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, you have a lot of things working for you. You've got Rome, Ryzen, the GPU portfolio. Where are you seeing the biggest upside surprise on the feedback that you're getting relative to your original expectations?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So look, Mark, I think all products have really performed quite well. I think the third-generation Ryzen desktop, both in terms of the reviews -- third-party reviews as well as just the customer interest, what we see is obviously it's only been in market for 3 weeks, and so we watch the data points very carefully. But across the globe, we're seeing sort of significant uptick in our share in the desktop market. I think Navi has come out positioned very well. We're very pleased with our RDNA architecture. Navi is the first step, and we have a couple more steps going. And then we'll talk much more about EPYC next week. I think the key thing is the products have been on schedule and at or above the performance. So our goal is of course to turn that into revenue growth in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, that's great color. And a follow-up if I may, you mentioned the gen 5 game console wins at Microsoft and Sony. Can you give us a sense, when do these start to ramp? When they ramp, do you book the revenues as you build inventory as you did in the previous generation? And is there going to be -- should we think about anything differently on the gross margin profile? Is it going to be similar to what you've had in the past on these things? So just some color on the gen 5 game consoles.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So Mark, we're proud of the wins at Sony and Microsoft. Those are big wins for us and, as you know, over many years. We can't comment on specific customers and their ramp profiles. The only thing I will say is, you can expect that in general, consumer ramps are second half weighted, especially weighted towards the holiday season. And you would expect that. And then as it relates to the gross margin profiles, with our semi-custom business model, I think the margins will be under the corporate average. However, our business model is actually quite different. If you look forward to our business model, the growth that we see across all of our other products, Ryzen, EPYC, Radeon is actually quite significant. And so the percentage of semi-custom as a percent of the overall business will be lower than, for example, in the last few years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          For my first one, I want to follow up on that second half gross margin question again. I want to put some numbers behind it. So you're guiding 43% for Q3. Your implied guidance for Q4 is 43% and maybe a little under. It's only up about 150 bps year-over-year and flat sequentially, but you're guiding Q4 revenues of over 50% year-over-year. And consoles have to be falling like 40% to 50% sequentially, so the mix has to be massively switching over to the new products that, in aggregate, have gross over 50%. Why are gross margins only being guided up like 160 bps year-over-year in Q4 given that kind of a revenue trajectory? And why is it only flat sequentially even with revenues growing over 20% quarter-on-quarter into Q4? I don't understand.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Stacy, let me start, and then maybe Devinder can add to it. So we guide approximately to full margin points. What you should expect as we go from Q3 to Q4 is that the product mix will get better, so we will expect more new products. And from the standpoint of semi-custom, semi-custom will be down sequentially Q3 to Q4. And so you should expect that we are not implying that the margin will be down in Q4, and we'll get to the Q4 guide as we get through the next 90 days.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. For my follow-up, the $100 million from Samsung, did your 20% year-over-year growth excluding the semi-custom include that $100 million that wasn't in the prior guidance? And what is the impact on the gross margins of that Samsung revenue as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So the Samsung additional revenue is included as part of the 20% year-on-year, and it offset some weakness that we have in China due to the entities list. As to the gross margin profile for that, you can expect that to be somewhat above corporate average.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So somewhat over low-40s?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Somewhat above corporate average.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have one question and a follow-up as well. Just building on that last kind of question, I think the last couple of quarters, you've talked about your semi-custom business being down somewhere in the 20% plus range. It looks like by my math, your assumption now is that, that business declines maybe as much as 40-plus percent. And so when you parse through that, you kind of factor in the Samsung relationship and the incremental $100 million revenue, has your estimate at all changed ex those items? Meaning, revenue ex the semi-custom decline and then also ex the $100 million Samsung?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So let me try to help you, Aaron, with that math. So look, originally, when we started the year, we thought semi-custom would be down, let's call it, approximately 20%. In the first half of the year it was down more than that. And based on what we see today, we would expect the full year now to be down, let's call it, mid-30s year-on-year. If you talk about now the rest of the business, I think the rest of the business is close to where we thought it would be, close plus or minus a couple percent. And if you think about all of the moving pieces, we do have some customers that were not shipping to -- in China. That is offset by the Samsung upside and with the new products and how they're coming in. So I think we are pretty close plus or minus to where we thought we would be ex those factors.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. That's very helpful. And then just looking at your product segmentation, I'm curious as how you think about the trajectory of the data center GPU business going forward. Obviously, I can appreciate that could be lumpy, but I'm just trying to understand how you see that. Is there a point in time when we can actually get some better visibility into that incremental growth driver or revenue stream going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think that's a fair comment. It is a little bit lumpy because of its size and it's fairly concentrated in a couple of customers. I will say that we're going to see very nice year-over-year growth this year, and we see good customer momentum across both cloud as well as HPC. On the cloud side, it is both, let's call it cloud streaming/gaming as well as machine learning. And on the HPC side, the Frontier win is a public win, but we have a number of others that we're working as well. So I think we give more color as we go forward, but it continues to be a business that we feel will be a good growth driver over the next few years.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from David Wong from Instinet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          One small clarification and then a second question. The clarification, the Samsung $100 million, does that come in under income statement to the revenue or is it on another line, a special item or something?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It's revenue. So it's revenue, and then offset by some specific development costs and also in COGS. And like Lisa said earlier, the margin, when you take the revenue and the COGS offset, is somewhat above corporate average.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Excellent. And can you give us any numbers in terms of for the June quarter, your sequential unit growth in desktop and notebook processing units and the sales growth PC GPUs?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let's see, David. So in the -- your questions is about the second quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's correct. Yes.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So the second quarter we saw a sequentially mobile units up, and we saw desktop units down. And the desktop units down is somewhat due to the seasonality in the second quarter as well as the fact that we were going through a product transition as we were preparing for the third-generation launch, which happened at the very end of the quarter. In terms of graphics, we were up double digits sequentially, and that's both units and revenue statement as it relates to -- and that was driven primarily by the graphics channel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So your full quarter -- your full year guidance, mid-single digit. If I sort of project 5%, you need to get to a $2.2 billion number for the December quarter. I guess how literally should I take that? Is there anything -- I understand there's a lot of product momentum. That still seems like a big number. Is there anything we should understand in terms of seasonality or things that would kind of give you confidence in mid-single digit for the full year still?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think, Joe, our view is that we have significant amount of product launches to happen. So as we go through the third quarter and the fourth quarter, both on the PC side, the GPU side as well as on the server side. So, yes. It is significant growth, and I think we feel good about sort of the drivers there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations on these solid results. I apologies if I missed this, Lisa. Just going back to the Samsung revenue. Is that $100 million all coming into the calendar fourth quarter? Or will there be some in the September quarter as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, John. So that $100 million -- approximately $100 million for the year. There was a little bit in Q2, and then the rest will be in Q3 and Q4.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Is there linearity you can talk about on that? Or can we just kind of evenly split it between Q3 and Q4?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think that's close.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then just a similar question on bridging sort of the gap between your Q3 guide and your full year guide as it pertains to OpEx. If you look at kind of the full year guide you're given in OpEx, it could imply that OpEx dollars are actually flat to down sequentially in Q4 on pretty meaningful revenue growth, which is great leverage and understandable on the SG&A line. But I'm just kind of curious, how we should be thinking or how you're thinking about the R&D spend as you start to see revenue begin to accelerate again.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Look, I think you should expect that OpEx should be flattish as we go through the rest of the year. And we have increased OpEx. Obviously, the first half of the year was higher OpEx as a percentage of revenue. We are investing in the right places, and I think the product execution shows up. We will evaluate obviously in 2020 as we look through the overall revenue growth picture and what we'll do with OpEx. But I think we've made the right investments and we'll continue to do so.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And John, if you're looking at additional data since you are doing the math, we expect OpEx to be approximately 30% for 2019, if you take Q3 and Q4 into consideration.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, maybe this something you'll address next week in the Rome launch. But in aggregate, now that we're this much closer to the launch in the second half ramp, which you sound very confident on, a year ago you talked about the market share goals. I think it was double-digit market share, 4 to 6 quarters after you hit the 5% market share. Any sort of update on the timing and/or comfort around hitting that target?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think, Ross, we feel good about that being the right target. I'm not ready to update that yet. I think we want to get through. There's a lot of platforms to launch here in the third quarter and in the fourth quarter. We'd like to get through some of that. But we feel that the target is the right target. The product is certainly performing well. And now it's about helping our customers get their platforms to market as soon as possible.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. A quick follow-up. It was part of a prior question that I don't think I heard the answer to. But is the accounting for the semi-custom ramp, whenever it may occur next year, the same in so far as when you build it, you recognize the revenue? So even if the customer tends to ramp in consumer in the half year, you guys obviously have to build and get the inventory stage, et cetera, much earlier than that, and therefore that would be revenue? Or did something change accounting-wise that that's no longer true?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. That was asked earlier, and I don't think I responded to it. The accounting is the same, so I don't think the accounting changes. The only difference, though, is we tend -- we would not ramp a product prior to qualification. So there are some -- when you're doing a brand-new product, there is a more involved qualification cycle. And so I think there would be -- it would be more commensurate with the actual product shipments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So 2 things would happen more simultaneously, is what you're saying?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Correct.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Ambrish Srivastava from BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I also had a clarification, Lisa. I'm not sure I quite understood. In the delta for revenues, you talked about semi-custom, and then you also said that China is having an impact. What specific product areas are those? And is that -- THATIC is also part of that? And then I have a follow-up for Devinder.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we did have a small impact due to China. We have several customers that are now on the U.S. entities list, and we stopped shipping to those customers in the second quarter. And so it's a small impact, but there is impact that is offset by some of the positives in the rest of the business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I'm assuming that's CPUs, desktop and/or server, both, right?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          There is some PC business and there's some server business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ambrish Srivastava,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - MD of Semiconductor Research & Senior Research Analyst    [73]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then Devinder, my follow-up is on free cash flow. The gap between free cash flow per share and earnings per share is massive. If I look at the first 2 quarters, roughly $300 million, negative free cash flow, but you're guiding for positive -- for the full year. Can you put some numbers around that? Is that tens of millions? Or what's the right way to think about that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [74]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, so if you asked in Q3, we expect to be free cash flow positive and free cash flow positive for the year. It won't be tens of millions from a year's standpoint. I think it's triple digit, but I'm not going to give you a specific number.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [75]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [76]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'm just curious on the notebook market. Intel talked about some pull-ins, but also ensuring the market. You're ramping products. Just wondering if you can parse those items out because notebook was pretty strong for you in June. Just curious if that impacts any seasonality at the end of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [77]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Blayne. From our standpoint, our notebook ramps were due to platform breadth. We ramped a number of second-generation platforms as well as some new Chrome platforms. I can't say that I can point to any particular pull-ins, per se. I think we're still expecting that we have -- we see a seasonal uplift in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [78]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then maybe just a follow-on to that. In your September guidance, if you look between the Computing and Graphics segment, I'm wondering, between the 3 segments, if you can just highlight which one you expect to be the strongest?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [79]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So, let's see. I think what I would say is that, amongst the product lines and where they are in their ramp cycle, you would expect perhaps PCs to be the strongest and then graphics and server next.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [80]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Timothy Arcuri from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [81]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, so for my first question, I just wanted to ask how you think about semi-custom sort of over the longer term? And talk maybe about cloud gaming and sort of how you think about its long-term effect on you. Because on one hand you've done quite well with some of these big launches coming up, but you're also exposed to some potential cannibalization on the semi-custom side. So I'm wondering how you think about those 2 factors?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [82]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, so look, I think we like sort of gaming overall. So if you think about gaming overall, there's PC gaming, there's cloud gaming and then there's console gaming. We believe a rich ecosystem is important. We want to have our Radeon graphics architecture across all those 3 segments. 
+I've been asked about the cannibalization question, I think it's too early to talk about that. Maybe in a few years. I mean we think cloud gaming is going to be important, but it's too early to say whether it's really a cannibalization thing, or is it an additive, getting access to more users overall. So our goal is to make sure that our architecture is very friendly to all segments of gaming.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [83]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And then I just wanted to go back to the question that Ross just asked about, the server share target. So it's not that you're not reiterating that target here. It's more that you're going to update us on the target when you launch Rome. Is that the right way to think about it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [84]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No. Let me say it this way. I think we do stand by the target, so the target being double-digit, sort of 4 to 6 quarters after the initial 5%. I think we feel good about that target. I'm not being more specific than that until we get through more of the ramp.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [85]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session, I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [86]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We're good. That was a good call. Thank you, everyone, for joining us for AMD's second quarter call today. We look forward to speaking with you from San Francisco on August the 7th, and we appreciate your support of our company. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [87]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your line at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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Transcripts/AMD/2019-Oct-29-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,546 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2019 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 29, 2019 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Harsh V. Kumar
+   Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the Advanced Micro Devices Third Quarter 2019 Earnings Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It's now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Third Quarter 2019 Financial Results Conference Call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these items, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, amd.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+I would like to highlight some important dates for you. On Wednesday, November 6, Mark Papermaster, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, will present at that Bernstein Technology Summit in New York City. On Monday, December 9, Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing, Human Resources and Investor Relations, will present at the UBS Global Technology Conference, also in New York City. On Thursday, December 12, Forrest Norrod, Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Data Center and Embedded Solutions group will present at the Barclays Technology Conference in San Francisco. And our Fourth Quarter 2019 quiet time is expected to begin at the close of business on Friday, December 13. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial metrics during this call, except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced today are reconciled on their most -- to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release, which is posted on our website. Please refer to the cautionary statement in our press release for more information. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2019. 
+Now with that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. I am pleased with our strong third quarter execution and results. We delivered our highest quarterly revenue since 2005, our highest quarterly gross margin since 2012 and increased net income significantly, all driven by our first full quarter of 7-nanometer Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processor sales. Third quarter revenue of $1.8 billion increased 9% year-over-year and 18% sequentially, and we expanded gross margin by 3 percentage points year-over-year. 
+Turning to our Computing and Graphics segment. Revenue increased 36% year-over-year and sequentially. Demand for Ryzen desktop and notebook processors drove a significant increase in unit shipments and ASP, resulting in our highest client processor quarterly revenue since 2011. We saw particularly strong demand for our top-end Ryzen processors, and believe we gained client processor unit share for the eighth straight quarter. In desktops, we are seeing strong demand for our Ryzen 3000 and previous generation Ryzen 2000 processors. Both product families are consistently among the top sellers at leading e-tailers and retailers globally. In commercial, HP and Lenovo announced new desktop PCs powered by our Ryzen PRO 3000 series processors in the third quarter. We are continuing to expand our presence in the commercial market as more financial, retail, education and health care customers purchase AMD-based PCs and Chromebooks to power their businesses. We are on track to expand our desktop product offerings in November with the launches of the industry's first 16-core mainstream desktop processor as well as our third-generation Ryzen Threadripper processor family. These products will offer unmatched combinations of core counts, performance and energy efficiency for the most demanding high-end desktop and content creation applications. 
+In mobile, we had another quarter of strong double-digit percentage notebook processor revenue growth driven by our virtual product mix and increased unit shipments. The number of AMD-powered laptops from major OEMs has increased by 50% this year, including multiple premium notebooks like the first ever AMD-powered Microsoft Surface laptop. We collaborated closely with Microsoft over several years to develop the AMD-exclusive 15-inch consumer Surface laptop 3, which includes a custom Ryzen Microsoft Surface edition processor and multiple operating system and software optimizations that will benefit all AMD-powered Windows systems. We are very pleased with our momentum in the client business this year and expect client processor revenue to grow sequentially in the fourth quarter as we head into the seasonally strong holiday season. 
+In graphics, revenue increased year-over-year driven largely by higher channel GPU sales. Shipments of our Radeon 5000 GPU family, featuring our RDNA architecture, increased sequentially and we are seeing solid demand for the new products based on their competitive performance and features. For mainstream gamers, we began shipping the Radeon RX 5500 GPU in the third quarter. Acer, HP, Lenovo and MSI announced plans to offer the new GPU in their upcoming PCs and multiple AIB partners plan to launch RX 5500 cards during the fourth quarter. 
+Data center GPU sales were down sequentially and roughly flat year-over-year. We added multiple cloud and HPC wins in the quarter, highlighted by Microsoft's announcement of a new remote desktop offering for graphics-intensive workloads powered by EPYC CPUs and Radeon Instinct GPUs. We are making good progress growing this margin accretive part of our business as we continue expanding our footprint with marquee customers and targeted data center workloads. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue decreased 27% from a year ago, as significantly higher server processor revenue was offset by lower semi-custom sales. We expect semi-custom demand to further soften in the fourth quarter now that both Microsoft and Sony have announced new AMD-powered consoles for holiday 2020. 
+In server, we had our highest quarterly CPU revenue since 2006 as strong second-generation EPYC processor demand drove a greater than 50% sequential increase in unit shipments and revenue. Second-gen EPYC processors are the highest performance server CPUs in the industry and have set more than 100 world records. Our newest EPYC processors feature up to 64 cores and deliver a 25% to 50% TCO advantage versus competitive offerings. As a result of our clear performance leadership and differentiated feature set, we are building momentum with cloud, enterprise and HPC customers. 
+In cloud, Amazon AWS, IBM Cloud, Microsoft Azure, OVHcloud, Twitter and Tencent all announced plans to deploy EPYC processors in their data centers. At our launch event, Google became the latest mega data center provider to adopt EPYC processors as they announced second-generation EPYC processors have been deployed across their internal infrastructure production data center environment and will also be used to power the Google Cloud platform. 
+In enterprise, Dell, HPE and Lenovo more than doubled their AMD-powered server portfolio as they launched new platforms featuring second-gen EPYC processors, helping us add dozens of new telecom, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and energy customers in the quarter. We also secured multiple new HPC wins in the quarter, including 3 separate U.S. Department of Defense supercomputers and what is expected to be the fastest scientific computer in the U.K. We expect server revenue to grow sequentially by a strong double-digit percentage in the fourth quarter as we continue ramping our second-generation EPYC processors. We remain on track to achieve our near-term goal of double-digit server CPU share by mid-next year. 
+In summary, we are right where we want to be on our long-term strategic plan. We have the strongest product portfolio in our history. We executed our product launches and production ramps very well in the third quarter as our new products grow higher revenue, margin expansion and increase profitability. We're on track to exit 2019 with another quarter of significant growth driven by the ramp of our 7-nanometer products and believe we are well positioned to build our momentum in 2020 and beyond as we deliver an even stronger set of leadership products that can drive sustained growth and increase share of the $75 billion market for high-performance Computing and Graphics technologies. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our third quarter financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. We are pleased with our strong third quarter financial results with revenue of $1.8 billion, up 18% quarter-over-quarter and our highest quarterly revenue since the fourth quarter of 2005. The third quarter showcases our financial momentum and the strength of our business model with operating income and net income growing significantly year-over-year. Quarterly revenue was up 9% from a year ago as strong sales of Ryzen and EPYC processors and Radeon gaming GPUs more than offset lower semi-custom sales. Gross margin of 43% was up 320 basis points from a year ago, our tenth consecutive quarter of year-over-year expansion. Operating expenses grew 13% year-over-year to $539 million primarily driven by increased R&D investments and support for our new product introductions. Operating income was $240 million, up $54 million or 29% from a year ago due to increased revenue from new higher margin products. Operating margin was 13%, up 210 basis points from a year ago. Net income was $219 million, up $69 million or 46% from a year ago. And diluted earnings per share was $0.18 per share compared to $0.13 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $1.28 billion, up 36% year-over-year driven by strong client processor and gaming GPU sales. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $179 million compared to $100 million a year ago driven by higher Ryzen processor sales. Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-custom segment revenue was $525 million, down from $715 million the prior year. As anticipated, semi-custom revenue was lower in the third quarter as the market awaits next-generation AMD-powered game consoles from Sony and Microsoft. EPYC data center CPU revenue grew by over 50% sequentially driven by shipments of our second-generation product in the quarter. EESC segment operating income was $61 million compared to $86 million a year ago due to lower revenue and higher operating expenses. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. I'm very pleased with the continuing improvement of our balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.2 billion at the end of the quarter, higher than the gross debt of $1.1 billion resulting in AMD being net cash positive. During the quarter, we retired $206 million of debt, which resulted in a loss of $40 million recorded on our GAAP income statement. The reduction in debt included $126 million of convertible senior notes in exchange for 16 million shares. Year-to-date, we have reduced gross debt by $441 million. Free cash flow was positive $179 million in the third quarter and cash flow from operations was $234 million. Inventory was $1 billion, up slightly from the prior quarter in anticipation of higher revenue in the fourth quarter. Adjusted EBITDA was $300 million compared to $227 million a year ago driven by higher quarterly earnings. On a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $745 million and gross leverage at the end of the quarter was 1.5x. 
+Now turning to the outlook for the fourth quarter of 2019. We expect revenue to be approximately $2.1 billion plus or minus $50 million, an increase of approximately 48% year-over-year and 17% sequentially. The sequential and year-over-year increases are expected to be driven by growth in Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon processor sales offset by a further softening of semi-custom processor revenue. In addition, for Q4 2019, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 44%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $535 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $22 million; and fourth quarter diluted share count is expected to be approximately 1.21 billion shares. 
+In closing, we had an excellent third quarter and remain focused on ramping our leadership portfolio of high-performance products to deliver strong revenue growth and gross margin expansion in the fourth quarter. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. Operator, we're ready to go ahead and poll for our first question, please.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First one for Lisa. You had mention the total cost of ownership in your prepared comments, and I wonder -- I guess, I could imagine that the total cost of ownership over a lifetime of a 7-nanometer server chip might be greater than the price of a server chip when compared to a 14-nanometer server chip. And so I'm wondering if you could maybe just clarify the comments you made on total cost of ownership and quantify, if that is the case, how you see it. And how many -- what percentage of your data center customers actually look at total cost of ownership in evaluating the products? Is it -- does everybody do that? Or do some just look at the price? And I'm wondering, like, what do you think that has -- impact that might have on the competitive pricing environment? That's the first question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Thanks for the question, Mark. So -- I mean maybe let me give some context on sort of the data center business for us, and then I'll answer your question. Look, I think from what we see, there is a very strong value proposition for Rome. When you look at just what we're able to do from just the amount of performance, the power consumption and then how that plays into total cost of ownership. We see it across all workloads, so whether you're talking about a virtualized environment or you're talking about high-performance computing or you're talking about the Enterprise sort of workloads, we see a strong performance as well as strong total cost of ownership. To your exact question, I think, server purchases -- or server purchasers are very, I would say, sophisticated. And so in most cases, total cost of ownership is definitely in the conversation. And it's not just about performance but performance at a given power level and also in terms of a given density. And that has played out in a number of our customer engagements. And so the overall point of -- we think that Rome is very well positioned. Price in and of itself is one factor, but I would say it's not the primary factor. I think the performance, power, total cost of ownership are all important buying factors, and we've seen very, very strong engagement from customers across-the-board, across all workloads for these drivers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - Senior Equity Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And a follow-up, if I may, on the -- when you think about your share gain -- your potential to gain share as you look into 2020, can you talk about what you view as the biggest potential gating factors in that and like how you're managing those potential factors? And I'm hoping you can talk to your view on availability of 7-nanometer wafers or -- and engineering support for your customers who are trying to put together solutions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Sure, Mark. So a couple different questions there. Let me try to get through it. I will say, since our launch of Rome in August, we've had a very strong start. Now we had a full quarter of revenue here in the third quarter, and we saw that in sort of the ramp of units and revenue. What we are seeing is that the qualifications are going faster with the second-generation of EPYC than with the first generation, so customers are familiar with our platforms. In some cases, customers are doing drop-in platforms, and so they can take virtually the same or a very similar platform that they had for first-gen and drop-in the second-gen. They're familiar with our architecture. And so I think, from a market share standpoint, we feel good about the transition from Naples to Rome. I think the platform readiness across our OEMs and number of platforms that we have across the major OEMs is also very strong, and we're pleased with the set that are -- that have both new and existing platforms there. And so from the standpoint of where we are going in the fourth quarter into 2020, I think we feel very, very good about where we are with the data center customers. 
+As it relates to customer support and all that stuff, like I said, customers are much, much more familiar with the architecture in the second-generation compared to the first generation. And that is good for the ramp of Rome. As it relates to -- I think you asked about the 7-nanometer ramp and the availability there, we had a very large ramp here in the third quarter with 7-nanometer. We essentially ramped 3 full product families, Ryzen, EPYC as well as our Radeon gaming product families, in the third quarter. And it went very well. We're very pleased with it. It's the fastest ramp that we have done certainly in recent memory. And going into the fourth quarter and into 2020, I think we feel very good about the availability of Rome as well as the rest of our products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from David Wong from Instanet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you give us an idea of what your revenues were from 7-nanometer products in the September quarter and what you reckon they'll be in the December quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think what I can say, David, and I'll start. Maybe Devinder has some additional comments. The ramp for 7-nanometer has gone very quickly in -- here in the third quarter. When we look at overall new product revenue, certainly in the third quarter, we had a significant piece of that be 7-nanometer. That will increase again as we go into the fourth quarter as well. And so the way to think about it is, for our major product lines, we're transitioning very fast from 14 to 7.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And within your Computing and Graphics segment, that 36% sequential growth, could you give us an idea of how -- what client CPU sales grew sequentially and separately, what the PC GPU sales sequential growth was?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So if you look at the CG segment from a sequential standpoint, we saw the client CPUs increase the most, and those were certainly the driver being both desktop and mobile. Desktop was higher than mobile, but both grew very nicely. If you look at GPUs overall, they actually declined a bit sequentially, and that decline was primarily driven by data center GPUs, which declined just due to some of the buying cycles in the cloud. Overall, gaming did well. And we continue to expect that, as we go into the fourth quarter, you'll see that the data center GPUs will increase as well, as I mentioned in the prepared remarks, that client and graphics would also increase.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Matt Ramsay from Cowen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Before I jump into questions, just congrats to Devinder on being cash positive. The -- Lisa, a couple questions on Rome. We've been tracking some of the strength at Google, Microsoft and Amazon, but I wonder if you might comment a little bit about the server business in China given some disruptions there, just overall CapEx and also, the OEM business that you're now ramping with Dell, HP, and Lenovo, and how you expect those things to trend over the next couple of quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Matt, as we look -- so let me answer the first question as it relates to the cloud customers. I think we are very pleased with the cloud adoption. We are engaged across all major Tier 1 and many of the Tier 2 service providers, and I think we're making good progress there. As it relates specifically to China, we are well engaged there in both cloud and enterprise. Obviously, there is a little bit of disruption due to some of the China customers that are on the entities list and we follow that closely. But as it relates -- overall, I think we're -- we believe that there is strong pull for Rome both across cloud as well as Enterprise. On the enterprise side, what I will say is that the HPC market has been really good for us. And so we have won quite a few of the bids and they tend to be early adopters of the technology. And so that's one indication of the strong value proposition. As we go into more general Enterprise, the launch of HPE, Dell and Lenovo as well as Supermicro and the other ODM platforms is broader than our -- the first generation of EPYC, and we're seeing that in the pipeline that we see. So a lot of activity going on right now, and we feel really good about how that's going to develop over the next couple of quarters in terms of Enterprise wins.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just as a follow-up from me on the client business. Obviously, a lot of progress that's been made with the results that you've just put up. And I kind of go back to some comments made by your primary competitor on their call, I think, talking about tightness in their own 14-nanometer supply and also that they've maybe not addressed some of the lower tiers of the market, yet your ASPs are up quite strongly. I wonder how much some of the supply tightness from your competitor might have led to these gains versus sort of the merits of your own product. If there's anything you could talk about that, Lisa, that would be really helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Sure, Matt. Well, the client business has really had a very strong year, I mean, if you look at how it's played out over the last couple of quarters. I'll say that, in our desktop portfolio, the third-gen Ryzen has done very, very well. It's extremely well positioned. And where we're seeing the highest demand is at the highest tier sort of in the Ryzen 9 and the Ryzen 7. And so that's why you see the ASP strength in the business. Mobile is also ramping very nicely and what we're seeing, again, in mobile is the mix of Ryzen is now a predominant mix of the business. And we're seeing actually very nice momentum in commercial as well as our traditional consumer market, so we also see good sequential growth in ASPs there. There is some noise in the system as it relates to some supply constraints and all that stuff. I would view that as mostly -- again, it's pockets at the low end. I don't think it's a significant driver of our business. Our business is driven primarily by our new platforms, the fact that we are in a number of premium platforms on both the notebook side as well as just the strength that we're having in the DIY channel is there. And that's contributing to the positive mix as well as the unit growth in the client business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations on the strong growth and execution. I had 2 questions as well. Lisa, first, on the data center business. I know you mentioned the target is still to be on track for double-digit kind of unit share sometime in the middle of next year. Could you help us level set as to where the share is in Q3 and what the target is in Q4 and if you have seen your competitor react to your server share gains in any way through pricing or other means?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Vivek, as you know, we don't necessarily want to get ahead of ourselves in terms of server share. But what we will say is our -- the Q3 quarter was our highest units sort of with EPYC. And so we are seeing good strength and predominantly a very fast transition to Rome. We expect that to continue to grow as we go into Q4 and into the first half of next year. So this is about more platforms ramping and multiple platforms within a given customer. And you should see -- we saw a number of announcements around our launches here in Q3, and you should see additional announcements as we go into the fourth quarter as well as the first half of next year. 
+Your question about do we see any unusual activity from a competition standpoint. Look, our view is that the competition is aggressive, will always be aggressive and we're counting on that. It's a very competitive market out there. That being the case, I think we are feeling very good about how our product is positioned and also the readiness of the product. So the question earlier about are the platforms ready, how's the customer support, I think it's very strong. And I think our OEM and ODM partners have done a phenomenal job with the breadth of platforms, and that will help us continue to grow overall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. And for my follow-up, Lisa, I had kind of a longer-term conceptual question, which is it's good to see growth margins improving and the cost discipline, but do you think this is the time to actually increase OpEx a lot and really go after maximizing footprint, right, adding more resources, more systems rather than trying to optimize profitability? I'm just curious to hear how you are looking at the puts and takes around whether you should be maximizing footprint rather than profitability at this level.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Well, it's a good question, Vivek. I get asked it from time to time. But what you will see is I think we're very cognizant of where we're going. So in other words, the roadmap -- and I mean the long term sort of financial roadmap, I think we understand pretty well. We want to show leverage on both top and bottom line, and that's certainly our goal. We did spend a little bit more this year than we originally planned, and that was frankly because the opportunities are very strong. And most of the additional spend is targeted at R&D, with the notion of platform investments, software investments to ensure that we capture the opportunities that we have. I think we have the right balance, Vivek. And certainly, as we go into 2020, we'll continue to look at that balance. But I think we are very well balanced between top line and bottom line growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations, guys. Lisa, I guess, my first question is, can you help me understand a little bit about the traction you're getting in the Enterprise market on both Ryzen and in EPYC? And kind of what milestones should we be looking at relative to that sort of vertical?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So the -- we're very excited about the opportunities for us in the commercial space. And I will tell you, when we look at our go-to-market investments, we are putting a lot of feet on the street as well as just general go-to-market around commercial. Starting with Ryzen, I think you have seen and you should have seen that the number of commercial platforms that we have continues to get stronger, and it's not just the number of platforms but the quality of the platforms. Certainly, Lenovo ThinkPad is a premium brand that is very key. We have very strong HP commercial offerings. We have additional desktops coming out as well. What we are seeing is good traction in the commercial space, and that is the stronger part of the PC market. And we'll continue to talk about that. 
+As it relates to new platforms, certainly as we refresh our mobile platform going into next year, I think you'll see even stronger commercial offerings there. We're investing heavily in security and manageability and all of those other aspects that are important in the commercial space. As it relates to EPYC in the Enterprise, I'm actually very encouraged with what we see in the Enterprise. We had originally said that we thought we would be more cloud -- sort of cloud would go first and then Enterprise would take longer. I think what we currently see is cloud is certainly a big driver of our business. But our Enterprise business is coming along very nicely. And I really would say that the key metrics there are more top tier brands adopting EPYC and talking about that publicly. We have had a number of engagements, and I mentioned earlier that the pipeline that we see in Enterprise across our top OEMs has increased very significantly just in the last sort of 2 months since we launched. So the awareness around EPYC as well as the awareness around these new platforms, I think, is strong, and we'll continue to build that out as we go forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful, Lisa. Then maybe for my follow-up. As we, the analyst community, look out to modeling 2020, the GPU/CPU is relatively straightforward relative to market share expectations we might have. I'm just kind of curious if you can give us some help on the semi-custom business, if it's impacted by ASC 60? And also, we've got a new gaming cycle next year. I know you don't want to preannounce customer product, but how should we think about the semi-custom business trending throughout 2020 in broad strokes?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think it's a good question, and we will certainly give you more guidance as we get into 2020. But the way to think about it at a high level is we are going through a product transition with semi-custom now. And in 2019, for example, we've had the unusual cycle, where the second half of 2019 is pretty soft for semi-custom compared to the first half. And what you should expect in 2020 is that, that would flip strongly. So I think both of our large customers have said that they're planning a holiday 2020 launch. That would mean that the semi-custom business would be quite heavily weighted in the second half, so you should expect that revenue in the first half will be, again, quite soft with a strong recovery in the second half of the year. And the way I look at it is, the gaming business, the console business is a strong business for us. And so it will be one of the growth drivers as we go into 2020 and beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First, I wanted to ask about gross margins. I mean, I guess, I'm glad to see them up. But given what's going on with the mix, I mean, I think you said GPUs were down sequentially. We've got data center up more than 50%. Ryzen is growing. You have the Samsung IP in there. I guess, I'm just surprised not to see them up more both in the quarter as well as into Q4. I was wondering if you could give us a little bit more color about what's driving that margin evolution given the positive drivers of mix that I think should be there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think if you look at it from a quarter-to-quarter standpoint, if you're talking about Q2 to Q3, you're right about the mix of the product, in particular, with the ramp of the 7-nanometer products. And the margins are up. Last quarter, we had, call it 41%. And this time, it's slightly above 43%. And that is fundamentally due to the new products that are ramping and obviously some benefit from the semi-custom business, it's been down slightly in Q3 compared to Q2. So that's that. And then as you get into the Q4 timeframe, in the guide at 44%, it's driven by the new legacy products, demand for the high end of product -- of our product stack is driving a richer mix, and obviously, there's little bit of benefit as Lisa said earlier with the softer semi-custom revenue. So I think overall...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I thought all those new products were supposed to have gross margins in aggregate of over 50% and they're driving like a massive mix shift, and yet, you've only got gross margins up a couple of points. What am I getting wrong?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think the numbers are coming out to be a couple of hundred basis points up on a quarterly basis with the ramp of the 7-nanometer product. I don't think you get anything wrong. You have to look at the mix of the product relative to the total revenue of the company at the $1.8 billion, and I think that's how it comes out, Stacy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, Stacy, maybe if this will help. In each of the product lines, we are certainly mixing up, and that's why you see some of the ASP goodness. But you also have some legacy product, right? And we continue to sell some legacy product as well. And so that's the -- that's perhaps the other piece. But I think, as Devinder said, look, we're very happy with the way that the gross margin has progressed. I think if you look at our long-term model, we had said 40 to 44 points, and we'll be exiting the year at 44, and I think very well -- positions us well as we go into 2020 and turn over more of the product portfolio to the new products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. For my follow-up, I wanted to ask about the EPYC server ramp into next quarter. So you were up, you said, more than 50% this quarter. So that might be, what, $80 million to $100 million maybe sequentially, which is, I guess, good. Your competitor added almost $1.5 billion sequentially in data center this quarter. So when you say next quarter that you're -- I guess, you did gain share. You're up about 50%, their units were up 20% but even so. So when you're saying, next quarter, you're going to grow it by strong double digits on EPYC, do you think that that's like better than the trend that we saw in Q3 as more stuff ramps? I mean, if we were up 50% sequentially in Q3, do you think we can be better than that in Q4? Is that was strong double-digit means? Or do you have a different meaning in mind?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, I think we have in mind strong double digits. So I would say -- and Stacy, I'm not being facetious, but again, there are all kinds of puts and takes. What I will say, though, is put in context that the product has basically been in markets since early August. And if you put that in context, and we're saying that the transition is going quickly, and we have a number of new platforms that are -- literally, they've been in market 4 to 8 weeks. With the way the server cycle goes, I'm actually pretty happy with how it's ramping. And I expect, as I said, that Q4 will be another strong quarter for us, and it's just a matter of continuing to diligently ramp the platforms.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have a question and a follow-up as well. Sticking to the server, the EPYC ramp. I'm just curious, out of the gate, what kind of mix have you seen maybe skew towards the 48 and 64 core solutions? And what I'm really getting at is how do we think about the blended ASP trend on EPYC as Rome fully ramps?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Aaron, it's fair to say that initially, out of the chute, we are seeing a higher mix to the higher end. So more 48 and 64 cores as a mix. I think those are very, very attractive products and really take the full advantage of the EPYC product line. We are seeing, as you might expect with that mix, that the Rome ASPs are showing lift versus the previous first-generation EPYC. As we go forward, you would expect that to build out a little bit more. So we have a full product portfolio for the server parts, but then, you also expect that you'll get more Enterprise in that, and Enterprise tends to have a higher ASP. So the net of all that is, I can say, in the server market, we feel very good about where we're positioned from an ASP standpoint. And from a sort of unit share to revenue share, I think they're actually quite close.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then as just as a quick follow-up, maybe more of a model question. I think last quarter, you talked about the semi-custom business being down in the mid-30% range. You also talked about Samsung contributions being around $100 million for the full year. I'm just curious, is that still where we stand? And what was kind of the Samsung contribution this last quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I think on the Samsung base, if you look at the second half, it's approximately $100 million. Slightly about half was taken in Q3, and the other half will come in Q4. So that's absolutely right.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then on the -- yes, on the semi-custom side, we had said last quarter that it would be down, let's call it, mid-30s. It's probably, when you look at it in aggregate for the second half of the year, it will be down a bit more than mid-30s. Let's call it high-30s.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I had a follow-up question on your server CPU business. And I guess the question is, when you think about pricing and sort of the margin profile that you're seeing in that business today, how does that compare with what you had planned for 6 or 9 months ago? Is this pricing and margin coming in pretty much in line with expectations or are they coming in a little bit better? And then as you think about the margin profile for that business going into 2020, given 7-nanometer potentially maturing into next year, given the mix and given the change in customer mix from cloud to Enterprise, should those 2 dynamics serve as tailwinds for your margin in that business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I would say that the margin mix, as we look here in the beginning of the ramp, is about what we expected. It's about what we expected. So the only thing I would say, and I said it earlier, is the product mix is perhaps a little bit higher in the early part of the ramp. But overall, the margins are pretty close to what we expected. The pricing environment is pretty close to what we expected. And as we go into 2020, I think the other piece of it is that the business scale will increase as we grow the business. And so that actually helps to absorb some of the fixed costs as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And as a quick follow-up, your nearest competitor talked about pull-ins in their data center business, particularly in China, was there anything in the quarter that you thought was kind of abnormal from a customer activity standpoint on the client side or the server side? And if so, how big was that? And how should we think about kind of the implications into Q4 and potentially the early part of 2020?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. When we look at both the client and the server business, I wouldn't say that we saw any significant pull-ins due to tariffs or other reasons. We monitor sort of certainly very closely the sell-in and sell-through trend. And we believe that what we're seeing in terms of the growth of the business is actually just new platforms running -- ramping. And given where we are in the product cycle, that makes sense. And so I wouldn't say that we saw any significance of pull-ins in the quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just had 2. I guess first for Devinder. I realize you don't want to provide any kind of 2020 numbers, but you were already asked this 100 different ways, so I may as well save you guys some time. So if I look at the first half of '20, is there any reason why the gross margins won't be higher than they are in December quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We don't even want to get into 2020. There are several product transitions in play this year, as you've heard in the prior questions. OEM, the semi-custom business, that's in transition. We have obviously the rest of the business in transition with the ramp in 7 nanometers. Lisa reported some of the legacy products. So there's a lot of puts and takes and I think we want to talk about 2020 once we get past 2019 and put it to bed, and we can come back and talk about 2020 in about 90 days from now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Got you. And then secondly, just for Lisa here. There's been a lot of articles just in terms of some firmware issues, there's some software bugs and things out there. Can you maybe just help us address all of them at once and just kind of talk about what you guys did to fix them? Because we're still seeing kind of articles pop up here and there, and I just want to make sure that there are no issues in terms of the software.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me make sure I understand what you mean, Mitch. Which product line are you referring to? Or what are you exactly referring to?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So there have been specific articles with Ryzen, right, saying that there's issues with the bios and things like that and performance metrics are a little bit lower. But then you guys kind of relate -- noted that you've improved them or fixed them, but we're still kind of seeing them in the market even today, for example. So I just wanted to know in terms of what happened? And then secondly, if everything's been resolved?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So your question was relative to the third generation of Ryzen. Look, I think, overall, when you look at the third-generation of Ryzen and the platforms that we've put out, we're very, very pleased with how that ramp has gone. And when we look at the sales from a sell-through standpoint, we're very pleased with where it is. There have been some platform sort of optimizations that we've done through working with our ODM partners and the motherboard partners to try to sort of improve the optimization of the maximum boost frequency, which is, I think, what you're referring to. And that has largely been addressed over the last couple of weeks. But I would consider that more of an optimization versus any type of major update. And we're going to continue to improve the platform. So you're going to see that as is normal with a new platform, that we'll continue to improve the platforms over time. But I will say that we're very pleased with how third-gen Ryzen has done in the marketplace. And we're excited with the launch of the 16-core 3950X as well as the Threadripper family in the next couple of weeks as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Operator, we have time for about 2 more questions, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Harsh Kumar from Piper Jaffray.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harsh V. Kumar,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just a quick one. As you look at your leverages for gross margins, what would you consider as your greatest leverage? Is it just sales growth as you take share? Or is it more products going to 7-nanometer?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, if you look at the products, definitely, the new products in the 7-nanometers are very good tailwinds for the gross margin. But also, the mix of the business comes into play. The more data center revenue we capture in terms of market share obviously helps the gross margin. The high end of the stack, in particular, in the client PC business, that helps the gross margin. So it's basically those are the things that help the gross margin as we go forward from 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harsh V. Kumar,  Piper Jaffray Companies, Research Division - MD & Senior Research Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And as you look out, where do you think margins can go?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, we think that, as Lisa said earlier, when we painted our long-term target model, we painted 40% to 44% in the 2017 time frame. That's what we said. We -- exiting, we had 44%, and we'll come back and update that sometime in 2020.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Timothy Arcuri from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think in the past, you've given the percentage of total revenue that was data center CPU and GPU combined. Can you give us that number?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I mean, as a percentage of revenue, it's similar to what it has been the past few quarters, although the server portion was significantly higher as we saw -- as we said early, greater than 50% sequential increase and so was CPU revenue -- unit shipments and revenue, so that definitely helps.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, got it. Okay. And then, I guess, just a bigger picture question. In terms of the kind of competitive edge you have, some of it relates to process technology, but of course, your competitor could just go to TSMC to build CPUs as well. But I guess, there's other parts that relate to your fundamental architecture, which is the chiplet, the memory density and your IPC advantage. So I guess can kind of break down -- Lisa, can you break down how much of the advantage really is process related versus how much is actually architecture related?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Timothy, the way I would answer that question is, look, we made a set of choices, and the set of choices include process technology, they include architecture, our chiplet architecture. They include sort of our overall system architecture. And I think we've made a set of good choices. Going forward, we are not relying on process technology as the main driver. We think process technology is necessary. It's necessary to be sort of at the leading edge of process technology. And so today, 7-nanometer is our great node, and we're getting a lot of benefit from it. We will transition to the 5-nanometer node at the appropriate time and get great benefit from that as well. But we're doing a lot in architecture. And I would say that the architecture is where we believe the highest leverage is for our product portfolio going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We've reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further and closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much, operator. And thank you, everyone, for joining us on the call today. We do have a number of events planned here in the fourth quarter, and we look forward to seeing you all soon. Have a great evening.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2020-Apr-28-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,598 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2020 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 28, 2020 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+ * Ruth Cotter
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the AMD first quarter financial results conference call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded.
+It's now my pleasure to introduce Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President, Worldwide Market, Human Resources and Investor Relations. Ruth, please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's First Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website amd.com.
+Participants on today's call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website.
+Before we begin today, please note that our annual shareholder meeting will be held on Thursday, the 7th of May, as a virtual event accessible from amd.com. We will also be attending several virtual Wall Street events during the second quarter, including the Bernstein Strategic Decisions Conference on Thursday, May 28. And our second quarter 2020 quiet time is expected to begin at the close of business on Friday, the 12th of June.
+Today's discussions contain forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial metrics during this call, except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measures in today's press release posted on amd.com.
+Please refer to the cautionary statement in our press release for more information on risks related to any forward-looking statements that we may make. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC, and in particular, AMD's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 28, 2019.
+Now with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Ruth, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. Before covering our quarterly results, I wanted to provide some comments addressing our response to COVID-19. First, I want to recognize the toll the pandemic has taken on the world. The breadth and speed at which COVID-19 has changed the world since our last earnings call has been staggering. I want to thank the countless healthcare professionals and essential workers serving on the front lines every day.
+At AMD, our first priority has been to protect the health and safety of our employees. We have transitioned the vast majority of our more than 12,000 employees worldwide to working from home, while ensuring we maintain focus on reliably supplying our customers with the products and services their businesses depend on.
+We are also supporting the communities we call home through financial and personal protective equipment donations and providing our technology to accelerate medical research. More than ever, the pandemic has placed technology at the forefront of how we work, learn, shop and connect. And we are proud to be providing many of the components powering these essential technologies. Against that backdrop, we performed well in the first quarter.
+Revenue increased 40% year-over-year to $1.79 billion as demand for 7-nanometer Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processors drove record first quarter revenue and our highest gross margin in 8 years. I'm pleased with our execution in the quarter, as we quickly adopted our global operations to navigate pockets of supply chain disruption and addressed geographic and market demand shifts caused by COVID-19.
+Turning to our Computing and Graphics segment. First quarter segment revenue increased 73% year-over-year to $1.44 billion, driven by increased Ryzen and Radeon processor adoption. We saw some softness based on the COVID-19 situation in China that impacted PC related sales in the first quarter. While both component and system demand were relatively strong at online vendors, off-line channel sales were weaker-than-expected as many retail locations across China were closed for much of the quarter.
+PC demand in the rest of the world was strong, offsetting the softness in China. Client processor revenue grew significantly year-over-year as strong Ryzen processor demand resulted in significant double-digit percentage increases in unit shipments and ASP. As a result, we believe we gained client unit market share for the 10th straight quarter.
+In desktop, overall demand for our latest Ryzen 3000 and prior generation Ryzen 2000 processor families was strong, both of which continue to top retailer best seller lists and have more than 50% share of premium processor sales at many top global e-tailers.
+In mobile, unit shipments increased by a strong double-digit percentage year-over-year. We set a record for quarterly notebook processor revenue driven by sustained demand for our previous generation offerings and the ramp of the first Ryzen Mobile 4000 design wins. Initial consumer notebooks featuring our new Ryzen 4000 processors launched to strong demand based on reviews that demonstrated their performance and battery life leadership for ultrathin and gaming notebooks. We also gained momentum in the commercial market, winning multiple large-scale deployments as Lenovo announced new ThinkPads and HP launched commercial class ProBooks powered by our latest Ryzen 4000 mobile processors. We are on track to accelerate our mobile growth this year as Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and other OEMs are expected to launch more than 135 new Ryzen-powered consumer and commercial notebooks over the coming quarters.
+In graphics, first quarter unit shipments and revenue both grew by a double-digit percentage year-over-year, driven largely by sales of our Radeon RX 5000 series, desktop and notebook GPUs. Desktop channel sales increased based on solid demand for both 7-nanometer RDNA graphics cards and previous-generation Radeon RX 500 series GPUs.
+In mobile, demand for notebooks powered by our Radeon 5000M mobile GPUs, including the latest Apple MacBook Pro and other gaming notebooks, drove a richer mix as customers transition their platforms to our new RDNA mobile offerings.
+Development of our RDNA 2 GPUs continues to progress well. We are on track to launch our next-generation gaming GPUs later this year with a 50% performance per watt increase compared to our current offerings. In the data center, Microsoft Azure introduced new virtual machines optimized for visualization workloads powered by our Radeon Instinct MI25 GPUs.
+Microsoft is using our differentiated virtualization technology to partition a GPU for the first time in the same way they partition multi-core CPUs, allowing customers to tailor the GPU capability to meet the needs of their specific workload.
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue of $348 million decreased 21% year-over-year as lower semi-custom revenue more than offset a significant increase in server revenue. As expected, semi-custom product revenue was negligible in the quarter, as Sony and Microsoft both reduced inventory in advance of next-generation console launches.
+We expect semi-custom revenue to increase in the second quarter and be heavily weighted towards the second half of the year as we ramp production to support the holiday launches of the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.
+In server, unit shipments grew by a double-digit percentage sequentially and more than tripled year-over-year as we continue gaining momentum across cloud, enterprise and HPC customers. We saw particular strength with cloud providers introducing new instances and accelerating current deployments. Microsoft Azure, Google and IBM, all announced new offerings powered by second generation EPYC processors, highlighted by Google launching multiple general purpose VMs and Microsoft rolling out an all-AMD virtual desktop offering that also includes Radeon Instinct GPUs.
+Several cloud providers accelerated their infrastructure deployments to address rising demand from the growing number of users working and schooling from home. For instance, one of our large cloud customers was able to deploy 10,000 2nd Gen EPYC servers in less than 10 days to support the surge in demand for their collaboration services.
+In the enterprise, we expanded our 2nd Gen EPYC processor portfolio with new high-frequency processors that expand our performance leadership to advanced modeling, database and hyperconverged workloads. With these new offerings, our 2nd Gen EPYC processor family now includes both the highest performance per core and performance per socket processors in the industry. We continue winning in HPC, highlighted by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, announcing they selected next-generation AMD EPYC CPUs and Radeon Instinct GPUs to power their El Capitan supercomputer, which is expected to deliver more than 2 exaFLOPS of computing performance when it is deployed in early 2023. We are incredibly proud that 2 of the 3 publicly announced U.S. exascale supercomputing systems will exclusively use AMD CPUs and GPUs, clearly positioning AMD as the exascale computing leader based on our high-performance computing and graphics technologies and software capabilities.
+In closing, our long-term strategy and growth drivers remain unchanged. Although there are some near-term uncertainties in the demand environment, we are well positioned to navigate through this situation. We have a solid financial foundation, and our product portfolio is very well positioned across the PC, gaming and data center markets. While demand indicators across commercial, education and data center infrastructure markets are strong, we expect some softness in consumer demand in the second half of the year, depending on how overall macroeconomic conditions evolve. We remain on track to launch our next-generation Zen 3 CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs in late 2020 and believe we can deliver another year of strong revenue growth and margin expansion based on the strength of our product portfolio and the diversity of markets we serve.
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our first quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. We performed well in the first quarter as we navigated a challenging environment as a result of the ongoing impact of COVID-19. First quarter revenue was $1.79 billion, up 40% from a year ago and down 16% from the prior quarter. Year-over-year growth was driven by strong sales of Ryzen and EPYC processors and Radeon products, partially offset by lower semi-custom sales.
+Gross margin was 46%, up 490 basis points from a year ago, driven by Ryzen and EPYC processor sales. Operating expenses were $584 million compared to [$498] (corrected by the company after the call) million a year ago, primarily due to increased investments in R&D and go-to-market activities.
+Operating income was $236 million, up $152 million from a year ago, driven by revenue growth and a greater percentage of Ryzen and EPYC processor sales, while operating margin increased to 13% as compared to 7% a year ago.
+Net income was $222 million, up from $62 million a year ago, and diluted earnings per share was $0.18 per share compared to $0.06 per share a year ago.
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $1.44 billion, up 73% year-over-year, driven by Ryzen processor and Radeon product channel sales growth. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $262 million or 18% of revenue compared to $16 million a year ago, driven by significantly higher revenue. Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue was $348 million, down 21% from $441 million in the prior year due to the expected decline in semi-custom sales, partially offset by strong data center growth.
+EESC segment had a loss of $26 million compared to operating income of $68 million a year ago, which included the benefit of a $60 million licensing gain.
+Turning to the balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.4 billion. In addition, in early April, we took the precautionary step to draw down $200 million from our $500 million revolving line of credit. Inventory was $1.1 billion, up 8% from the prior quarter.
+On a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $1.2 billion, resulting in gross leverage of 0.5x. Free cash flow was negative $120 million in the first quarter, an improvement of $155 million from the prior year. Cash flow from operations was negative $65 million, an improvement of $148 million from a year ago.
+Let me turn to the outlook for the second quarter of 2020. Today's outlook is based on current expectations and contemplates the current COVID-19 environment and customer demand signals. We expect revenue to be approximately $1.85 billion, plus or minus $100 million, an increase of approximately 21% year-over-year and an increase of approximately 4% sequentially. The year-over-year increase is expected to be driven by strong growth in Ryzen and EPYC processor sales. The sequential increase is driven primarily by EPYC processor and semi-custom sales.
+In addition, for Q2 2020, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 44% due to higher semi-custom revenue. Non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $600 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $20 million, and the diluted share count in the second quarter is expected to be approximately 1.23 billion shares.
+For the full year 2020, despite expectations of weaker COVID-19-related consumer demand in the second half of the year, we expect annual revenue growth of approximately 25%, plus or minus 5 percentage points. In addition, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 45%, unchanged from prior guidance and non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately 29% on revenue.
+In closing, while the market environment has become more challenging given the impact of COVID-19, our first quarter results demonstrate the strength of our business model. Notwithstanding some near-term demand uncertainties, our long-term strategy is unchanged, and we are well positioned with our competitive products and the strength of our balance sheet to navigate today's environment.
+As I finish, I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our employees for their dedication, flexibility and focus in these extraordinary times.
+With that, I'll turn it back to Ruth for the question-and-answer session. Ruth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Devinder. And operator, if you could poll the audience for questions, please?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Matt Ramsey from Cowen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And I hope everyone at AMD is doing well considering the interesting times there have been. Lisa, I wanted to start with a couple of questions on the server business. I guess, one of which is, how do you -- the EESC results in the quarter that you just printed were a bit below, at least where I had modeled them. So maybe you could talk a bit about how you feel the EPYC business is tracking toward that sort of 10% target you guys had set for the second quarter. And I notice in Devinder's comments on the June quarter guidance, most -- some of the upside is going to be driven -- I guess, upside sequentially is going to be driven by EPYC. So how are you tracking against that? And then the last little piece is, I keep getting more and more questions still about the timing of Milan. And I know you guys reiterated that would be this year at the Analyst Day. And if that's still the case, just let us know.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Absolutely, Matt. Thank you, and I appreciate the question. So look, we are very pleased with the progress in our server business. I think if you look at sort of the progress we've made, there were a number of key things that we wanted to see happen. What we saw in the quarter that we just finished, in the first quarter, we actually saw a very nice acceleration of the cloud business as we went through the quarter. I think as we go into the second quarter, there's an additional significant ramp of the server business. And so we expect to continue to gain share as we go through these next couple of quarters. I think what we're seeing from the current COVID-19 environment, obviously, there's a lot of puts and takes. But as it relates to data center, it's positive for the data center market. Certainly, we've seen some of our largest customers ask us to accelerate some of our deployments. And we look forward to continuing to ramp our server business. I think you asked about Milan, and yes, we are expecting to be launching that at the end of this year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Just wanted to switch quickly into the PC business. One of the things that stood out to me from your commentary in the prepared script was the contrast between strength in the PC business globally versus the weakness in China. I imagine that weakness in China was both on the PC side and on the AIB graphics business. If there's any way that you help quantify that? And we've heard some commentary about the economy restarting in China. Have you seen some of those trends start to improve into the second quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So the PC business has actually held up pretty well. So if we look at the PC business in the first quarter, we saw the rest of the world PC business actually get some benefit from some of the acceleration in demand sort of towards the end of the quarter. We did see some weakness in China as China was shut down in the months of February and early March. We saw that primarily in the channel business, so in offline channels. Now we have seen that pick up as we've gone through the month of April. And what we're seeing in general in the PC business is the first quarter and the second quarter is actually relatively strong with accelerated notebook demand and desktops sequentially lower just based on sort of the preference around notebook versus desktop in this framework. So those are the key dynamics for the PC business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You guys are one of the few companies kind of giving a full year guidance. And I just wonder if you could talk us through how you're thinking about the second half? Obviously, you guys have OEM visibility into a bunch of new sockets and new designs, but your customers don't seem to have visibility. So just a little bit more color maybe on how you are thinking about forecasting beyond the visibility that you have in Q2?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Sure, Joe. So look, we understand that there's a lot of questions about visibility as we go into the second half of the year. The way we look at our business is, we have sort of a lot of positives in terms of just market drivers that we do have good visibility too. I think our progress in the data center market is a positive. We see that with a number of platforms ramping and the number of customers that we have coming on board. So we see that as a positive for us as we go through this year.
+Console gaming is a positive for us. There's lots of anticipation around the consoles. It's one of the largest launches, I think, of the year. And from that standpoint, there's no change in our view as it relates to COVID-19, just given what we see today. Now as you look at the range, we have increased the range of our guide. And sort of the biggest sort of question mark in my mind is kind of the shape of the PC market this year. As I mentioned earlier, the first half actually looks a little bit stronger than expected, particularly on the notebook side. We are potentially expecting some weakness in the second half due to consumer spending. You sort of have the 2 -- the 2 forces are there. I mean, one is, there is a pull with the strong work-from-home trends, but then there's also the view that, from a macro standpoint, will be weaker in the second half of the year. So that's -- the primary variance in our model is what happens to the PC market. I will say, though, that underneath the market trends, we're very pleased with our portfolio. I mean, the notebook portfolio that we have in PCs is the strongest we've ever had. And we believe we have a good opportunity to gain share throughout the year, even as the market may be a little bit weaker than originally expected. So that's the reason for the guidance to try to give the puts and takes. And of course, we'll see how the year plays out.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful. And then in terms of data center GPU, I know you talked a lot about the Analyst Day about the newer products and penetration of new workloads in the second half. Can you talk about the workloads that you've been addressing so far, cloud gaming and whatnot? And how is that business progressing before we get to the CDNA launch?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So the data center GPU business is an important strategic business. In terms of size, it's still relatively small compared to the data center CPU business. We are making progress, good overall progress in a number of workloads. Cloud gaming is one that has been a good one for us, and we continue to see opportunity in that as we go through this year, with the current product set. We also just launched the VDI instance with Microsoft Azure, which we feel will be a good workload for us. And then we have a number of the HPC wins that we've talked about that are going to be based on the CDNA architecture, which is an important strategic area for us as well as continued focus on improving our machine learning and overall machine learning frameworks and capabilities. So those are the key workloads that we're going after. And I do think it's an important business for us as we go forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The next question is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, for my first one, I just wanted to go back to your EPYC server business. So very strong units in Q1, but it appears that the mix was very kind of cloud-heavy. So perhaps ASPs were lower than we are used to seeing. I was wondering if you could just give us some sense of how we should think about server ASPs going forward. And importantly, if you think of server sales for you for this year versus what you thought 90 days ago, how is that looking like? Because I think your competitors said that they expected some kind of digestion of cloud capacity in the back half. So I was just hoping to get some more color around ASP and just what you thought of your overall server business for this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Vivek. Yes. So that is correct. There was a mix shift towards cloud in the first quarter, and that did have an impact with ASPs lower. That being the case, the ASPs are very healthy. So I think from the standpoint of how our business evolves, it's within the plus or minus of the business model. In terms of where we believe demand will be versus 90 days ago, it's pretty similar. And the way I would say it is, we see cloud being strong. What we see is not just putting on more capacity, but really the ramping of new platforms. And so we view that as a positive. We have strong enterprise adoption as well. When we look at our pipeline in enterprise, it's continued to grow, and continued to grow in the first quarter and continued to grow in sort of the first month here of the second quarter. We do expect, perhaps at the transactional business, sort of the SMB type of business may be more impacted by COVID-19, but that was never a large piece of our business to begin with. So we feel good about the server business. And it continues to be a very strategic focus for us. I think the relationships with our partners and our customers are getting closer as we go through sort of the process of ramping volumes. And so we continue to view it as a strong growth driver for us on a year-over-year basis.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Very helpful. And then maybe a follow-up for Devinder on gross margins. So first half, kind of tracking towards your 45-ish percent target for the year, but Q2 is 44%. And I recall, I think either Lisa or Devinder, you said that second half will be more semi-custom weighted, but that suggests some more pressure on gross margins. So I was just hoping you could walk us through how we should think about gross margins in the back half, given all the puts and takes of mix that you are expecting?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Thanks, Vivek. I think the key puts and takes, as you said, continued ramp for the semi-custom, which has margins, as you observed lower than corporate average, but they are offset by the strength in the data center revenue. So semi-custom ramped the back half, and that does impact the gross margin being lower than corporate average. But data center strength, as Lisa just referenced, that we are pleased with the ramp in the data center business. In data center business, the margins are significantly higher than corporate average, and has the offset to help us deliver as we guided for 2020, the 45% gross margin for 2020.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Maybe, Vivek, I can just add to that. So in addition to the data center mix that Devinder mentioned, we also expect to see the console gross margins improve as we go through the year. And that's the reason for the full year guide at 45%. So usually, what happens is in the very -- second quarter is our very first quarter of ramp for the consoles, and so the margin starts a little bit lower and continues to ramp as we go through the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The next question today is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the -- first question on the client side. I guess, AMD has historically had a good presence on the consumer side, but it sounds like you're making great progress on the commercial side with the HP and ThinkPad design wins. Can you give us a sense roughly like what is the split between consumer and commercial on the notebook side? And like how does that play going forward? Does commercial just continue to grow faster than the consumer side? And is there an impact on the gross margin between -- if commercial does grow faster? That's the first question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Mark. So our PC business does tend to be much more consumer weighted. I mean, we've made progress in commercial. Commercial has grown nicely, but it's still consumer weighted. We expect to continue to gain commercial share as we go through this year. As that happens, I think there's 2 things in the PC margins that affect PC gross margins. Heavier weight of commercial is certainly positive for the overall gross margins. I think the other pieces, we should expect that education will be strong and that tends to be lower in the mix. And so there are lots of mix dynamics. But overall, I think our confidence level in notebooks being a strong growth driver for us as we go through this year is good. And we continue to work on the commercial versus consumer mix.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. That's helpful. And then on the server side, if you look at cloud instances versus cloud internal versus enterprise versus HPC, can you give us a sense of the split today, if not by percentage and like a rank order? And what you would expect to drive going forward? Our own field work had indicated that your instances were growing nicely on EPYC 2. I wondered to what extent is that being deployed internally on the cloud guys also?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. So when you look at our cloud instances, I would say that our cloud -- some of the cloud acceleration I referred to was acceleration of internal workloads at some of our top cloud customers. So I think that's an area actually where we get more visibility. Cloud instances in terms of numbers for external usage has grown. We announced the GCP platform. We announced the IBM platform as well as additional Microsoft platforms. You will see more cloud instances rollout over the next quarter or so. But much of the growth that we've seen has been around internal deployment of the cloud companies. And then as it relates to enterprise, it is more heavily weighted towards HPC. We've done very, very well in HPC. We're pretty excited about our new high-frequency SKUs that were just launched here in April. They're actually very well suited for large enterprise applications and financial sector as well as some of the technology sectors, and so that's a key focus for us in terms of growing those other pieces of the enterprise business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First, harp a little bit again on the server business. I guess I don't quite understand why a big shift toward cloud mix will drive ASPs down sequentially. I mean, your mix has been mostly cloud all along. So why all of a sudden is that driving ASPs down? And I know you said units were up double digits. I guess, in that context, what did revenues do sequentially? And maybe what were data center revenues, CPU plus GPU, as a percentage of total in the quarter? Like, if you could give any color on any of that, that would be really helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So we did have a positive cloud mix, but I would say that the Q4 to Q1 mix had significant improvement in cloud or significant growth in cloud. So that was the ASP sort of shift that we talked about. As it relates to data center overall, we were in the high teens this quarter. And you had one other question, Stacy?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I said, what did revenues do sequentially? Units were up, like, double digits.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. The revenues were also up sequentially. Not as much as units, but revenues were sequentially -- yes.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. So my follow-up. Again, I want to talk a little bit about the share target. So I know you'd said 10% share, give or take, by the middle of this year. If I even just take your entire EESC revenue and I take Intel's data center revenue this quarter, you'd be about 5% revenue share. And I know you're guiding for growth next quarter, but I mean, just given the magnitude, it doesn't feel like that's going to double in the quarter. So just how are you feeling about that 10% guide for the middle of this year? Is that getting pushed out? Are we defining it wrong? Like how should we be thinking about that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So the way we define the share target, and it very much is sort of the view of -- we expect about 20 million units a year in terms of single-socket and dual-socket servers. That's about 5 million units a quarter. So 10% share is about 0.5 million units. From where we look today, we look to be on track to that. Q2 is actually...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's about Q2?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Yes. Q2 is actually our strongest backlog quarter that we've seen. So I think that's our current visibility today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Is that 20 million an appropriate number, though, given you're now playing in comm whereas maybe when you gave that target before you weren't playing in comm? Isn't the total target at -- total market is more like 30 million or even more, right?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, again, I think not to go back on how we define the target. I think I've given you how we define the target. And I think that's an appropriate way to define the target. I think our comms exposure is very, very early. And I would say, is not a significant part of the revenue at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The next question is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wanted to go back to your full year guide. I appreciate there's a wide range of outcomes here, and you did put up an updated number. But if we take the midpoint of your updated guidance and we compare and contrast that with your old guidance, you are lowering the midpoint of your revenue outlook by about $250 million, maybe a little bit more. In response to Joe's question, I think you focused very much on the notebook business. Is that sort of the primary part of your business where you're lowering numbers? Or is it a little bit more broad-based across GPU and perhaps the game console business as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I would say from the full year standpoint, the biggest variable is the PC business in its entirety. So that's notebook and desktop. And like I said, it's a variable, if I -- you can model various scenarios as to what it can be. And I think from our standpoint, when we started the year, we had the expectation of a pretty normal PC environment. I think we would all say that the environment is different than when we started. And given the size of that market, we have given ourselves a wide range. As it relates to what we thought before, it's priority PCs. And when you look at the other markets, game consoles, data center were about what we expected, and the signals continued to be positive in those areas. And by the way, I should -- I'm sorry, if I can just finish off. On PCs , I would say though that, I think we're all waiting to see some of the data as we go through the second half of the year. So I want to say that, like I said, there's those 2 competing forces. One is, there's a strong pull for work-from-home trends and the other is just what is the impact on macro going to be for discretionary consumer spend. And so I think that's a place where we lack full visibility. And we continue to talk to customers. And I think we're all trying to make sure that we are well prepared for any of the scenarios as they come about.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Appreciate that. And then as a quick follow-up, Lisa, I wanted to ask about the competitive landscape. Your nearest competitor continues to grow wafer capacity, as you know, and they talked quite a bit about accelerating the RAM for 10 last week on their call. Are you seeing any changes in how they compete in the marketplace, either from a pricing perspective or from a marketing dollar perspective relative to how you saw the market 90 days ago?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No. It's -- the PC market is always a competitive market. And from that standpoint, I don't think the environment has changed substantially from a -- either a capacity standpoint or a marketing dollar standpoint. From our view, it's all about ensuring that the platforms that we launch actually ramp into production smoothly. And so we've been working on that. And we feel very good about that. I think we mentioned that we have a significant number of platforms, over 135 mobile platforms that are coming to market here in 2020. And they're very, very competitive. They are some of our best platforms from just overall performance and capability standpoint. So we're bullish on our ability to turn that into revenue growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So let me ask you a question. Lisa, not to kind of go back to the same well as everybody else, but I wanted to hit on the EPYC side of things. I guess the good news is you guys are growing very rapidly and taking share, and you reiterated that 10% market share goal for the June quarter. But overall, it seems like the number has not really upsided anybody's expectations over the last few quarters, despite the market accelerating from a demand perspective, your primary competitor upsiding their data center group or even their cloud segment within that for 3 to 4 quarters in a row. So I just wanted to get your feeling on, is there something that is capping the growth there? Is it the ASP is going down because of who the customers are? I'm just wondering why if the market is as strong as it seemed to be for the last 3 or 4 quarters, you're doing really well, but not actually upsiding our expectation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Ross, the way I look at it, and I mean, this was very, very similar to the ramp that we saw in PC business. The ramp in server is something like steady as she goes. And each quarter, we add platforms; each quarter, more platforms are qualified; each quarter, they ramp. It's a little bit different from a pure market phenomenon. And again, I mean, I understand that there are market phenomena, and then there are growth expectations based on platform launches as well as software being qualified and so on and so forth. So as it relates to our expectations, it's actually going quite well. As it relates to the acceleration of cloud, and we're pleased with it. We're not ready to upside numbers at this point. I think we want -- we already had very aggressive growth assumptions in what we went through. I think you'll see us a little bit less market-specific and a little bit more AMD specific as it relates to our customers and their qualification plans. So I think we are confident that our data center business is doing well, and we need to continue to demonstrate that over a number of quarters.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just for my follow-up, one that switch gears over to the computing and graphics side. Could you just give a little bit of color on what you expect for that in the second quarter? And then as you look into the second half, I know you mentioned that's the area of greatest uncertainty for many logical reasons. But any sort of difference between the computing and the graphics side, both in your second quarter expectations and then the puts and takes in the back half of the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we are expecting that the computing and graphics business will be down sequentially. So it's offsetting some of the growth on the EPYC and semi-custom side. Within the computing and graphics business, we see notebooks up strongly, as a result of the launch of our new Ryzen 4000 platforms and some of the other trends that we've talked about. We see desktop down sequentially, and we see graphics down sequentially. Q2 is normally a sequentially down quarter for the channel business for us. So that's not unusual. And we -- that's -- those are the dynamics in the second quarter. And as we go through the second half of the year, as I mentioned, we'll have to see how consumer spending holds up against the other demand environments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, just my first question. I wonder if you could just help me kind of better understand in this current environment of shelter-in-place, how does that impact sort of new customer, new workload engagements? And I guess, to better kind of underscore that, just given that you're expecting pretty good share gains in the back half of the year, given your second half guidance, notwithstanding the gaming cycle. Are most of those wins already in your back pocket, and so you've got high visibility? Or how do I think about that dynamic?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think there are many that are already in progress. And that would be our -- sort of our typical view of how long it takes to ramp a customer from beginning of engagement to actual ramp, can it be anywhere from 6 to 9 months if that's a good number. As it relates to what we see with the, as you call it, shelter-in-place, look, we see pretty strong activity. I mean, the activity level continues to be high on both the cloud as well as the enterprise side.
+The only place where perhaps we see a little bit of a slowdown is, as I said, on some of the transactional business, which we had plan to grow as we go through this year, and that might grow more slowly just as people aren't focused on new infrastructure right now. But in terms of cloud and large enterprise, there continues to be good activity on both current already one design platforms as well as new pipeline engagements.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful, Lisa. And as my follow-up, as you guys are painfully aware, one of the metrics that we probably focus probably too much on is just gross margin and gross margin progression. And given the gaming sort of ramp coming, it sort of convoluted the issue. So I was kind of hoping maybe you would quantify both in your Q2 guide and your full year guide, what impact the gaming console business is having on gross margins, i.e., what would gross margins be trending to right now ex gaming for both June and the full year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think, John -- go ahead. Go ahead, Devinder.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So if you look at Q2, if you're asking the specific Q1 to Q2. Q2, we came in at the 46%, Q2 is down, and fundamentally primarily is due to the ramp in the game console revenue. As Lisa said earlier, we mentioned that the margins in the initial ramp of semi-custom revenue are typically lower and they do improve over time for semi-custom. But also from a company standpoint, when you look at the corporate average gross margin, it's lower. And therefore, it is having an impact in terms of sequentially the margin is going down from Q1 to Q2.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          But I guess, Devinder, my question is, is the non-gaming gross margins continuing to move higher sequentially every quarter this year, i.e., is it more than 100 basis point impact from gaming in the June quarter?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Go ahead. Go ahead, Lisa.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sorry, we're -- Devinder and I are not in the same room. So the answer is yes, John. The impact of the sequential decline of 2 points is semi-custom. If you take semi-custom out, the rest of the portfolio would be -- what you would see in the rest of the portfolio is you would see server up and you would see desktop offset some of that. But the sequential decline is all semi-custom.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Your next question is coming from Timothy Arcuri from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had two. I guess the first question, Devinder, I think you said that data center was high teens of revenue, so that would put it sort of in the low to mid 3s for March. Can you break out how much was CPU versus GPU? And I guess on the GPU side, that can be pretty lumpy. So anything to call out that's assumed for June?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. It's weighted towards the CPUs. If you take the data center CPUs and GPUs together, the revenue in Q1 is high teens of revenue in Q1, but primarily weighted towards the CPUs because that's the area of growth from a server CPU business standpoint.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then I guess bigger picture question. So Lisa, I think there's some new regulations in China that come into effect on June 1 around additional cybersecurity review for critical information infrastructure. And I would think that maybe you could fall under that. So any thought on how that could impact demand for you? And maybe if you could sort of tell us how much of your revenue on a consumption basis, do you think right now is in China?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we're looking at that new regulation. So I don't have any specifics at this point in time. We'll continue to look at that new regulation. As it relates overall, I would say, the majority of our business in China is consumer or, let's call it, consumer-related cloud.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Operator, we'll take two more questions, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I've got one and a follow-up. But the first one just kind of on the bookings you guys are saying. So I'm less worried about kind of the near-term revenue number you guys put up for server. But if you're sitting here today and you compare that to a quarter ago, what do the bookings look like or backlog? Has that changed at all? Is that improving? Is it getting better or is it pretty much in line with what you guys expected in terms of the overall backlog?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think it's -- I think I said earlier, but Mitch, it is certainly better. So we have better visibility a month into the quarter versus 90 days ago.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. And then the second one I had is just more broad. It's on China, actually. So one thing we're picking up is that a lot of the Chinese companies supposedly buying a lot of semiconductor chips ahead just in case they get banned from the U.S. and China relationship deterioration. So since you guys are not really involved in that, you're more exposed to the hyperscale. Do you guys have any comments on what you guys think is actually happening there, if people are actually trying to build up -- I guess, build up an inventory level for semiconductor chips they think may get banned? Or do you think that's kind of just noise, and it's not really occurring right now in that geography?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Mitch, it's a little bit hard for me to generalize. I would say, from what we see and we track both selling and consumption pretty closely, it looks like it's normal patterns. But we don't have exposure to some of the markets you're talking about.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Your next question is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe, Lisa, just looking at the fiscal guide, I'm kind of curious, if you look at first half versus second half, it seems like you still would require growth in computer graphics. I want to just make sure that was right. And then I'm just kind of curious how you think of the server, obviously, your share gainer. I think cloud and enterprise get intermingled together, particularly with this work-from-home. So I'm just kind of curious as you look at that business, first half and second half, do you -- I think Intel was talking about some weakness in enterprise and government. It's not a big exposure for you, but just kind of curious how you're thinking about, is there any headwind as that work-from-home spend holds off with server as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So as it relates to first half, second half, I mean, as we said, there's -- the $8.4 billion plus or minus 5% is a wider than normal range for us. I think you can see outcomes within that range that would have computing and graphics up as well as you can see outcomes with it more flattish. So that being the case, so I think the trends that I talked about are likely the right trends, which is the consumer spending, perhaps a little softer, enterprise and commercial, a positive for us; notebook share gain, a positive for us; and we want to see how sort of the desktop channel behaves as we go into the second half of the year. And then your second question?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just kind of -- as you look at the server business, first half, second half, you had seen some -- you saw some strength in cloud in March and June. I'm kind of curious, are you thinking about -- is there any work-from-home benefits within that, that would then turn into a headwind in the second half?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Look, I think from what we see, we see mostly platforms ramping. And so that's how we're thinking about the data center business. Of course, we're in this COVID-19 environment and so we'll have to actually play out the next couple of quarters. But within the ranges that we see, we see an opportunity to continue growing in the second half of the year, given the visibility that we have with customers, the platforms that are ramping. And I still feel very much like we're in the early stages of our 2nd Gen EPYC ramp. And I know it's been a couple of quarters, but that's just the way servers ramp. So we're in the early stages of the ramp, lots of customer activity, significant pull from the customers to get up and running as soon as possible. And as you said, we don't have as much exposure to some of the other end markets, which may have more volatility in the second half of the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over for any further closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Kevin. That concludes today's call. We appreciate everybody participating, and stay safe, stay well. And we look forward to engaging with you throughout the quarter. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2020-Jan-28-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,626 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2019 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 28, 2020 / 10:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Laura A. Graves
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Toshiya Hari
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri
+   SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Blayne Peter Curtis
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst
+ * David Michael Wong
+   Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Greetings, and welcome to the AMD Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2019 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Laura Graves, Corporate Vice President, Investor Relations for AMD. Please go ahead, Laura.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Fourth Quarter and Year-end 2019 Financial Results Conference Call. By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you have not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, amd.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+I would like to highlight some important dates for you. On the afternoon of Thursday, March 5, we will hold our Financial Analyst Day at our headquarters in Santa Clara, California; and our first quarter 2020 quiet time is expected to begin at the close of business on Friday, March 13. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on the environment as we currently see it. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations, speak only as of the current date and as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial measures during this call, except for revenue and segment operational results, which are on a GAAP basis. The non-GAAP financial measures referenced herein are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release posted on our website. Please refer to the cautionary statement in our press release for more information on risks related to any forward-looking statements that we may make. You will also find detailed discussions about our risk factors in our filings with the SEC, and, in particular, AMD's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 28, 2019. 
+With that, I will hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Laura, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. 2019 marked another major milestone in our multiyear journey. We delivered record annual revenue of $6.73 billion, and significantly increased both gross margin and net income as we successfully introduced and ramped the strongest product portfolio in our 50-year history. We grew clients and server processor annual revenue by $1.5 billion in 2019, driven largely by the strong demand for our 7-nanometer Ryzen and EPYC processors, powered by our Zen 2 processor core. 
+Looking at the fourth quarter, we ended the year very strong with quarterly revenue increasing 50% year-over-year to a record $2.13 billion, while also significantly increasing net income. 
+Turning to our Computing and Graphics segment. Fourth quarter revenue increased 69% year-over-year to $1.66 billion. Ryzen processor adoption accelerated sharply in 2019, helping to drive significant double-digit percentage increases in client processor annual unit shipments, ASPs and revenue. We ended 2019 with our highest quarterly client processor unit shipments in more than 6 years based on strong demand for Ryzen desktop and mobile processors. 
+In desktop, we had a very strong holiday season as our second- and third-generation Ryzen processors consistently held top sales spots at the largest global e-tailers and retailers. We launched our Ryzen 3950X processor and the 24- and 32-core versions of our third generation Ryzen Threadripper processors in November. Our 16-core Ryzen 3950X processor is the world's fastest mainstream desktop processor, while our latest Threadripper CPUs offer unmatched performance for the high-end desktop market. 
+In January, we expanded our leadership position in the HEDT market with the launch our flagship 64-core Ryzen Threadripper processor, which is the world's highest performance desktop processor. 
+In mobile, we had our eighth straight quarter of strong double-digit percentage year-over-year revenue growth as we expanded the number of AMD-powered laptops available for major OEMs. We began shipping our Ryzen 4000 mobile processors powered by our Zen 2 core at the end of the fourth quarter. These new processors double the performance per watt of our prior generation and deliver leadership single-threaded, multi-threaded and graphics performance for thin and light notebooks while enabling the industry's first ultrathin laptops with 8 cores. Initial systems featuring the Ryzen 4000 processors are expected to launch later this quarter, and more than 100 AMD-based consumer and commercial laptops are planned for 2020, from Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, Lenovo and other major OEMs. 
+In Graphics, fourth quarter unit shipments grew by a strong double-digit percentage year-over-year, driven by sales of our Radeon RX 5000 series GPUs, featuring our new RDNA architecture. We further expanded our portfolio of RDNA GPUs with the introductions of the 5500 XT and 5600 XT desktop graphics cards, highlighted by strong third-party reviews that clearly establish 5600 XT as the most powerful gaming GPU available for under $300. 
+We launched our Radeon 5000M mobile GPUs in the quarter as well, and we are seeing solid design win momentum based on their strong performance and power efficiency. The first laptops powered by the new GPUs are available now, including the recently updated Apple MacBook Pro, and we expect many more notebooks featuring our Radeon 5000M GPUs to launch throughout 2020. 
+Data center GPU revenue increased sequentially, driven by cloud, VDI and game streaming deployments. We announced a major update to our open-source GPU computing software stack in the fourth quarter, featuring performance optimizations, expanded development tools and support for the most popular machine learning frameworks. We continue making strategic software investments to make it easier for developers to tap into the full capabilities of our Radeon Instinct accelerators for HPC and AI applications. 
+For the year, data center GPU revenue grew by a strong double-digit percentage as we continue to make progress growing our presence in this important part of the market. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment. Revenue of $465 million increased 7% year-over-year, as EPYC processor revenue growth offset declines in semi-custom revenue. Semi-custom sales continued to soften in the quarter in advance of the next-generation console launches from Sony and Microsoft planned this year. For 2020, we expect first quarter semi-custom revenue to be negligible, and the ramp of next-generation semi-custom products to start in the second quarter, with revenue to be heavily weighted towards the second half of the year. 
+In server, revenue grew by a strong double-digit percentage as unit shipments and ASPs increased sequentially, driven by demand for our second-gen EPYC processors. Our second-gen EPYC processors are ramping significantly faster than the first generation as we see particular strength for our higher core count models where our performance and TCO advantages are the most significant. 
+Cloud adoption with the largest providers continues to accelerate, driven by the expanding use of EPYC processors to power their critical internal workloads as well as a significant increase in the number of AMD-powered instances publicly available. Shipments to cloud providers increased sequentially by a significant double-digit percentage to support expanding build-outs at Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Oracle and Tencent. Microsoft announced the availability of 4 new virtual machines, and AWS announced 2 new EC2 instances powered by second-gen EPYC processors. 
+In the Enterprise, Dell began shipping their full portfolio of servers powered by our latest EPYC processors. We have doubled the number of EPYC processor platforms in market to more than 100 offerings in the quarter. These new platforms are driving increased enterprise customer engagements, broadening our sales pipeline considerably. 
+In HPC, we secured multiple large wins in the quarter based on our unmatched performance and scalability, highlighted by French, German and U.K. national supercomputing center deployments as well as the San Diego Supercomputing Center. 
+We are pleased with the significant traction and momentum in our server business and remain on track to achieve our goal of double-digit percentage unit share by midyear based on the growing demand for our second-gen EPYC processors. 
+I am very proud of our 2019 accomplishments as the successful ramps of our latest Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processors resulted in record annual revenue and substantial increases in gross margin and net income. 
+I want to take a moment to recognize the more than 11,000 AMDers around the world, whose focus and determination enabled us to achieve these results. We entered 2020 well positioned to continue gaining share across the PC, gaming and server markets based on having an unmatched portfolio of leadership products, spanning from desktops to laptops, data centers and game consoles. With more than 27-nanometer designs in production or development, we are very excited about our next wave of products that can accelerate our growth in 2020 and beyond. 
+We are still in the early stages of our journey and remain focused on meeting our commitments as we establish AMD as the high-performance computing and graphics leader. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our fourth quarter and full year financial performance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. 2019 was an outstanding year for AMD. Our competitive product portfolio and market share gains drove the highest annual and highest quarterly revenue in AMD's history. We achieved our highest annual gross margin percentage and annual free cash flow since 2011, and we improved non-GAAP earnings per share by 39% year-over-year. In short, we are very pleased with our financial performance. 
+Fourth quarter revenue was $2.13 billion, up 50% from a year ago and up 18% from the prior quarter, driven by strong sales of Ryzen and EPYC processors and Radeon GPUs, partially offset by softer semi-custom sales. Gross margin was 45%, up 360 basis points from a year ago, driven primarily by sales of our leadership 7-nanometer products. 
+Operating expenses were $545 million, with increased investments in go-to-market activities and R&D, compared to $474 million a year ago. Operating income was $405 million, up $296 million from a year ago, driven by revenue growth and higher gross margin. Operating margin was 19% as compared to 8% a year ago. Net income was $383 million, up $296 million from a year ago, and diluted earnings per share was $0.32 per share compared to $0.08 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $1.66 billion, up 69% year-over-year, driven by Ryzen processor and Radeon gaming GPU sales growth. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $360 million or 22% of revenue compared to $115 million a year ago, driven by higher revenue. 
+Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment revenue was $465 million, up 7% from $433 million the prior year. The continued growth of EPYC processor sales was partially offset by softer semi-custom revenue. EPYC processor revenue grew by a strong double-digit percentage sequentially, driven by robust shipments of our second-generation EPYC processors. EESC segment operating income was $45 million or 10% of revenue, driven by EPYC processor sales, compared to an operating loss of $6 million a year ago. 
+During the quarter, we reduced gross debt by $524 million, which resulted in a GAAP loss of $128 million. These debt reductions result in an annualized interest expense savings of approximately $16 million. 
+Free cash flow was positive $400 million in the fourth quarter, and cash flow from operations was $442 million. Inventory was $1 billion, down 6% from the prior quarter. 
+Fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA was $469 million compared to $152 million a year ago, driven by higher quarterly earnings. 
+Now let me cover the full year results. 2019 revenue was $6.73 billion, up 4% year-on-year, driven by strong growth in Computing and Graphics segment and sales of second-generation EPYC processors, partially offset by a decline in semi-custom sales. Excluding semi-custom, revenue was up more than 20% year-over-year. Gross margin of 43% was up 420 basis points from the prior year, driven by our current generation of Ryzen and EPYC products. Operating expenses were 31% of revenue as we increase go-to-market activities and investments in R&D. 2019 operating income was up 33% from a year ago to $840 million or 12% of revenue. Net income was $756 million, up 46 -- 47% from the prior year. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. I am extremely pleased with our progress on the strengthening balance sheet. Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities totaled $1.5 billion at year-end, while gross debt was $563 million. This represents our highest net cash position since the third quarter of 2006. Full year free cash flow was $276 million. 
+We reduced principal debt by almost $1 billion in 2019, and ended the year with less than $600 million of gross debt. 
+On a trailing 12-month basis, adjusted EBITDA was $1.1 billion, resulting in gross leverage of 0.5x, down from 1.9x at the end of 2018. 
+Now turning to the outlook for the first quarter of 2020. We expect revenue to be approximately $1.8 billion, plus or minus $50 million, an increase of approximately 42% year-over-year and a decrease of approximately 15% sequentially. The year-over-year increase is expected to be driven by strong growth in Ryzen, EPYC and Radeon product sales. The sequential decrease is driven primarily by negligible semi-custom revenue, which continues to soften in advance of the ramp of next-generation products in addition to seasonality. 
+In addition, for Q1 2020, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 46%; non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $580 million; non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $18 million; and the first quarter diluted share count is expected to be approximately 1.22 billion shares. 
+For the full year 2020, we expect revenue growth of approximately 28% to 30%, driven by strength across all businesses. We expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 45%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately 28% of revenue and a non-GAAP tax rate of approximately 3% of pretax income. 
+In closing, we had an excellent fourth quarter and an excellent 2019. Our full year financial results highlight the strength of our business model. I look forward to what we have in store for 2020 as we expect to further expand and ramp our leadership portfolio of high-performance products to drive revenue growth, gross margin expansion, market share gains and financial momentum. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Laura for the question-and-answer session. Laura?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much, Devinder. Operator, we're ready to begin polling for questions.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Congratulations on the strong growth and execution. Lisa, for my first one, you mentioned the goal to get to kind of this double-digit market share in servers by the middle of the year. I'm just wondering how the visibility is around in achieving this target. What's driving it? Is it just more instances at existing cloud customers? And as part of that, do you also have a share target for exiting this year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Vivek, thank you for the questions. So, look, we are very pleased with how Rome is ramping. We've been in market now 4 to 5 months, and the visibility that we have is -- with the cloud guys, we have visibility to the public-facing instances as well as what they're doing in terms of internal workloads. And what we see is just the breadth of the overall workloads that are -- that they're using Rome with is expanding. And then on the enterprise side, with the full portfolio of our partners, HPE, Dell, Lenovo and the ODM partners, we see just a significantly -- significant increase in the overall enterprise pipeline that we have for Rome. So we're very focused on continuing to grow share in the data center market, and we feel good about our mid-year market share targets. 
+In terms of our market share targets, Vivek, I think we'll talk a little bit more at our Financial Analyst Day about some of the longer-term targets. But certainly, for 2020, we're very focused on growing our overall data center share.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And for my follow-up, Lisa. How should we interpret the impact of capacity shortages at your main competitor? Have you seen any benefit from that? If not, why not? 
+And then kind of part B is, Intel did say that they plan to expand capacity later this year and will focus it more on the PC client side and try to reclaim market share. What effect will that have on the pricing in the market? And does your full year outlook kind of bake any potential impact of that competition?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So when we look at the PC market, we finished 2019 very strong in the overall PC market, both mobile and desktop. I think that's primarily on the strength of the product portfolio and the expanding customer platforms that we have. There are some discussions about, let's call it, pockets of shortages. But as I said before, I don't believe -- we've been on this steady increase in market share now for the last 8 quarters, and we believe we gained share in Q4 as well. So I think what we see is just the portfolio getting a lot stronger. 
+As we go into 2020, I think we are, again, enthusiastic about our products. In addition to the Zen 2-based desktop products, we've added Zen 2 now in the notebook portfolio, and we'll have that for the full year of 2020. So I think our outlook expects growth in all businesses, including the PC business. And we remain very focused on expanding our market presence in both consumer as well as commercial PCs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Toshiya Hari from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, this may overlap a little bit with Vivek's question, but I was hoping to better understand some of the key assumptions behind your full year guidance. For both your PC business as well as the server business, can you talk to some of the TAM assumptions that you're making and the market share assumptions for the full year? And then I've got a quick follow-up.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, sure. So let me talk first about the market, and then talk a little bit about how we're seeing the full year. So if you look at the PC market, I think, the discussion so far has been, let's call it, 2020, flat to maybe down slightly. There has been some concern raised about the second half of '20 perhaps be weakened -- weaker than normal seasonality just due to some of the enterprise refresh cycles that are strong in the first half. We're viewing it as flat -- flattish, maybe down very slightly. 
+That being the case, back to the comment I made with Vivek, I think we feel very good about our product portfolio, and especially when we look at sort of our notebook share and our relative opportunity to gain market share. The strength of our Ryzen 4000 series products is significantly stronger than previous generations, and the platforms are also significantly broader. So we feel good about that. 
+In the data center market, again, I would say that the growth of computing continues. From our standpoint, we see it as a good market environment for data center in both cloud as well as enterprise. When we look at our full year revenue guide of approximately 28% to 30% for the year, the highest growth from a percentage standpoint will obviously be server, just given the expectations in that market. But we expect all of our businesses to grow nicely in 2020. And that's just, again, based on where we are in the product cycle and the visibility that we have with customer design wins as well as just overall competitiveness.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Toshiya Hari,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. And then I had a quick follow-up on gross margins, one probably for Devinder. You guys are guiding Q1 gross margins to 46% and then 45% for the full year. I appreciate your semi-custom business is at a low point in Q1 and the ramp in Q2 and more so in the second half is probably dilutive to corporate margins. But if you can kind of walk through some of the puts and takes from a gross margin perspective for the year, that would be helpful. 
+And then related to that, if you can compare and contrast the gross margin profile of your semi-custom business going into the next cycle versus the past cycle, product cycle, that would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me start, and then Lisa can chime in. Overall, from a margin standpoint, you got it right. We are guiding to the 46% in the Q1 quarter. 
+And then the semi-custom business, as we've said, typically, is lower than corporate average. So as that product ramps in the second half, obviously, will have an impact on gross margin. The guide for the year is at 45%. So we feel good about that having ended 2019 at the 43% level. 
+And from a puts and takes standpoint, it's certainly product mix. And Lisa talked about the business is ramping and growing in 2020, with a 28% to 30% growth in revenue. Data center, as we've said before, is above corporate average. The client gross margin is around corporate average. And some graphics and then the semi-custom business has below corporate average gross margins. And that mix of revenue, as it ramps throughout the year, will obviously have an impact on a quarterly basis. From an annual standpoint, we feel pretty good with the guide at 45%, in particular with the 7-nanometer products ramping as we get to the year. And that obviously benefits the gross margin. 
+Semi-custom business, Lisa, you want to chime in on the difference between generation to generation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. No, I think -- I just said, Devinder, the semi-custom margins tend to be below corporate average on a gross margin basis. Although, on an operating margin basis, given the contribution from our customers for the R&D, is actually quite good. As it relates generation to generation, the way to think about it is, in the first year of a console ramp, you would expect the margins to be on the lower side. And that's true no matter what, just because you're just starting the product ramp. And you should expect that the margins will get better as that ramp continues over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Matt Ramsay from Cowen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, I wanted to just start with a question about the, I guess, comparing and contrasting a little bit, maybe a little weaker than we had -- some of us had modeled and, I guess, due to the console stuff for Q1 in the guidance versus a really strong, so 28% to 30% growth for the year. Maybe if you could just sort of lay out the year a little bit at a high level and just how you guys are sort of thinking about it coming together from the point of Q1.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So look, Matt, we're pretty excited about 2020. It's a strong year for us, certainly, with the expectations of being around 28% to 30% revenue growth. We do expect all of our businesses to grow. I think relative to the Q1 guide, if you look at Q1 as an absolute number, it is up over 40% year-on-year, even with semi-custom revenues very low in Q1. And so that should give you an idea of the strength of the rest of the business. 
+From a sequential basis, Q4 to Q1, it's what we said on the call. There is some bit of normal seasonality, just as we are consumer-focused in our PC portfolio. So you expect that, that would go down from Q4 to Q1. And then we do have the factor that the semi-custom profile when we're doing a product transition has the revenue very low in Q1. It starts ramp in Q2, but it's very heavily weighted in the second half of the year. So you should think about semi-custom for this year, again, it's a ramp year, so it's a little bit different, that over 80% of the revenue for semi-custom will be in the second half of the year compared to the first half of the year. So overall, we think a very strong year. A little bit of reprofiling of revenue, particularly as it relates to semi-custom. And we look forward to executing it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          As a follow-up, I guess, for both of you, but maybe for Devinder. Just a couple of little pieces. For me, it looks like, on the operating expense side, you're going to be up in the neighborhood of mid-20s for the full year in the annual guidance that you outlined. Maybe you could talk a little bit about the focus of that. Is it branding and marketing in the PC and server spaces as you grow? Or is it in other areas in R&D? 
+And then, secondly, I think you guys had disclosed the data center revenue mix. So GPU plus server in prior quarters. And if you have that number handy, that would be really helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me take the second one first. Data center, it's, as we said in the past, mid-teens of revenue. In this quarter, it is around the same, mid-teens of the total revenue. And I'll point out that it is record revenue in the quarter, so that's pretty good. And we feel pretty good about that, having mid-teens revenue in the data center, combined server and data center GPU, on revenue of $2.1 billion. 
+As far as OpEx is concerned, our guide for the year is about 28% of the revenue guide that we provided. And you are right, fundamentally, the investments are R&D and go-to-market. And obviously, the business is growing. So obviously, there's investments needed to go ahead and grow the business from an absolute standpoint. But we feel we can manage it to about 28% of our revenue overall for the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Matt, the only thing I'll add to that is for the data center revenue, particularly in Q4, it was very heavily weighted towards server CPU, just given some of the lumpiness of the data center GPU revenue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. I had one for Devinder and one for Lisa. For Devinder, the -- I think it's impressive that the cash that you generated 10 years ago, you were at $4 billion of net debt, now you're net cash positive. I didn't think back then we'd expect you to be here. But how should we think about capital structure going forward? And the -- and for the $400 million -- $440 million in cash flow from operations, could -- I had a challenge reconciling it. Can you share the biggest 2 or 3 sources of cash? 
+And then for Lisa, the last time AMD had a product cycle in servers, I think you were gaining -- once you hit 5% share, you started to gain share at 2% or 3% or 4%, 400 basis point clip per quarter. How should -- what is the right kind of cadence or pace of share gains in servers this cycle? And maybe you could just talk about, structurally, what gates your ability to -- or the pace of your ability to gain share? Is it capacity from your suppliers? Is it your own engineering support infrastructure? Or is it your customers testing and importing workloads? If you could give us a framework to think about that, I think that would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me get started, Mark. You do have a long memory, and so do I. I do remember the days when we had the challenge on the balance sheet. And one thing we feel good as we end 2019 is the strength of the balance sheet, and in particular, the net cash position we haven't been in many, many years, as we pointed out in the prepared remarks. 
+From a capital structure standpoint, another priority is investing in the business. The revenue is growing significantly in 2020 is what we're projecting at 28% to 30% over 2019. And also, we want to invest in the road map, the go-to-market and everything that's needed when the revenue ramps as significantly as it is going from year-over-year. So that's really the allocation priorities. 
+From a viewpoint of where the $440 million comes from, higher revenue, especially when you look at the revenue in Q3 and Q4 of 2019 compared to the first half of the year, we did go ahead and buy the inventory to go ahead and support the higher revenue. And as you know, when you sell that revenue, in particular, when it ramps up as it did on better margins, it generates the cash. And that's why you have the $440 million-plus operating cash flow from an overall standpoint. Lisa, over to you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So Mark, as it relates to just server rate and pace, I think the most important thing for us is when we look at from time of announcement or time of shipment to how customers actually deploy and trying to shorten that cycle. So when I look at the difference between, let's call it, Rome and Naples, we've seen that time to deploy actually significantly shortened with Rome. And so in terms of rate and pace of server share gain, it is primarily for cloud customers. It is having them deployed, not just sort of a set of instances, but ensuring that they get fully built out across all regions in the world, and also adding additional workloads. So it's just time is what I would say. 
+And then as it relates to Enterprise customers, I think the platform coverage that we have with Rome is significantly broader than it was with Naples. And so I'm quite encouraged, actually, by the strength of the pipeline that we see, the number of customers that are engaged, and then just how they're deploying. So I think we're going at a good pace, and we'll continue to accelerate that as we go through 2020.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had a -- first, a question on gross margin, especially into Q1. You said consoles are negligible. Gross margins are 46%, so that suggests that, that 46% is basically indicative of the business as it stands without consoles. So does that represent kind of the peak of the business on the current mix? I'm a little surprised it's not higher, given all the new products in aggregate, we're supposed to have gross margins in excess of 50%, and most of the mix today should be new products. So I guess, how do we think about the Q1 gross margins in the context of that? And what are the drivers that take it higher from here? Is it basically just server mix? Or is there something else that can help with that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me get started, and Lisa can add. But Stacy, as we talked about product transitions, the 46% guide in Q1, we recently introduced the next-generation notebook products. And as product transitions go, you still have legacy product that you sell before you get converted over to the new technology and the new generation products. The desktop products were ahead of that from that standpoint, and that did benefit our margin in the 2019 time frame. And you are right, the console being negligible revenue in Q1 of 2020, it does benefit, and the margin is 46%. 
+And from an overall standpoint for the year, it is 45%, and that's because the semi-custom business, which is lower than corporate average, does come back. And as Lisa said earlier, we're expecting 80% of that in the back half of the year. But by that time, also, the new generation products and the other businesses including data center and client reramping all on 7 nanometers, and that should help the gross margin to offset some of the impact that we have on the semi-custom business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, that's good, Stacy. I was just going to add to what Devinder said. So we don't expect the client notebook mix to fully cut over to the new 7-nanometer products until later in the year. And in terms of opportunities to improve margins, it is definitely product mix. So higher mix of server as well as higher mix of, let's call it, Ryzen 7s and Ryzen 5s versus some of the legacy products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. For my follow-up, if I sort of squint at the second half, it seems to me you're probably guiding it implicitly, call it, $800 million to $1 billion over the second half of 2019. How much of that do you think is consoles versus nonconsoles? Because it's not hard to get a console number, especially in the beginning of a ramp that's not that far off that number, which doesn't leave all that much room to ramp the rest of the business. So is this just conservatism? Or what else are you expecting here? How much of that second half do you think is consoles versus nonconsoles?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well, I think, as I perhaps answered to one of the earlier questions, when I look at the full year at 28% to 30% sort of revenue growth, expect server to be significantly above that. And then the rest of the businesses are all going to grow nicely. And so you would expect significant double-digit growth in the client business as well as in the semi-custom business. And overall, we see the aggregate of it to be a very strong year. So it is not all console-weighted, if that's what you're asking.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Wouldn't you get that just from the nature of the ramp that we saw in 2019, we'd be doing the compare already? I guess I'm trying -- that's why I'm trying to sort of normalize second half to second half. You think you get strong double digits in second half versus second half growth across all the businesses?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I would say, in aggregate, you will see -- so let me help you with this way. So what we said in 2019 is, 2019, overall, we grew 4% on an annual basis, but excluding semi-custom, we grew over 20% through all the rest of the businesses. If I do that same type of calculation, excluding semi-custom for 2020, we would still say the rest of the businesses would grow greater than 20%.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from David Wong from Instinet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Devinder, you said the sequential decrease in the March 2020 quarter is driven primarily by the drop in game console chips. Does that mean that you expect your microprocessor and graphics revenues will be flattish sequentially? Or if not, roughly, what does your guidance assume in terms of percentage sequential drop for, say, PC processors and GPUs? Do you get server processors sales rising sequentially?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I don't think I said specifically that Q4 to Q1 is all due to semi-custom. That obviously helps the margin. But there is a product mix underneath that, that helps, especially with the notebook products that we talked about, that are moving to 7 nanometers. 
+And then I think your second question about sequential from Q1 outwards, is that right, David?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, no. I was talking about revenues from December into Q1, the sequential drop. Can you give us some idea of -- I mean there's a big chunk that's game consoles, right? But I mean, what about the nongame console part of it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          It's seasonality, seasonality in the business. We have the consumer weight from a revenue standpoint in our CG segment, and we go from Q4 to Q1, and you do have the seasonality coming into play. And typical seasonality is what's driving the other portion of the decline in revenue from Q4 to Q1.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. David, I think what you're asking is we would expect that the Computing and Graphics segment would be down sequentially due to seasonality, and we would expect that server CPUs should be up because we're continuing to ramp those processors sequentially.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+David Michael Wong,  Nomura Securities Co. Ltd., Research Division - MD    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And Lisa, can you give us some idea of what new GPUs you're expecting to launch through the rest of 2020 for PCs and for data center?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So in 2019, we launched our new architecture in GPUs, it's the RDNA architecture, and that was the Navi-based products. You should expect that those will be refreshed in 2020, and we'll have next-generation RDNA architecture that will be part of our 2020 lineup. So we're pretty excited about that, and we'll talk more about that at our Financial Analyst Day. 
+And on the data center GPU side, you should also expect that we'll have some new products in the second half of this year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Devinder, you had talked about consumer graphics as being below corporate gross margin. I guess I was thinking that -- I know you've historically had a high cost structure because of high bandwidth memory. But as the product portfolio increasingly doesn't use high bandwidth memory, is there the prospect to improve that for consumer GPU to be closer to where your competitors' gross margins are?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I don't think I specifically said that. I said some of our graphics products are below corporate average from a gross margin standpoint, in addition to the semi-custom being below average.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And I think, Joe, maybe just to answer your question in terms of what we expect in consumer graphics. I think -- look, we're investing in consumer graphics. We think gaming is a very important segment, whether we're talking about consoles or discrete graphics. And the work that we're doing around the RDNA architecture and the future generations of RDNA architecture we believe will continue to improve our offerings for both consumer graphics as well as data center graphics.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay, great. And then with the new console builds, you mentioned that, that starts in Q2, but it's mostly in the back half of the year. I guess as you think about that opportunity from a unit standpoint, is it the right way to look at it sort of a similar number of units to what we had in the first year of the current console cycle? 
+Or is there -- does the compatibility that you bring when you have an x86 CPU still and there's probably a little bit more similarity between the consoles, could that point us to a sort of a better console unit market in 2020 than we saw 6 years ago? Like how are you thinking about it, just to size that opportunity?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we do think there's some pent-up demand for the next generation of consoles. Without forecasting what our customers are planning, I would say they're both -- we're planning for a strong first year, and we'll have to see how things develop as we go through the ramp. But the overall sentiment is that there has been, let's call it, a lull in console sales in the second half of 2019 going into in 2020, sort of -- for some of this anticipation of the next generation.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question today is coming from Blayne Curtis from Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe just following up on Joe. I just want to make sure I heard you right. I thought you said the semi-custom as well we grew at double digits, I just want to confirm that. 
+And then just following on, I don't know what the units are going to be, but is there a content or ASP story to layer on top of that equation as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I did say that semi-custom should grow double-digit as well. And again, it's a strong year for us. And then as it relates to content, again, it's fair to say that there is additional content in this generation versus previous generation.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Blayne Peter Curtis,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - Director & Senior Research Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got you. And then maybe just on the gross margin equation. Is there a way to talk about the mix of 7-nanometer? That's a big tailwind. Still seems early days, at least, across a couple of your products. Is there a way to kind of think about the whole company and what the mix of 7 is?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So we just completed the fourth quarter, and it was a very strong quarter for us, record revenue for the company. And I would say about half of that revenue was 7-nanometer-based, and the other half, not yet. And so there is still a significant ramp as we go into 2020. But we're pleased with how quickly we ramped in 2019.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Congratulations on solid results. I just want to go back to the gross margin bridge from Q1 to the full year. I just want to make sure I understand. The drop from Q1 to the full year, is that 100% being driven just by gaming coming back more aggressively in the back half of the year? Or have you baked in anything for either pricing competition from the #1 guy out there or some share shifts? How do I think about that? Is it all about gaming?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think if you -- maybe Devinder, you...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          All right. So I think if you look at it, the predominant factor, if you're talking about Q1 guide at 46% versus full year at 45%, it's just as we wrap those consoles, there are some -- yes, there's some impact of that. As it relates to the pricing environment and what we're expecting, we're expecting a competitive pricing environment, and that's the way we built our model. So we've always expected that the competition will be very aggressive on both the CPU as well as the GPU side. And that is part of the inherent model for the company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          That's helpful, Lisa. And then you guys have a ton of goodness on your immediate plate on the server side and the data center side, just with the workloads you're going after. But I'm kind of curious, you answered an earlier question saying expect more GPUs for the data center. And I don't want you to preannounce product, but how should I think about your positioning for AIs and workload and acceleration? 
+And just given some of the heavy lifting that NVIDIA had to do around CUDA, how do I think about the investment there? Is this an area that you think you have some unique IP you can bring to? Or how do I think about that over the next couple of years?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I think that's actually a good way of talking about the opportunity, John. I think the CPU opportunity is very immediate and in front of us as we look at the opportunities with Rome and the expanding opportunities. I think the data center GPU market continues to be an important growth vector for us, and now I call that over the several-year horizon. So when you look at the opportunities that we have, when we combine our CPU and GPU IP together, they're very, very strong. I mean, for example, this is the reason that we won the Oak Ridge National Lab Supercomputer with Frontier, which were actually both a CPU and a GPU win, and some of the optimization that we've done with that overall system. We think that there are additional opportunities like that as well as machine learning and AI opportunities. Our focus there has been to work with large cloud providers to optimize the machine learning frameworks. And we had some key milestones that we completed in the fourth quarter that will continue to be a focus for us in 2020 and beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Is it fair to say some of the GPU data center announcements this year go beyond just the cloud gaming market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I think you should expect that we will have additional sort of customer announcements outside of cloud gaming.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Timothy Arcuri from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I guess I had another question, just -- well, that's really on gross margin. (inaudible) of the year's revenue in the semi-custom would be in the back half, but how does that break out between September and December? I guess I asked that because I'm just trying to see what the gross margin will be exiting this year if you strip out semi-custom. Could it be 50% exiting the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think it's hard to break it down that way. We are in the initial stages of planning for the ramp, and you're asking about Q3, Q4. We are projecting about 80% of the semi-custom revenue growing double digits year-over-year in Q3 and Q4. And typically, when we have this new game launches, our peak quarter from a revenue standpoint in semi-custom will be Q3. But Q4, when you talk about the ramp of the product, especially in the first year of the ramp, it's hard to project how much it will be and then what the impact would be exiting 2020 from a gross margin, excluding semi-custom. Maybe as we get closer to that, I'm talking about 3 to 6 months, we can probably give you a better idea of that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I got it, okay. And then can you just talk about what your share targets are for the year in PC? I think you're 17, 18 in notebook and you're maybe 14 in desktop. Can you just talk about how much share you think that you can gain this year given all the moving parts with the shortages and whatnot?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So I'm not sure I'm going to forecast a share target for 2020. I will say though, if you take a look back at the last 8 quarters, we've been on a fairly steady share gain in PCs, somewhere between -- depending on the quarter, let's call it, 50 to 100 basis points per quarter, and that changes between desktop and notebook. I think we grew somewhere on the order of 4 points a share. So we believe that we still have additional opportunities, and particularly, our focus is going to be both notebook as well as commercial. And those are good opportunities for us and play well to our new Ryzen 4000 mobile processors.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Most of my questions been answered, and it kind of lines up with the model we got here, but I just want to make sure I got a couple of quick questions. And so, basically, for Q4, it looks like semi-custom is probably down 50% sequentially or somewhere around that range. Is that -- am I at least in the ballpark? 
+And then, secondly, from a server perspective, I'm not expecting you to give numbers on this, but maybe qualitatively, how much of your revenue is going to be cloud versus enterprise? And I think that's one of the bigger debates, and I don't expect specifics, but anything you could to help us understand what should be the mix between cloud and enterprise for calendar '20.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sure, Mitch. So look, I think you're right. When you look at the semi-custom business in the fourth quarter, it is -- it was a bit softer than originally anticipated. So we had originally said last quarter that we thought the second half of the year would be down high-30s, and we were actually down more than that for the second half of the year and for Q4. And as it relates to mix of cloud versus enterprise for 2020, I mean, it will move around from quarter-to-quarter. But I think the best guess at this point is, let's call it, roughly even between the two.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question today is coming from Srini Pajjuri from SMBC.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Srinivas Reddy Pajjuri,  SMBC Nikko Securities America, Inc., Research Division - Research Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Lisa, maybe on the supply side, you're guiding for a pretty strong growth here. I'm just curious, have you already logged in the supply for 7-nanometer? 
+And as we go into second half of the year, especially as you ramp the game consoles, I believe that those die sizes tend to be very large. I'm just curious if you were to get upside, how are you feeling about your supply situation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. So TSMC has supported us very well through the first couple of quarters of our 7-nanometer ramp here in 2019. I think, as we go into 2020, there will certainly be a significant growth for us in 7-nanometer. Our current visibility supports the revenue guide that we gave you. It is fair to say that wafer supply is tight, and so it's really important for us to be planning well with our customers, and that's what we're working on.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We reached the end of our question-and-answer session. I'd like to turn the floor back over to management for any further or closing comments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Laura A. Graves,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Corporate VP of IR    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you very much, everyone, for joining us today. We do look forward to having you join us on Thursday, the 5th of March, for our Financial Analyst Day, which will also be broadcast from our website. 
+Thank you very much. Have a great day, and we'll talk with you again soon.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMD/2020-Jul-28-AMD.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,511 @@
+
+
+Refinitiv StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2020 Advanced Micro Devices Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 28, 2020 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Devinder Kumar
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer
+ * Lisa T. Su
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director
+ * Ruth Cotter
+   Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Vivek Arya
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director
+ * Aaron Christopher Rakers
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst
+ * Joseph Lawrence Moore
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director
+ * Stacy Aaron Rasgon
+   Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Ross Clark Seymore
+   Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD
+ * Timothy Michael Arcuri
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment
+ * Harlan Sur
+   JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst
+ * Mark John Lipacis
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * John William Pitzer
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head
+ * Matthew D. Ramsay
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst
+ * Mitchell Toshiro Steves
+   RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hello, and welcome to the AMD Second Quarter 2020 Conference Call. (Operator Instructions) A question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. 
+It's now my pleasure to turn the call over to Ruth Cotter, Senior Vice President, Marketing, Human Resources and Investor Relations for AMD. Ms. Cotter, please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, and welcome to AMD's Second Quarter 2020 Financial Results Conference Call. 
+By now, you should have had the opportunity to review a copy of our earnings release and slides. If you've not reviewed these documents, they can be found on the Investor Relations page of AMD's website, amd.com. 
+Participants on today's conference call are Dr. Lisa Su, our President and Chief Executive Officer; and Devinder Kumar, our Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. 
+This is a live call and will be replayed via webcast on our website. 
+Before we begin today, please note that AMD is scheduled to participate in several Wall Street events during the third quarter. On Tuesday, the 1st of September, Mark Papermaster, Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President, Technology and Engineering, will participate in the Jefferies Virtual Semiconductor IT Hardware and Communications Infrastructure Summit. On Tuesday, September 15, Forrest Norrod, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Data Center and Embedded Business Solutions Group, will participate virtually in the Deutsche Bank Technology Conference. 
+In addition, our third quarter 2020 quiet time is expected to begin at the close of business on Friday, the 11th of September. 
+Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations speak only as of the current date and, as such, involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Please refer to the cautionary statement in our press release for more information on the risks related to any forward-looking statements that we may make. 
+We will refer primarily to non-GAAP financial metrics during this call, the non-GAAP financial measures referenced are reconciled to their most directly comparable GAAP financial measure in today's press release and slides posted on our website, amd.com. 
+Now with that, I'd like to hand the call over to Lisa. Lisa?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Ruth, and good afternoon to all those listening in today. 
+For the last 5 years, we have built the technical, operational and financial foundation required to drive our long-term growth strategy. We consistently executed on our product road maps, established deep partnerships with an expanded set of customers, ramped multiple products in leading-edge manufacturing technologies and significantly strengthened our balance sheet. Our strong second quarter results and increased full year revenue guidance demonstrate how we are successfully scaling our business through our consistent execution. 
+Looking at the second quarter, revenue grew 26% year-over-year to $1.93 billion, driven by strong demand for our leadership server and client processors. We accelerated our server and mobile processor businesses significantly in the quarter, resulting in Ryzen and EPYC processor revenue more than doubling year-over-year. Importantly, we met our double-digit server processor market share goal as data center products accounted for more than 20% of our second quarter revenue. 
+Turning to our Computing and Graphics segment, second quarter revenue increased 45% year-over-year to $1.37 billion as growth in Ryzen processor sales more than offset lower graphic sales. We delivered our highest client processor revenue in more than 12 years. Increased working and schooling from home due to COVID-19 resulted in a strong PC market in the quarter. Although we believe our growth was largely driven by our 11th straight quarter of market share gains. 
+Desktop processor sales decreased sequentially as anticipated, while revenue and ASP increased year-over-year as demand for our higher-end Ryzen processors drove a richer mix. In mobile, we had record quarterly notebook processor unit shipments and revenue. Sales of our latest Ryzen 4000 Series processors grew significantly in the quarter, resulting in mobile revenue growing by a strong double-digit percentage sequentially and more than doubling from a year ago as both unit shipments and ASP increased significantly. 
+Multiple third-party reviewers have consistently highlighted that our latest notebook processors deliver superior performance and longer battery life compared to the competition. As a result of this strong performance, I'm pleased to report that Ryzen 4000 processor revenue has ramped faster than any mobile processor in our history. There are now 54 Ryzen 4000-powered notebooks in the market. 
+We expect to continue accelerating our mobile processor business in the second half of the year as HP and Lenovo ramp their first commercial notebooks powered by Ryzen Pro 4000 Series processors and a second wave of more than 30 ultrathin premium and gaming consumer notebooks launch from multiple OEMs. 
+In Graphics, second quarter revenue declined year-over-year. A strong double-digit increase in mobile GPU sales was more than offset by lower desktop channel sales. While desktop GPU shipments were lower year-over-year, channel sell-out accelerated in the quarter. Mobile GPU revenue growth was driven by adoption of our RD&A GPUs, highlighted by the launches of new Apple Professional and Dell Gaming notebooks featuring our Radeon 5000M Series mobile GPUs. Data center GPU revenue decreased year-over-year. 
+We expect revenue to increase in the second half of the year as additional cloud-based visual computing wins ramp and we launch our new CDNA data center GPU architecture optimized for next-generation exascale and machine learning workloads. 
+Turning to our Enterprise, Embedded and Semi-Custom segment, revenue of $565 million decreased 4% year-over-year due to lower semi-custom sales. Sequentially, revenue increased 62%, driven by record quarterly server processor sales and increased semi-custom product revenue. In semi-custom, we passed an important milestone in the second quarter as we began initial production and shipments of our next-generation game console SOCs. We expect strong second half semi-custom growth as we ramp production to support the holiday launches of the new PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. 
+Turning to Server. Our focus since launching our EPYC processors has been on building a solid foundation to drive long-term growth. Our strategy is grounded in driving broad, high-volume adoption with widespread support from industry-leading cloud and hardware providers. We passed a significant milestone in the quarter as we achieved our double-digit server processor unit share goal based on broad adoption across cloud, enterprise and HPC customers. 
+In cloud, multiple hyperscale customers ramped second-generation EPYC processors into high-volume production in the quarter to power both their internal infrastructure and publicly available instances. Microsoft announced they have added EPYC processors to power their Office Online applications used by more than 200 million monthly users. Tencent upped multiple millions of EPYC processor-powered virtual machines to support enhanced collaboration services. Google announced that EPYC processors were being used exclusively to power their unique confidential computing VMs that encrypt data while it is being processed. And AWS launched global availability of new compute-optimized EPYC-based EC2 instances. 
+In enterprise, we have significantly expanded our TAM as the number of AMD platforms has increased by more than 40% so far this year. Recent additions include Dell and HPE introducing multiple hyperconverged infrastructure solutions; Lenovo launching dual-socket servers for financial, retail and manufacturing; and NVIDIA selecting AMD EPYC processors to power its latest DGX AI platforms. We also secured new HPC wins based on the leadership performance and scalability of second-gen EPYC processors. Public highlights include new wins with leading research institutions, including Indiana University, Purdue and CERN as well as Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle all announcing cloud-based HPC offerings powered by EPYC processors. 
+We are pleased with the momentum in our Server business and expect to continue gaining share as additional second-gen EPYC platforms and cloud deployments ramp to volume in the second half of the year. We remain on track to begin shipping our next-generation Milan server processor, featuring Zen 3 late this year. 
+In closing, I want to thank our employees and partners for the strong execution during this unprecedented time as we continue to focus on delivering on our commitments. While there continues to be some macroeconomic uncertainty and pockets of demand softness, our product portfolio is very strong, and our markets are resilient. We are on track to deliver strong growth in the second half of the year driven by our current product portfolio and initial shipments of our next-generation Zen 3 CPUs and RDNA 2 GPUs that are on track to launch in late 2020. 
+I am very proud of the progress we have made over the last few years, placing AMD on a long-term growth trajectory. I'm even more excited about the opportunities in front of us as we enter our next phase of growth driven by accelerating our business in multiple markets. We remain focused on consistently gaining share across the $79 billion market for our high-performance products. We are investing significantly and have added resources to further extend our leadership IP and go-to-market capabilities as we pursue our ambitious goal to make AMD a best-in-class growth franchise. 
+Now I'd like to turn the call over to Devinder to provide some additional color on our second quarter financial performance. Devinder?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Devinder Kumar,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - Senior VP, CFO & Treasurer    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Lisa, and good afternoon, everyone. 
+We executed the second quarter very well. Amidst the COVID-19 backdrop, we delivered strong financial results, introduced industry-leading products and gain CPU market share. The second quarter results and increased full year revenue guidance highlight our ability to consistently deliver on our commitments as we continue to drive long-term financial growth. 
+Second quarter revenue was $1.93 billion, up 26% from a year ago and 8% from the prior quarter. Year-over-year growth was driven by strong Ryzen and EPYC processor sales. Gross margin was 44%, up 330 basis points from a year ago driven by client and server processor sales. Operating expenses were $617 million compared to $512 million a year ago, primarily due to ongoing investments in the business. Operating income more than doubled year-over-year to $233 million, up $122 million from a year ago, driven primarily by revenue growth. Operating margin increased to 12% as compared to 7% a year ago. Net income was $216 million, up $124 million from a year ago, and diluted earnings per share were $0.18 per share compared to $0.08 per share a year ago. 
+Now turning to the business segment results. Computing and Graphics segment revenue was $1.37 billion, up 45% year-over-year, driven by significant growth in Ryzen process sales. Computing and Graphics segment operating income was $200 million or 15% of revenue compared to $22 million or 2% of revenue a year ago. Enterprise Embedded and semi-custom segment revenue was $565 million, down 4% year-over-year due to lower semi-custom sales, which were largely offset by higher EPYC processor sales. EESC segment operating income was $33 million or 6% of revenue compared to an operating income of $89 million a year ago. 
+Turning to the balance sheet. Cash and cash equivalents totaled $1.8 billion, including $200 million from our revolving line of credit, which was fully repaid in the third quarter. Inventory was $1.3 billion, up 25% from the prior quarter in anticipation of the revenue ramp in the second half of 2020 and new product launches. Free cash flow was $152 million in the second quarter. I am very pleased with our cash performance in the quarter, which resulted in the first quarter of the year -- or the first half of the year being free cash flow positive. 
+Let me now turn to the outlook for the third quarter of 2020. Today's outlook is based on current expectations and contemplates the current COVID-19 environment, global economic backdrop and customer demand signals. We expect revenue to be approximately $2.55 billion, plus or minus $100 million, an increase of approximately 42% year-over-year and approximately 32% sequentially. The year-over-year and sequential increases are expected to be driven by higher Ryzen and EPYC processor sales and next-generation semi-custom products. In addition, for Q3 2020, we expect non-GAAP gross margin to be approximately 44%, non-GAAP operating expenses to be approximately $660 million, non-GAAP interest expense, taxes and other to be approximately $25 million and the diluted share count in the third quarter is expected to be approximately 1.23 billion shares. 
+For the full year 2020, we now expect higher annual revenue growth up approximately 32% driven by the strength of our PC, gaming and data center products. We continue to expect gross margin of approximately 45% for the full year, up 2 points from the prior year. 
+In closing, while there continues to be global economic uncertainty due to COVID-19, we have significant opportunities ahead of us with strong product demand across multiple markets. We are in a good position to accelerate our financial momentum, expand gross margins and generate significant cash. 
+With that, I'll turn it back to Ruth for the question-and-answer session. Ruth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, Devinder, and operator, please pool the audience for the question-and-answer session.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions) Our first question today is coming from Mark Lipacis from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+A question for Lisa. You've said in the past that your customers they don't buy CPUs but they buy road maps. And I was hoping that you could tell us about your road map, particularly in servers going forward, how it compares to your competition? And does your -- as part of that, does your view of the competitive environment change after your biggest competitor last week noted a push in its 7-nanometer processor?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi, Mark. Yes, thanks for the question. So look, we've been very focused over the last couple of years on our road map and our strategy, and for sure, when we talk to our customers, it's about ensuring that they understand we have a consistent road map that is pushing the leading edge of performance and ensuring that we deliver the performance improvements that we promise. 
+As you know, with these road maps, many of these decisions are made years in advance. And so we look at process technology as well as design and architecture and leading-edge packaging. So we feel good about our road map. We just -- we updated our road maps at our financial Analyst Day in March, and we continue to be very focused on executing to our road maps.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark John Lipacis,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Equity Research Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And on the -- and when you talk about the -- your focus both on your transistor or the process and the architectural lead, can you give us a sense to what extent the share gains that you're taking right now are driven by one or the other or both? And would you expect to maintain a lead in both as you launch Milan and further on down in '21 and '22?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, look, I would say that the road map is dependent on all of those factors. So you have to get the process technology and manufacturing right. We feel good about our road map there and our partnership with TSMC. And you also have to make the right design and architectural decisions, and we feel good about our CPU road map. So right now, we are on Zen 2 with Rome. We saw a very nice acceleration of our data center business due to some of the key customers that have launched. We are on track or we expect to start shipping Milan here late this year. And then we're also working in development on Zen 4, which is slated for 5-nanometer.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Vivek Arya from Bank of America.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And congratulations on the strong growth despite all of the headwinds. Lisa, for my first one, when I think back to the last time AMD was really big in the server market was in that 2004 to 2006 time frame, when market share went from 7% to 26% in kind of that 3-year-or-so period. How would you contrast the current environment, right, from -- whether it's from a competitive perspective or just a customer willingness to adopt your platform? What will it take for your market share to kind of approach those peaks? What are the puts and takes, and how different or similar is your experience now?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, sure, Vivek. Thanks for the question. So look, the server market, we've said, is very strategic for us. We think there's a high demand for sort of pushing the leading edge of performance. When I look at our road map right now, I feel very good about our road map. I think we have executed well to our road map. I think we are differentiated in terms of the performance that we're offering in the server market. 
+We've always said that the data center market is a bit of a journey, and so this is about putting together multiple generations of strong execution. So we're pleased with where we are with Rome and the progress that we've made this year. I would say we're still in the early innings of what we believe we can do in the server market. I think Rome is a very, very competitive product. I think as we go into Milan, we see that as also a very competitive product. And our goal is to really satisfy a broad swath of the server workloads, and we think we have the capabilities of doing that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. For my follow-up, Lisa, so you raised full year growth outlook to 32% or so, I believe, from 25%. Can you give us some more color on what in that upside? How much of that is coming from PCs? How much from server? How much from semi-custom? And I noticed that you kept the gross margin outlook kind of steady, and I'm wondering how do we think about gross margins going forward? How sensitive is that to your success in the server market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So we did update full year guidance. When we look at sort of what's changed over the last 90 days, when we were here talking to you in April, we were actually expecting that there might be some COVID-19-related weakness in the second half due to macroeconomic factors or other things like that. What we see now is better visibility into the second half of the year, and so we had originally assumed that the PC market would be down in the second half. And we now expect that PCs -- that we will grow in the PC processors for the second half compared to the first half. We also see data center growing from the second half to the first half. And then we have our game console ramp that is a strong ramp here in the second half. 
+So I think it's a number of factors. We do believe that the market is a little bit better than we thought 90 days ago. But we also believe that our product traction is strong, and we're seeing that come through with our customer demand. So those are the reasons for the guidance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Vivek Arya,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - Director    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Anything on gross margins?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Oh, I'm sorry. Yes. On gross margins, I think that depends a lot on mix. That depends on -- certainly, your question was about server. Server is certainly accretive to margin. And I think in the PC business, the second half of the year tends to be a bit more consumer-focused and notebook-focused. And so that's some of the mix relation there. And then we've said that the consoles are decretive to margin. We expect that consoles will be very strong in the third quarter. And although the fourth quarter will be lower for consoles, it's still going to be a very strong second half of the year. So those are the puts and takes there, but we feel that the mix is about right to -- for the annual guide at 45%.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Matt Ramsay from Cowen & Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa, I wanted to ask about the PC market, and you just gave some comments about maybe some stronger trends than you might have anticipated 90 days ago in the back half. But pretty remarkable for a notebook business to more double and for the second quarter to be your record client sales. I wonder if you might talk about the momentum, particularly in the notebook market of the 4000. And then how are you feeling the pull of the enterprise notebook market? And what's the traction like there so far into the back half?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Matt. So the PC market was strong for us, and the PC business was strong for us in the second quarter and as we look into the second half. What we saw was that desktops were down as expected, but the COVID-19-type phenomenon has increased, overall, the PC market. And we see a strong shift from desktop to notebooks. At the same time, I think our notebook portfolio, particularly the Ryzen 4000, has done extremely well. We've seen strong adoption. We have over 50 platforms in market. We watch the sell-through and the consumption of those. And I would say it has been very strong, even exceeded our expectations for the early ramp. 
+And our view is that the second half will continue to be good for notebooks and PCs overall. And that's part of this idea that PCs are now essential. And so we see strength in consumer. We see strength in gaming notebooks, which we had previously been underrepresented. We have a nice commercial ramp, and we do see good pipeline around commercial PCs as well as the education market is quite strong as well. So you put that together, and I think the PC business has performed well for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Matthew D. Ramsay,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - MD & Senior Technology Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. As a follow-up, maybe a piece of the business that's been asked about a little less frequently over the last few quarters is your gaming GPU business. And I'm interested if you could just put into context what the expectations are for improvements and new opportunities for Big Navi as you launch later this year? And maybe size those opportunities from a data center perspective versus what you might expect in the gaming channel?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So I think the Graphics, as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, was down year-over-year. We saw a nice ramp of mobile as we launched some of the Navi-based mobile products, but the desktop channel was lower. This was somewhat as expected from the standpoint of the second quarter is usually a lower quarter for the desktop channel. 
+What we did see is that sell-through was pretty good, so I think gaming overall is good. We are in the process of a product transition. We are on track to launch RDNA 2 or, as you call it, Big Navi late this year. We're excited about the RDNA 2 architecture. I think it's a full refresh for us from the top of the stack through the rest of the stack. And so I think that will be more of a contributor here as we go into later this year and into next year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Harlan Sur from JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harlan Sur,  JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Good job on the quarterly execution. Could you see the team hit the double-digits percentage market share targets and a broadening out of the end market penetration with EPYC, just Lisa, just given your customer and design win pipeline and rollout of Milan in the back half of this year, how are you thinking or how should we be thinking about further EPYC share gains over the next 12 to 18 months?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Harlan. So look, we are optimistic about our product positioning in the server market. Much of what we've been doing up through now, frankly, is making sure that our customers were ready to take advantage of Rome and EPYC. And so we saw some nice traction here in the first half of the year, particularly in the second quarter around some top cloud accounts that have started to ramp in good volume. As we look forward to the second half of the year, there are more platforms coming with Rome. We have a number of OEM platforms that are in the process of being launched. And we have additional cloud platforms as well. So I think Rome is going to continue to be a strong driver of our growth into the second half of this year as well as next year. 
+We're excited about Milan. Milan is looking good in the labs. We're working with our customers on Milan, and we expect to start shipping that later this year. So I think the way to think about our Server business is, again, it's a journey, and we're pleased with where we are today, but there's a significant opportunity for us if we continue to execute well over the next, I would say, more than 12 to 18 months. But really, we see this as a multiyear opportunity.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Harlan Sur,  JPMorgan Chase & Co, Research Division - Senior Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, absolutely. And then as a follow-up, we do an annual CIO survey here at JPMorgan. For the past 3 years, we've been asking global CIOs, are they thinking about or planning to use EPYC-based platforms for on-prem. And then the most recent survey that we did in June, we actually saw a 60% year-over-year increase in the number of CIOs that are thinking about using EPYC for on-prem. Our interpretation is that interest level and mind share is growing quite rapidly. I guess my question to you, Lisa, is the AMD -- what is the A&D team seeing from an actual adoption perspective? And what's your sense of your enterprise mix sort of 2 to 3 years from now?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Actually, Harlan, I saw that data, and I thought it was good data. So the -- what I would say is that we are making progress in the enterprise business. And that comes from a number of different factors. First is the availability of platforms. We have a very diverse set of platforms from our OEM partners that are now in market. We've also done quite a bit on the ecosystem and ensuring that we have the partnerships with the ISVs, and then just basically feet on the street where we're talking directly to some of these enterprise customers. So I feel good about the progress that we've made. 
+Again, I would refer to the fact that mind share is a leading indicator, but there is a lot for us to do to convert that into market share and revenue growth. But we feel like we're on a good path, and we're going to continue to focus on both cloud and enterprise growth. And I'll also mention, HPC is another key vector for us, where we're very focused on showing a strong value proposition for those sort of toughest, most scientific workloads.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Joe Moore from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. To stay away from the previous question, can you talk a little bit about your enterprise prospects on the PC client side? Can you give us a sense for how much at this point of your business is skewed to consumer? And how much progress are you making there in terms of penetrating enterprise business?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure, Joe. No question, our business is more consumer-weighted today. I will say we're growing nicely in commercial PCs. I think the strength of the Ryzen 4000 product has been good for us. I think there's a lot of positivity around the performance, the battery life, the capabilities there. We continue to expand our go-to-market efforts there. We're partnering very well with our top OEM partners. So I would say that we're still underrepresented in commercial. But no question that commercial notebook is a big focus for us, and we're going to continue to invest and hopefully make progress in that subsegment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Joseph Lawrence Moore,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Executive Director    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. And then as a follow-up, there's been a bunch of press about console builds getting revised up meaningfully by several million units coming from Nikkei. And yet your upside for the year seems fairly balanced across the segments. Can you give us just color on what's happening in that console segment? Is there that much upside? And could your numbers prove conservative as we move through the back half?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So I will say that our upside is balanced across the segments. There's no question that there's a strong ramp in the second half of the year for consoles. We're continuing to increase supply to meet that demand. But overall, I view it as -- again, consoles are a multiyear cycle, and the first year, I mean, there's a lot of pent-up demand for consoles, but we should think about this as really a multiyear cycle, and this is just the beginning of the ramp.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Stacy Rasgon from Bernstein Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I wanted to follow-up on that capacity point. What is your capacity and supply situation look like? And is any of the full year raise related to capacity freeing up at your foundry partners? And maybe put another way, are you supply rather than demand-limited at this point? What does that capacity situation look like?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, sure, Stacy. So look, we have a strong supply chain. There's no question. It's been a very dynamic year if you just think about all the puts and takes over the last 4 or 5 months. I've said before and I'll say again, 7-nanometer is tight, and we continue to partner closely with TSMC to ensure that we can satisfy our customer demand. 
+When you ask about the full year raise, the full year raise is because demand has gone up from our initial expectations, and some of that is due to the market, and some of that is due to the strength of our product traction. We are increasing capacity to meet those needs, but it is tight. And I would say that as we continue to increase capacity, we see opportunity there. So from that standpoint, demand is strong.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+For my follow-up, your competitor was talking about data center -- potential for data center digestion into the second half. And I understand you're coming from a different place with the new product ramps and everything, so I understand why you are growing in the second half one way than not. But what are you seeing just broadly with your customers? Are you seeing signs of the market within hyperscale entering the digestion phase, even if it's not impacting you for well-understood reasons?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Stacy, I think it's a bit hard to generalize. And from our visibility, what I would say is we have some customers that we see demand increasing in the second half versus the first half. We have some customers who are a little bit lower. The main thing for us, and I think you said it, it's about the ramping of our platforms. And so I'm not sure I would point to a particular digestion phenomena. I would say it's very customer-dependent and depending on how much they built out in the first half and some customers will be up, and some customers will be a little bit down. But overall, we see an opportunity to grow in the second half.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stacy Aaron Rasgon,  Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., LLC., Research Division - Senior Analyst    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. Is that the same across our hyperscale and enterprise? Or is it mostly hyperscale that's driving it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So my comment was a hyperscale comment, since that's what you were asking about. When I look at enterprise, what I would say about enterprise is it's also -- different things happening. I would say in terms of enterprise and HPC, we continue to see build-out. And as I said, we have new platforms ramping that I mentioned in the prepared remarks. 
+There is a bit of softness in SMB or some of the transactional business, and again, we were not very exposed to that portion of the market. So I don't see it as it's going down, it's just perhaps not increasing as fast as we wanted it to. But overall, it really depends on customer-specific stuff. And we don't see sort of this large-scale people slowing down, I would say it that way. I think there's a need for infrastructure, and we see people continuing to invest in infrastructure.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Aaron Rakers from Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Congratulations on the quarter. I wanted to ask about the data center GPU business. I know you talked about the path for the CD&A product going forward. I'm just curious, as you look to your cloud opportunities, how do you gauge or how are you thinking about the ability to kind of participate in some of the AI opportunities in the data center GPU business? And do you have any update on kind of [RAKM] and how that has opened up opportunities or what we should expect from a software platform perspective?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, sure, Aaron. So look, I think the data center GPU business is a -- is sort of a midterm growth vector for us. This year, I mentioned in the second quarter that revenue was lower year-on-year, but the second half, we expect it to go up modestly. I think the view is we have good design wins in cloud gaming, we have good design wins across sort of cloud, VDI-type instances. Very strong in supercomputing and HPC around Frontier and El Capitan as sort of our anchor supercomputing wins. 
+As it relates to machine learning and AI, we continue to invest in [RAKM]. We continue to work sort of our strategy around machine learning is partnered deeply with a couple of large cloud vendors who can invest in the software with us. And we see that as a multiyear opportunity. But it will -- it's not a big revenue contributor here in 2020. But we see a growth opportunity as we go into 2021 and beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Christopher Rakers,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD of IT Hardware & Networking Equipment and Senior Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. And then as a quick follow-up, we talked a lot about kind of just ramping EPYC and the road map. I'm just curious of how you've invested in the support organization to support this expansion, how has that progressed? Has that been at all a limiting factor to some of your ability in the server CPU market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. I think in server CPUs, it just takes time. There's a customer qualification process that takes time. But we have -- we've been very pleased with sort of the efforts on both the part of our customers as well as sort of our own support teams. We're continuing to invest, so if you look at our OpEx, we're continuing to invest. One of the key areas is building out, not just that support infrastructure, but just overall sales and go-to-market for the enterprise business. 
+So I feel good about where we are. Our strategy was always to go through some of the top cloud customers first, and I'm really pleased to see some of those get to high volume production, and we'll continue to build out that infrastructure in both cloud as well as enterprise.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Timothy Arcuri from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I guess, Lisa, I wanted to ask maybe in the past month or 6 weeks or even 2 months since it's become probably more apparent to the customers that your competitors are having some manufacturing issues. Can you speak a little bit to the tenor of the customer conversations? Has it changed at all? Have you felt them incrementally more willing to adopt your products?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. I don't think I would say -- I mean, 4 to 6 weeks is kind of a short time. I think I would back up a little bit and say, over the past couple of quarters, what have we seen? And I think over the past couple of quarters, what we have seen is they've seen our performance capability, and we feel very good about where our products are positioned. I think what we've also said is, look, you can count on us for a consistent road map, and we're going to show you each of those data points. 
+I think the Milan point is an important point for us, and that's why we're very focused on ensuring that, that ships here later this year. I think the Zen 4 general point, we've already started engaging customers. Customers are very eager to understand what the long-term road map is. 
+And so what I would say is it's not sort of a short-term thing. It's more the notion of -- we feel that customers are very open across cloud, OEM, enterprise. It's on us to execute, and we think about that every day. But in terms of where the road map is, what are we trying to accomplish, where the customers are, there's a pull from customers to engage us across a number of workloads, we feel well positioned.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Timothy Michael Arcuri,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Head of Semiconductors & Semiconductor Equipment    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. And then I guess, also in data center, I think you've highlighted before that a potential bottleneck might be to build out your software capabilities, and can you -- are there any metrics you can give us in terms of your ability to attract talent? Has that improved recently sort of in terms of the number of software engineers you've hired? Anything like that to help?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So I think if you're talking about software, it's more of a GPU -- a data center GPU statement versus a CPU statement. I think we feel actually that our CPU tools, infrastructure and all that stuff is actually pretty well built out. There is some work that we do with some of the applications and the ISVs to optimize and tune our software, but I think that's going very well. 
+As it relates to the data center GPU, yes, I think there is more mind share. I think the supercomputing wins in the data center GPU side have really helped raise the profile of our GPU capabilities and our software capabilities. So I think we are in a good position there. And from our standpoint, again, this is about building out sort of multiple vertical applications and doing that very well. So we continue to invest in the data center. It is a very strategic part of our business, but we're making good progress.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question is coming from Mitch Steves from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I wanted to focus on a little bit of a different topic, kind of comparing x86 and ARM. So I'm sure you guys saw the announcement that Apple is displacing Intel with its own ARM-based chip. And historically, the reason why you couldn't really use an ARM-based chip because there was no real developers around it. 
+So I guess, is there any risk -- or how do you guys think about ARM-based servers becoming a potential competitive threat in the future? How would that impact the x86 market and Intel as well? So do you have any comments on that in terms of Apple's potential entrance in developing an ARM-based seeker system?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. I think what I would say is there are going to be some people who develop their own chips. Apple has announced it in the MAC space, and there are some who are building their own in the data center space. I still believe this is not about ARM versus x86. I think it's more about what performance do you offer, what capabilities do you offer, where the overall ecosystem is. 
+And in that sense, I think we still feel quite confident that both the PC market as well as the server processor market are predominantly x86. I think there's a very good set of offerings out there that are available. And it's on us -- frankly, on us to make sure that the performance that you get, the power that you get, the performance per dollar, the capabilities are very, very competitive so that we're offering sort of the best-in-class processors in the market.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Got it. And then just one small one follow-up. Just on the data center 20% of revenues, is still -- the data center graphics piece still a small part of the business? Or was that better this quarter? I'm just trying to get a qualitative understanding of what happened there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, Mitch. So we did say that overall data center revenue was over 20% of revenue this quarter, and it was predominantly CPUs. So the GPU portion of that is still relatively small.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mitchell Toshiro Steves,  RBC Capital Markets, Research Division - Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So just to be clear, GPUs were not -- were basically flat sequentially? Or were they up?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+They were actually down sequentially.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question today is coming from Ross Seymore from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Congrats on the strong results. Lisa, I actually had one short-term question and one long-term question for you. On the short-term side of things, you have some significant moving parts with new product launches, et cetera, in both the third and fourth quarter. So I was hoping, on the 32% sequential guide, if you can give a little color by the 2 end markets, the C&G and the EESC side? And then a similar sort of thing when you go into the fourth quarter, you said semi-custom will be down sequentially, which is kind of typical seasonality. But the ability for you guys to still grow sequentially, what's really driving that? And then I'll follow-up with the long-term question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. So let's see. Let me try to do that. So I think -- so when you talk about the Q3 guide, so 32% sequentially, there is a large component of that, which is game consoles. So the game console revenue was relatively modest in the second quarter, and it's going to become larger here in the third quarter. But we do see PCs growing sequentially as well as server CPUs growing sequentially. 
+And then as we go into the fourth quarter, I mentioned earlier that we expect that semi-custom will be down a bit, probably not as much as it's historically down, frankly, because it's the first year of the launch, but it should be down a bit. And then we do have product launches that we've stated around sort of the Zen 3 product families as well as the RDNA 2 product families that would drive some of the sequential growth in the fourth quarter. Did I answer that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. That's exactly what I wanted. And then maybe this one will be a little clearer on the long-term side of things. An earlier question was asked about OpEx and expanding your capabilities, et cetera, and you gave a thoughtful answer to that. But generally speaking, it seems like your opportunities to take share in aggregate just improved due to your competitors' missteps. 
+So when you look at that opportunity, how do you think about organic investments? Would OpEx staying at, say, 29% of revenues like you're talking about for this year, be a good way to capitalize on that opportunity as opposed to going down to the 26% or 27% you mentioned at your analyst meeting? Or within that, would you keep that a little bit tighter in line with your analyst meeting and maybe even consider going inorganic and tapping into the M&A market now that you have some cash and a very attractive currency to use as well?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. So yes, let me answer it this way. So look, we are very excited about our organic growth opportunities. I think we want to stay sort of at that sort of very significant growth in that over 20% CAGR for the next couple, 3 or 4 years. I think the way we've managed the business is the prudent way to manage the business. 
+And so OpEx will grow. OpEx will grow, and you've seen it in the dollar numbers, but it's going to grow a little bit slower than revenue. And we think that's the right thing to do just to make sure that we do see some leverage. That being the case, because the business is growing so much, I mean, we are investing quite heavily in OpEx across the business in both R&D and go to market. 
+So what was the second part of your question, Ross?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Clark Seymore,  Deutsche Bank AG, Research Division - MD    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Which is the inorganic way, would that be an avenue to broaden your offering to some of your customers?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, look, I think we have been focused on the organic growth path because there is so much opportunity there. We'll look -- we'll always keep an eye open for are there opportunities to enhance the portfolio or do some skills acquisition if that makes sense. But I think we're very focused on executing the organic growth path.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our final question today is coming from John Pitzer from Crédit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Congratulations on a strong quarter. Lisa, it's really great to see embedded in the implied fourth quarter guide a gross margin that needs to go up about 200 basis points sequentially to meet your full year guidance. And especially with gaming consoles being down less than seasonal, I'm wondering if you can just help me unpack that a little bit. 
+When you think about the gaming console cycle, is the gross margin improvement available to you as that cycle ramps and matures? And I guess more importantly, when you look at both the PC market and the server fleet, where are you relative to optimal product mix vis-à-vis kind of longer-term gross margin aspirations?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, sure. So obviously, there's a lot to happen between now and the fourth quarter. But I think from the guide, what you get is we see the server and PC growth generally positive. If you think about what we have planned from now through the rest of the year, we do have some significant new products that will start shipping that will be positive from a gross margin standpoint. 
+On a console basis, it is true that the console margins typically improve. Over the first sort of 4 to 6 quarters, because you would expect that, as we ramp into higher volume, that there are improvements in manufacturing costs and so on and so forth. So those are the factors that are in there. 
+A lot will depend on mix, and the mix of the business being what is a mix of consumer versus commercial on the PC side, and then on the data center side, the mix between cloud and enterprise. And so we have to see how some of those things play out as we go out through the end of the year. But overall, I think the trend is such that you should see sequential growth in the gross margins as we go into the fourth quarter for some of the reasons that I mentioned.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John William Pitzer,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - MD, Global Technology Strategist and Global Technology Sector Head    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+That's helpful. And then Lisa, as a follow-on, you've always talked about this being a marathon more than a sprint, and you guys have had a pretty methodical strategy to which you've executed to. But I just -- given the revelations of Intel's missteps last week, what might you do differently from here to try to take advantage of it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Lisa T. Su,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - President, CEO & Non-Independent Director    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Well, John, I think the most important thing for us is to execute to our commitments to customers, and that -- by the way, that's been the same focus for us over the last few years, and it will continue to be the same focus for the next few years. I think consistency in road map, consistency in performance expectations, being capable of ramping across -- basically, what we're asking is for people to trust us with their most important applications. 
+And so our focus is very much execute on the road map that we've committed to, and that's key for us. And no question, there's a lot of things to do in engineering to make that happen. But I think we're very clear on what we want to deliver, and we're excited, frankly, about the road map we have in front of us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ruth Cotter,  Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. - SVP of Worldwide Marketing, HR & IR    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you, everybody, for joining the call today. We appreciate it, and we look forward to seeing many of you virtually throughout the quarter. 
+Operator, if you can close the call, please.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Certainly. That does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time, and have a wonderful day. We thank you for your participation today.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2016-Apr-28-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,543 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2016 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 28, 2016 / 9:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO
+ * Phil Hardin
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Douglas Anmuth
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Carlos Kirjner
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Ron Josey
+   JMP Securities - Analyst
+ * Brian Pitz
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * John Blackledge
+   Cowen and Company - Analyst
+ * Stephen Ju
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * Heath Terry
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Bob Peck
+   SunTrust Robinson Humphrey - Analyst
+ * Eric Sheridan
+   UBS - Analyst
+ * Mark Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Aaron Kessler
+   Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst
+ * Benjamin Schachter
+   Macquarie Research - Analyst
+ * Brian Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Ross Sandler
+   Deutsche Bank - Analyst
+ * Mark May
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q1 2016 financial results teleconference. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the presentation, we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I will be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Phil Hardin. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello and welcome to our Q1 2016 financial results conference call. Joining us today is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO. We will be available for questions after our prepared remarks. The following discussion and responses to your questions reflect management's view as of today, April 28, 2016 only, and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results, as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast, and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures. Finally, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2015. Now, I'll turn the call over to Brian.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Phil. I'll begin with comments on our first-quarter financial results. Trailing 12-month operating cash flow increased 44% to $11.3 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow increased to $6.4 billion, up from $3.2 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow less lease principal repayments increased to $3.5 billion up from $1.5 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow less financed lease principal repayments and assets required under capital leases increased to $1.6 billion, up from an outflow of $1.2 billion.
+Trailing 12-month capital expenditures were $4.9 billion. Capital expenditures do not include the impact of property and equipment acquired under capital and finance and lease obligations. These capital expenditures and capital leases reflect additional investments in support of continued business growth due to investments in technology infrastructure, the majority of which is to support AWS and additional capacity to support our fulfillment operations.
+The combination of common stock and stock-based awards outstanding was 490 million shares compared with 483 million one year ago. Worldwide revenue increased 28% to $29.1 billion, or 29% excluding the $210 million unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange. Worldwide active customer accounts, excluding customers who only had pre-orders in the preceding 12-month period, exceeded 285 million. Worldwide paid unit growth was 27%. Worldwide seller units represented 48% of paid units.
+Now, I'll talk about our segment results. In the first quarter of 2016, we began to allocate stock-based compensation and other operating expense net to our segment results. These amounts are combined and titled stock-based compensation and other in our segment results and reflect the way we now evaluate our business performance and manage our operations. For reference this quarter, I'll also mention segment operating income excluding stock-based compensation and other.
+In the North America segment, revenue grew 27% to $17 billion. Media revenue grew 8% to $3.2 billion. EGM revenue grew 32% to $13.5 billion. North America segment operating income including stock-based compensation and other was $588 million, a 3.5% operating margin compared with $254 million in the prior year. This includes $5 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. North America's segment operating income before stock-based compensation and other was $924 million, a 5.4% operating margin compared with $517 million in the prior year.
+In the international segment, revenue grew 24% to $9.6 billion. Excluding the $177 million year-over-year unfavorable foreign exchange impact, revenue growth was 26%. Media revenue increased 7% to $2.5 billion, or 9% excluding foreign exchange. EGM revenue grew 31% to $7 billion, or 33% excluding foreign exchange. International segment operating loss including stock-based compensation and other was $121 million compared with a loss of $194 million in the prior year. This includes $21 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. International segment operating income before stock-based compensation and other was $20 million compared with a loss of $76 million in the prior year.
+In the Amazon Web Services segment, revenue grew 64% to $2.6 billion. Amazon Web Services segment operating income including stock-based compensation and other was $604 million, a 23.5% operating margin compared with $195 million in the prior year. This includes $24 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. Amazon Web Services segment operating income before stock-based compensation and other was $716 million, a 27.9% operating margin compared with $265 million in the prior year.
+Our operating income includes stock-based compensation expense and other operating expense. Operating income was $1.1 billion, or 3.7% of revenue, up approximately 260 basis points year-over-year. This includes $50 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. Consolidated segment operating income before stock-based compensation and other was $1.7 billion, or 5.7% of revenue compared to $706 million in the prior year. Our income tax expense was $475 million. Net income was $513 million, or $1.07 per diluted share compared with a net loss of $57 million, or loss of $0.12 per diluted share.
+Turning to the balance sheet, cash and marketable securities increased $2.1 billion year-over-year to $15.9 billion. Inventory increased 30% to $9.6 billion, and inventory turns were 8.6 down from 8.8 turns a year ago as we expand selection, improved in-stock levels, and introduced new product categories. Accounts payable increased 26% to $15 billion, and accounts payable days increased to 72 from 70 in the prior year.
+I'll conclude my portion of today's call with guidance. Incorporated into our guidance are the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriately conservative assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable, and may be materially affected by many factors, including a high level of uncertainty surrounding exchange rate fluctuations, as well as changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the internet, online commerce and cloud services, and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC. It is not possible to accurately predict demand, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+As we describe in more detail on our public filings, issues such as settling inter-Company balances in foreign currencies among our subsidiaries, unfavorable resolution of legal matters, and changes to our effective tax rate can all have a material effect on our results. Our guidance further assumes that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings, or legal settlements, record any further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates, and that foreign exchange rates remain approximately where they've been recently.
+For Q2 2016, we expect net sales of between $28 billion and $30.5 billion, or growth of between 21% and 32%. This guidance anticipates approximately 70 basis points of favorable impact from foreign exchange rates. Operating income to be between $375 million and $975 million compared with $464 million in second-quarter 2015. This includes approximately $825 million for stock-based compensation and other operating expense net.
+We are grateful to our customers and remain heads-down focused on driving a better customer experience. We believe putting customers first is the only reliable way to create lasting value for shareholders. Thanks. And, with that, Phil, let's move on to questions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thanks, Brian. Let's move on to the Q&A portion of the call. Operator, will you please remind our listeners how to initiate a question?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions)
+Our first question is from Mark May of Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks a lot. Lots here, but international retail revenue -- the international retail segment really stood out. Revenue accelerated. Seemed like a bit of a milestone also that the CSOI turned positive in a non-Q4 quarter. Can you shed any more light in what the key driver there was? And, how sustainable it is? And, AWS just mathematically, the comps get tougher starting in Q2, just given what happened in 2014. Is that something that we should be taking into account in terms of thinking about how the rest of the year may progress? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Your first question on international. Yes, all three segments had very strong growth in the quarter. International's 26% for FX-neutral growth rate was actually the strongest we've seen in 3.5 years. I would attribute it to the Prime Fly Wheel. As we may have mentioned in the past -- feel that Europe and the large countries in Europe and Japan are a few years behind the US on a lot of the key Prime metrics, but we also said last year that Prime subscriptions were up 51% year-over-year in 2015. 47% of that was in the US and a higher rate than that internationally.
+So, certainly a lot going on in the international. A lot that's really good adding Prime subscribers at a high clip. Continuing to add selection at FBA sellers. So, you'll see devices, you see video content. It's the whole array of Prime offering. Prime Now, Same-day, everything is in Europe. Maybe getting there a little slower than starting point at the US. We see it really showing up in customer engagement and customer purchases.
+On the AWS side, I think the 2016 to 2015 comparison probably stands on its own and 2014 falls by the wayside so I would encourage you to look at recent trends. We don't forecast, obviously, by segment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Douglas Anmuth, JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Anmuth,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking the question. Just wanted to ask you about unit growth overall and if we look back over the last three quarters, you've accelerated it now to a materially higher level than what we saw in 2014 and the first half of 2015, and I realize in 3Q last year you had Prime Day. I was hoping you could comment on the overall acceleration we've seen here and key drivers behind that? And, if there's something different perhaps than what you talked about on international?
+Also, on AWS, can you talk about the underlying drivers here of margins and thinking about that a little bit going forward primary sources of leverage? As you open up six new regions in coming months, should we expect this to be constant build-out? Or, something that's more lumpy over time and more in waves? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil Hardin. I'll take the units question. Really the units are driven by very similar trends to what Brian described. When we look at the bridges for revenue, and obviously, units is our key driver of revenue. Things like Prime are key in that bridge. I would also call out selection growth. That has been a big area of focus for us.
+One important way we drive selection is through FBA. We continue to be very pleased with the progress we're making in FBA. What that means for our Prime customers is there's more for them to choose from. Obviously, that gives them more they can purchase. It makes Prime more valuable. For sellers, it means they sell more. I would say that FBA is helping drive some of the selection growth we're seeing here. Selection growth and Prime though are two very key drivers of our growth. On the second part, I think Brian -- .
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          One other comment I didn't say earlier, I do want to point out that because of the leap year there was an extra day in Q1. Every Company would have seen this obviously. But, we estimate it was worth about 150 basis points to our growth rate in revenue. That would be consistent North America and international.
+Your other comment -- question was on AWS and a bit about margins and margin outlook. We're very pleased with the quarter. We came in at 23.5% operating margin on the new basis including stock-based compensation and other. We're very pleased. But, stepping back with the 64% growth in AWS which is now a $10 billion business. On the margin side, I would caution you that we're pleased, but it is very early to start drawing too many conclusions on the long-term margins in this business. They'll be bumpy over time. At any point in time, they are going to reflect the balance of investing including global expansion that he's talked about. Price reductions we may offer and also driving cost efficiency which for us is a very important driver in not only this business but also the North American and international segments.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is from Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Terry,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thanks. Looking at the active customer account number, it looks like growth slowed pretty significantly, about 10 percentage points. Just curious if you can give us a sense of anything that might be throwing that number off, assuming we're reading it the right way? And then, as you roll out on AWS -- as you roll out the fixed new availability zones over the course of the year, is there a way to quantify what kind of an impact that's going to have on the capacity at AWS?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'll take the first part of your question about active customers. As we look at our metrics and what information we provide each year, we often make some changes. So, this quarter we only gave the active customers with a paid purchase in the trailing 12 months. So, that number was more than 285 million. I think that's pretty similar to the trend that we've seen in that metric.
+In the past, sometimes we had also given a total active customers count. That number for this quarter was over 310 million so that may be where you're making the statement about the slowdown in growth. The trajectory was very similar from prior quarters for both of those numbers. But, we opted just to give the other one, but you now have the number for the total number of customers as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And, on your AWS footprint question so we ended the quarter with 33 availability zones and 12 geographic regions, and we have 11 more availability zones opening in the next year. The impact on capital, yes, there will be additional capital investment as we build out those zones. Some of it has already taken place. But, I'll also say that by and large, the largest increases in capital leases is to support the growth of incremental usage of customers we have now and agreements we have now. You should expect to see us continue to invest to support this business. We have a leadership position. We intend to maintain it, and we're very excited about where we are.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Nowak,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The first one is on Prime. You've had two straight years of around 50% Prime subscriber growth. Curious about how you think about keys to driving Prime sub-growth going forward? And, the thought process behind the reported monthly Prime subscription? And, the second one on the logistics investments, there's been a lot about truck investments and logistics investments. Any comments at all about learnings, and what you're seeing from some of the investments in your truck fleet and your own delivery network? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with the Prime. Yes, we have had very strong growth the last two years and earlier obviously on Prime growth of members. I would say it's a culmination of a lot of separate investments that we're making. If you look at the success of our devices, we are seeing tablets sell twice the volume in Q1 year-over-year. Fire TV stick, you may have read in our press release that it has greater than 100,000 customer reviews, the most reviewed product ever. Over 62,000 of those reviews are 5-star reviews. We've not only had the Echo, but we have the Echo Dot and Tap. We're branching off that product line and having trouble keeping those in stock. And, of course, we launched the new Kindle Oasis, our e-reader.
+That is an important part of the series as is the digital content. You may have seen the recent announcements that we're working on a great amount of new content for Prime members. Customers love the content, and we like the results we see particularly around Prime free trial conversion and renewal rates for subscribers who use and take advantage of Prime. So, beyond the awards that the content is winning and the success we're having with Amazon particularly Amazon Originals, we feel that program is working. We're going to significantly increase our spend in that area. Some of that is in Q2. You'll see that more in the next few quarters. But, we think that's working and look forward to bringing a lot of new content to our Prime subscriber base. Both to our normal Prime subscription and also the monthly plan that you alluded to.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil Hardin. I'll jump in on the second part of your question. For the trucks, really it's trailers. The typical use case is running a lag between a fulfillment center and a sort center. So, we're running enough volume there that we were using trucks already. We thought it made sense to go ahead and buy some trailers. We're actually still contracting out for the truck part, and it gives us flexibility. We think the economics will make sense over time. Similarly, we've announced an agreement to lease some airplanes with air transport services group, agreement to lease up to 20 Boeing 767s there. And, similar use case, it's products that are already boxed, and we think again this is activities we've been doing already which means we grow at a very rapid rate. This gives us extra capacity, and we think it's good to be able to deliver to customers. We think it makes sense over the long-term.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Your next question comes from Mark Mahaney of RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Two questions related to Prime overseas. Could you talk about the status of Prime in international markets? How far rolled out it is in most of your major markets? Then, you talk about Prime Fly Wheels, and you did last year. But, it seems likes those Fly Wheels spun faster than you expected in the fourth quarter of last year that caused some near-term expense issues for you? Can you talk about how you're thinking about planning against that as the Prime Fly Wheels are getting broader for you, how do you try to get ahead of that into the peak season later this year? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. This is Brian. Let me start with the second question first. It wasn't necessarily the Prime Fly Wheel that was the issue. It was more the FBA demand that we had from FBA sellers for space in our warehouses. We were very full. It was a high-class problem to have.
+But, as I mentioned last quarter, it did result in higher fulfillment costs in the fourth quarter as a result. I think you'll see some of that dissipated now in Q1. You can tell it was a Q4 issue.
+We learn from every Q4. This one was no exception. We are already making plans for a smoother Q4 next year. We will continue to add fulfillment capacity. We'll work with FBA sellers on inventory stocking and timing, and we think that there's things that we can do better as we do every year, come out of the fourth quarter with immense learnings.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. On the Prime question, we launched Prime in the US in 2005. Followed that in 2007 with UK, Germany, and Japan. And then, other countries after. We have Prime in all the countries where we have marketplaces with the exception of Mexico, China, and India.
+And, Prime is really in varying stages in those countries. We have some kind of an expedited shipping offer in all of them. Here in the US, we've been talking quite a bit about Prime Now. That's also in Italy and Japan and the UK at this point and not others. Also, varying levels of digital benefits as well.
+Generally, the international countries are not as far along with selection or the fullness of the digital offers. We've got Prime Video in the UK, in Germany, and Japan. Music is not fully rolled out yet all together. That's where we are with Prime.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Carlos Kirjner with Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Carlos Kirjner,  Bernstein - Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. I have two. I think it's the first time 1Q 2011 that we see tech and content counted as a percentage of revenue declining or flat. Is it just a sign of your inability to increase investment in line with revenue growth? Or, is there something going on, if yes, what?
+Secondly, Brian, you said that the growth of Prime has been driven by investments you have made or are making. You gave the examples of devices that you are selling. I think it's a mathematical certainty that Prime subscribers would accelerate in North America at some point from 50% growth. As penetration increases and growth slows, will we see a deceleration in the investment levels? In other words, how do we think about the effect of deceleration in Prime on the North American margin structure in the future? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with that second one. We think there's a lot of room to grow not only in our international countries but also in the US. We plan on continuing to build the benefits of the Prime program from music to video to two-day shipping to same-day shipping to Prime Now. I don't see that dissipating, and it remains the best deal in retail so hopefully everyone signs up for that.
+On the tech and content question, I don't have a lot to call out in the quarter. I would say there's no letup in the pace of invention here particularly on the AWS side. We used quote the number of new features and services to you each quarter. We had 214 in Q1 up from the 170 this first quarter of last year. Over 26% growth in this quarter alone coming off a year where I believe the number was 722 significant new features and services delivered for AWS customers last year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Brian Pitz of Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Pitz,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for the question. Any comments on your business in India? How is that market ramping up? On the competitive front there, any sense of where the local incumbents may actually have some advantage in the region? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. I actually just returned from India where I spent a week with our teams in Bangalore and Hyderabad. We're breaking ground on a new 10-acre campus there. So, we are solidifying and increasing our investment in India on all fronts.
+I had a chance to see firsthand the level of invention going on with both customers and sellers making deliveries to customers, seeing the I have space program we have with merchants. It's a very exciting time in India, and again, the invention is off the charts. We're inventing things in India that do not exist in other parts of the world. And, the team there is one of our best. You can see it in some of the external commentary as well. For the second year in a row, customers selected Amazon India as Amazon's most trusted online shopping brand.
+During the quarter we rolled out a feature called Tatkal which is a studio on wheels that we go to the sellers to help them sign up. We let them do registration, imaging, catalog, uploads, and basic seller training. We're taking it to the sellers -- taking the business to the sellers. We've already reached sellers in 25 cities, and we're really helping them expand their business. Not only within their home region, throughout the whole country.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Justin Post of Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. My question is on the international margins. They're quite a bit below where they were many years ago and trailing the US. Maybe talk about the dynamics there and what is it going to take to catch up over time? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. On the op margin side, although there was improvement year-over-year, you're right, it is still on an FX-neutral basis negative. We have, as I said earlier, fulfillment network and digital content. We continue to build the underpinnings of the Prime program in our international countries. You also have to keep in mind that we're making large investments in India. We're very excited about what we see. And, we will continue to invest heavily in India.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Ross Sandler with Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Sandler,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. I just had two questions on AWS. First, last fall at re:Invent, you disclosed that data management revenue was at a $1 billion run rate. Can you provide an update on that figure? And, maybe talk about how much of AWS revenue today is outside of the storage and compute layers.
+And then, the second question is on the AWS margin. I think everybody is trying to learn more about the structural long-term margin, and it was down a tad quarter-on-quarter. Is that solely from FX impact? Or, was there some seasonality of expenses? Any color on what's driving the AWS margin, and how we should think about that over the longer term? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'll take your second question first. So, again, we had margin expansion year-over-year that was quite significant from 12.4% to 23.5%. But, again, it's very early in this business. We're very pleased with the results we're seeing on the top and bottom line. But, margins are going to be bumpy and affected by levels of investing, price reductions, and also cost efficiency that we're driving. So, quarter to quarter, it will very. We are concerned at this point about capital efficiency, returning price to customers periodically with price reductions, and adding feature sets for them to make the business more valuable.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. For your other part of the question, we're not providing an update on the $1 billion stat. What I would say is that the AWS team has strong revenue growth across their suite of products. The fastest growing product in their history is actually Aurora, the new database. We're very excited by what we're seeing in that space, but we're not breaking out the revenue for those various components today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan of UBS Investment Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric Sheridan,  UBS - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking the question. Looking at the gross margin, impressive performance in Q1. There were a few headwinds it looked like in gross margin in Q4. Wanted to understand how we should think about the puts and takes in gross margin. It has evolved to be a much higher number in the last few years. What some of the puts and takes are going forward especially with respect to content costs? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. I don't have a forecast for you on content cost in isolation or really forward looks on anything besides the guidance I've given you. Yes, it hits in the gross margin. Content costs do show up there. I think the bigger issues that you should look at in gross margin, and again, starting with the comment that we expanded by 300 basis points year-over-year. That is really driven by, first of all, the AWS growth. And again, $10 billion business growing 64%. We're very pleased with that, and that affects gross margin as well.
+The other bigger element though is the third-party contribution. Third-party units are now up to 48% of paid units, and that's up 400 basis points year-over-year. That continues to be a factor in gross margin. We book that on a net basis. The third-party revenue. It's a positive factor in gross margin. It can be a negative factor in fulfillment costs and some of the other metrics.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. Also, just to jump in, gross margin is not the primary metric we use to measure the business. We're much more focused on free cash flow dollars and operating profit dollars. So, there are a whole lot of moving parts in gross margin, and Brian mentioned a lot of them. But, it's not a primary metric for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Aaron Kessler of Raymond James.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aaron Kessler,  Raymond James & Associates, Inc. - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. Couple of questions. First, if you can update us on your new advertising initiatives in terms of how the sponsored links are performing? Additionally, if you can give us an update on Prime Now. Seems like you've rolled out a number of cities for that. How that's involving and the traction with Prime Now? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We're very excited about the advertising business, and we think it's still very early days for this opportunity. So, it's an offering we've been working on. We're trying to take a very customer-centric approach. You've probably noticed some changes in the treatment on the website, and we did move away from text ads and product ads in favor of some of the other, newer products. We're really excited about the opportunity there is for third-party sellers and for other vendors on the site. But, we're not breaking out numbers today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On Prime Now, we're now in 30 metro areas. Really from a standing start 16 months ago when we opened our first Prime Now location, and it's now a worldwide business in the US, UK, Italy, and Japan. The five cities we added in the first quarter were Raleigh, North Carolina, Cincinnati, Tampa, Liverpool, England, and Osaka, Japan.
+How do we feel about that business? Again, it offers tens of thousands of daily essential products. We think it's a service that customers like. Certainly is hard for companies to do. We think the natural evolution of our operations network and our scale gives us a chance to do this, and we are happy to invest in it as a service for our customers. We're taking a long-term approach on this one though.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Stephen Ju of Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stephen Ju,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks. Your capital lease-driven property and equipment acquisitions is down again year-over-year. So, will you help tie this to perhaps the overall usage growth at AWS? Or, maybe the changing nature of how your enterprise customers may be using the platform to be more compute versus storage or database-heavy? I think historically on the e-commerce side, you have been price followers as opposed to price leaders. AWS, you have been price leaders for the most part for actively taking down price. Now, given your leadership position, do you think you'll continue to be price leaders? Or, do you think it's now time for you to follow instead? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with your CapEx question. We like to look at both capital expenditures and capital leases because they're both essentially our level of investment. Those totaled $9.5 billion in the trailing 12 months, and it was up 7% from the 12-month period ending this quarter last year. I will point out that the prior year was $6.1 billion. We have stepped up investment. Although it did not go up as much year-over-year this quarter, we are still spending almost $10 billion on what essentially is fulfillment capacity in support of really strong growth -- unit growth in FBA and global expansion and then also on AWS. Additional capacity for existing customers as they grow their business and also in new regions. We've been working and continue to work very hard on capital productivity. It's very important to us and I attribute a good piece of the ability to keep that at a modest growth rate year-over-year to our capital efficiency and better purchasing across all capital and capital leases quite frankly. But, again, we are spending almost $10 billion.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Stephen, this is Phil. Just to jump on the usage growth comment, we continue to see really strong usage growth. We're not in the business of raising prices. We lower prices for AWS. There can be mix for products, but by and large, if you see our revenue growth, we're also lowering prices which means that by math we're typically going to be growing usage at a very strong rate. Just wanted to jump on that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from John Blackledge of Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Blackledge,  Cowen and Company - Analyst    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Thanks. The North American EGM segment outperformed our expectations of growth accelerating on a year-over-year basis. Given you don't break out GMV by vertical within the EGM segment and given the strong growth at massive scale, can you cite any key verticals that were particularly strong?
+Second question is just an update on Fresh. Rollout has obviously been much slower than Prime Now. How should we think about the Fresh rollout and the impact over the long-term? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. I'll take the EGM question first. So, just to put numbers on that, the year-over-year in the US, or North in America, was 32% growth which was up from 28% in Q4. There's not any single categories we're calling out there. To grow on a base that big, that kind of rate, you need pretty strong performance across the board. A lot of categories are selling a lot. It's a lot of the drivers we talked about. As Brian mentioned on the revenue growth side -- Prime, selection growth. We also benefited from the extra day in quarter due to the leap year. Strong performance from many of the categories.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On Amazon Fresh, we continue to have a strong Fresh business in a number of cities in the US. We know customers love it. We're making good progress on the economics. You'll also notice we have other ways for people to buy consumable products. We have Prime Pantry. We have Prime Now. We're playing with a lot of different models to see what resonates with consumers, and it will guide our investment decisions going forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Ben Schachter of Macquarie Equities Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Benjamin Schachter,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First, congratulations on the great quarter. Couple on Prime and one on China. First, a point of clarification. You answered a previous question by saying that you will significantly increase investment in Prime. Was that specifically in reference to video? Or, should we expect new types of offerings beyond video and music?
+And, secondly on Prime, membership is likely hitting some saturation levels for certain demographics in the US? Do you intend to focus on more lower income households for growth there? Then finally, on China, anything notable to call out there that's been different over the recent past driving results? The free trade zone, et cetera?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'll take the first question on content. Yes, my comment on Prime benefits was essentially one about video content and our investment there. Not saying other investments may not go up as well, but that is the one we're focusing on that I called out.
+On the comment about Prime -- I guess what I'll call availability or saturation. I think that's one of the thoughts behind our monthly plan. We want to create flexibility for consumers to try Prime in a low cost way if that's how they choose. We've always had our free trial program, but it is a hurdle for many people, or there's a hesitancy to put up a full year's payment for a year of Prime. Annual is still going to be a better deal. But, we know customers may try it more frequently if it's a monthly plan. And, that's what we're looking for. We know that once customers try it, generally they'll really like it. So, we think that will purge some other demographic groups as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. Another comment on the Prime. Your saturation question. Keep in mind, even in the US, which is our most mature by years of launch, we still grew last year at 47% year-over-year membership growth, and we continue to make the program better and better. I think the monthly offers are great for flexibility. Give people a chance to try new ways, and we continue to add content. We continue to add selection. Prime Now is a huge benefit that didn't even exist two years ago. We're still out trying to meet as many customers as possible. We're very committed to driving Prime and it's part of the Company.
+Your question on China, probably the biggest thing to point to is more progress and selection on the Amazon global store. This is our website -- this is the offer that allows Chinese customers to shop from the US website, Amazon.com with prices in RMB and with Chinese language pages. It's focused on items that may be hard to get. And, Amazon is really trying to become the trusted source for many of these goods. So, really that's a big part of the focus. If you've been tracking that number over time, we're now up over $10 million which is good progress on that front.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Ron Josey of JMP Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ron Josey,  JMP Securities - Analyst    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking the question. I want to go back to North America but focus on margins. 5.5%, 5.4% margins, I think that's the highest level since maybe Q2 2010 and resumes the margin expansion we saw for most of last year. Just hoping we can understand -- help us understand a little more what's driving that? I'm sure the more mature Prime Fly Wheel you mentioned that's happening in Europe. Is there anything else that's going on besides Prime Fly Wheel, maybe more efficient shipping or things along those lines? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'll start. You see the growth rate of the segment at 27%. It's showing the success we're having with customers. When we grow at that clip, we can do a lot of good things with it. We can on the cost side run our facilities more efficiently. We can buy better. We can look to in-source some things that we may have paid externally for. There's a number of things that we can do that I think will show up on the bottom line. But, principally, what we're trying to do now is make the Prime experience as strong as possible for consumers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. The other thing I would add to that is that the margin you see in any quarter is the output of our rate of investment in some places and drive for efficiencies in others. We're not really trying to optimize for any particular number in a given quarter. We're just trying to make the best decisions we can to grow long-term free cash flow per share. We're juggling the investment in the places where we feel like we have long-term opportunities where we need to invest with making sure we're getting continuously better in all our other processes at the same time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question will come from Bob Peck of SunTrust.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Bob Peck,  SunTrust Robinson Humphrey - Analyst    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Two quick ones. Back to India for a second, I was wondering if you could talk about the regulatory environment there, particularly how it pertains to Amazon cloud tail? Two, on logistics, could you talk about excess capacity in logistics as you build out air, freight, sea, et cetera. Would you ever entertain delivering other Companies' items, i.e., like a FedEx or UPS?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This is Phil. I'll take the India question. We're happy to see the recent clarifications. Then, we're happy to operate in any regime. Frankly, the more clarity the better.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Then, on the logistics question. Stepping back, the reason we add logistics capability and transportation capability is so we can serve our customers faster and faster delivery speeds, and we've needed to add more of our own capacity to supplement our carriers and partners. They're still, again, great partners, have been, and will continue to be for the future. But, we see opportunities where we need to add additional capacity, and we're filling those voids.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          This concludes today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2015 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+JANUARY 28, 2016 / 10:00PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com Inc - CFO
+ * Phil Hardin
+   Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Ken Sena
+   Evercore ISI - Analyst
+ * Ronald Josey
+   JMP Securities - Analyst
+ * Neil Doshi
+   Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. - Analyst
+ * Douglas Anmuth
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Kerry Rice
+   Needham & Company - Analyst
+ * Carlos Kirjner
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Jason Helfstein
+   Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst
+ * Brian Pitz
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * Gene Munster
+   Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst
+ * John Blackledge
+   Cowen and Company - Analyst
+ * Stephen Ju
+   Credit Suisse - Analyst
+ * Heath Terry
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Paul Vogel
+   Barclays Capital - Analyst
+ * Colin Sebastian
+   Robert W. Baird & Company, Inc. - Analyst
+ * Mark Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Aram Rubinson
+   Wolfe Research - Analyst
+ * Brian Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Mark May
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q4 2015 financial results teleconference.
+(Operator Instructions)
+Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I will be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Phil Hardin. Please, go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q4 2015 financial results conference call. Joining us today is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO. We will be available for questions after our prepared remarks.
+The following discussion and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, January 28, 2016 only, and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K. As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results, as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter.
+During this call, we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast, and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures. Finally, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2014. Now I will turn the call over to Brian.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thanks, Phil. I'll begin with comments on our fourth quarter financial results. Trailing 12-month operating cash flow increased 74% to $11.9 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow increased to $7.3 billion, up from $1.9 billion.
+Trailing 12-month free cash flow less lease principle repayments increased to $4.7 billion, up from $529 million. Trailing 12-month free cash flow less finance lease principle repayments and assets acquired under capital leases increased to $2.5 billion, up from an outflow of $2.2 billion. Trailing 12-month capital expenditures were $4.6 billion.
+Capital expenditures does not include the impact of property and equipment acquired under capital and finance lease obligations. These capital expenditures and capital leases reflect additional investments in support of continued business growth, due to investments in technology infrastructure, the majority of which is to support AWS, and additional capacity to support our fulfillment operations. The combination of common stock and stock-based awards outstanding was 490 million shares, compared with 483 million one year ago.
+Worldwide revenue increased 22% to $35.7 billion, or 26% excluding the $1.2 billion unfavorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange. Worldwide paid unit growth was 26%. Worldwide active customer accounts were approximately 304 million. Excluding customers who only had free orders in the preceding 12-month period, worldwide active customers accounts were approximately 280 million, up from approximately 254 million in the comparable prior year period.
+Worldwide paid Prime members increased 51% year-over-year. Worldwide seller units represented 47% of paid units. Fulfillment by Amazon or FBA units represented nearly 50% of seller units. Worldwide active Amazon web services customers exceeded 1 million.
+Now I'll discuss operating expenses, excluding stock-based compensation. Cost of sales was $24.3 billion or 68.1% of revenue, compared with 70.5%. Fulfillment, marketing, technology and content and G&A combined was $9.7 billion or 27.1% of sales, up approximately 100 basis points year-over-year. Fulfillment was $4.4 billion or 12.3% of revenue, compared with 11.3%. Tech and content was $3.2 billion or 9% of revenue, compared with 8.2%. Marketing was $1.7 billion or 4.8% of revenue, compared with 5.1%.
+Now I'll talk about our segment results. As a reminder, in the first quarter we changed our reportable segments to report North America, international, and Amazon web services. Consistent with prior periods, we do not allocate segments, our stock-based compensation, or the other operating expense line item.
+In the North America segment, revenue grew 24% to $21.5 billion. Media revenue grew 11% to $3.9 billion, or 12% excluding foreign exchange. EGM revenue grew 28% to $17.3 billion. North America segment operating income was $1 billion, a 4.7% operating margin, compared with $733 million in the prior year period. North America segment operating income includes $6 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange.
+In the international segment, revenue grew 12% to $11.8 billion. Excluding the $1.1 billion year-over-year unfavorable foreign exchange impact, revenue growth was 22%. Media revenue decreased 3% to $3.3 billion, or increased 5% excluding foreign exchange.
+EGM revenue grew 19% to $8.5 billion, or 31% excluding foreign exchange. International segment operating income was $60 million, compared with $65 million in the prior year. International segment operating income includes $47 million of unfavorable impact from foreign exchange.
+In the Amazon web services segment, revenue grew 69% to $2.4 billion. Amazon web services segment operating income was $687 million, a 28.5% operating margin, compared with $240 million in the prior year period. AWS segment operating income includes $60 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. Consolidated segment operating income was $1.8 billion or 4.9% of revenue, up approximately 140 basis points year-over-year. CSOI includes $20 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange.
+Unlike CSOI, our GAAP operating income includes stock-based compensation expense and other operating expense. GAAP operating income grew 88% to $1.1 billion. Our income tax expense was $453 million. GAAP net income was $482 million or $1 per diluted share, compared with a net income of $214 million and $0.45 per diluted share.
+Now I'll discuss the full year results. Revenue increased 20% to $107 billion, or 26% excluding year-over-year changes in foreign exchange. North America revenue grew 25% to $63.7 billion, or 26% excluding year-over-year changes in foreign exchange. International revenue grew 6% to $35.4 billion, or 21% excluding year-over-year changes in foreign exchange.
+Excluding year-over-year changes in foreign exchange, Germany revenue grew 18%. Japan revenue grew 19%, and UK revenue grew 16%. AWS revenue grew 70% to $7.9 billion.
+Consolidated segment operating income was $4.5 billion or 4.2% of revenue, up approximately 220 basis points year-over-year. CSOI includes $16 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. GAAP operating income was $2.2 billion, compared with $178 million in the prior year.
+Turning to the balance sheet, cash and marketable securities increased $2.4 billion year-over-year to $19.8 billion. Inventory increased 23% to $10.2 billion. And inventory turns were 8.5, down from 8.6 turns a year ago, as we expanded selection, improved in-stock levels, and introduced new product categories. Accounts payable increased 24% to $20.4 billion, and accounts payable days increased to 77 from 73 in the prior year.
+I'll conclude my portion of today's call with guidance. Incorporated into our guidance are the order trends that we've seen to date, and what we believe today to be appropriately conservative assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable, and may be materially affected by many factors, including a high level of uncertainty surrounding exchange rate fluctuations, as well as the global economy, and customer spending. It's not possible to accurately predict demand, and therefore our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+As we describe in more detail in our public filings, issues such as settling intercompany balances in foreign currencies among our subsidiaries, unfavorable resolution of legal matters, and changes to our effective tax rate can all have a material effect on guidance. Our guidance further assumes that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings, or legal settlements, recording further revisions to stock-based compensation estimates, and that foreign exchange rates remain approximately where they have been recently.
+For Q1 2016, we expect net sales of between $26.5 billion and $29 billion, or growth of between 17% and 28%. This guidance anticipates approximately 130 basis points of unfavorable impact from foreign exchange rates. GAAP operating income to be between $100 million and $700 million, compared with $255 million in first quarter of 2015.
+This includes approximately $600 million for stock-based compensation and other operating expenses net. We anticipate consolidated segment operating income, which excludes stock-based compensation and other operating expense net, to be between $700 million and $1.3 billion, compared with $706 million in the first quarter of 2015.
+We are grateful to our customers, and remain heads-down focused on driving a better customer experience. We believe putting customers first, is the only reliable way to create lasting value for shareholders. Thanks. And with that, Phil, let's move on to questions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great. Thanks, Brian. Let's move onto the Q&A portion of the call. Operator, will you please remind our listeners how to initiate a question?
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          (Operator Instructions)
+Thank you. Our first question is coming from analyst, Stephen Ju with Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stephen Ju,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Okay, thanks. So Brian, I think in the past, you've given some indication as to what usage growth may be at AWS. I was wondering if you have an update for that in the fourth quarter? And secondarily, is there any way to characterize what the pricing environment is right now for AWS as well? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Yes, thanks, Stephen. No, I don't have a usage growth number for you. We'll say we're -- it's been very strong. AWS revenue is on a -- just short of a $10 billion run rate at the end of Q4.
+As far as pricing is concerned, we had a price reduction in January for our EC2 services. It was our 51st price reduction since we launched AWS years ago. And generally, what we find is that price is important, but so is speed and agility for customers, and the ability to deliver services and features that are beneficial to them. I will point out that we added 722 new features and services in 2015, and that was up 40% year-over-year. So we feel we have a lead in this space. And we don't take it for granted, and we want to serve customers better each year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stephen Ju,  Credit Suisse - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question is from analyst, Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Can you talk a little bit about the dynamics in fourth quarter, eCommerce, particularly in the US? Did we see more aggressive promotional activity? And maybe talk about how you tried to work that to continue to drive the Prime number of members going forward? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Well, what I can say is our approach to pricing has not changed. And through Q4, we did everything we could to have the best prices available for customers, and in-stock in time for the holiday. Another dynamic of Q4 was that, it was a huge FBA quarter. Nearly 50% of our third-party units were FBA, and our third-party units were also up to 47% of our paid units, so up 400 basis points year-over-year.
+So a really strong quarter for our FBA sellers, using our FBA services. It did put a lot of demands on our warehouses, and we were full. It was a very busy quarter, and it did increase some of our variable costs as a result, primarily in the US. But a very strong quarter for FBA. It exceeded our -- even our expectations.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Perhaps how are you able to integrate that into holiday promotions?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          I'm sorry. You cut off there. Could you repeat your question?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Just any additional color around Prime, and how you were able to integrate that into holiday promotions?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Nothing specific. I will say, one interesting enhancement this year was our Prime Now service, which allowed people to order in selected markets up until 11:59 on New Year -- or excuse me, Christmas Eve. So that was a valuable service to many late shoppers, last-minute shoppers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question is from Aram Rubinson with Wolfe Research. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Aram Rubinson,  Wolfe Research - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Hey, thanks very much. Two questions, both on the logistics side. It seems pretty clear that you guys are trafficking in some old world assets, like truck trailers, and ship lanes, and air fields. Can you help, give us a sense as to maybe what we're trying to accomplish with that? If it's defensive to protect your service to your existing customers, or if you're looking to maybe start new businesses with those assets?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure, Aram. Thanks for your question. I would say that -- what we've found, is in order to properly serve our customers at peak, we've needed to add more of our own logistics to supplement our existing partners. That's not meant to replace them, and those carriers are just not -- no longer able to handle all of our capacity that we need at peak. They have been, and continue to be great partners, and we look forward to working with them in the future.
+It's just we've had to add some resources on our own. You mentioned trucks. The Amazon trucks, we did invest in those this past year. We use those primarily for movement between our warehouses and our sort centers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Nowak,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thanks for taking my questions. I've got two. The first one is just on gross margins. I think they were down about 200 basis points sequentially. It's the biggest fall in the fourth quarter in quite sometime. Anything you would call out there? Is it devices, or more sortation centers? Is there anything pressuring gross margins we should think about in the fourth quarter?
+And then on the fulfillment line, you mentioned FBA being a big driver of the growth in the fulfillment costs. Anything else you would call out, leading to incremental fulfillment costs? Maybe India or something else? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          No. And again, keep in mind, that the fulfillment as a percent of revenue is impacted by the calculation of FBA revenue being a net number, as opposed to a full revenue number. But our fulfillment costs per unit actually decreased year-over-year. It's just that we are now shipping more and more of our -- other than demand, out of our warehouses because of the strength in retail and FBA.
+On gross margin, I -- first, I'll caution you and say, we would encourage you to look at free cash flow which was -- it grew at a minimum $4 billion on each of the metrics that we point out. And Op profit, which was up 88% year-over-year. If you look sequentially, also keep in mind that in Q3, when it was up about 500 basis points year-over-year, that was lapping the write-down of our Amazon phone inventory the prior year. So there was a little bit of noise in the Q3 number. But generally, again, we're happy with the ability to service customers, the reaction of customers in Q4, and the bottom line results that we had.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Colin Sebastian with Baird Equity Research. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Colin Sebastian,  Robert W. Baird & Company, Inc. - Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great, thanks. One follow-up, and then another question. On the logistics and transportation side, I was curious if that's to date, just to supplement some of the other carriers? But more broadly or longer term, is there an ambition from the services side, to perhaps provide capacity to other companies?
+And then on AWS margins, was just wondering if we should expect more leverage there going forward? And whether Q1, whether that should demonstrate some seasonality, versus what we've seen in terms of sequential growth in prior years? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Let me work backwards -- don't give guidance by segment, so cannot really comment on AWS specifically in Q1. The -- and the operational improvements -- excuse me, the gross margin -- the operating margin year-over-year that we've seen in the AWS business has been heavily driven by operating efficiencies, both purchase reductions and purchase prices, and also efficiency in driving greater utilization of the assets that we have. So we're very happy with that.
+Keep in mind that we did have -- although the year-over-year increase in capital expenditures and capital leases was not as great as we saw in 2013 to 2014, we did spend over $9 billion on those -- on capital, and expenditures and capital lease obligations, up from prior year was -- excuse me -- (multiple speakers)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question come -- (multiple speakers)
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sorry, let me finish my answer to him, please? We grew up, we grew from in the $5 billion range in 2013, to $8.9 billion in 2014, and now over $9 billion in 2015.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ken Sena with Evercore ISI. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ken Sena,  Evercore ISI - Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Hi. So a lot of headlines around Amazon's activity at SunDance. I was hoping maybe you could expand once more on the video strategy, and specifically are you seeing an inflection in Prime Video usage? And maybe, just also on your streaming partners program, what the general reception is like? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. We're very thrilled with the customer response to Prime Video. Again, when Prime Video is used by our Prime members, it drives adoption and retention, higher free trial conversion rates, and higher renewal rates for subscribers. So what we were encouraged by in Q4 was that globally, we doubled the number of -- our Prime members doubled the number of viewing hours of the Prime Video year-over-year. And internationally, we had twice as member Prime members streaming year-over-year. So very encouraged by the pick up, and the response of customers.
+The other comment I would say about video is, we're very happy with the Amazon studios content, in particular. We've had some great success in 2014 and 2015. As you probably know, Transparent has won multiple Golden Globes and Emmys, both for actors and for the show itself. Mozart in the Jungle just won two Golden Globe Awards.
+So very pleased with the critical acclaim to the Amazon Studios content, and we've got a lot of new content coming out this year. Catastrophe Season 2, Bosch Season 2, we're all looking forward to. And in February, we will have Chi-Raq, our first original movie that we got to work with Spike Lee on, which won many critical -- made many critics' Best Films list in 2015. That will be coming to Prime Video in February.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Just to add to that, this is Phil. On your question about the streaming partners program, so that's our new over-the-top streaming subscription program for Prime members. We think it's a really convenient way for them to access additional content, content from sources like ShowTime and Starz. And it's really early, so it's just out of the gate, but we've been very pleased with what we've seen so far.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Two things, please. Any call outs on the macro side? Occasionally, you called anything -- you've called things out, anything this time? And then, could you talk a little bit about Amazon business?
+I know that there is a little bit of a line in the press release on it. I know you've had this for a couple of years. But any indications to the materiality of that, the kind of momentum it's gaining, the kind of traction it's gaining? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure, Mark. Thanks for your questions. No macroeconomic comments. Again, we feel we're very encouraged by the customer response to our offerings in Q4.
+Amazon business, yes, in April, you may remember we launched it as a marketplace, with specific features and benefits for businesses. That -- Amazon business now serves more than 200,000 businesses, from small organizations to Fortune 500 companies. So it's still early, but we're encouraged, and we think we're creating some value, a lot of value for our business customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark May with Citi. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thanks. Brian, question on the international retail business. I think you added well over $1 billion in revenue year-on-year in the quarter, but from a CSOI perspective, you really didn't see any improvement there. I'm sure there is -- there are a lot of different things going on.
+I just wonder if you could unpack that a little bit, and give us a sense of what profitability looks like maybe in some of your more mature, established countries and regions, relative to the investments you're making in other countries? So that we can kind of get a better picture of what's actually going on under the hood there? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Yes. Sure, Mark. Thanks for your question. We are very pleased by the international growth, 22% FX neutral, was up 1,000 basis points year-over-year. We saw that the -- we told you that the Prime growth, Prime membership growth, 50% in -- excuse me, 51% globally. 47% in the US means that the international Prime programs grew at a faster clip than that. So very, very pleased with the uptick.
+We rolled out a lot of additional Prime features internationally as well this year, from free same-day, to Prime Now, to Prime Music, and Prime Video in Japan, to name a few. So very happy with that. But in general, if I step back, our investments in national are twofold.
+First, there's the Prime platform and all the features I just mentioned, including the fulfillment, adding more fulfillment resources to handle higher and higher retail volumes, and a very strong FBA program as well. And then, the remainder -- the biggest other investment area is obviously India. And we like -- we continue to see, like what we see in India. In Q4, Amazon India was the top e-commerce site in India, throughout the very busy -- Diwali shopping season, including the shopping season, according to comScore.
+And sales by sellers in Q4 were greater than all of 2014 combined, in Q4. So seeing great progress with downloads, innovations for sellers and customers alike. And we like the ramp there, and we're continuing to invest in India.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Anmuth,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thanks for taking the question. Two things. Just first, on the North America EGM growth, if you could just talk about the 28% there? And the decel on an easier comp, and whether there's any particular factors within that we should be thinking about? And perhaps, if there was any weather and apparel impact there?
+And then second, last quarter, and I don't want to misquote you, but you said something along the lines of, being able to invest as you would like, and also deliver good profit, and that the pendulum wouldn't swing as far perhaps as it has in the past. Is that statement and thought still hold, as you head into 2016? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Let me start with EGM. So EGM growth, North America EGM growth of 28% was actually also the highest in the last four years. So we're happy with that.
+The deceleration you're seeing of 700 basis points is more a function of the Prime Day that we had in Q3, if you remember. We didn't break it out by segment, but we said that Prime Day contributed 200 basis points to our Q3 run rate, revenue growth rate. So sequentially last year, in North America EGM, we dropped from 31% to 27%.
+This year, it's 35% to 28%. So there is always a -- generally, a sequential drop in Q4. But certainly very happy with that business and its role in Prime as well, in total customer satisfaction.
+Your other question, investments. Yes, we continue to have healthy investments as we've stated across the globe. To step back again on that, our general philosophy is, we want to find things, businesses that customers love, that can grow to be large, will provide strong financial returns, and are durable. They can last for decades. We think Prime is that, we think Marketplace is that, we think AWS is that, and we are constantly looking for a fourth or fifth business that fits that criteria.
+But as we continue to invest primarily in, as I said in Prime, the Prime platform, Prime features for customers, expansion for fulfillment capacity, as we build out to support 26% unit growth in Q4, for instance, and much greater FBA share, and not to mention all the investments in AWS, we are constantly looking for cost efficiencies, in fixing variable productivity. I think a thing to think about is, the investments will ebb and flow over time, but our focus on cost reductions and improvement on customer experience will be constant.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Terry,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great, thanks. I was wondering if you could give us a sense, as we look at the slowing growth in AWS, obviously, still from an incredibly high level, and still very strong growth there. But try and take that into context, with the growth in margins that you keep seeing in that business, to levels that certainly seem a lot higher than you would anticipate for an Amazon business. Is there any capacity constraint or management that, that's driving pricing strategy in AWS?
+We've heard the comments about the number of availability zones that are being launched this year, which is obviously about a big part of driving incremental capacity in that business. I'm just trying to balance those, think about how we should balance those three things?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Let me work backwards from your footprint question or comment. We have -- we just announced Korea as a region. And we'll be adding five more regions in the next, in the future, in the near future as we mentioned. CapEx, let me start with that first. CapEx, we've seen great efficiencies in capital expenditures, in particularly in AWS. And we continue to work on better purchase efficiencies and driving utilization rates in our data centers.
+CapEx, as I mentioned, grew quite a bit in 2014. It grew even more to over $9 billion, across all of our capital expenditures and capital leases in 2015. From the new regions, they are not the major driver in any way. Most of our capacity, and capital and capital leases in AWS is to service existing regions, and existing customers' demand growth. But there's certainly expenditures when we open up new regions. Some of that is not always in the year that we open the region, so we spent a good bit on those new regions already in 2015.
+But as far as pricing, there's no capacity constraint. And I would a little bit dispute the deceleration comment on the -- yes, on a percentage basis, 69% is lower than Q3. But as I've said before, we're approaching a $10 billion run rate in this business. On a dollar basis, we continue to grow. We saw the greatest growth year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. And again, we continue to invent, it's not all about price-- we continue to innovate on behalf of customers, and see great customer response.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Terry,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure, sure. Got it. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Kerry Rice with Needham & Company. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kerry Rice,  Needham & Company - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thanks a lot. First question is, if you can provide maybe some context around linearity within Q4, more as a -- compared to your expectations? Obviously, you have a ramp-up into the holiday season, but was -- did December tail off faster than you expected, or did the ramp-up, did it spike higher than you expected? And then, just on the follow-up, maybe can you add some context about how the mobile played a role in the holiday season for Amazon? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          So in terms of -- this is Phil. In terms of expectations, I think we were pleased with what we saw this Q4. And if you look at what we gave for guidance, we were in the upper half of the range there for revenue. So no real call outs there. I think, what was your second part of your question?
+Oh, and mobile, we said for a long time continues to be a tail wind for the business. We're working very hard to make sure that it's very easy for customers to buy the things they want to buy, and access a lot of the features they have grown accustomed to on the website. And so, we're very focused on the convenience factor. And if you look at some of our new offerings like Prime Now that's available through a mobile app, and very, very convenient for customers. And as Brian has mentioned, allowed them to shop even up to Christmas Eve, and then have their items delivered in two hours.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from Carlos Kirjner with Bernstein. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Carlos Kirjner,  Bernstein - Analyst    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. I have two. I want to go back to AWS margins. You talked briefly about purchasing an asset utilization. But do this explain the 800 bps or so, on your year-on-year margin expansion?
+And are you seeing anything else? Like is there any impact of scale driving leverage over fixed costs? Is there some benefit from revenue mix shift, like services, like Aurora and RedShift growing faster than EC2, or is all the margin expansion due to purchasing and asset utilization? So that's the first question.
+And the second, I have a question about your streaming content expenses or cost of revenues to be more precise. Last year, you told us they were $1.3 billion, but if you didn't give us a figure for 2015. In lieu of that, can you comment on whether 4Q saw higher than usual costs for streaming content, compared to other quarters in the year? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Carlos, this is Phil. So your question about the AWS margins, that business as they continued to learn, and as we continue to invent and get better at designing and operating the infrastructure and assets, we have been able to drive costs out of that business. And so, that's one of the primary drivers of the improvements that you've seen in margin year-over-year.
+There is also an FX tail wind in there as well, which I think was about $60 million this quarter, which would contribute on a year-over-year basis, which really arises, because we're largely priced in dollars, but have assets with local currency costs throughout the world. As for the streaming content, we haven't given another update this year, and haven't given any commentary on the profile quarter to quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. The next question comes from Brian Pitz with Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Pitz,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. You mentioned Amazon Dash in the press release. Can you give us some color around how you're viewing the traction there, both with customers, and with brands and devices? And then, maybe any update on Twitch? How is traffic and user engagement been trending on that site? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          This is Phil. So on the Dash buttons, we're really excited about what we're delivering there. I think, as you saw in the release, there are some new devices that take advantage of the underlying service, that we think will be really convenient for sellers, and interesting for device makers. We're excited about what we're building there. I don't have any stats for you today.
+On the Twitch side, we continue to let Twitch do what Twitch does best. And so, don't have any updates on numbers there, but they continue to really engage customers, and offer a really unique experience, which was one of the reasons we were attracted to them to start with.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Pitz,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          And maybe just quickly, end of year fulfillment and sortation centers?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Yes, I'll take that. So we ended the year at 123 fulfillment centers, up a net 14, and we have 20 -- excuse me, 23 sortation centers in the US, up 4 year-over-year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Our next question comes from the line of Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your questions.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Hey, good afternoon. I want to just quickly revisit the margin pendulum question in some of your comments, as you mentioned that to kind of expect it to ebb and flow. Could you tell us if you expect it to ebb and flow, but moving higher? Or is ebb and flow just mean that, that it's kind of undetermined in 2016? And then, a second follow-up, is the robotics. Any update in terms of number of robots, or how you see that expansion going forward? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Yes, my comment on ebb and flow was more about the investment, and also including capital expenditures and capital leases. So not around gross margins. And merely, I was pointing out that again, we've laid out all the invested areas, where we're seeing heavy investment. We continue -- we see the continuation of that certainly, into 2016 and beyond.
+There are quarter-to-quarter and even year-to-year fluctuations in some accounts, and some investment areas. But generally, we're pretty transparent on where we're investing our dollars. And against that backdrop, we are always looking for efficiency. And the nice thing about growing the top line at such a high clip, is we have a lot more areas for opportunity to save money year-over-year. And we always look to do that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          And this is Phil. On the Kiva question, the last update we've given is more than 30,000 robots. We continue to be really pleased with the program, and like what it does in the warehouse, both from a density of storage, as well as from making the jobs easier for the associates who are picking packages, by bringing the packages actually to the associates. But no new numbers on that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Our next question comes from the line of Justin Post with Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [56]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Two questions. Was there any category mix impacts in the quarter on gross margins? That's just a quick one.
+And then secondly, as you look back at last year, you had some quarters where you really exceeded your guidance on the CSOI line. Maybe looking back, or just looking forward, what are the types of things that causes you to come in at the high end, versus maybe the low end, when you look back, or when you look forward? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [57]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. First, on guidance, we keep it pretty, a consistent process on how we look at guidance, and how we estimate the near-term view of the business. I will point out that Q4 is obviously, a very large quarter, the largest revenue quarter by far of the year. There's a lot of demand that comes in the last six weeks of the year as well.
+So very, very little visibility at the time of guidance when we do the call. So we are using are best projections on a lot of fronts. We think it's a similar -- we know it's a consistent process. And there are times, when we under-run and sometimes we over run it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [58]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          On the -- this is Phil. On the category mix question, obviously, category mix does play a role in gross margin. I would say though, that we're much more focused on operating profit dollars, and free cash flow dollars, as we've probably talked about before.
+The gross margins are impacted by first-party versus third-party mix, as well as AWS mix, if you're looking at the total for the Company. So we're much more focused on the dollars. And no specific categories we're calling out, as a driver for gross margin, because, again, we're much more focused on the profit dollars.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [59]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Paul Vogel with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Paul Vogel,  Barclays Capital - Analyst    [60]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great. Thanks. Just wonder if you could give an update on the strategy around same-day shipping? How we should think about kind of further expansion of that? And kind of what parameters do you guys use to determine what markets to go in? Is it density of the market? Is it proximity of your distribution facilities? Just some color on that would be great.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [61]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          So we deliver, really quickly, a couple of ways. One is the free same-day, that you've seen us roll out in a number of markets in the US. The other is Prime Now. And we're now in more than 25 metropolitan areas for Prime Now. Delivering for free in two hours is difficult and expensive, but customers love it.
+So we feel like this is the natural evolution of our delivery, and we're happy to invest in that service. We like what it does for Prime members. We like the convenience factor. And so, we're taking a long-term approach, and doing what we normally do, which is really focus on continuing to drive greater and greater efficiency.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [62]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ron Josey with JMP Securities. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ronald Josey,  JMP Securities - Analyst    [63]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great. Thanks for taking the questions. I wanted to ask more about North American operating margins, because I think they expanded just under 50 bps this quarter to 4.7%. And that compares to an average of 200 basis points thereabouts, expansion in the prior three quarters.
+So I'm just wondering, if in 4Q maybe higher FPA costs or something else in there that led to, maybe an expansion not as great as we saw in prior quarters. And then, following up on the Prime Now question just now, I'm wondering how an hour delivery or two-hour delivery has changed a consumer's perception of just delivery overall? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [64]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Yes, again, I'll point out that the demand for FBA services was very high, nearly 50% of our third-party units, again were FBA. And the demand for space and services was very large by our seller base, which was great from a lot of standpoints, and it did exceed our expectations. But did make our warehouses rather full, and did cause us to incur some additional variable costs in the US. And there is also the dynamic that we were fulfilling more of these units ourselves, at our warehouses because of the FBA growth, and the retail growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [65]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          On the speed of delivery, this is Phil. All I can say is, the customers love the service. It's very convenient, and it gives them flexibility, and the ability to get products really quickly. I don't know that there's any big trends we are ready to call out at this point, but they seem to really, really like it. So we're encouraged by that. We're excited to invest in it, and excited what we can do for our Prime members.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [66]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Neil Doshi with Mizuho. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Neil Doshi,  Mizuho Securities Co., Ltd. - Analyst    [67]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great. Two questions, please. One, it seems like the Echo did perform well. Can you talk more broadly about your Internet of Things ambitions, and kind of how Echo plays into that strategy?
+And then, secondly, just wanted to know a little bit more about restaurant delivery? It seems a little bit outside of the wheelhouse. What's the impetus behind doing more in terms of food delivery, and what are your ambitions there? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [68]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          So on the Echo, we like what -- how Echo has done. We're really excited about the ecosystem, and some of the skills that are being added to Echo, as well as some of the other devices that are taking advantage of Alexa, which is the brains behind Echo. So we like our device business in general.
+As you probably saw from the press release, we had a good Q4, where we did almost double the, or double what we did last year, so very excited about the devices. We like that they pump more energy into Prime, and really the whole ecosystem. Not sure on the Internet of Things, but it's very exciting for devices standpoint. And the brains of Echo are in the AWS cloud. And so, Echo gets new capabilities all the time, as Alexa gets better and better.
+On the restaurant delivery, it's just another great service we can offer for our Prime members. This is tied in with the Prime Now offering in a handful of cities at this point. And so, we have the delivery people going out and making the deliveries in the neighborhoods. And so, this is one more really valuable convenient service we can offer for our Prime customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [69]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Thank you. Our final question will come from John Blackledge with Cowen and Company. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Blackledge,  Cowen and Company - Analyst    [70]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Great, thanks. Two questions. First one, shipping costs were higher than we expected. I think it was 12.5% of net revenue, versus 11% last year.
+Just any color on the higher shipping costs? And is that percentage of net revenue a new normal, as we are in 2016 now, and as we look out? And then the second question on Prime Now, in 25 markets globally, how should we think about the total number of markets that, additional markets you can enter with the Prime Now offering in 2016? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc - CFO    [71]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Sure. Yes, as you say, the net shipping margin was up 70 basis points year-over-year. Again, this is all tied in with the increase in FBA growth, and the demand from Prime members. We're shipping more units -- more of our units, so this ripples through our ship cost per unit. And, again, the calculation of ship costs, as margin is a percent of revenue, and that is impacted by the denominator effect on the FBA sales, being booked at a net revenue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Phil Hardin,  Amazon.com Inc - Director of IR    [72]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          
+          Related to your Prime Now question, this is Phil. We're in more than 25 metropolitan locations. It's -- if you've been watching, this roll out has really happened in the last year, so it's been a pretty rapid rollout. We're excited to bring it to more places.
+We don't have a target for you today, but we are working hard to bring it to more and more places. We're outside the US now in a handful of countries, in the UK and Japan and Italy, and working to expand. So it's a program we're really excited about, and we're happy to bring it to more customers.
+Thank you for joining us on the call today, and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website, at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com, and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+Transcript has been published in near real-time by an experienced 
+professional transcriber.  While the Preliminary Transcript is highly 
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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+content of the call has been transcribed accurately and in full.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2016-Jul-28-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,438 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2016 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 28, 2016 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO
+ * Darin Manney
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Victor Anthony
+   Axiom Capital - Analyst
+ * Douglas Anmuth
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Ray McDonough
+   Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst
+ * Carlos Kirjner
+   Bernstein - Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Brian Pitz
+   Jefferies LLC - Analyst
+ * Gene Munster
+   Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst
+ * Youssef Squali
+   Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst
+ * Heath Terry
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Colin Sebastian
+   Robert W. Baird & Company, Inc. - Analyst
+ * Eric Sheridan
+   UBS - Analyst
+ * Mark Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Brian Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Ross Sandler
+   Deutsche Bank - Analyst
+ * Mark May
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q2 2016 financial results teleconference. At this time all participants are in a listen only mode. After the presentation we will conduct a question-and-answer session. Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I will be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Darin Manney. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hello and welcome to our Q2 2016 financial results conference call. Joining us today is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO. We will be available for questions after our prepared remarks.
+The following discussion and the responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today July 28, 2016, only, and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on form 10K and subsequent filings.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. During this call we will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2015. Now I will turn the call over to Brian.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, Darin. I'll begin with comments on our second-quarter financial results.
+Trailing 12-month operating cash flow increased 42% to $12.7 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow increased to $7.3 billion, up from $4.4 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow, less lease principal repayments, increased to $3.9 billion, up from $2.4 billion. Trailing 12-month free cash flow, less financed lease principal repayments and assets acquired under capital leases, increased to $2.5 billion, up from an outflow of $492 million.
+Worldwide revenue increased 31% to $30.4 billion or 30% excluding the $166 million favorable impact from year-over-year changes in foreign exchange. Worldwide paid unit growth was 28%. Worldwide seller units represented 49% of paid units.
+Now I will talk about our segment results. North America revenue grew 28% to $17.7 billion. North America operating income was $702 million, a 4% operating margin, compared with $348 million in the prior year. This includes $5 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange.
+International revenue grew 30% to $9.8 billion. Excluding the $184 million year-over-year favorable foreign exchange impact, revenue growth was 28%. International operating loss was $135 million, compared with a loss of $189 million in the prior year. This includes $40 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange.
+Amazon Web Services revenue grew 58% to $2.9 billion. Amazon Web Services operating income was $718 million, a 24.9% operating margin, compared with $305 million in the prior year. Our operating income was $1.3 billion, or 4.2% of revenue, up approximately 220 basis points year over year. This includes $45 million of favorable impact from foreign exchange. Net income was $857 million, or $1.78 per diluted share, compared with the net income of $92 million, or $0.19 per diluted share.
+I'll conclude my portion of today's call with guidance. For Q3 2016, we expect net sales of between $31 billion and $33.5 billion, or growth of between 22% and 32%. This guidance anticipates approximately 30 basis points of favorable impact from foreign exchange rates. Operating income to be between $50 million and $650 million, compared with $406 million in third quarter 2015.
+We are grateful to our customers and remain heads-down focused on driving a better customer experience. We believe putting customers first is the only reliable way to create lasting value for shareholders. Thanks, and with that I will hand it back to Darin.
+Thank you, Brian. Before we move to questions I need to remind you that our guidance incorporates the order trend that we've seen to date, and what we believe to be appropriate assumptions.
+Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
+Our guidance also assumes that we do not conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements and that foreign exchange rates remain approximately where they have been recently. It is not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+With that let's move to the Q&A portion of the call. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+At this time, we will now open the call up for questions. In the interest of time, we ask that you limit yourself to one question.
+(Operation Instructions)
+Thank you. Our first question is from Mark May of Citi. Please proceed.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my question. We've noticed some data points out there that suggest that you're accelerating your build-out of fulfillment capacity in North America and obviously also in India. Can you give us a sense of what sort of impact that, that might have in the near to mid-term on your CapEx, depreciation and ultimately CSOI? Especially as it relates to your Q3 guidance? And then just a maintenance question, how much is FX impacting your Q3 guidance? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thanks, Mark. Yes, let me talk a little bit about guidance, and I'll incorporate the answer to the fulfillment question. So, you'll notice on the top line guidance of $31 billion to $33.5 billion or 22% to 32% growth incorporates the Prime Day results and I can talk more about that later. But Prime Day was very successful for us. It was up 60% on a worldwide basis over the prior year, and it was also a record day for our Amazon devices, as well as sellers and customers alike.
+In the bottom line, you'll need to remember that Q3 is a typically a lower operating income quarter as we prepare for Q4, the holiday peak. It's a little bit more exaggerated this year in that we're opening 18 fulfillment centers this quarter. To put that in perspective, we launched six in Q3 of last year. This will bring us up to 21 net FCs for the year by the end of Q3, and that compares with 10 fulfillment centers for the first three quarters of last year on a net basis. So, why are we expanding so much? If you remember back to Q4 and the capacity constraints we had in Q4, primarily due to really strong FBA growth, we talked a lot in the Q4 call about the operational cost of that in Q4. Customers are well taken care of, but we had additional fulfillment costs from being so tight on capacity.
+This year, with that in mind and then knowing that our growth rate is actually accelerating on a unit basis, we are - Q2 was 28% unit growth for paid units, but fulfilled by - units fulfilled by Amazon is much higher than that due to the growth of Prime and FBA. That compares with last year in Q2 when we saw 22% unit growth. So we're 600 basis points faster growth in Q2 this year than last year and that 22% last year turned into 26% in Q4. So it ramped up in the back end of the year.
+So a lot of data points there, but the bottom line is that there's a large step up in the amount of fulfillment capacity in Q2 - excuse me, Q3 versus Q2. There's a couple of other factors while I'm at it for guidance. We are also nearly doubling our content spend in the second half of this year versus the second half of 2015. We have a great slate of new Amazon Originals coming out later this year, both in the US and internationally, and we're nearly tripling our number of new Amazon Original shows - TV shows and movies compared with the second half of last year. There are other investments, certainly, that are increasing sequentially. I'd point to India and AWS, but primarily the two biggest issues in Q3 guidance I would say are the operational ramp and also the increase in digital content spend.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And, Mark, to follow up on the other question, our net sales guidance anticipates approximately 30 basis points of favorable impact from foreign exchange rates.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And, Brian, where does that bring your video content spend to with the doubling in the second half if we look at it on an annualized basis?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+We're not disclosing that at this time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Douglas Anmuth from JPMorgan. Please state your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Anmuth,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking the questions. I just want to go back to Prime Day for a minute. I didn't hear any commentary around new Prime members in particular. Obviously a lot of other metrics that you gave but hoping you could provide a little bit more color around that.
+And then also, is there anything else that stood out in terms of what you learned around operations and systems ahead of the holiday season? And then just going back to the 3Q guide, what's the right way for us to think about stock-based comp in the third quarter and if we looked at your 2Q numbers, is that a fair assumption for what you're thinking about? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Let me circle back on Prime Day. So again, it was the biggest global day ever for Amazon and was up 60% on a order product sales basis versus Prime Day 2015. It was a record day for Amazon devices. It was a great day for small businesses and sellers who saw great year-over improvement in their sales. And more importantly, it was a great day for customers. Globally they saved over double what they had saved in Prime Day 2015.
+So we're very pleased with the results of Prime Day, and the impact of Prime Day is factored into this guidance. As far as new customers and new Prime members, we're not disclosing that, but suffice to say that it was a great day for both existing Prime members and also new customers who were trying us out for the first time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And on the stock-based compensation, you'll recall beginning in Q1 this year, we began allocating stock-based compensation and other operating expense to our North America, international and AWS segments. So we're including that in our guidance on operating income and have not separately guided to stock-based comp and other income expense this quarter.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Gene Munster from Piper Jaffray.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hello, good afternoon. First, love the conference call format here. Get right to it. In terms of questions, the customer count, can you give us a little bit of guidance on that? And then also talk about the theme of automated consumption and separately, the importance of Prime Now and how you can grow those SKUs. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi, Gene. This is Darin. I'll start with the customer accounts. As we noted again in our Q1 release, our active customer accounts exceeded 300 million. However, today we're not going to update that number.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+To your question on Prime Now, so I will point out Prime Now is now in more than 40 metro areas worldwide. In the past quarter we expanded further internationally to Germany, Spain and France, so it's a global program, again, offering free two-hour delivery on tens of thousands of items. We also have in the same vein of, I think what you called maybe automated consumption, the same day has expanded. Now we've added 11 metro areas, bringing the total to 27 metro areas that are qualified for same day.
+So, yes, we think this is an important part of our Prime offering. We know customers love it. We're very happy with their order patterns from Prime Now, and very happy with it. Of course, we do always talk about - we always usually get asked about profitability, and it is a very hard service to deliver and make money on. But we know customers love it and we're in a great position to do this because of our long-term approach, our drive of greater efficiencies and our proximity to the customer with our vast global FC network.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Heath Terry from Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Terry,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great, thanks. I was wondering as it relates to the Q3 guidance, can you give us a bit of a sense of just how we should think about margins in the AWS business, especially as the next eight availability zones roll out? Presumably that kind of increase in capacity likely has an impact on margins, but would appreciate any direction you can share on how to think about that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. We don't give - obviously we don't give segment-based guidance. But to your question about AWS, we actually see nine availability zones in four regions coming out in the next - in the coming year. The impact on short-term is pretty much indistinguishable from the growth that we're seeing in our expansion of our base customers in our existing regions, so we don't see a large step-up from the addition of new regions relative to the large and rapid growth in the business itself.
+We do think that it does pay benefits both for ourselves and for our customers because of the expansion, and we're happy to have added the region in Mumbai this past quarter. We think when we expand geographically, existing customers will run more of their workloads on AWS. Sometimes they have local latency concerns or security issues that require them to run things in their country, so that helps. And we also open up to new customers when we add these regions. So not a large impact on Q3 guidance, but certainly an exciting investment for our customer base.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Carlos Kirjner with Bernstein.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Carlos Kirjner,  Bernstein - Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Two questions if I may. As I look at your tech and content expense as a percentage of revenues, we see year-on-year decline for the last two quarters, which is something we hadn't seen since mid-2010, and of course it's reflected in the AWS margins. Can you help us understand what has driven this significant change in relative trajectory in tech and content expenses? And the second question is, why is it that the rate at which you are deploying Prime Now is so much greater or faster than the rate at which you are deploying Fresh? What's different between them and how is it that you are deploying Fresh in new markets but not as fast as Prime Now, and what drives the difference? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. On tech and content, that's going to be a combination of our people cost related to many areas of the website and also the infrastructure cost to run it, at both the Amazon Web Services and also the Amazon site. We've been seeing some great efficiencies in our infrastructure, both internally as Amazon and also as part of AWS. We have great people working on not only better efficiency, but also driving cost out of our acquisition prices. So, there's a lot of great work going on there and I think that's what you're seeing reflected in the tech and content line. Again, this can fluctuate quarter-to-quarter, but we're happy with the current trend and you see it in the AWS margins.
+On Prime Now versus Fresh, they are separate - sorry. The - we'll point out in Q2 that we added London and Boston as two new sites in London for AmazonFresh, and that was the first international location. But we've been running AmazonFresh for seven years, or excuse me, since 2007 in Seattle. And what you've seen as we've been testing the model, we've been expanding in North America and more so we've been expanding within the cities that we're in, adding zip codes, adding additional customers. So, the move into Boston and also now into London give us some really good data points and as - it's a great customer feature for the Prime offering.
+Prime Now is a little bit easier to build up from scratch, I would say. The - it has a different purpose, although some of the products overlap. Again, this is more about immediacy of one-hour and two-hour delivery of a curated list of important products that people need in a short period of time. So, they have different roles. Some of the products overlap, of course, but we're happy with both, and we think that customers like both of them.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question is from Brian Nowak from Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Nowak,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my questions. I have two. The first one is on the Echo. Anything you could share at all on some of the most commonly used searches? How are consumers using the Echo as of now most commonly, and then anything on uplift in purchase behavior from Echo households? And the second one on Prime, on AWS margins, can you just walk us through some of the puts and takes that have been driving the AWS margin expansion we've seen in the first half of this year? Is it utilization, product mixes? What's been driving the margin expansion? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Well, in Echo, again, we continue to build out the list of devices, launching the Dot and Tap and Fire TV skills this past year. And now we have 1,900 third-party skills for the Alexa, including new skills from Kayak, Lyft, NBC, Honeywell and more. So there's a lot of uses that we're seeing for Echo. A lot ties into our Prime Music offering. It's just a great way to access Prime Music and more and more the Amazon site. We don't have anything to disclose on physical orders from - through - excuse me, orders through Echo.
+On Amazon Web Services margin, again, this is primarily due to efficiencies gained on our infrastructure, better utilization, better cost out. There is a - certainly a mix of products and services. I don't have a bridge for you on whether that's helpful or hurtful, but the - these margins in AWS will fluctuate from quarter to quarter, and that's what you're seeing. But we're very happy with the year-over-year improvement.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Next question is from Mark Mahaney from RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Brian, could you give us some whys as to the revenue growth acceleration that you're seeing, a little more color about the revenue growth acceleration in North American retail and in international retail? I remember last quarter you called out really starting to see, I don't know, critical mass, tipping point, whatever the buzzword is, from Prime and from FBA in international markets. Is that what's continuing, I assume, to drive that re-acceleration in any geographic country comments behind that? Thanks a lot.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Yes, I have the same buzzwords for you, Mark. It's really -- the flywheel of Prime is definitely working. It's as simple as that. The low prices, vast selection and convenience continue to resonate with customers. Prime membership increases and selection through FBA makes Prime more valuable. So it's a bit as simple as that in the consumer business in North America and international, we are seeing great acceptance of Prime and usage of Prime benefits. We continue to expand the list of Prime benefits for customers to make it more valuable, and none is more valuable than FBA, which we've talked a lot about the value of Prime to FBA and vice-versa.
+FBA is bringing more Prime-eligible selection to Prime and then the growth of Prime and the type of customers that utilize Prime and their buying behavior is a great traction for other FBA sellers. So that is essentially what we're seeing, and we're certainly pleased with the customer response to those offers globally.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Youssef Squali from Cantor Fitzgerald.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Youssef Squali,  Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Two questions, please. Brian, your operating income has been come in stronger than expectations, but more importantly, stronger than your own guidance, at least in the last couple of quarters. I was just wondering as you look back at where you guided relative to actual, where do you think that delta was most pronounced? Why wouldn't we assume that maybe, at least on the margin, the investment intensity in the business has maybe decelerated a bit?
+And second, on Prime Video, just was wondering, considering what the main competitor there is doing, i.e., expanding aggressively around the world, you guys have been growing in a more measured manner, is that still the plan or are you guys interested in maybe instead of moving into a few countries, expand globally in one fell swoop? That's it. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Let me start with the second question first. So on Prime Video, again, we're very happy with the customer adoption of Prime Video, and we know the customers love it. We like the results that we see, particularly with the free trial conversion, the renewal rates for subscriptions. So it's clearly working. I mentioned earlier how we're doubling the investment rate in the second half of the year versus last year's second half, and we're tripling the Amazon Originals content.
+That Originals content for TV and movies, that content can be used globally. We've talked a bit about our Prime launch in India, and alluded to the fact that we'll be having video soon in India, but local content and also Amazon Originals. So, stay tuned for that. I don't have any more to announce on that today. On the variance to guidance, what I'll say is, we came in the very high end of our revenue guidance. I would say that our business model usually reacts well to high volume as we get a really good leverage on our fixed expenses. So that's part of what we saw, very strong operating efficiencies as we hit essentially the highest end of our revenue guidance.
+But we do have a lot of diverse profit streams here at Amazon and a lot of investments going on at any point in time. I think I heard a question there about level of investment. We continue to invest heavily. In fact, I just called out a few things that are going to be stepping up in investment levels in Q3, mostly ops and digital content. So we continue to invest on behalf of customers. But we also work very hard at efficiencies and scaling the businesses that we have. So we take both roles very seriously around here, investing on the right - in the right things, seeing results on behalf of customers, and also driving efficiencies. And there can be timing, quarter-to-quarter, the operating margin and levels of investment can fluctuate, but certainly continue to expand.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Jason Helfstein from Oppenheimer. Mr. Helfstein, your line is live.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ray McDonough,  Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi. Sorry about that. This is Ray McDonough on for Jason Helfstein. Just on the AWS side, we've been hearing a lot of talk and especially a lot of media reports that larger customers tend to use AWS, they might use Google and Microsoft Azure in tandem in a multi-cloud kind of architecture. Just wondering your thoughts on how you see AWS fitting in the overall ecosystem and kind of your place longer term in the ecosystem.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Well, first of all, we believe customers will choose AWS primarily for three factors, the functionality and pace of innovation that we bring to the table, our partner and customer ecosystem and our experience. We've been in this business longer than anyone. Having said that, there's plenty of room for multiple winners in this business. What we focus on is innovating on behalf of customers and expanding the geographic footprint to make our services more widely available.
+You can see us continue to invest in things like new application services, higher up the stack, additional technologies that will make integrating with AWS seamless for those companies that have a hybrid IT environment and then continuing to add functionality for data analytics, mobile, Internet of things, machine learning offerings, things like that, that will add greater and greater value for AWS customers. And I would say the rapid pace of innovation continues to stretch our lead in that dimension. We have had 422 new significant services and features added in the first half of this year. That's a faster pace than last year when we added 722 services and features. So we feel good about the business position we're in and our position with customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Colin Sebastian from Robert W. Baird.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Colin Sebastian,  Robert W. Baird & Company, Inc. - Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Thanks, guys. As another follow up on the margins, I was hoping you could comment on any impact from the investments and build out of enhanced transportation capabilities including the air cargo leases. And then secondly, was hoping you could identify any categories within EGM that are becoming more meaningful drivers of growth or at least are an increasing focus on the retail side? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, sure. First, on EGM, I'll just say the growth is across a lot of different products, none to exactly call out here, and we think that a lot of it is, of course, driven by the growth of Prime itself. EGM in North America grew 32%, which was higher than the revenue growth rate, and also grew 36% internationally. So when people join Prime, they are certainly buying EGM in strong quantity. So that continues to grow with the growth of the Prime program.
+On transportation, I think your question was about whether that's impacting our short-term results. No, the answer is no. We are certainly expanding our service offerings in the transportation side and we have been for many years, things like sortation centers and delivery methods. The plane deal that we were talking about is essentially planes that we're going to be leasing from other companies, and you'll hear more about that as we go forward, but that is to essentially take on the demand for internal flights as we move product around. It certainly will be well utilized.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Brian Pitz from Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Pitz,  Jefferies LLC - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for the questions. First, on FC build out, is the cost of building centers scaling over time given the use of Kiva, other technologies or general learnings, or are those costs still relatively consistent? And also, we noticed some device sellout in the next four to five weeks, post-Prime Day. Was this a bit of a planned inventory reduction for some of the devices or did volumes take you by surprise here?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I will start with the second question. So I would just say Prime Day had enormous impact on the device business and devices were well featured and also well adopted by customers. So it was the largest device sales day that we've ever had and essentially pretty much across all of our device types, E-readers, tablets, Fire TV and Echo.
+And I'm sorry, your first question was around - the cost of fulfillment centers. Not disclosing that we do continue to change our fulfillment centers. We've changed, again, the automation, the size, the scale many times and we continue to learn and grow there. So no general trends I can point to on cost per fulfillment center to start up, but because they do vary in size and mission and some have fully outfitted in using Amazon Robotics, others - some don't for economic reasons. Maybe the volume is not perfect for robot volume. But, yes, so I can't give you any real distinct trends there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question is from Justin Post from Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thank you. First on the customers, I'm guessing - I'm wondering why you aren't giving the number, a lot of people use it for their models. And then second thing, when you look at the US Prime penetration versus total US customers, how do you feel about that and do you think there's still a lot of room for Prime growth in the US? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi, Justin. This is Darin. I'll comment on the customer accounts again. We may consider updating that in the future, but really we encourage you and our investors to look at our free cash flow measures, our revenue and our GAAP operating profit since our customer purchasing behavior can vary.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And on Prime penetration, of course, we haven't released Prime subscription levels. We have talked about growth certainly globally and in North America. What I can tell you there is we still think there's a lot of room in Prime. We've tailored programs to students, we've tailored video programs, we've rolled out monthly plans, we have plans with grocery delivery.
+So there's a lot of different flavors of Prime and we are aggressively looking for a perfect Prime for everybody. We know that, again, when customers try Prime, they like it. So it's really just about getting them to try Prime and continuing to deliver great Prime benefits and great low prices and selection.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Ross Sandler from Deutsche Bank.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Sandler,  Deutsche Bank - Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks, guys. I just had two. First as a follow up on the logistics topic. So, in addition to the cargo planes you just mentioned for in-network moving products around, you guys have registered and received a US maritime license to operate as a freight forwarder and you recently announced this partnership with the UK for drone delivery that you've been working for a couple years. At a high level, can you just talk about how the overall logistics strategy is evolving from trucks and fulfillment centers to incorporate some of these new methods and how that might impact your unit costs going forward?
+And then the second question's on AWS. So you continue to put up really strong results, and you guys obviously talk to a lot of customers across lots of different verticals. Just a high level, what percent of enterprise workloads do you think have shifted to the public cloud at this stage? Is it low-single digit to mid-single-digit? And any color there on where we are in terms of penetration in the space. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So thank you, Ross. This is Darin. Let me take that first question. On Prime Air in the UK, we've been working with and developing Prime Air for some time to develop a rapid delivery system that is safe, environmentally sound and it really enhances the services that we provide for millions of customers. And we're extremely happy to partner with the UK government to advance the safe use of drones for small parcel delivery. This is providing us with permission to trial new methods in the space, including beyond line-of-sight operation, sense-and-avoid technologies and flights where one person operates multiple drones.
+So we definitely appreciate the pragmatic and forward-looking approach on this topic with the UK, and we're going to continue to work with regulators and policymakers in many countries, including the US, so we're excited about there. As for the ocean-going licenses, we have no comment on that today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+As far as AWS, essentially penetration question you asked. We think still very early. Again, we like our position, our industry leading position in the cloud space, and we're working on things that would incent more and more customers to accelerate their cloud conversion. The lower prices and services that we offer, and as I said, we'll work on things that will make it easier and easier for customers to work with us with their hybrid data centers or transfer their volume to us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan from UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric Sheridan,  UBS - Analyst    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe one clarification and one big picture topic. On the clarification, appreciate the disclosure on content and how that'll double year-on-year in the second half. For purposes of just making sure we can understand the trajectory, is there any way to frame it within second half of this year versus first half of this year, just so we can try to triangulate on a gross margin basis from the content spend? And the bigger picture topic would be China, hasn't come up yet on the call. I wanted to understand your latest thoughts there on either the competitive landscape, relative positioning in China and how you think about investments in China. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [50]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+So, hi, Eric. This is Darin. I'll take the second question on China. So we continue to operate well in China. We see China as a - and the way we're approaching China as a way to - a trusted avenue for our Chinese customers to access authentic international brands and we'll focus on those global brands and bringing those to Chinese customers. Offerings like the Amazon Global Store where Chinese customers can access those international brands on the China website and have them shipped directly to their houses is something we're focused on. So, yes, it's still early days and some of those experiments that we're doing, but we're seeing good traction on those things and we like that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [51]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, and on the content spend, I think the only other data point I can give you is probably a dated one at this point, but we spent $1.3 billion in 2014, that's the last number that we disclosed and we continue to add content. The best I can give you at this point is that it will be double, nearly double what we spent in the second half of 2015.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [52]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Our final question will come from Victor Anthony from Axiom.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Victor Anthony,  Axiom Capital - Analyst    [53]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for putting me on. Maybe I'll just ask a question about India. You called out India was - you had the most visited e-commerce site as well as the most downloaded mobile app, and you also launched Prime. So maybe you could just talk about the opportunities and the challenges that you see in that market. And second, there was some press reports that you invested about $500 million of incremental capital in Italy. I was wondering, what are you seeing in that market that justifies that level of investment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [54]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. So India, we're very encouraged by what we've seen so far in India, both with customers and also sellers; that's a third-party seller market. You heard that we launched the Prime program this week, which will be a whole new experience for Indian customers. In hundreds of cities we'll now have unlimited free one-day and two-day delivery, and we also mentioned that Prime Video is coming there, both Indian and global content.
+We're also starting to see exclusive online sales partnerships. Recently, we've had partnerships with Motorola, Samsung, Lenovo on select phones. But more importantly, again, we really like the opportunity in India. We like the initial results that we see from customers and also sellers. We really like our team there. We have a great team of Amazonians who've been very inventive in India.
+Every time there's an obstacle or something that's different from the US or another major business, they'll invent around it, whether it's a shipping method or a payment method or whatever. So, very creative and the customer response has been really strong. So we are very excited about the Prime program. We think it'll enter into a new chapter in India, and we've seen great success in every country in the world that we've launched Prime, and we feel India is going to be no different. So we're looking forward to seeing what we can do on behalf of the Indian customer.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [55]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+And hi, Victor, this is Darin. On Italy, yes, we continue to invest in Italy and really throughout Europe to keep pace with the strong customer demand we see. Since opening Italy in 2010, we've invested over EUR450 million and created 1,700 jobs in Italy, and this increased investment will be to add future FC near Rome and other infrastructure assets. So, yes, this is really to support both the customers that we have there in Italy and throughout Europe, and we'll continue to invest in the coming years.
+So thank you for joining the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our investor website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking with you again next quarter. Thank you.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2016-Oct-27-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,372 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2016 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 27, 2016 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO
+ * Darin Manney
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Gene Munster
+   Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst
+ * John Blackledge
+   Cowen and Company - Analyst
+ * Neil Doshi
+   Mizuho Securities - Analyst
+ * Youssef Squali
+   Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst
+ * Heath Terry
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Colin Sebastian
+   Baird Equity Research - Analyst
+ * Douglas Anmuth
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Ben Schachter
+   Macquarie Research - Analyst
+ * Mark Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Brian Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Mark May
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone and welcome to the Amazon.com Q3 2016 financial results teleconference.
+(Operator Instructions)
+Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I will be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Darin Manney. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hello and welcome to our Q3 2016 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO. As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you which includes our financial result as well as metric and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2015.
+Our comments and responses to your questions reflect Management's view as of today, October 27th, 2016, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial result is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filing.
+During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In the press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which are posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we have seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world event, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC. Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investment restructurings or legal settlements. It is not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services and therefore our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+(Operator Instructions)
+Our first question comes from Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan. Please state your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Anmuth,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking the question. The international retail segment margin was the lowest we have seen in quite a while. I was hoping that you could provide some of the key drivers there in terms of the drag and any color on how to think about the incremental international investment that might be impacting the 4Q guide. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Thanks, Doug. Specifically to international, we are seeing expansion to support selection expansion fulfillment network increases. We're also investing in digital content and additional prime benefits, Fresh location and Prime Now. By far the biggest individual thing is the investment in India that we continue to make. Very excited about the initial reaction in India from both customers and also sellers. That is essentially the international margin guidance in Q4.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Anmuth,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from Gene Munster with Piper Jaffray. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gene Munster,  Piper Jaffray & Co. - Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thanks. I guess when we think about the progression in margins in the second half versus the second half of 2015 and kind of the flat lining of overall margin at this point, excluding AWS, should we think about this as a temporary plateau that will at some point will resume once you start leveraging your fulfillment build-out or is there something structural that is philosophically changing with the way that you operate your business. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Thanks, Gene. We will continue to invest in the business where we are seeing significant customer traction. The things that I'm about to mention fall into that category. The largest individual reasons for the ramp-up in investment between the first half and second half of this year and also second half of this year versus second half of last year are the things that I mentioned on the call last quarter.
+First, video content and marketing associated with that is nearly doubling year over year in the second half of the year. It continues to be a large increase for both Q3 and Q4. In the quarter in Q3, we added 18 fulfillment centers and we have added 5 more in October. For the year, we will add 26. Most of those are in North America.
+That compares to 14 last year and I would -- looking back, there is -- the last time we had double-digit increase in fulfillment centers was 2012 when we added 11 in the third quarter. There was a rare aggregation of startups in Q3 and into Q4. It is helping us position better for Q4 volumes, because paid unit growth continues to be strong and Amazon fulfilled unit growth, which includes what we ship, includes FBA is significantly higher than even that. We are continuing to build for high AFN, or Amazon fulfilled network demand, including both retail and FBA.
+The number of warehouses that we added represent the 30% increase in square footage year over year. Last year we increased square footage by just under 20%. The definition of square footage in this case is all of our warehouses, plus our sortation and delivery centers, so it's pretty much our end-customer service centers. It's pretty much our square footage that support operations.
+Those will dissipate as we -- as they burn in. We've talked about fulfillment centers initial startup costs include increase in fixed cost but also variable cost as we train workers and also bring in inventory. There's a number of transportation costs also related to the startup of a new fulfillment center, both inbound and outbound. They are inherently less efficient than more established, mature buildings. There will be a cycle where those will be more productive next year than they are this year and more productive in 2018 than they are in 2017.
+What you are seeing, essentially, in the second half of this year is a step-up investment, primarily around digital content and also the fulfillment center investment, but also things like Echo and Alexa which we're adding a lot of resources to, India and AWS as we add people there to support additional service rapid growth in that business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Nowak,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks for taking my question. I have two. The first one, just to go back, Brian, to the fulfillment build. In the past you talked about how it takes time to kind of get the fulfillment centers to peak efficiencies. With these new FCs opening, can you talk about if you become more efficient, so if you get into a lower volume quarter next year, there's less risk of deleverage or should we still think about it's going to take time to get up to peak efficiency?
+The second one at AWS, Amazon the Company is good in removing friction in the purchase process. Can you talk about some of the main hurdles you have to overcome for large enterprises to start using AWS more? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. In the fulfillment network, as we build it yes, they will be more productive next year than this holiday peak and probably even more productive in 2018. I can't forecast it for you into next year quite yet, but we certainly had productivity and additional costs in Q3 and even into Q4 of this year as we built the additional capacity. Again, the underlying reason for that capacity build is the strength in paid units and even more so in the units that we're fulfilling, driven by our FBA program.
+The FBA program is the key pillar of our Prime offering. It adds selection. It makes Prime stronger. That's a self-reinforcing loop where Prime -- the Prime success attracts more sellers. We're glad to have that problem. We are just working very hard to get capacity in place and productive use for Q4 and beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi, Brian. This is Darin. On the AWS question, we continue to invest in AWS on behalf of our customers. In addition to the technologies that make integrations easier and it helps companies move from an on-prem or a hybrid IT environment into AWS if we're going to continue to do that. Specifically, the database migration tool that are helpful for customers when they move production databases from on premises to the cloud with virtually no downtime.
+Also, many of our AWS customers are beginning to choose and continue to choose the AWS schema conversion tool which really switches database engines to get out of old-guard proprietary databases and on to AWS. We will continue to react to customer needs and that will include opening up new regions. We have opened up Ohio this past quarter. We've highlighted that we will have a number of regions coming online in a few months. Yes, we're doing a lot of things to help make it easier for all customers to migrate to AWS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Okay. Hey, Brian, would you give us any commentary on two categories in particular, groceries and fashion and apparel? Particularly on groceries, I know in the release there was a couple of data points about Fresh rolling out into newer areas like Maryland. Great to see that. Can you just talk about that in the investment horizon? Is that moving the needle for you and how big that -- any way to help us quantify how big that already is to your -- to the revenue growth that you're seeing, particularly on groceries and any particular comment on fashion and apparel. Same line of thinking. Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Thanks, Mark. I will start with Fresh and groceries in general. Yes, this quarter we launched in Northern Virginia, Maryland, Dallas and Chicago. We also launched a new pricing plan, which is a monthly $14.99 add-on to Prime in the US. We have expanded, as you know, previously into London.
+We're very happy with the progression both in the geographies that we have been in for a long time where we are at, continuing to add zip codes and additional neighborhoods and also in these new cities. Certainly a business where we continue to work on costs and profitability. We are finding at the very attractive service to our customers, which is what we're after.
+Similarly, but not exactly the same, is the Prime Now business which has similar overlap on things besides groceries. It is a slightly different model, obviously, where we're more about immediacy and smaller list items available in one to two hours. There's certainly a lot of people who are using that for groceries and consumable items. That is now up to 40 cities across 7 countries versus 17 this time last year. We're also adding Amazon Restaurant Delivery to the Prime Now offer in 19 metropolitan cities in the US. That is up from two last year.
+We continue to believe consumables, groceries are a key part of the offer to customers. We are playing with very different models to see which works and for what needs. We're very happy with the Amazon Fresh and we have now expanded quite a bit as you see in this year. Prime Now we're also very happy with, although obviously the economics in that business are even tougher, but we do feel that our scale makes that possible because of our geographic footprint and how close we already are to customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi, Mark, this is Darin. On fashion, fashion and apparel continue to be a large part of our EGM business and one that we're very excited about. We continue to make it easier for brands and manufacturers to come on board in that category. We continue to work with brands to come on board. We're happy with the traction that we're seeing with those brands. As we get more and more selection, we're really pleased with the customer engagement that we have there, both from the discoverability, the technology that goes behind making it easier to shop fashion on our site, as well as the (inaudible) selection by adding the brand.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sorry. To answer your question about whether that is part of investment. Yes, it certainly is part of our investment. The larger ramp, if you will, in investment that we're seeing from the back end of last year and also the first half of this year is more related to digital content and the building our fulfillment network, which I already discussed.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Mark May with Citi. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks a lot. In some of these incremental investment areas like warehouses, logistics and also content, I know in some cases you expense up front. In some cases you amortized over time. Wondering if you can give us a sense of how much of the recent step-up is being expensed. I'm particularly looking at your COGS as a percent of retail revenues that was up year over year for the first time in quite a while. How much of that was because of content that expensed in the period? Just trying to better understand that.
+I think also you have been changing around, and this is happening here shortly, FBA pricing, including increasing your storage fees but also reducing your handling fees. I guess the question is, are these changes designed to just pass through kind of increasing shipping costs or is this more of a net neutral change where really the goal is to try to free up capacity in some of your facilities? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Let me start with your second question on FBA. Yes, we did make some changes to the pricing formula for this holiday season. They're essentially meant to incent the right behavior among sellers around holiday. The biggest issue you're trying to get at is having the most valuable products for holiday in the warehouse, in the Prime space and not having the warehouse filled with things that may not sell until after the New Year. We are trying to incentivize that behavior. We're also trying to incentivize getting inventory into the warehouse quicker. Yes, the formulas were -- the changes to the pricing formulas were really with that in mind, to help the flow and the space utilization in Q4.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Hi, Mark. This is Darin. On the capitalization point, I'd say the things that get capitalized are the core buildings and the leasehold improvements in the buildings. The things that we're seeing hit the P&L are the fixed and variable expenses that it takes to run the building. I think that is what Brian is pointing out most pointedly in terms of what is impacting our profitability of second half. Yes, the capitalization is relatively small in terms of -- other than the building itself.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Youssef Squali with Cantor Fitzgerald. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Youssef Squali,  Cantor Fitzgerald - Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. Two quick questions. With the step-up in investments and content from Prime Video as you mentioned before, you would also be stepping up the international expansion? Maybe you can just remind us how many countries you're in with Prime Video and whether there is a potential chance of stripping Prime Video from Prime to allow it to be extended to other countries. Do you -- I know you're not guiding to 2017, but just looking at the capacity increase that you had for FCs for 2016, should we expect that kind of as an ongoing expense going forward or is the current build-up enough to give you spare capacity to cool that down for 2017? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. First on your video comment, we're in four countries right now, the US, UK, Germany and Japan and we have stated that we will be in India soon. The content that we are creating, through Amazon studios, we are generally holding the worldwide rights to and can use that in other countries as well. The cost of that then get amortized to the country and becomes part of the international segment results. Yes, we consider that to be very valuable as opposed to versus licensing many times, by country the third-party rights to content that we don't create ourselves.
+Your question on fulfillment expenses, I can't extend the guidance into next year. We will do that, obviously, at the end of next quarter. I would say we are -- this was in extraordinary step-up as I mentioned in Q3 that is tied to very rapid growth in not only paid units but Amazon fulfilled units. Really our forecast for additional capacity additions and the rate of addition will be tied to those growth factors as well.
+We will have to see. We right now are working on getting the capacity in. It was very lumpy this time, with 18 warehouses in one quarter and another 5 in the first three weeks of the next quarter. Obviously we will be working on the efficiencies of all of the warehouse we have, including the ones that we just started up this year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Colin Sebastian with Baird Equity Research. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Colin Sebastian,  Baird Equity Research - Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks. A follow-up on the FC question. I guess more specifically, it sounds like you have enough capacity in terms of fulfillment centers for the holidays. Also wondering what your comfort level is in terms of your shipping partners to manage those deliveries. Secondly, was wondering how you would characterize the pricing environment for AWS, in particular with more deep pocketed competitors in the space now. Google in fact highlighted this on their conference call today. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Let me start with transportation. Yes, we are looking forward to a great holiday. That includes working with our shipping partners, both in the US and globally. We have worked very closely with them to line up capacity, share capacity plans. We certainly have additional delivery capability of our own, but with all of our partners, we work well in advance of the holiday to get our plans in place. We feel very confident we're looking forward to a great holiday not only for customers but also for sellers.
+On your question on AWS, I didn't listen to the Google call. You will have to fill me in on that later. The thing that I can tell you about pricing is that our pricing is -- price reductions are a core part of our philosophy, of course. We had a price decrease in Q3. That was our 52nd since we started this business. It's -- we are comfortable with price decreases. Not only did we lower the prices of our products but we also create new services that are cheaper that customers can switch to. They can also benefit from that as well.
+If you step back and say, why do people choose AWS? I'll give you the points I said last quarter. Basically what we hear are the functionality and pace of innovation. It is greater than our competition. We have added new -- more new significant features and services this year already than we had all of last year when we added 722. We have a partner and customer ecosystem. You've read about the VMware deal that we signed this quarter. We continue to extend with partners and build ecosystems that better can support customers.
+Finally, experience. We have been in this business a long time, longer than anyone else. We've used that time to make our product and services better. There's going to be a lot of winners in the space, as we said, but we are very happy with our position and the customer reception to our products.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Justin Post with Merrill Lynch. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thank you. I guess when you look at fourth-quarter guidance and you back out AWS, it suggests that margins are -- on the core business are going to be pretty down versus last year. Do you view this as an abnormal investment cycle or just part of the overall kind of ebbs and flows of the business? Long term, I know several years ago you talked about maybe high-single-digit, low-double-digit margins long term. I wonder if you could refresh us on that and also let us know if you think international has structural marginal differences than the US, the core retail business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Yes. As far as the continuation of the investment and into next year, I cannot give you as much color on that today. What I can tell you again is that we have ramped up considerably. We have been investing quite openly in a lot of areas and continue to do so. We are experiencing a ramp-up, if you will, in the second half of this year, particularly tied again to the fulfillment center and expanded also the video content spend.
+We will continue to invest in video content. We will continue to invest in fulfillment space to handle higher and higher paid unit volumes than shipped unit volumes. We will continue to invest in things that we believe enhance the customer experience, particularly the Prime experience. Devices we will invest in, particularly Alexa and the Echo products. We will continue to invest in getting faster and faster shipping methods for our consumers. We believe that is working. We are very happy with the results. We're very happy with all of the customers we have but particularly the Prime customers that we have.
+As far as long-term operating margins, I can't forecast that right now. I can't forecast that for our AWS business, either. We are, again, working on two fronts. We are honing the businesses that we're in and making them as efficient, as profitable as possible while also investing very pointedly and very wisely, we believe in things that will enhance customer experience and create lasting businesses for us down the line.
+We have said we want things that customers will love, can grow to be large, will have strong financial returns and durable and can last for decades. That is still our mission. We have pillars of the business right now with Marketplace, AWS and Prime and we're actively looking for a fourth and fifth pillar.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Terry,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. I'm wondering, there obviously have been some headlines since the call that you did earlier with the press on the scale of this investment cycle relative to other investment cycles that you have been through. With the 2014 cycle sort of being the most recent, could you quantify a little bit more how you would compare this investment cycle to that most recent one? To the extent that we're in the midst of this investment cycle, would you say we're in sort of the earlier or later stages? Any sort of clarity around that would be useful. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Yes. The word cycle, if I mentioned that, was an omission. It was a misspeak. The investment that we are seeing is a step-up versus what we have experienced in particularly the first half of this year and the last half, the second half of last year, which I mentioned.
+We have said investments are going to be lumpy. They are going to be high sometimes and they will be moderate at other times. We are right now, the second half of this year looks like a big step-up compared to the first half, and it is. But, again, it is all areas that we will continue to investment in, some of which I just actually went through the laundry list.
+I would not characterize it as the cycle. I would characterize it as continued investments. We make investments with the idea that they are going to pay off and they pay off in either directly in the business they're in or in their contribution to the total business, many times as a part of the Prime program.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of John Blackledge with Cowen and Company. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Blackledge,  Cowen and Company - Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Great. Thanks. Two questions. It seems that you're increasing your efforts in the auto vertical with the recent launch of Amazon Vehicles. Just wondering if you can discuss some of the dynamics of the auto industry that make it attractive and maybe how it aligns with the Prime value prop. Also wondering if you had any plans to work directly with auto shops, just given your ability to service most areas in one to two days.
+The second question, on grocery, would you consider physical locations in an effort to kind of expand and/or accelerate growth in that vertical? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Hi, John. This is Darin. On vehicle, Amazon Vehicles is really a car research destination and built the automotive community for customers. Gets information that they need when shopping for vehicles offsite or shopping for parts and accessories on-site. The features include research tools, community engagement, where you can talk to other customers. Certainly we try to build a one-stop shop for vehicles as an extension to the automotive store, which engages customers to add information about their cars in the garage which makes it actually easier to shop for parts and accessories for your particular vehicle.
+We think there's a lot of opportunity there to add convenience for customers. On the b2b side, certainly we do have an Amazon business offering. Businesses of all shapes and sizes can sign up to be a b2b customer. The selection that we have in our parts and automotive categories are certainly open to that channel. I wouldn't speculate on anything that we might do in a particular vertical for those business customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sure. Your comment on -- your question on grocery and physical stores, I can't comment on any rumors or speculations there might be regarding that. What I will tell you is that we have experimented with physical stores. As you may know, we have three physical bookstores, one in Seattle, one in San Diego and one in Portland and two more coming, one in Boston and one in Chicago.
+What we're finding is they're great places for customers to browse what ends up being a curated selection of books and they also get to try out our devices, which is very beneficial. They get to touch and try our e-readers, tablets, Fire TV and Echo. We like what we see with that connection. We also have pop-up stores that you may see and also college pick-up points. We will try different delivery methods or pick-up points or ways of getting product to customers, but nothing specific to point out on the grocery side right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Schachter with Macquarie. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ben Schachter,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Given the low unemployment rates that you are seeing in the US, do you expect any unusual impact on wages for seasonal workers this year? Are you seeing overall wage pressure in the fulfillment centers? Separately, if you could talk about trend lines you are seeing in paid units versus shipping units. Are they diverging meaningfully versus the past? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes. On wages, nothing to point out for this holiday. Our challenge generally is the volume of head count that we're looking to hire. We work well in advance with agencies to help to get seasonal employees and many of them turn into full-time employees after the holiday. Nothing specific on the wage pressure front. As you probably saw, head count is up 38% year over year in Q3 and that is continuation of a lot of ops roles that are supporting this high demand, the opening the fulfillment centers we talked about, new Fresh locations, Prime Now, but also and a lot of hiring in our tech areas, strictly around AWS and also the Echo/Alexa areas.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+I'm sorry. The second question?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Sorry, go ahead. Okay. Our final question will come from the line of Neil Doshi with Mizuho. Please proceed with your question.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Neil Doshi,  Mizuho Securities - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Thanks. Can you provide a little more color into the investments that you're making in India? What is driving that growth and what stage is India in today relative to some of the other large international markets that you have launched in the past?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Yes, sure. We are very encouraged by what we're seeing in India, but it is certainly very early on still. Most recent highlights would be the launch of the Prime program in India this past quarter. It's now one of the top-selling units on Amazon.India. It has been well received by customers.
+It is hard to compare India to any other country. It is very different in its stage and structure. Being a third-party market has caused a lot of invention on our side. We're being creative. The team there in India has been very creative on whenever they find a roadblock or something that has not existed in another country, they create it themselves, whether that's from delivery stations to working with small merchants to you name it. We're very happy with both the customer engagement that we're seeing and also the seller engagement, which is very important in India. Very pleased with the team that brought that over there and the way they work with teams throughout the world.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian, to step back to Ben's other question on units. Ben, this is Darin. Paid units grew at 28% again this year, as it did in the prior quarter. As Brian pointed out earlier, our AFN units, our Amazon Fulfilled Units, which includes our first-party units as well as FBA unit that's that go through our warehouses, are continuing -- are certainly higher than that 28%. That is a result of the traction we're getting with our FBA sellers.
+Thank you for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our investor relations website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Transcripts/AMZN/2017-Apr-27-AMZN.txt

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+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2017 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 27, 2017 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian T. Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP
+ * Darin Manney
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Heath P. Terry
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Ronald V. Josey
+   JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Stephen D. Ju
+   Credit Suisse AG, Research Division - Director
+ * Eric James Sheridan
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst
+ * Gregory Scott Melich
+   Evercore ISI, Research Division - Senior MD, Head of Consumer Research Team and Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Jason Stuart Helfstein
+   Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Daniel Salmon
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Media and Internet Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD
+ * Brian Thomas Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Douglas Till Anmuth
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark S. Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst
+ * Colin Alan Sebastian
+   Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Mark Alan May
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst
+ * Scott W. Devitt
+   Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q1 2017 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Darin Manney. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q1 2017 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2016.
+Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, April 27, 2017, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including in our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
+During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates; changes in global economic conditions and customer spending; world event; the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services; and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC. Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It's not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+Before moving to Q&A, I would like to draw attention to a new accounting rule that we implemented in Q1. The new rule requires excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation to be presented as an operating activity in the consolidated statements of cash flows. We retrospectively adjusted our consolidated statements of cash flows to reclassify excess tax benefits from financing activities to operating activities. And as a result, you will see an increase in our free cash flow measures for prior periods.
+Additionally, beginning January 1, 2017, the excess tax benefit or deficiency for stock-based compensation is recognized as a component of tax expense rather than equity. This change resulted in a decrease to our tax expense for the quarter and a corresponding increase to our net income and earnings per share. Specific changes are presented in the footnotes to the consolidated statement of cash flows and related metrics provided in our press release. Further disclosure of the impact of the adoption of this accounting change can be found in our Form 10-Q.
+With that, we'll move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from Justin Post with Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Got it. Saw on the front pages of release you're really focused on India. Can you give us a progress update on how you're doing? Any thoughts on how far you're willing to take the investment levels there? And what are your thoughts on maybe when international margins can start to make progress?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Justin. Thank you. Yes, I think Jeff's comments were pretty dead on. The launch of Prime last year was a big turning point. We've increased Prime selection by 75% since launching that 9 months ago in India, also increased the fulfillment capacity for sellers by 26% this year. On the content side, we've announced 18 Indian Original TV series, and we're customizing the content. So it's a really vast selection of local and global movies and TV shows that are available to the Indian public. You'll also notice that the Fire TV Stick was -- the new version of it was launched in India with some important features there, such as the ability to search in Hindi and in English, free data usage for 3 months and also data monitoring, which is important there. So we're -- again, we continue to be encouraged by both the response from customers and sellers. As far as level of investment is concerned, it is certainly one of our important investment areas. We see a lot of potential for the country and our business there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Any thoughts on how much this is impacting your international profitability?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. I can't quantify it, but -- or break out specifically, but I will say it's a large factor as well as a couple other things in the international segment. So keep in mind that we launched Prime Video in the fourth quarter, and now we have that in over 200 countries and territories. We're spreading a lot of the Prime benefits that we've seen in North America to other countries. We just opened up AmazonFresh in Tokyo last weekend, but also Prime Now. You saw other things like our business -- B2B business just opened up in the U.K. We have Amazon devices. So there's a lot of moving parts here. The other big influence is the same trends are happening in international with respect to FBA growth and the fact that our Amazon fulfilled network or the units we shipped are growing at much faster clip than our paid unit growth. Last year, we said that was a 40% -- nearly 40% growth worldwide, so we're making the investments in warehouses, fulfillment capacity and delivery capacity to handle that. So there's a lot going on in international. We are very encouraged with the growth of the Prime program, and we're hopeful for the Prime Video that we launched in the fall.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark S. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. 2 questions. The North American operating margins seem to come down like 70 bps year-over-year, and I know it's not a big focus of you, the margins. I get that, but it's sort of a change. You've had margins be flat or up year-over-year for quite some time and now they dip down. Just could you explain that? And then secondly, on these -- on the Echo devices, the Echo family, Alexa devices that are coming out, could you comment at all about what kind of impact you're seeing in terms of increased wallet or per share within household? Are you seeing that have an impact in terms of Amazon customers more likely to spend more once they have these devices in particular categories like groceries or household products, Pantry, products that they're more likely to spend because they have these devices in their houses, in their kitchens, in their living rooms?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. Let me start with the Echo question first. So yes, we're very encouraged by the customer response to the Echo products. Not only the Echo products, but the ability to use tablets -- our tablets now as Echo devices since we've spread the Alexa technology to many of those devices. And we're also happy with the success we've had with developers. There's over now over 12,000 Alexa skills. So we think that's all foundational. The monetization, as you might call it, is -- the theme of your questions, that's not our primary issue right now. It's about building great products and delighting customers. We think as engagement -- as we pick up engagement with the devices, it helps the engagement with Amazon as a whole. So whether someone is ordering off their Alexa device or whether they're going to their phone or going to their computer, it all has the same effect for us. So very, very pleased with the initial progress. We see a lot of momentum there, and we continue to invest. And that's one of the answers to your second question on North America operating margin. So if I step back, let me just talk generally about investment. So right now we're just seeing a lot of great opportunities before us, and we're continuing to ramp up the investments in pursuit of those opportunities. And the big picture is, again, as we've said, customers -- we want the things that customers love, can grow to be large, will have strong financial returns and they're durable and can last for decades. So in that category and some of the things that we are investing the most in are, as you say, the Echo and Alexa devices. We're doubling down on that investment, video content and marketing, not only in the U.S. but globally with the launch of our Prime Video in the fall. So we're building global scale in that business in both content and marketing. As I said earlier, we're expanding Prime benefits in the U.S. and also globally, things like Prime Music, Prime Now, AmazonFresh, all expanding globally. And we've launched Prime in India, China and Mexico. I know I'm drifting a bit from North America, but it's all part of the same theme. We also have this trend going on in our fulfillment networks where strong FBA growth and high growth in Amazon fulfilled units is resulting in a large increase in fulfillment capacity. We're also investing in new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning. You're starting to see some of that show up in things like Amazon Go, our beta store that we've developed in Seattle; drones. We use those technologies a lot in our internal businesses, and we're also developing services for AWS customers. So -- and that's -- of course, another area as AWS continues to grow and add services and features and doing so at an accelerating rate. So there's a long list and I can keep going, but I think the general theme is we're -- there's a lot of investment in front of us that we're optimistic about and we continue to ramp those investments. In North America, that manifests itself mostly in the device area, the content area and also the expansion of the fulfillment networks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Thomas Nowak,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2. Just the first one, Amazon always has a pretty big focus on efficiency. So I'd be curious to talk -- if you could talk about examples or areas where you've been able to iron out inefficiencies in the fulfillment process. And there's -- any still existing examples where you see low-hanging fruit to really improve fulfillment efficiency? And then just back to the point on investment, you didn't mention brick-and-mortar at all, yet there's been a lot of mention in the press about Amazon brick-and-mortar. I guess I'd be curious to hear how you think about the importance of an Amazon brick-and-mortar presence and how that fits into the long-term strategy.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure thing. So particularly as it pertains to our fulfillment center networks, I think the biggest areas of efficiency right now are in our Amazon robotics areas. That technology continues to improve, and we've -- we're now multiple generations down. We just launched a Amazon robotics fulfillment center in the Tokyo area recently. And so toward that last month, and it's just amazing to see the strides that the Amazon robotics has taken and the efficiency we're getting in our warehouse as a result. The other efficiencies we're seeing are network efficiencies, especially as we had things like sort centers. It's a collaboration and a movement between warehouses and sort centers and then to the end customer. The ability to have control through our sort centers has allowed us over the last few years to cut off our -- to extend our cut off times from 3 p.m., in most cases, till midnight. So greater control of our processes. If we do it cost-effectively, it can also have favorable benefits both for our warehouse flow and also for our customers and their ordering pattern. So there's a lot of efficiencies that are going on day-to-day around here. One of the benefits of rapid growth and -- is the ability to create leverage on purchases and a lot of the processes that we run. So your second question was on stores. Yes, yes, I think you're seeing the expansion of our bookstores. We have 6 bookstores right now, and we've announced another 6. The Amazon Go is in beta in Seattle. And while that's not large and it's only one site, we're excited about the potential there and the use of the technologies of computer vision, sensor fusion and deep learning. We think that has a lot of potential. Again, it's only one location. That's still in beta. But along with the bookstores, we also have -- you'll see us in pop-up stores and college pickup points. So for us, it's another way to reach the customer and test what resonates with them, and we're pleased with the results.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Ron Josey with JMP Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ronald V. Josey,  JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, I think you mentioned accelerating growth within AWS on new products, and last year you added about 1,000. Can you just talk about maybe the plans for AWS and product growth going forward here in 2017 and the focus on innovation?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Yes, we haven't updated that number, but suffice to say, the innovation pace continues to accelerate. We are very proud of the launches in Q4: the Amazon Connect, which we think will provide customer service-like capability to customers; and Amazon Chime, which we also believe will resonate with customers. We've had a lot of adoption of our new services. We've got customers migrated more than 23,000 databases using the AWS data -- database migration service since that launched last year. And just generally, we continue to expand geographically. We've announced additional Availability Zones and regions worldwide. So again, we signed a number of big customers. I guess I would point out in the quarter Liberty Mutual, Snap and Live Nation, all starting relationships with us or expanding their current relationship. We're now over $14 billion run rate, but we're happy with the business and the team. And again, for us innovation is going to be key as we move forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Dan Salmon with BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Daniel Salmon,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Media and Internet Analyst    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, a couple questions about your growing advertising business. We see more and more of it appearing on the site, and I was interested to hear a little bit more about how you expect that business to roll out internationally. I think it's largely U.S.-based today, but be curious to hear about that. And then second, I think it's fairly obvious what someone selling within the Amazon ecosystem would be interested in promoting on the platform. But maybe tell us a little bit about maybe over the long term, there are opportunities for sort of non-endemic advertisers within your platform.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Yes, we're -- it's pretty early in the days with advertising, but we're very pleased with the team we have and the results. Our goal is to help -- is to be helpful to consumers and enhance their shopping or their viewing experience with targeted recommendations, and we think a lot of the information we have and preferences of customers and recommendations help us do that for customers. We have -- Sponsored Products is off to a great start, and it's a very effective way for advertisers to reach those especially interested customers. While you're on the topic of advertising, I thought I'd point out that in other revenue -- advertising is in other revenue, as is co-branded credit card agreements and also some other advertising services. That decelerated from 99% to -- in Q4 to 58% in Q1, but the fluctuation and the volatility was essentially in the co-branded credit card agreements and the other services, which can fluctuate quarter-to-quarter based on contract terms and that's what happened. Advertising was -- remains strong and was consistent growth with Q4.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Stephen Ju with Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stephen D. Ju,  Credit Suisse AG, Research Division - Director    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So you periodically disclosed usage growth for AWS, but it has been some time since we saw one. So we're wondering if you can update us in terms of where you are now. If not, I mean, should we think about the growth in your cash deployment as an indicator of the ongoing growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, sorry, I don't have a usage number to share with you today. If it'll help, I will tell you that, again, we're now over $14 billion run rate. You clearly see our -- we break out very clearly our AWS segment revenue and operating income. And you'll also keep in mind that there's price decreases that are part of the business, and we're pretty public when we do those. And if you remember last call, I mentioned that we had 7 price increase -- or excuse me, price decreases that were timed for December 1. So about 1/3 of the impact of those was seen in Q4 and then, again, that's one element of the sequential operating margin. But in general, we're very happy with that team and the progress they're making. And we're deploying more capital, as you can see, to support the usage growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Till Anmuth,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just want to ask you about CapEx. It looks like CapEx, including leases, more than doubled year-over-year. So I know you listed kind of a long list of the many investment opportunities here, but can you just point out anything else in particular that drove the pretty substantial increase there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Yes, CapEx, which is principally the fulfillment centers, was -- grew 51% year-over-year. As you'll remember, we added 26 warehouses last -- fulfillment centers last year, 23 in the second half of the year. Some of that cost of startup is before the startup. Some comes in a quarter afterwards. So there was some carryover from that. But generally, the biggest trend here is that the difference -- differential between Amazon fulfilled network unit growth and paid unit growth. So that nearly 40% growth in Amazon fulfilled units last year and the continuation of the strong growth higher than the paid unit growth that we see in 2017 is resulting in a lot of fulfillment center capacity. And the fulfillment centers, I will also say, with the robotics technology tend to be more capital intensive than prior versions of warehouses and then they're -- generally have much better operating efficiencies and variable costs following their start up. On the capital leases, as grew 45%. A good deal of that is tied to the AWS business. As I just mentioned, a lot of that's tied to unit -- excuse me -- usage growth. But I'll caution, CapEx can fluctuate quarter-to-quarter. And if you look back to last year, the trailing 12 months was only 7% growth from the quarters through Q1 of last year. So certainly, there was a bigger step up in 2016, now carrying into 2017.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark May with Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Alan May,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I know that we talked about over the last couple quarters that part of the step up in CapEx was to catch up from the underinvestment in '15. Just curious if you'd say -- have you made a lot of progress in terms of catching up with some of the fulfillment needs that you saw necessary in the business at the beginning of last year? And then I know you just said that you're -- it still is early days in terms of advertising. But there's a perception out there that over the last year or so, that the company has sort of really begun to focus more on this business opportunity. Has something really changed at the business in the last year? And do you see advertising becoming a more meaningful part of the business over the near to midterm, I guess?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with advertising. So yes, I think scale is helping. We have great teams working on advertising for a while now. Our scale in number of customers, number of clicks, number of eyeballs and new content -- or excuse me, video content and other opportunities for advertising has really helped create some scale in that business. So we're very happy. I can't project it forward, but we're happy with the growth there. I think the Sponsored Products was a very inventive move for us, and I think that is having some really good impact on advertising growth. On your second point about fulfillment capacity, here's how I'd generally -- I'd generalize it. We -- in Q4 of 2015, we were pretty vocal, or pretty transparent anyway, that we ran out of space in Q4, especially due to some very strong demand for FBA space and services. Last year, we changed some of our incentives to -- and worked with FBA merchants to try and have their throughput to our FCs, particularly in Q4. That, combined with the step up in fulfillment centers that I mentioned, the 26 new ones, left us in a really good position. We had a very clean holiday, and we think it worked well for both customers, Amazon and also for sellers, especially for FBA sellers. So yes, that leaves us now continuing to grow internationally as well because we continue to see strong FBA adoption, and it's a big part of our business, and it's a big part of our value with the additional Prime eligible ASINs that FBA provides. So again, it's -- they're self-reinforcing, the FBA program and also our Prime program. Prime program attracts more people to Amazon, and they buy more, including FBA products. And conversely, more FBA products in our warehouses helps our in stock of things that people want to buy, Prime eligible in stock, and that helps reinforce the Prime program.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath P. Terry,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Wondering if you could give us a sense of how we should think about the increase in unearned revenue. Obviously this quarter, the biggest increase that you've seen from at least from a dollar perspective. What does that say about the way customers are changing in the behavior in the AWS business? How should we think about the way that, that might be impacting pricing mix, near-term growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Heath, this is Darin. Yes, on the deferred revenue balances, as we've said in the past, the primary drivers of that increase are both the activity that we're seeing with our AWS customers and the purchase of Reserved Instances and prepaid credits for their account as well as Prime member purchases. We're not breaking out the specific growth rates for Prime. But certainly, we like what we see in terms of the growth, and it's been consistent with what we've seen over the last quarter or so. Certainly, part of that increase in deferred balances is related to Reserved Instances as customers get more comfortable and begin to put more sustained workloads into the AWS services. Through buying RIs, they're able to get fairly significant discounts on their usage. And so we like that model, customers certainly like that model and collecting that through deferred revenue and then letting customers use that over time is very helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Colin Sebastian with Robert W. Baird.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Colin Alan Sebastian,  Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Question on the transportation and logistics initiatives and, in particular, if you could share any of the facts or learnings thus far with air cargo. In particular, what kind of performance or cost efficiencies that you may be realizing or expect to realize from this effort.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Colin. As you pointed out, we're -- we've expanded our own fleet. We now have 18 planes in service for Amazon, and we've announced rights to lease up to 40 planes. So it's gone very well. The ability to control shipments within our network has gone up, and we think the cost is very good. So on that front, it's better control -- better capacity control and especially search capacity and also good costs. So we have great relationships with third-party carriers. We will continue to, and we value all of our partner relationships as we develop our own capability, particularly in intra-network. We're putting it to good use, as I mentioned before, with the sortation center example.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Scott Devitt with Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Scott W. Devitt,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - MD    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about where you are in terms of investment and capabilities in India at this point and how you think about that market longer term. And then secondly, also if you could just comment on the limitations and your willingness to invest more throughout LatAm, the way you have more recently in markets like China and India. And if I could, just finally, you've previously discussed satisfaction with the measurements of success for the video product in terms of consumer engagement and the effects on Prime. I was just wondering if you could comment on whether these metrics are continuing to improve as spending continues to rise on video and consumer awareness is seemingly growing as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with your middle question. I think it was about Latin America growth. Let me step back and talk about international growth in general. So it -- our approach varies by country. If you look historically, we've taken multiple approaches. So in China, we bought an existing business, Joyo.com, and built off that base. In India, we started from scratch and have built a lot of things ourselves. And it's always going to depend on the country, the dynamics in that country both for retail, for online and for foreign investment. But a real key factor in all of this generally is management bandwidth as well. So we pick our spots carefully. You'll see -- you heard in the quarter that we've announced the intention to buy Souq in the Middle East. Where does that fit into the strategy? Well, Souq is a pioneered e-commerce in the Middle East, and they're creating great shipping experience for the customers and their multiple countries and they're doing a great job. So we see this as an example where we can learn from them and also support their efforts with our Amazon technology and global resources. So we -- we are in Mexico, but we're not in other parts of Latin America. We're -- we have a business in Brazil, but other countries will take on a case-by-case basis, again, bounded by what our management bandwidth can support and prioritization versus other things. You obviously heard my long list of investments. All of those are pretty much gated by the need for people and software engineers and strong teams to approach them. So international expansion gets played off in the same prioritization that other efforts do.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer & Co.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Stuart Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So is there -- just an accounting housekeeping, a way to think about stock-based comp. You guys aren't providing that by segment anymore, but the rates of growth kind of differed by the businesses. And so is there just a way to think about, a, will that be in the Q, or are you not disclosing anymore? And is there a way to think about would, I guess, the patterns be consistent with historical patterns by segment?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Jason, this is Darin. We, a number of quarters back, started breaking out stock-based compensation by segment, and now we've collapsed that in our op income by segment. So it's definitely in there. We do provide some disclosure by P&L line item on a consolidated basis that helps you identify that stock-based compensation expense in total, and you'll see the trend analysis in the metrics at the back of the press release.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric James Sheridan,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe I could take 2 away from the press release just to understand a little bit of the quarter-over-quarter cadence. The retail subscription services, that's a pretty big jump up in the growth rate year-on-year in Q1 versus Q4. I think that might be Prime memberships had come on to paid from trial, but just want to understand what maybe what some of the driver was of that quarter-over-quarter in terms of the growth rate. And net shipping costs actually grew at the slowest rate by our count in a couple years. It looks like you're starting to get some improvements there in terms of revenue over costs on the shipping line. I just wanted to know what that was in terms of what's driving that, and can we expect that to possibly continue.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with the retail subscription services revenue. So there's multiple things in that category, the largest is Prime membership fees, but also other subscription services like audiobooks, e-books, digital video, digital music and other subscription services. So you're right, there was an acceleration. Much like the comment I had on advertising and the other revenue category, the Prime membership growth rates for Q1 and Q4 last year are relatively consistent. So the volatility is in those other items. So I'm not quantifying the Prime membership or commenting on the growth rates other than to say it's been very strong and Q4 strength has continued into Q1. Your comment on shipping costs, yes, that is going to -- that was a lower unit volume as well. But generally, costs are going to be a combination of the tailwind -- the headwinds obviously are going to be FBA growth and shipping more products ourselves and this expansion of our Prime program and the demand for products from our Prime customers. And demand's been great. Again, there's over 50 million items that people can get delivered to their doorstep within 2 days or, in some cases, next day or same day. So it's going to be a big part of our cost structure, but it's an investment we work hard to reduce as far as rates and we're glad to spend it to support our Prime program.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And our final question will come from Greg Melich with Evercore ISI.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gregory Scott Melich,  Evercore ISI, Research Division - Senior MD, Head of Consumer Research Team and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have a follow-up and then a new question. The follow-up is would love an update. You talked about the fulfillment centers, but could you update us on where we are in terms of rolling out Prime Now facilities and sorting centers -- just a count? And if you feel that's an area to really ramp-up investment this year, or what you got last year is sort of what you need.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. I'm sorry, you said Prime Now. And what was the other thing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gregory Scott Melich,  Evercore ISI, Research Division - Senior MD, Head of Consumer Research Team and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And the sorting centers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [46]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sort centers, right. Well, I don't have updated numbers for you, but the Prime Now is available in more than 45 cities across 8 countries. The same day is available in 30 cities in the U.S. So that's a bit on the quantification of those. I can't tell you much more on sort centers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gregory Scott Melich,  Evercore ISI, Research Division - Senior MD, Head of Consumer Research Team and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [47]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          But when you think about building out the capacity, it sounds like last year you had that big surge in fulfillment centers. There isn't a similar surge about to happen this year on some of those other areas?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [48]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I can't project that. We're still growing that, and we're happy with the progress in Prime Now and the service that -- the value it creates for Prime customers. And as I said, we've expanded internationally, which is a big goal of ours as well. So we will continue to grow that. I can't quantify it for you right now. The other similar-like facility metric you might want is AmazonFresh is now in 21 metro areas in the U.S. as well as London and Tokyo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [49]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for joining us on our call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2017-Feb-02-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,460 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2016 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+FEBRUARY 02, 2017 / 10:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com Inc. - CFO
+ * Darin Manney
+   Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Anthony DiClemente
+   Nomura Instinet - Analyst
+ * Scott Devitt
+   Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst
+ * Ben Schachter
+   Macquarie Research - Analyst
+ * Douglas Anmuth
+   JPMorgan - Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst
+ * Jason Helfstein
+   Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst
+ * John Blackledge
+   Cowen and Company - Analyst
+ * Heath Terry
+   Goldman Sachs - Analyst
+ * Colin Sebastian
+   Robert W. Baird & Company, Inc. - Analyst
+ * Eric Sheridan
+   UBS - Analyst
+ * Mark Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets - Analyst
+ * Brian Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley - Analyst
+ * Mark May
+   Citigroup - Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q4 2016 financial results teleconference.
+(Operator Instructions)
+Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I will be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Darin Manney. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello and welcome to our Q4 2016 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2015.
+Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, February 2, 2017 only, and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
+During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website. You will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we have seen to date, and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable, and may be materially affected by many factors. Including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the internet, online commerce and cloud services, and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
+Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It is not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+And just briefly before we move to questions, I would like to address our Form 10-K that we will be filing with the SEC. We received a comment letter from the SEC's Division of Corporate Finance regarding our 2015 Form 10-K, and have subsequently been engaged with the SEC staff regarding our disclosures.
+We will be revising the disclosures of net, product and service sales in our Form 10-K. As a result, we expect to file our 2016 Form 10-K later than we typically have, but before the SEC's due date of March 1. These changes relate to our entity-wide disclosures and do not impact the financial results that we report for the Company or our segments.
+With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions)
+John Blackledge, Cowen.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Blackledge,  Cowen and Company - Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great, thanks for the question. So the first quarter GAAP operating income guide essentially implies negative incremental margins at the low, mid and high end of guidance. So just wondering if you can frame in order of possible the investment areas that are driving the negative incremental margins, and then just generally how should we think about the margin profile in 2017? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you, John. First, let me talk about revenue just to get that out there as well.
+We are guiding to 17% to 25% growth on an FX-neutral basis. That includes approximately -- on top of that is approximately 250 basis points or $730 million of FX negative impact, which brings the non-FX adjusted range down to 14% to 23%.
+I will also point out we that had the Leap Year comp from last year. Last year, the extra day of Leap Year was worth 150 basis points to us in our Q1 revenue. This year that reverses, so we have 150 basis point headwind to growth and it's been factored into our guidance range.
+But your question was on bottom line. So yes, what you are seeing, John, is the continuation of the step-up investment that we saw in the second half of last year. I talked about in prior calls about the fulfillment center step up.
+We had 26 warehouses we added last year, 23 of them were in the second half of the year. Digital content, digital video content, end marketing stepped up quite a bit in the second half of the year.
+We continue to invest heavily in those two areas. We also have investments in other Prime benefits from Prime Now to Amazon Fresh, and of course we're continuing to invest in Alexa in our Echo devices. And finally I'd point out India which continues to be a rather large investment for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Scott Devitt, Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Scott Devitt,  Stifel Nicolaus - Analyst    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, thank you. The question is on video. I was wondering if you could just give any quantification in terms of the magnitude of video spend in 2017, as well as the lumpiness from an expensing standpoint quarterly?
+And then separately as it relates to just the video service. From a positioning standpoint in the market, how do you think about the unique aspects of the product that Amazon has relative to others in the market in terms of is the aggregation tools that are being provided now where some of the value is being perceived longer term?
+Is it the uniqueness of the content or is it other things? If you could provide a little bit of color on that, that would be helpful. Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Well ultimately, I will step back and say one of the main things we look at on Prime Video is customer usage patterns. And in 2016, we had a doubling of Prime hours for video, music and reading. So we are happy with the engagement that customers have.
+We're also happy with the -- especially on the studio side, the people we have been able to work with. Some of the most talented people in the entertainment industry. And our customers have responded really well to the shows that we have created. We have garnered awards of course, but mainly what we were focused on is good content that is attractive to customers.
+I will also point out that we rolled out the global Prime Video offer in the second half of last -- in Q4, and what we see there is again original content is a fixed cost expense. The more we can amortize it over a large base, the better off we will be. But more importantly, we have great content that we want to share with people outside of our primary retail countries and this takes us to over 200 more countries.
+So we are very happy with the results in video. Yes, the investment did step up in the second half of last year, including marketing and that will continue in 2017 and likely beyond.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Ben Schachter, Macquarie.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ben Schachter,  Macquarie Research - Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Can you discuss what you're doing to help merchants in China sell and ship directly to consumers in the US and other developed economies, and how the business has been evolving over time? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, Ben. This is Darin. We are very pleased with our FBA offering, and that's really helpful to sellers around the world. Certainly, our international sellers have access to more and more customers through that offering, and that doesn't exclude sellers in China as well.
+The offering in China that we have for consumers is also a great trusted customer engagement. We have a very strong and trusted venue for Chinese customers to access international brands there, as we continue to focus on great offerings through the Amazon global store which offers great brands from outside of China to customers. And so there is a mix of things going on in China, and we're happy with what we are seeing in both of those.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Justin Post, Bank of America/Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch - Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. A follow up on India and China. I know you are investing a lot, I'd love to hear how much but you probably won't tell us.
+But can you tell us why you think the market is worth investment, and what really attracts you to the market as you think out longer term? And then China, can you give us any updates there on how financial performance is doing, and if you have changed your strategy and if anything has gotten better there this year? Thank you
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with India. So it's still very early. We continue to say that, but we're very encouraged with what we have created with customers and sellers alike in India over the last few years.
+We continue to develop new functionality for that country, whether it's delivery, whether it's seller features. We rolled out Prime last summer, if you'll remember, and we recently launched Prime Video there.
+So we've had success with Prime in every country we've been in, we don't expect India to be any different. We will continue to build our business there, and continue to do a great job for both customers and sellers. We are bullish on India longer term, and it's early but we like the initial engagement we are seeing and the response again from both customers and sellers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And this is Darin. On China, like I said, we are very pleased with our offering in China. Our strategy there has been one of bringing a trusted and authentic product to customers in China, both domestically and from international offers.
+So we will continue to focus on the global store there. As you may know, we've launched the Prime program that's focused around the availability of international goods in China, and we are pleased with what we are seeing there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Heath Terry, Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Terry,  Goldman Sachs - Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. Two primary questions. Can you give us a sense of what the best way to think about the impact that the shift to third-party? And within that the growth in FBA is having on these sequential growth rates?
+To the extent that there is 150 basis point impact from Leap Year on a year-over-year basis, is there a way to quantify the impact that that shift to third party is having on the growth rate for the first quarter or for what you have reported in the fourth? And then on the AWS side of the business, with the price cut in November can you give us some sense of what impact the price cut had on the deceleration in growth compared to the impact that presumably it had in driving incremental volume to the platform?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with that second question first. So more basically on AWS, very happy with the response from customers. We feel we've got a very broad base of customers from startups, to small medium businesses, to large enterprises, to the public sector, and we are continuing to see strong growth across all those sectors.
+The business is now a $14 billion annualized -- running at a $14 billion run rate. You are right that we had seven price cuts in Q4 essentially timed for December 1, so about a third of the impact was seen in Q4. But that's going to be constant in this business.
+We have been pretty clear that this business is all about creating new functionality for customers, giving price cuts, and then working on the operating efficiency. So very pleased with Q4 and the pace of the business.
+The new services and features last year were over 1,000 versus 700 or so in 2015. So we continue to innovate on behalf of customers. We are working with some very large customers in each industry.
+You have seen probably press releases on companies like Capital One, Workday, salesforce and others. So again, widespread usage and new customer adoption which is great.
+Your second question on FBA, I can't break out the year-over-year difference there. What I will say the impact of FBA on our business is, and first that's -- one of the things that we look at is how well are we attracting new FBA sellers. Because again, FBA reinforces Prime, Prime reinforces FBA. It's a good flywheel.
+We added active sellers in FBA grew 70% year over year in 2016. So we are very happy with the continued adoption of FBA and what that does to Prime eligible selection for Prime members.
+The other data point I will give you that affects our cost structure is our Amazon fulfilled units, which is the combination of retail plus FBA, grew nearly 40% last year. That compares to our paid unit growth of 24% in Q4. I'm giving you Q4 and a full-year number, but they are similar in relative proportion.
+The fulfillment center expenses and a lot of our shipping costs are tied to the increase in that FBA percentage, and that growth of Amazon fulfilled units. So that is certainly a factor that we consider a positive from a customer standpoint, and it's one from a cost standpoint that we certainly continue to work on every day. But I think that's the most I can give you on FBA at this point.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Colin Sebastian, Robert W. Baird.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Colin Sebastian,  Robert W. Baird & Company, Inc. - Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks very much. Maybe as a quick follow up on the quarter, we have heard from other e-commerce companies and retailers about a higher degree of promotional activity during Q4. So I wonder if there was any conscious decision on your part to pull back from some of the more aggressive discounting?
+And then my other question is whether you can shed any more light on the motivation to build out the air cargo hub in Cincinnati, understanding the need to support the growth of the core retail business? But also if this gives you more of an opportunity to build out direct connections to suppliers, for example, or longer-term offer excess capacity or logistics as a service? Thank you very much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Colin. On your first question, holidays are always a very promotional period, so we don't see -- I can't really comment on the year-over-year differential in promotional activity to us. We are always looking to not be beat on price. We want to offer the best options to customers, and we saw a lot of great response from customers this holiday season. I think we'd be a very trusted holiday partner, particularly as you get closer to the holiday.
+So on the promotion side, we don't consider it a huge factor either way. It's pretty much a cost of doing business 12 months a year for us.
+Sorry, the second question was on the hub in Cincinnati or Kentucky. Yes, that is -- I saw the announcement on that, that is a partnership we have to build out a facility at the Hebron, Kentucky airport. We think it will create thousands of jobs over time.
+What it does for us is it this gives us a base for future growth. It's all about supplementing our existing capacity, both our Partners and ourselves, and essentially building capacity that can handle this top line growth and also the growth in AFN, or Amazon fulfilled network units which as I just mentioned is even higher than our paid unit growth.
+So same as some of the investments you saw in airplanes last year or partnerships with companies that do air cargo, this is about supplying our need for our customers and our sellers. We value the partnership with the external providers as well, and I think we're all dealing with the problem of having lots of incremental volume year over year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Mark May, Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark May,  Citigroup - Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you. Just a question on paid unit growth. For the last several quarters here it's been accelerating on a year-on-year basis, and I think this quarter 24% was below the 26% that you reported in Q4 of 2015. Just curious what had been driving the acceleration over the past few quarters, and what may be changed this quarter?
+And then in terms of the Q1 revenue guidance, wondering if you could provide a little bit of color in terms of the impact that maybe the recent AWS price adjustments are having on your Q1 guidance? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with the second one. We factored it in, and obviously into the numbers I gave through guidance the timing of it was again closer to December 1. So there will be a incremental differential in Q1 on those price cuts, but this is something that we again have quite frequently and I don't think it's a large factor in Q1.
+The bigger one is more mechanical that Leap Day comp I would say. And if you are looking on a non-FX adjusted basis, the foreign exchange exposure which I mentioned was $730 million or 250 basis points expected in this guidance.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, Mark. This is Darin. On that unit growth, we're very happy with the 24% unit growth that we saw in Q4, like you mentioned. Our unit growth has been strong, it's primarily attributable to our Prime program and the customers and members that enjoy that program.
+As Brian mentioned, that 28% is only part of the story. Our Amazon fulfilled units, the amount going through our fulfillment centers which essentially includes our first-party retail and our FBA sales, grew nearly 40% over 2016. So we are very pleased with those results, and happy with the fundamentals of the business from that perspective.
+Customers continue to respond very well to the low prices, the vast selection, which is helped by the FBA sellers, and the strong convenience that we can offer through free two-day shipping and the multitude of other faster shipping options. Such as same day, next day, and in some cases with Prime Now the 1 to 2 hour delivery. Prime membership and selection continues to drive growth, and you'll see that in our unit growth numbers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Douglas Anmuth, JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Anmuth,  JPMorgan - Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking the question. A lot of talk obviously about border tax. I was hoping that you could give us some of your initial thoughts there and how you might think about some of the key considerations around a potential border tax.
+And then secondly, can you talk a little bit about fulfillment centers? You mentioned the 26 fulfillment center build out in 2016. Any color that you can give us in terms of how you're thinking about that for 2017? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the first one, we have a long-standing practice of not commenting on regulatory or tax matters. So I am not going to comment on any proposed issues out there. We certainly keep an eye on external issues and weigh in when we think it's going to impact our business.
+But the -- sorry, your second question was on FCs. We will continue to invest in FCs. The comparable I will give you is that I won't forecast 2017, but the 20% growth in square footage that we saw in 2015 was followed by 30% square footage increase in 2016 that generally went to service that 40% growth in units in AFN units.
+It also included some of the additional logistics delivery stations and all too, so it's not all FC capacity that's square footage. But I would say that we're going to continue to invest in fulfillment centers as long as our AFN growth rate maintains high, and we certainly want to keep that high and growing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Mark Mahaney, RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets - Analyst    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, two questions please. First, any comment on customer growth qualitatively how that trended throughout the year, accelerated, consistent, decelerated? And then would you be willing to give any commentary on the engagement impact you're seeing from all of these Echo devices that are getting into households?
+Are you seeing people shop more? Are they engaging more with other parts of Amazon? Just any impact on what people with these Echo devices do that's different than Amazon customers that don't have them? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with the Echo. I don't think I'm going to answer your exact question there on quantifying the retail sales through Echo devices. It's still very early days on that, so that's not material.
+But the engagement is just like any other Prime benefit or investment that we have. We do look at engagement, and we like the engagement of customers who have Echos. But let me step back and give some highlights on that, Alexa and Echo together.
+As we mentioned in our press release, the unit sales of Echos grew nine times 9x year over year during the holiday period. So great customer adoption. We are really glad to see that, and that creates a great base of Echo and Alexa fans out there.
+We've added 4,000 skills to Alexa since I last spoke to you in October, and we are working with a lot of major companies as they add abilities for our customer base to use the Alexa or the Echo to reach them. Tens of thousands of developers are building new skills for Alexa, so the skills addition should continue. And just as importantly, tens of thousands of developers are also using the Alexa voice service to help integrate Alexa into their products which then creates a great network effect.
+We're doing that ourselves. If you've seen in the quarter, we added Alexa capabilities to our tablets and Fire TV devices, making them better. So it's a great part of the flywheel in that Echo and Alexa make the devices better, and it builds the engagement, not only with Echo and Alexa but also with Amazon.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, Mark. This is Darin. On the customer account, no absolute number to give this quarter. As you know, back in Q1 we gave an active customer account that exceeded $300 million. I can see it's still growing, and we're pleased with the number there.
+What we do like is the engagement with Prime. We continue to add Prime members, and similar to the flywheel that Brian was just mentioning the FBA selection helps us with engaging customers, and in particular the Prime program. So we are very pleased with our customer engagement this year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian Nowak, Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Nowak,  Morgan Stanley - Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my questions, I have two. The first one is on the last mile on the Logistics build. Can you help us at all on what you are seeing in some of these markets, like the UK where you have more of the last mile build out done on your own? Is there anything you're seeing about Prime behavior?
+What are the advantages and even the challenges you are facing as you're building out a last mile? And secondly, on the brick-and-mortar stores, any learnings and strategically just talk to the strategic advantage of having a bigger Amazon storefront? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Let me start with your first question. So as you point out, we have had Amazon Logistics deliveries in the UK for more years than some of our other countries, and what we see is it gives us control of the shipment for a lot longer. We can shift order cutoff times out, and time is valuable to us because again we can avoid split shipments, we can avoid other costs of acceleration.
+So having control later in the process is very valuable to us, especially as we're working across multiple nodes in a network. But I have driven with drivers in downtown London, and it's a very interesting experience. I think it's a great value to our customers.
+It's interesting to see the route density that we see in high cities or in some cities, and the challenges and the upside of that. But I would say essentially in a nutshell, our logistics deliveries allow us to have better control of the end delivery in markets where we use it. The challenge is always going to be cost, and as we get better at this and get economies of scale we lower those costs over time. So that's essentially my overview of Amazon Logistics.
+Sorry, your second question was on the stores. You probably noticed we opened the Amazon Go store in Seattle in the fourth quarter. We think that is very interesting.
+It's only one store at this time, but it's using some of the same technologies you would see in self-driving cars, computer vision, sensor, fusion, deep learning. So it's a great accomplishment by that team. It's in beta right now and we like the promise of that.
+Probably more advanced and further along are the Amazon Bookstores. We have three physical stores Seattle, San Diego and Portland right now. We see adding five more this year. So we are still in that phase where we are testing and learning and getting better, even on the bookstore.
+I would say there's other things that are physical in nature, the pop-up stores and college pickup points that we learn from as well, and think creates a great value particularly at the college pickup points. So not much projection beyond where we are today, except for the fact that we will be adding more bookstores.
+But we test, we innovate. We think the bookstores, for instance, are a really great way for customers to engage with our devices and see them, touch them and play with them and become fans. So we see a lot of value in that as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Jason Helfstein, Oppenheimer.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. - Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, two questions. As we think about investment in the first quarter in 2017, any color how to think about domestic versus international? You did give some comments about India, but any other color or how to think about it.
+And then on AWS, you announced both new products at re:Invent at the low end and at the high end. Any commentary on if that impacted the types of customers who you have been adding on AWS with those new products? Thank you.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I can't give an exact split of the investments by geography, but I would say most of the fulfillment expansion was in North America last year, most of those 26 warehouses we talked about. We see that being more balanced over time, and being more global as we move forward.
+Video content is with the new global program. Global Prime Video is becoming more global with the launch in India as well, and of course we had Prime Video in some of our existing countries prior to that. So that is going more global, and will be more balanced as you see devices rollout to other countries same thing.
+So I would say over time, it will become more balanced and probably what you have seen in the short run tended to be more North America focused. But I can't give you a great split of -- I'm not giving you absolutes anyway, so I can't give you a great split of the two.
+And I will also say that not all of our investments are on the consumer side. AWS continues to expand their global footprint. Last year, we added regions in the UK and Canada, we now have 42 availability zones in 16 geographic regions and will continue to grow that business globally. And India again, we've mentioned, but that is obviously an international investment.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the customer split, we serve, in AWS, we serve millions of active customers along the spectrum of large enterprise companies, as well as small startups and the public company or public environment as well. The multitude of launches that we had in re:Invent was great for all sizes of customers really, both large and small.
+Both companies just getting there start with AWS, but also companies that have been engaged with AWS for many years. So we're really happy about the engagement of re:Invent and the participation in that conference, as well as the engagement of the new services that we have launched in Q4 and all of 2016 really.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Eric Sheridan, UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric Sheridan,  UBS - Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking the question, maybe two if I can ask. One, the other North America revenue line in our view has a lot of advertising revenue in it, and that line continues to show a lot of momentum, come in better than expected. Can you talk holistically short, medium, long term about how you think you are approaching an advertising business across your broad properties?
+What that might become longer term, and how that might impact the P&L? And then one housekeeping item, anything to call out as an impact from demonetization efforts India in either Q4 or Q1? Thanks so much.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I will take the advertising question. Yes, it's very early in the advertising space, but what our goals there are to be helpful to customers and enhance their shopping and viewing experiences. Mostly with targeted recommendations. We think that is a good strategy rather than invasive things that take away from the shopping experience.
+I would sponsored products is off to a great start. They're finding a very effective way for advertisers to reach interested customers.
+We also on Video have not added much in the way of advertising yet. There is some pre-roll as we call it, but for the most part we like to the progression. We are balancing customer experience with advertising at all times, and we like the team that's working on it.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And on other revenue, I just want to call out. There's a number of things going into that particular line. These things include revenue from our co-branded credit card arrangements and certain advertising, particularly display advertising.
+We have other types of advertising that spread out throughout the P&L, whether that's a shared marketing investment from our vendors which goes into contra COGS and lowers the cost of sales or its related to other seller advertising which is generally within the EGM and media categories. I would say other revenue incorporates a number of things, not just advertising. And on India demonetization, nothing particular to call out today on that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Anthony DiClemente, Nomura Instinet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Anthony DiClemente,  Nomura Instinet - Analyst    [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for taking my questions. It's about Prime Video, you said you were pleased with the hours of engagement. My question is do you think that the hours of video stream need to accelerate from here to get to an adequate return on the invested capital in video, or are you happy with those returns with the current levels of engagement?
+And then relatedly on Prime Video, could you just talk about your ambitions to potentially extend the video offering beyond on demand and into possibly a virtual cable bundle? And then finally, just a question of do you need to aggressively partner with distributors, whether they be cable distributors or hardware device companies, in order to get better distribution of the Amazon Prime Instant Video app and content to your customers? Thanks.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Olsavsky,  Amazon.com Inc. - CFO    [44]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I can't add too much or won't add too much on the last two questions, but I will say on -- you're talking about the levels of engagement now that we are seeing versus what would be the long-term model over time. We're certainly spending ahead of the value of the engagement right now. But it's a good sign that it's building, an important step was that global Prime program that we launched in the fall, excuse me, in Q4.
+As I said, it's very much a fixed expense game, especially with original content. The fixed amount can go up or down, but the ability to amortize it over large population is what we are looking for. So we see a double benefit of the global Prime Video program, again, both to amortize the investment in original content but also to show that original content to more and more people.
+Because we think it's done really well. We think it's won a lot of awards, and we have worked with some great talented people. It's our ability to scale that and to amortize it over a much larger customer base, which will help us in the future.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com Inc. - Director of IR    [45]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com, and look forward to talking to you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2017-Jul-27-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,333 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2017 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 27, 2017 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian T. Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP
+ * Darin Manney
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Heath P. Terry
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Brian Patrick Fitzgerald
+   Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Research Analyst
+ * Eric James Sheridan
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst
+ * Jason Stuart Helfstein
+   Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Daniel Salmon
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Media and Internet Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark Stephen F. Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst
+ * Brian Thomas Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Colin Alan Sebastian
+   Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - Senior Research Analyst
+ * Mark Alan May
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst
+ * Douglas Till Anmuth
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q2 2017 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Darin Manney. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q2 2017 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2016.
+Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, July 27, 2017, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings. During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC. Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements and excludes the impact of our proposed acquisition of Whole Foods Market. It is not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath P. Terry,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I was just wondering if you could give us a sense on the investments that are planned in Q3. Previously, you've been willing to provide sort of some qualitative guidance around how you're rank ordering those in terms of the ones that are -- the largest areas of investment in the quarter. Just wondering if you could update us on that just given the guidance for Q3 and what we saw in investment in Q2.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me see what I can tell you on that. First of all, I want to remind you that Q3 is typically a lower operating income quarter as we're preparing for the Q4 holiday peak. The other dynamic is that similar to last year, a large percentage of our new fulfillment centers are coming online in the second half of the year, a lot of them in Q3. So to give that some perspective, the Amazon-Fulfilled Network or the combination of retail and FBA shipments coming out of our warehouses has been nearly 40%. It was that last year and it's continued through this year. Last year, we added 30% additional square footage to handle that additional shipping volume, and about 80% of that went in to service in the back end of last year. That's what I mentioned about this time last year. The -- similar dynamic this year. We're going to have about 80% of our increase in square footage for fulfillment and shipping coming online in the back end of the year. So that's a major increase. The other comment I would make is on the content -- video content. Video content, last year I highlighted the fact that it was going to be a significant step up between first half -- second half of 2016 and the second half of 2015. We are still -- we lapped that most of the first half of this year, and we'll also be increasing video spend on a sequential and year-over-year basis in Q3 and that's included in this guidance. Other than that, I can't give much more specifics except to say that the large investment areas remain increasing fulfillment capacity to service the strong growth of the FBA business. I'll also point out that the strong usage growth at AWS has led us to a step up in infrastructure in the form of capital leases. We've built capital leases in the trailing 12 months. They've increased 71% through the end of Q2 versus last year. That is servicing -- accelerating usage in our largest AWS services as well as geographic expansion. So that's additional factor sequentially in the quarter year-over-year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Colin Sebastian with Robert W. Baird.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Colin Alan Sebastian,  Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Research Division - Senior Research Analyst    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          A question on the grocery category and the announcement that we have -- that we heard recently. Specifically, does that imply that the strategy has changed around Fresh, which was presumably replacing the trip to the grocery store? Or should we think about adding different modes, such as pickup points and bricks-and-mortar, as serving a distinct customer base or geared to reduce the cost bottleneck around home delivery? Any comments would be helpful.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Colin. First, as far as Whole Foods is concerned, as Darin mentioned, it's not included in this guidance since it hasn't closed yet, but we are excited about that acquisition and looking forward to working with the team at Whole Foods. We think they're very customer-centric just like us. They've built a great business focused around quality and customers. So we're really glad to join up with them. On your larger question about with the place of AmazonFresh, that include Prime Now and some of our other efforts, I would say we believe there will be no one solution. So we're experimenting with a number of the formats, from physical pickup points in Amazon Go to online ordering and delivery to your door through Prime Now and AmazonFresh. And we'll see how customers respond. We like the response that we've seen so far. We think they're valuable. All those are valuable services. Amazon Go is not out of beta, but the other ones are. On top of that, we're looking forward to adding the Whole Foods team and their great reputation for quality and customer service to this offering.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Justin Post with Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          A couple of questions. It definitely seems relative to your guidance, you may have stepped up spending in the second quarter. Anything in particular to call out, India or anything like that? And then just thinking bigger picture, I'm wondering why physical locations might make sense for Amazon. Why is that a positive use of capital going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. As far as Q2 is concerned, we were very encouraged by the revenue and unit growth acceleration, particularly in North America. We see that as tied to the Prime growth and the adoption of Prime and success of that program. Also point out that AWS stepped up its run rate from a $14 billion run rate last quarter to $16 billion. So we saw the largest quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year increase in revenue in that businesses as well, and gross margin expanded 130 basis points. So as you point out, the year-over-year difference is primarily driven by investments. The -- we're within the guidance range, and we continue to invest in, as I said, fulfillment capacity and logistic services, digital video, our Echo and Alexa -- Echo devices and Alexa platform, India, the buildup at AWS infrastructure, all the things I mentioned, not to mention Prime Now and AmazonFresh and Prime benefits. We did see a big jump in headcount in year-over-year. You'll see it's 42%, and in the past I've said most of that is driven by operations hiring. And I've even said that headquarters office hiring many times in the past was below the level of revenue growth. Right now what we're seeing is an accelerated growth rate in software engineers and also sales teams to support primarily AWS and advertising. So yes, those -- the growth rate of those 2 job categories actually exceeded the company growth rates. So we are adding -- having success hiring a lot of people and pointing them at some very important programs and customer-facing efforts. On the place of physical, again, as I mentioned in the earlier question, we are experimenting with a number of formats. You've seen the physical bookstores, and I would say that the benefit there is -- again, we have a curated selection of titles and it's also a great opportunity for people to touch and feel our devices and see them, especially the new Echo devices. I went into the store in Seattle last week and I saw about 1/3 of the people were standing around the device table, learning how they work, how they interact with the devices. So I saw firsthand the customer experience. I think that's where we're seeing the benefit to the physical stores right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark May with Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Alan May,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Question on the comments around the fulfillment investments. Could you characterize or maybe even quantify how much of the fulfillment infrastructure investment that you're making is going to incrementally gear towards handling growth in sort of the existing business and infrastructure versus expanding your capabilities in fulfillment, like adding more inbound or last mile and/or from entering new international markets where you need to invest ahead of growth versus just sort of keeping up and maintaining growth within sort of your existing footprint? And then AWS, you had some price adjustments in May, yet the Q2 growth was quite good. Can you just comment about the impact that those cuts may have had in Q2? And if you're modeling those also in your Q3 guidance, maybe the impact there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me start with the second one. So yes, we've had numerous price increase -- or decrease, excuse me, and we continue to have that in the AWS business, both absolute decreases in service costs and also rolling out new services that may be cannibalizing more expensive, other services that we provide. So nothing really to note on Q2 or Q3 from that standpoint. The fulfillment investments, I can't split it out for you between Amazon Logistics support sort centers and fulfillment centers. What I can say, the biggest dynamic going on, again, is that Amazon-Fulfilled unit growth of nearly 40%, which was last year and carrying it to this year. It's a global number, and we are very glad of the success of the FBA program. We're matching that with just over 30% increase in square footage. And yes, you're right, that does include some shipping sort centers and things that are incremental and new functions for us, if you will. But that's about all I can say on that right now. I think we're very happy -- we're very happy with the FBA program, its impact on Prime and we think Prime and FBA are self-reinforcing. We know customers really like it, the additional selection that FBA provides. So we like those combined, and we are working very hard to match that with capacity in an efficient manner.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question is from Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Till Anmuth,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I just wanted to follow up on AWS and just on the back of the price cut, obviously 1Q being the first full quarter, but it looks like 2Q, as Mark said, things did stabilize some. Can you just talk about whether you're seeing more of a volume pickup response here and companies kind of more actively moving volume into the cloud at these lower prices? And then just secondly on Prime, the value of the Prime subscription for the consumer seems to continue to increase as you add more features in there. Can you just talk about your view around the flexibility of the price of an annual Prime subscription?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. On the price of Prime, I have nothing to add at this time. We think that the -- we're increasing the value of the Prime program every day. So it becomes more and more valuable and again, as we've said, it's the best deal in retail. On AWS, yes, the -- we are seeing great customer adoption. The -- again, as I've said earlier, the run rate's gone up from $14 billion to $16 billion in Q2. And also, we had the largest sequential and year-over-year dollar rise in revenues. Our usage in all of our large services are actually accelerating, so -- and they're growing at a rate higher than our revenue growth. So we're seeing great adoption. We are seeing AWS customers migrate more than 30,000 databases over the last 1.5 years. We've signed some very big customer wins like Ancestry, Hightail, California Polytechnic State University and others that we're very proud to have. So yes, the momentum in the businesses is very strong. We continue to open new regions. We'll be opening 5 regions in the near future in France, China, Sweden, Hong Kong and a second government cloud region in the east. So yes, we like the momentum in that business. Stepping back, I would say that where pricing is important, again, we're generally being selected because of our functionality and pace of innovation. The innovation keeps accelerating. It did in the first half of this year, the pace of new services and features. We also know that customers value our partner and customer ecosystem, and really the experience we've had. We've been at this longer than anybody else.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Stephen F. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I want to stick with AWS, please. So the AWS revenue growth showed almost no change, but the AWS operating margin was lower, I guess, than we've seen in, I don't know, 6 quarters or something like that. I find that a little surprising, but then I also saw that the tech and content came in materially heavy, I think, versus our and, I assume, other expectations. So could you just talk about that a little bit, the profitability, if there's anything that's changed in the profitability of AWS?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Those margins, as we say frequently, are going to fluctuate quarter-to-quarter and always going to be a net of investments, price reductions and cost efficiencies that we drive. So I would say the biggest impact in the margin that you're seeing in Q2 is really around the 71% increase in assets acquired under capital leases. Most of that is for the AWS business. So we've really stepped up the infrastructure to match the large usage growth and also the geographic expansion, and that is showing up in tech and content. On the marketing, if you look under the marketing expenses, they are also up and that is driven by the increases we're seeing in the sales team, both in AWS and advertising. So I would point to those 2 as probably larger-than-normal impacts on Q2 operating margin.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Thomas Nowak,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2. The first one, as you continue to add more Prime Now markets with 1- to 2-hour shipping, can you just talk to some of the logistical challenges you've already encountered and worked through? And talk to kind of -- if you really do see 1- to 2-hour shipping become a larger piece of the business over the next year, what's the biggest challenge to make sure that you manage? And the second one on the subscription revenue. Looks like subscription revenue growth was strong again, over 50%. Can you just talk to what drove that acceleration? Was it Prime, or was there something else in there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with your second question. On the subscription revenue, grew 53% year-over-year versus 52% in Q1. So yes, we continue to see strong Prime membership growth. That is the main thing. There's also, in that line item, are also other monthly fees associated with some of our other subscription services like audiobooks, eBooks, digital video and digital music. But again, I would say that we're very happy with the Prime membership growth, and it remained pretty consistent both in Q4 and then through Q1 and Q2 of this year. On your second question on Prime Now, so Prime Now is now available in 50 cities across 8 countries. We do learn something new in every city and have different -- slightly different shapes and sizes of those buildings and different density profiles. And so we are learning as we go. We learn as we grow internationally as well. That is a service that customers love. That's not an inexpensive service though, and we also have -- so we're constantly working on our cost of delivery and our route densities. And again, we like what we see, and we'll continue to expand that and we'll be working very hard on making that not only a valuable Prime offering, Prime benefit, but also lower-cost operation as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Dan Salmon with BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Daniel Salmon,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Media and Internet Analyst    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, I think I heard you earlier say that your headcount for advertising salespeople is growing faster than the company as a whole -- or company's headcount growth rate as a whole. I'd just like to use that maybe as a springboard to talk a little bit about what you think the right mix is for how you sell in terms of the self-service versus salespeople. And then a second one would just be a quick one. I know it's early, but I'd be curious to see what you're seeing with users of the Echo Show with the screen on it and if you're seeing any particularly different type of user behavior there versus the original devices without one.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Yes, it's early on the Echo Show. As you know, we just started shipping those in late June, but we're very excited about the potential and the additional -- the addition of the video screen and the messaging capability and video capability. So it's -- I've used mine and it's awesome. It's a big step up, in my mind, but we'll get more customer feedback as we go along. On advertising, technically, what I said is the sales force has grown higher than the rate of growth in the business itself, which was 42% regular headcount, and that sales force is primarily AWS and advertising. So we build self-service tools and obviously that we want to make those as efficient as possible for customers and advertisers, but we realize it will need actual sales contact with accounts as well. So it's a mix. I can't get into the split really, but I would see both growing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric James Sheridan,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe 2. One, with respect to international margins, is there anything there you can give us in terms of rank order or color, whether it'd be geographies or category expansion that we should be thinking about that are driving some of the cost curve in the international side of the business? That would be number one. Number two, stock-based comp stepped up a lot both quarter-over-quarter and year-on-year. Wanted to know if there was anything either organic or inorganic that was driving that step up in stock-based compensation.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. I'll start with the second one. Yes, as you noted in the press release or the 8-K, we had an absolute step up from Q1 of $792 million to Q2 of $1.2 billion. So it increased 51% year-over-year in Q2 versus a headcount increase of 42%. I'll also say that we generally see a step up from Q1 to Q2 because we do our employee RSU grants in Q2 of each year. So that's a normal trend. But the 51% year-over-year is also -- is a combination of the hiring we've done, but also an adjustment we've made to our estimated forfeiture rate. We're seeing less forfeitures, which is a great sign for our employee retention, but you have to make adjustments to your reserves as you see that. So that was another influence in Q2. On operating margins internationally, I'd step back and say, we -- a lot of the investments we're making in North America, we're also making in international: Prime benefits, including Prime Video and remember, we launched global video in Q4 of last year to 200 countries; Prime Now; AmazonFresh; the general rise of FBA and added selection, both retail and FBA, to make Prime more attractive and the fulfillment and logistics costs that go with that, any additional constant effort to reduce prices and accelerate shipping. So that all impacts both North America segment and international. The North America segment is a little further along in the Prime -- or excuse me, yes, the Prime membership growth curve. And so in some respects, we are giving benefits earlier in the life cycle to international Prime customers than we did in North America just because it launched later. And then there's also India. As I mentioned, we continue to invest in India. We're very hopeful with the progress we've made with sellers and customers alike in India, and we see great momentum and success there. So we'll continue to invest, and we have some of our best people in that business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Brian Fitzgerald with Jefferies.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Patrick Fitzgerald,  Jefferies LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Equity Research Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          You mentioned before as you stand up new fulfillment centers, it takes a bit of time for them to ramp up optimization. How should we think about that path optimization over a year or so as you continue to scale operations and you bring data to bear in robotics, in Kivas and AI machine learning? Are you finding that kind of new fulfillment center optimization curve is accelerating?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, this is Darin. Yes, we're getting more efficient every time we put new capacity into the network, whether that's through automation or just through the experience that we've gained over the years. We still say it takes up to 3 years or 3 peaks to get to kind of network efficiency for a new particular facility. And that's about staying the same, although the whole network gets efficient over time. So there's a big mix going on, and we like the new innovation that we're bringing to the capabilities, but that ramp stills stays about consistent as it was.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And our final question comes from the line of Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer & Co.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Stuart Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just one. Other slowed from 58% in the first quarter to 53% year-over-year. Anything to call out? And then you made a comment about the physical stores in reaction to one of the other questions that was really about showcasing new devices. Is it fair to say that probably means locations would have small footprints versus the large footprints if you were thinking about that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'm sorry, what was the first part of your question?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Stuart Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Other revenue slowed from 58% in the first quarter to 53%. Is there anything to call out around that?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - CFO and SVP    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, nothing. In that other line item is advertising and also other things like co-branded credit card agreements. I would say that the main -- excuse me, advertising revenue growth has been strong and fairly consistent over the past 3 quarters. So that number will move around, but there's other things that more the variance in the volatility as in the other line items. Your question on stores. We are -- again, I personally think that new devices -- the ability to see new devices is a great asset, but I don't want to shortchange our -- the rest of the bookstore and the ability to have curated selection and the creativity we've had in taking a new look at the bookstore. So we are experimenting with different formats, and we look at different sizes and we look at revenue and cost per square foot just like any other physical retailer. So we haven't essentially nailed the model yet, and we continue to experiment and see what works and how it differs by city or more suburban locations.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Darin Manney,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Head of IR    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So thank you, Brian, and thank you all for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website through at least the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking to you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2017-Oct-26-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,378 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q3 2017 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+OCTOBER 26, 2017 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian T. Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO
+ * Dave Fildes
+    - 
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Heath P. Terry
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Eric James Sheridan
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst
+ * Jason Stuart Helfstein
+   Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Ross Adam Sandler
+   Barclays PLC, Research Division - MD of the Americas Equity Research and Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark Stephen F. Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst
+ * Brian Thomas Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Ronald Victor Josey
+   JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Mark Alan May
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst
+ * Scott W. Devitt
+   Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - MD
+ * Douglas Till Anmuth
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q3 2017 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Dave Fildes. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q3 2017 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2016.
+Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, October 26, 2017, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings. During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
+Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It's not possible to accurately predict the demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Justin Post with Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Great. I guess I'll just start with, can you give us your thoughts on the Whole Foods integration? How you see that contributing to the bottom line over time? And then on a quick balance sheet note, we obviously saw the strong AWS results, but unearned revenue doesn't seem to be growing at the rate it was in the past. Maybe comment a little bit on the unearned revenue growth on the balance sheet, why it might be slower than the past?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, thanks, Justin. This is Dave. I'd also point you to beyond the balance sheet. There's some disclosure around additions to unearned revenue as part of the cash flow statement. So when you look at that, for the 3 months ended, you'll see that up around 34%, 35% versus the same time last year.
+And historically, what we've seen with unearned revenue is big and leading contributor to that is Prime memberships. The example is a customer signing up, paying $99 upfront and having that amortize over the 12 month period. That continues to be the biggest absolute contributor to what you see there. The other one area that's been growing over the past few years is Amazon Web Services, features like reserved instances where those customers can pay for services upfront, in some cases and receive discounts over a multiyear period. What we're seeing and more recently, I think, is on the Prime piece, we launched month-to-month Prime last year, and if you think about how that works, customers are paying $10.99 per month as they go. So there's less that's deferred. So, that's I think one of a number of factors. There's obviously other mix factors going in there besides the pieces that I just mentioned. But we've seen monthly Prime has been a good driver of getting more members into the program. So that's part of what you're seeing.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And your question about Whole Foods, yes, we're really excited to have them as part of the team now after the acquisition in late August. What you see in the financial results for this quarter is a -- it's shown actually in the new physical stores, revenue component $1.3 billion of revenue, $21 million of operating income. And that's where you'll be seeing Whole Foods revenue showing up. In addition, that is -- that class of revenue, physical store's revenue is going to be where we are going to book any sales that where a customer physically select an item in a store. So it also -- it does include our Amazon Books. If you step back on Whole Foods, again, I think we've had busy months since we've joined forces, offering lower prices on a range of key grocery items in the stores. Launching the private-label -- Whole Foods private-label products on Amazon, we've got technical work to make Prime the Whole Foods customer rewards program, and we'll have that coming out in the future. We've added Amazon Lockers to select Whole Foods stores. So lots of activity, lots of energy and we're real excited to show customers what's possible when we join forces here.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Stephen F. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Guess I'll ask 2 as well. The first one is, that was a bit of a usual upside to your guidance, even stripping out Whole Foods. Is there -- what would you -- what's most surprised you in the quarter? You've been pretty consistent to how you reported versus your guide. So something unusual happened or somewhat unusual happen? What would you attribute that to?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. In Q3, yes, I would say we had a very strong Prime Day. As you know, we talked about that on the last call, but it really carried into the quarter. We had a record day for sign-ups for free trials for Prime and Prime Day globally. Had a very strong Prime Day in particular internationally. So it really got a lot more traction in this, the third year that we've had it. So I would point mostly to those factors. There's also very strong quarter for AWS, revenue growth was the same as Q2 and now we're at an $18 billion run rate. Whereas last quarter, when I had this call, we were at $16 billion. So very pleased with the customer response in the AWS business as well. And usage growth is actually growing a lot higher than revenue growth. So particularly pleased with the new customers that we've added and the additional workloads that we've picked up from existing customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Stephen F. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And then briefly on the international retail, that growth also by itself was intrinsically stronger than you've seen in a while. Any particular markets geographic markets, you would call out there?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, it was pretty strong across the board. We had the impact of Souq, obviously this quarter internationally and the Diwali holiday in India was a few days earlier, which maybe pushed some sales into Q3 versus Q4. But generally, it was the strength of Prime Day internationally and it carried through the quarter. So it's -- but generally, I would point to the increase selection, a lot of the building blocks we've been working on. All the Prime benefits, advancement and free shipping offers or faster shipping offers, the Prime benefits that drive engagement, of course, adding selection, adding Fulfilled by Amazon partners and the selection that they bring. So again, I wouldn't point to anything other than the Prime Day pickup, but stronger than -- it was stronger than probably I anticipated.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Thomas Nowak,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2. Just on Whole Foods again, I was wondering, could you talk about 1 or 2 of the biggest surprises you've seen so far? And then maybe just a strategic opportunity, as you see, of having a brick-and-mortar presence as you look to continue to grow your overall business? And the second one on the subscriptions revenue, you accelerated to 59%, could you just talk about which countries or which regions are driving that? And maybe talk a little bit about the growth or the cadence of what's happening in the U.S., your oldest market?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. On Whole Foods, I would say it is early. August 28 was the close date and -- what I could tell you is, I've been in meetings with John Mackey and his team and they're very like-minded with us, customer-obsessed, ready to work together to continue their mission then expand on their offerings that we can offer customers. The other things I mentioned, price reductions early on, selling products on -- their products on Amazon.com and also installing Amazon Lockers. I think over time, you'll see more cooperation and working together between AmazonFresh, Prime Now and Whole Foods, as we can explore different ways to serve the customer. So that's kind of the earlier report on Whole Foods. So far so good, and we're thrilled to finally be working together after the summer of closing the deal. On subscription revenue, let me just remember your question there. We had essentially 59% growth, you said, 600 basis points higher than Q2. In this line item is certainly the fees associated with Amazon Prime and also it's where a lot of our subscription services from digital music, digital video, audio books, eBooks. So there's some moving parts in there. The growth in Prime has been fairly consistent over the last recent quarters in Prime memberships. And as I said, we had a great -- the largest new Prime -- new sign-ups on Prime Day for the Prime program. The monthly program is gaining traction. It's an attractive option for a lot of people. And again, on this -- on the other subscription services, music especially, it works just so well with our Echo device that we're seeing a lot of growth in that area as we increase the number of Echo devices and customers using the Echo devices.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric James Sheridan,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          In the comment in the release on seasonal workers, that looks roughly flat year-on-year. I wanted to know if you could understand a little bit more about the trajectory around the workers needed to fulfill seasonal holiday demand and what that might also mean for automation or efficiency benefits you're getting inside your fulfillment centers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Eric. This is Dave. I think we put out a release saying earlier this quarter talking about 120,000 operations folks to bring into our fulfillment centers this year. So we're continuing to hire and hire across a number of locations. We talked earlier this year about expecting to see a greater than -- roughly greater than 30% square footage growth in an operations, so we're certainly hiring to support that. More of these facilities do have Amazon Robotics and certainly that helps with the efficiencies there, but it requires tremendous effort from a number of our folks as well. And so we'll continue to hire there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          While we're on this subject of headcount. Headcount grew 77% year-over-year in the quarter. That includes the impact of the Whole Foods and Souq acquisitions. Without those -- without that headcount, the base Amazon grew 47%, which is still up from 42% in Q2. So a lot of the additional pickup in Q3 was tied to our ramp for the holidays. We continue to hire a lot of software engineers. We continue to hire a lot of sales reps, and it's tied directly to our major investment areas of AWS, Prime Video and devices.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Till Anmuth,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, I was hoping you could help us understand how at this point you're prioritizing expansion into new product categories. In particular, there's a lot of talk now about potentially using Whole Foods stores for physical pharmacy presence and also that you've perhaps got an approvals across multiple states in that category. Can you just help us understand the approach in general to new categories and pharmacy, in particular?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I can't confirm or deny any of the rumors related to pharmacy or anything else. I will say we do see a lot of opportunity with Whole Foods. As I said, there will be a lot of work together between Prime Now, AmazonFresh, Whole Foods, Whole Foods products on the Amazon site, Lockers at the Amazon -- excuse me, Amazon Lockers at the Whole Foods stores. So there'll be a lot of integration, a lot of touch points and a lot of working together as we go forward. And we think we'll also be developing new store formats and everything else just as we've talked about in the past with before Whole Foods, amazon Bookstores, Amazon Go and the opportunity that technology presents. We have campus -- on-campus bookstores. So we're experimenting with a lot of formats. I think that Whole Foods really gives us a vast head start on that and a great base and a great team to work with who has a lot of history, and a lot of -- they probably have 10 to 20 years of learnings that we don't have and wouldn't have. So we're really excited about that. And I think working together will bring our different strengths to the table and really be able to build on behalf of customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Mark May with Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Alan May,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          The other category which includes advertising accelerated 58% in the quarter. I think the common view there is that's a fairly high-margin business, certainly higher than corporate average. Is there any reason why that isn't the right assumption to make? Essentially what impact is the growth in the ad business having on the company's overall profitability? And in terms of the increased losses in the international retail segment of the business, can you provide some color around how much of that's being driven by Amazon launching into new markets, which I know you continue to do, versus investing more heavily in existing markets?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with the revenue. So you're right. Other revenue grew 58% in the quarter, and that includes advertising services and other things such as our cobranded credit card agreements. Advertising revenue continues to grow very quickly, and its year-over-year growth rate is actually faster than the other revenue line item that you see there. But I would say generally, we're very pleased with the advertising business. Our goal here is to be helpful to consumers and help them make better shopping and selection choices. We'll also provide in giving them targeted recommendations. So making it helpful for customers rather than intrusive. And then we believe that by creating that (inaudible) and engaging advertising experience with the customers, it will also maximize success for our advertisers. So it's an important part of the flywheel and the -- so it's -- the traffic and the customers, especially the Prime customers that come to the site, are really the ones that we can use to help them select items and use advertising to help make their decisions more informed when they're picking products.
+On the international, yes, I can't split it, the effects. But I'll tell you again, it is international expansion in -- primarily in India where we're continuing to add benefits, and we launched Prime there a year ago, if you remember, and we've had more Prime members joined in India than in any other country in the first 12 months. We have free shipping on 10 million items there, and we're continuing to add benefits: Prime Video, Amazon Family, we've had a first Prime Day there this year, Prime Music. Amazon business is also expanding in India. So a lot of positive momentum and investment going on in India. Very pleased with that. We also recently announced Echo and Alexa are available in India. So that -- that should be well received by the Indian consumer base. But excluding India and Souq, the rest is the Prime benefits and the continued growth in the other countries that we've been in for a while, continue to roll out Prime Now and AmazonFresh. In Video, we launched -if you remember in Q4 of last year, we launched Prime Video in 200 -- over 200 countries globally, continue to build up not only the offerings but also the engagement that we see from those Prime customers. So becoming more engaged, and we're also doing the basic blocking, tackling of adding selection, especially FBA selection, increasing free shipping offers and also speed of shipping offers. So there's a lot of -- a lot of different influences there. You saw the growth rate. It's, we believe, it's resonating with customers. So we will continue to invest and think that we have a good path forward.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Ross Sandler with Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Adam Sandler,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - MD of the Americas Equity Research and Senior Internet Analyst    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Two questions. There's been some news flow recently about Brazil expansion. Can you just talk about how Brazil compares to maybe some of the other international markets that you're investing in? What level of investment should we expect in Brazil maybe relative to like in Australia or in India? And then the follow-up on the Whole Foods. So do you feel like the store footprint at 460-odd stores is adequate? Or any color on plans to expand either the Whole Foods store footprint or the Amazon bookstores or those other ones you mentioned?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Ross. Thanks for the question. This is Dave. On Brazil, just briefly, yes, we did recently expand and add an electronics category there in Brazil. It's a third-party marketplace offering. You may recall we've been in Brazil for a number of years now, initially launched with really a Kindle and eBooks offering without the sort of physical categories and more recently added physical books again, a third-party marketplace offering. So I think we're excited about the electronics that are getting out there. There's a wide variety of products included in that category: Smartphones, tablets, cameras, TVs, what have you. So I think, really excited to get that technology out there for Brazilians. And I think beyond that, really just focus on those categories and growing selection there, but I can't speculate on what we might do in the future there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And on Whole Foods, yes, I believe the total is 465 stores or thereabouts. And we have 12 bookstores now. We are adding a few more in the near future in California, Washington D.C. and Austin. So yes, you will see more expansion from us. We're not ready to announce any, what that will look like, and we're working with the Whole Foods team on what maybe what they will -- how many more stores we might have in that area. But still early. So, those plans will develop over time.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath P. Terry,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I understand you can't comment on rumors one way or the other, but curious as you think about categories like health care and obviously you guys are already in health care to some degree through Amazon Business, can you give us a bit of a status update on what you do have out there now? And particularly how the company and management thinks about entering more regulated businesses over time? How you would approach that versus a standard category that you might go into? Or maybe again, I know you can't comment on rumors, how you have approached to that in the past or in other market? And then to the extent that we are thinking about AWS growth in the fourth quarter, you guys are lapping the price cuts from last year and obviously have about an 800 basis point easier comp Q3 to Q4, taking those 2 things into consideration, how should we think about AWS growth through the end of the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Heath, this is Dave. I'll take that first question in relation to health care. I think where you're seeing us do some work on that, I think is in the areas of Amazon Business, and that's really just from the standpoint of there are many different types of businesses that we can serve with that offering, and we're in our third year now. And so there's a lot of different sectors, whether they're hospitals, educational institutions, labs, government agencies. I mean there's a lot of different shapes and sizes across industries that we can serve with that. And so I think what you're seeing us do is really focus on services that meet those businesses, multiuser accounts, improving approval workflow tools, and just more recently, we introduced Amazon Business for Business Prime shipping, which we think will be a great way for our businesses use multiuser -- Business customers that have multiuser accounts, and that's in the U.S. and in Germany. So I think it's part of that offering, and we really have to see how that evolves. And the other side, too, is certainly health care is one of many sectors as part of Amazon Web Services that are important customers that we're focusing on and building tools for. So probably nothing specific to call out on that one, but that's a lot of what you're seeing from us today.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, on AWS, we don't provide segment level estimates, but we did consider in our guidance the impact of the price cuts last year. You're right, we had a number of price cuts on (inaudible) time to -- about around December 1 of last year that certainly had an impact on Q4 of last year. But again, price cuts and not only price cuts, but new products that have lower average costs and can cannibalize more expensive products is pretty much a part of our business all the time in AWS. So we're looking forward to a strong Q4 and re:Invent is in December, so that's -- the end of November, early December, so that is also an exciting time of year for the AWS business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Scott Devitt with Stifel.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Scott W. Devitt,  Stifel, Nicolaus & Company, Incorporated, Research Division - MD    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I had 2, please. The first, Prime Now, Fresh Prime Pantry and Whole Foods, they're all distinct offerings, but it does seem like there's natural overlap with the potential to be further connected. And I was just wondering if you could just speak to how we should think about those 4 as distinct product offerings in the future versus being more integrated and possibly even, in some cases, eliminated to remove overlap from a customer experience standpoint? And then secondly, given the recent management changes in video, Brian, I was just wondering if you could speak to any strategic shifts in Video or changes in the pace of content portfolio build in coming years?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, let me start with Video, and I just want to be clear, we are going to continue to invest in video and increase that investment in 2018. And why are we going to do that? It's because the Video business is having great results with our most important customer base, which is our Prime customers. They continue to -- it continues to drive better conversion of free trials, higher membership renewal rates for existing subscribers and higher overall engagement. We're seeing engagement go up year after year in video and also music and a lot of the other Prime benefits. We also know Prime members who watch video also spend more on Amazon. And we have a lot of data. We're -- that's the advantage we have is that we see the viewing patterns and we also see the sales patterns, so we can tie the 2 together and understand which video resonates with Prime members, which video doesn't, and make midcourse corrections. So we always do that, the -- we're always changing the emphasis and looking for those more impactful shows, more shows that resonate better with our customer base and things they want to see. And -- so that will always be an important part of our Prime offer, and we'll continue to use the data that we have to make better and better decisions about where to invest our dollars in Prime Video. So we're very -- we remain very bullish on the Video business, and we're looking forward to a lot of interesting new projects back end of this year and also lined up into next year. On the -- sorry, the second comment was, the overlap. Yes, so Whole Foods, I think I mentioned this earlier, but we definitely see commonality and overlap with the Whole Foods business as well as Amazon in total, but specifically, Prime Now, and also, AmazonFresh. And we're going to work to see how we expand those offerings, and in some cases, combine them. We're not sure how it will play out, but we're going to cooperate across those different customer touch points and trying to make them better for customers. We know customers are going to buy just like in the physical world, sometimes you go to a convenience store, sometimes you go to a supermarket, sometimes you go to a superstore. Sometimes you need things within an hour, sometimes you can wait days for shipment. So there's no one paradigm for all customer engagement, and we're looking for the ones that resonate best with customers, and we're going to continue to work on those.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Stuart Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'll actually ask 2 if I can. Just any way you can comment on the increase in Whole Foods traffic after the close? And then second, talk about your desire to have an ad-supported business on Fire TV or through Prime Video?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think I'll start on traffic. So we're not disclosing traffic figures. Whole Foods will be issuing a final 10-K at the end of the -- early next month, so you'll see a better perspective on the entire quarter. The quarter -- the 4-week period that you see running through the Amazon P&L this quarter is pretty hard to draw conclusions on other than revenue at this point. But Dave, do you have more on the...
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Jason, this is Dave. On the ad-supported question, I think what you've seen to date is really particularly as you're looking as a customer as a Prime Video member and watching content, we view that as you paid into that service and able to watch those shows ad-free. There may be instances where you're viewing a first episode and there's an ad leading into that if it's the first free episode, but generally like to have that as customers have paid into that program and they'll be able to enjoy that without interruption.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question comes from the line of Ron Josey with JMP Securities.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ronald Victor Josey,  JMP Securities LLC, Research Division - MD and Senior Research Analyst    [39]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just wanted to ask about delivery, in just over the last several months, we've seen a lot of announcements in products around delivery options between Lockers, testing the Kohl's partnership, Whole Foods, obviously, Amazon Key came out recently. I just wanted to better understand this investment. Is this a result of -- or the thesis that more options could drive, obviously, more sales on the flip side? Do you think you're losing some sales by not having those options?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [40]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Probably a little of both. We think that, especially as we get into more and more Amazon Logistics deliveries, we're going to experiment with different ways to deliver things that make it easier on consumers, things that cut down on potential theft on doorsteps, but really it's mostly about increasing convenience for them.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [41]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, I think that's right, in terms of overall investments there.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [42]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And the other investments, obviously, are maybe the bigger-ish things are like planes and transportation capacity in general. And there our philosophy is, again, we're going to watch out for our customers, we're going to build capacity that gives them great service 12 months a year but particularly at holidays, by investing in those transportation options, we do so at same costs or cost parity, I would say, at the very minimum, but it also allows us to do interesting things like extend cutoff times for customers, enable Sunday delivery, enable better weekend delivery. So we're seeing a lot of benefits, just the ability to stretch the order cut off from what once was 3 p.m. in the afternoon to midnight, has huge benefits both for the customer and also for Amazon. It results in incremental sales, it also builds that trust that when you need something, Amazon's going to be there for you. And I need to remind you that the Thursday Night Football game will start in 2 hours and 20 minutes so.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [43]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On that, thanks for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Transcripts/AMZN/2018-Apr-26-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,343 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q1 2018 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+APRIL 26, 2018 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian T. Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO
+ * Dave Fildes
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Stephen D. Ju
+   Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - Director
+ * Eric James Sheridan
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst
+ * Gregory Scott Melich
+   MoffettNathanson LLC - Partner
+ * John Ryan Blackledge
+   Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - Head of Internet Research, MD and Senior Research Analyst
+ * Heath Patrick Terry
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark Stephen F. Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst
+ * Brian Thomas Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Mark Alan May
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst
+ * Douglas Till Anmuth
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q1 2018 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded.
+For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Dave Fildes. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q1 2018 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.
+As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2017.
+Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, April 26, 2018, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
+During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services, and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
+Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It's not possible to accurately predict the demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+With that, we'll move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Eric Sheridan with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric James Sheridan,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I wanted to ask if you had any update on the state of the advertising business? Sort of the state of conversations with advertisers, what product uptake you're seeing out in the marketplace? And sort of how that's looking now as we move out of '17 and into 2018, broadly, for the platform?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Sure, Eric. I would say, advertising continues to be a bright spot, both from a product standpoint, and also, financially. It was -- continued to be a strong contributor to profitability in Q1. It's now a multibillion-dollar program. You can see the -- in our supplemental revenue disclosure, it's in other revenue, and it's the majority of the other revenue in that line item. So we -- our philosophy there, again, is we're continuing to focus on finding valuable ways to make our advertising opportunities better for customers, showing them new products that they may not have seen otherwise, and also for emerging and established brands, helping them to reach customers. I think the advertisers, generally, are all shapes and sizes, and their common theme is they want to reach our customers, generally, to drive brand awareness, discovery, and eventually, purchase. Before I go on to the second question, I want to make a comment about the Prime program. Prime program continues to drive great strength in our top line, as you've seen over the last few years, actually. We continue to increase the value of Prime, including speed selection and digital entertainment options. We've been expanding FREE Same-Day Shipping and 1-day options. And our 2-day shipping, it's now available on over 100 million items, up from 20 million as recently as 2014. And we continue to add digital benefits, like Prime Video. The value of Prime to customers has never been greater. And the cost is also high. As we pointed out especially with shipping options and digital benefits, we continue to see rises in costs. So effective May 11, we're going to increase the price of our U.S. annual plan from $99 to $119, for new members. The new price will apply to renewals starting on June 16. Prime provides a unique combination of benefits, and we continue to invest in making this Prime program even more valuable for our members. As a reminder, we haven't increased the U.S. annual price Prime since our single increase, which was in March of 2014.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. And Eric, sorry to just go back to your initial question too, just to hop back on that, I just want to remind folks that we've mentioned this last quarter on the call, but on January 1, we adopted an accounting standard update that amended our revenue recognition policies. So the net impact to revenue in the first quarter was not material, but I do want to highlight a few areas. As part of the adoption beginning in Q1, certain advertising services are classified as revenue, rather than a reduction of costs to sales. So the impact of this change was an increase of $560 million to other revenue in Q1, which is the other revenue was, of course, part of our supplemental sales disclosure. So you'll see that other revenue, in total, increased 132% ex FX year-over-year to about $2 billion in the first quarter, again, $560 million is included in there, and the majority of that is -- would be included in the North America segment. As you look at the other supplemental line items, just a few items of note. The line item online stores revenue increased about 13%, ex FX. Beginning in the first quarter, sales of apps, in-app content, certain digital media content, are now presented on a net revenue basis and included in third-party seller services revenue, rather than net online stores revenue. So in the first quarter, online stores revenue would have been higher, but for this new standard. And then, the line item, subscription services revenue, that increased about 56% ex FX year-over-year. Prime members are -- Prime memberships are included in that line. Again, beginning in the first quarter, we now recognize annual Prime membership revenue straight line over the 12-month period. Prior to 2018, we recognize this revenue over the 12-month period with more revenue allocated to the fourth quarter each year. So in Q1 of this year's subscription services revenue would have been lower, but for this new standard.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Thomas Nowak,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So the first one, on Prime, let me ask you this. As you think about your U.S. Prime penetration, there's some data that shows you're doing a very good job at capturing a lot of the middle to higher income households and now you're raising price. Talk about the tension point you need to solve to sort of reach some of the lower income households and even households that are not yet Prime. What are the main reasons why people in the U.S. are not signing on for Prime at this point? And the second one, on early learnings from the integration of Prime Now and Whole Foods, recognizing it's only in a few cities. What can you share about what you're seeing about purchase behavior, early learnings? And what are the main signposts you're watching as you determine how quickly to roll that out to more cities in the U.S., and hopefully, New York soon?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. On your first question about Prime penetration, without getting into any statistics on penetration and by country, I would say we do have other options for, if you'll notice, there's the monthly option, obviously provides more flexibility for people who want to try out Prime before committing to the annual plan. There's discounted student plans. There's also discounts for other groups. So we do feel it's still the best deal in retail, and we just work to make it better and better each day. The second thing you mentioned is a good example. So the ability in 10 cities to get Prime Now deliveries of Whole Foods groceries is an added benefit for people in that market using Prime -- those markets using Prime Now. So as far as the Whole Foods, specifically on the question of what'll -- what we'll look at as far as expanding that grocery delivery, we're going to use the 10 cities as a test and see how customers respond, just like we always do, and make sure that our deliveries are great for those people, and then we'll announce expansion plans once we digest that, the feedback we get from customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Patrick Terry,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I was just wondering if you could give us a sense. The accelerating growth that we saw in the U.S. business in Q1, how much of that or how would you sort of segment that in terms of specific categories? Are there any specific categories that you would call out in terms of driving that? And then, as we look at the like acceleration in the AWS business, any sense that you can give us in terms of what volumes or customer you specifically call out sort of customer additions in some of your comments, what customer additions have looked like in terms of driving that business, particularly against sort of the comp against last year's price cuts?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So first, with the -- you've mentioned North America revenue growth, and you can calculate that with and without the impact of Whole Foods, I'm sure, but the general drivers continues to be Prime and the Prime Flywheel, so we see strong customer demand, not only for the benefits that we associate with Prime, we're seeing better engagement with Prime Benefits, especially Digital and Benefits, and that is always good news for eventual sales of other things. We're also selling more subscriptions, Amazon Music Unlimited, multiple -- Kindle Unlimited, there's a number of services. So there's different revenue streams that we see. So not much more I can add by product line to North America. Now I talk about AWS revenue, again, we're -- we are accelerating. We've accelerated for the last 2 quarters. The FX-neutral growth was 48% in Q1, up from 44% on the same basis in Q4 and 42% in Q3. And now nearly a $22 billion run rate. So what we're seeing is just continued strong usage, both by existing customers and signing new customers for -- see an increased pace of enterprise migrations as customers are having success with AWS and increasingly trying new services. We are seeing people move more and more of their workloads to AWS and at a faster pace. And customers are moving databases to AWS as their work continues to grow at a very rapid clip. So stepping back, I would say, what is driving the growth, we believe, again, it's the value that we create for AWS customers. We have the functionality and pace of innovation that others don't. We have partner and ecosystem that others don't, and we have proven operational capability and security expertise that's highly valued to AWS customer base.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Mark May with Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Alan May,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Some of the data that we've seen suggests that this year, your -- the rate of growth in the build out of fulfillment centers and other parts of the retail logistics network as well as data centers, but more on the former, that rate of growth is slowing this year relative to last year and even the year before. I know that you guys go through periods of kind of heavy investment then you grow into that capacity. But I just wonder if you could comment a little bit about where we are kind of in that ebb and flow of that cycle right now. And in terms of the accounting change that Dave referenced earlier, with regard to revenue going from cost of revenue to the other line, can you comment if that particular type of advertising, that trade dollars type of marketing, is that growing at a meaningfully different rate than the ad revenue that's already booked as revenue?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, Mark, this is Dave. On that second question, we've not commented on the growth rate or given the prior year period, so not much we can say there. As I said, the $560 million, if you were to back that out and look at the sort of pre-existing advertised or other revenue, rather, that was included in that line item, we'd be growing about 72%, but again, that's not in relation to the COGS portion.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And on the question on capacity, excuse me, cap -- I'll address this CapEx and capital leases, we're still seeing strong investment there. If I look at the quarterly trends, you're right that this quarter was up 33% in isolation versus last year. I look back to last year's first quarter and we grew 82% year-over-year. So it was a particularly heavy quarter, particularly for investment and warehouses. So if I step back on the trailing 12 months though, CapEx, which is predominantly tied to our fulfillment center network, is up 47%. That is above the Amazon fulfilled unit growth rate, but we've combined the strength of the FBA program and the space requirements as we -- get into bigger and bigger products. That -- it's a representative number for that period. On the capital leases, which is a good proxy for the spend to support the AWS business, that's up 49% year-over-year on the trailing 12 months. So again, usage rates continue to exceed the revenue growth rates. Usage rates are strong, but we also have a number of projects underway that seek to increase our efficiency of our data centers. So there's a couple of things at play there that, hopefully, keep that number closer to the revenue growth rate.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Doug Anmuth with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Till Anmuth,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, you had significant operating income upside in 1Q and I think a better outlook for the second quarter than many expected. Can you just talk about the biggest factors that drove the delta relative to your 1Q guide? And is there any reason to think that you couldn't see similar leverage in the back half of the year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Yes, we came in well above our range that we had given of $300 million to $1 billion. I would attribute it primarily to a few things. First, the top line growth was -- continued to be strong coming out of Q4. We had great consumer business strength. We also had strong AWS revenue strength, where I already mentioned that we accelerated into the quarter, which is a different trend than we've seen recently. So customer adoption and AWS remained strong. And when we hit the higher end of our range or just above our range on -- with FX included, we generally see really good drop through on the incremental sales, given our -- the fixed costs we have in fulfillment centers and data centers, and quite frankly, people. So we saw great efficiencies at the higher level of revenue, and we're able to handle it. So that was generally very good financially. We -- at the time of guidance, we were concerned a bit about the high -- relatively high inventory we had at year-end in space utilizations. We were still very full in our fulfillment centers. But we were able to correct that due to the high sales without handling -- without having additional handling and transportation cost that you would normally see to reconfigure inventory locations. So that also helped and probably was a differential versus the guidance estimate. And then, lastly, I would say, advertising continues to be a strong contributor to profitability and had strong results this quarter. As far as what that portends for future quarters, for now, I want to focus on Q2 and it's incorporated into our Q2 guidance. So we expect a lot of the strength areas to continue, consumer demand, AWS and advertising. We will definitely see higher investments as we move through the year. For example, video content spend will increase year-over-year, and we'll continue to hire, in particular, software engineers. We'll have some cost in Q2 ahead of what's anticipated to be a Prime Day in early Q3. So -- and then as you know, Q3 is generally a lower quarter due to all the work to get ready for holiday and the hiring of people and building teams. So I won't go beyond Q2 at this point, but again, we're very happy with customer reception we had in Q1, and then, the income that that drove.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Stephen F. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Two questions. That $239 million in other income, what was that? And then, could you just wax a little bit, eloquently, hopefully, on advertising revenue? And like how do you balance what our -- what should be a monstrous amount of ad revenue opportunities, especially high-profit, high-margin ad revenue opportunities against an ideal or optimal consumer experience? These sponsored units I see in every search I do on Amazon seems great from an advertising perspective, but I sometimes wonder if it doesn't dilute to consumer experience. So just talk about how you balance that. And then, finally, as part of advertising, you've got, also, a heck of a lot inventory around all of that video, that Prime Video that you have that you don't allow -- that you don't directly charge for. How do you think about that as an advertising revenue opportunity?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me wax eloquently, try to anyway. So let's start with the $239 million, that is essentially where attributable to warrants that we have in companies that we've partnered with. We have transportation companies that we've partnered with and other technology companies. As the stock market increased in Q1, a lot of those companies also went up. So that's where we book the gain on warrants that we have with -- on investments. It's also -- there was a good bit of FX gain due to the shift in currency and the weakening of the dollar. That showed up on a lot of lines on the P&L, but that one was positive. On advertising, so let's step back a bit. It's now a multibillion-dollar program and growing very quickly. Our main goal here is to help customers discover new brands and products. So when we show sponsored products, we're trying to show people things that they had -- maybe wouldn't have seen otherwise in their normal search results. So we're looking for a good balance here, as we said. We want customers to get the benefit of the new brand and product discovery, and then, we want to let sellers, for both emerging and established brands, reach those customers. Those advertisers are all shapes and sizes with the main goal of, again, trying to reach our customers whether it's to drive brand awareness, discovery or hopefully, purchase. So we take the responsibility for that very seriously and are always balancing the helpfulness of the advertising and try not to make it disruptive. But you're right, there are always pressures in that we will come down on the side of the customer. On your question on video advertising, yes, there may be opportunities over time to have more advertising in our Video, but we choose to not do that right now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. The only thing I'd add too on that, just related to Prime Video. As you may have seen the announcement earlier today, about the renewed agreement for the streaming partnership with Thursday Night Football. So we'll have 11 games in 2018 and 2019, be able to deliver that to over 100 million Prime members globally, which is a great continuation of the partnership we've had with the NFL. We've done some things like the Prime Original Series, All or Nothing, the third season's coming up soon, focused on the Dallas Cowboys. So that was one of our first forays in the live format that -- one of the first forays in the live format where we had live ads and kind of not only learning the technology, but learning to -- learning that business. And I think we've been pleased with what we've seen so far, obviously, and look forward to the next few seasons with the NFL.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Stephen Ju with Credit Suisse.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stephen D. Ju,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - Director    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I think, Brian, I had a question on your international shopping rollout. So I think this was recently announced. Where do you think you measure up versus some of the more local players where you might not have a direct presence in the country? And where do you think your value proposition lies? And presumably this is informed by users coming in from those regions where you don't really have an official site, but people come in to buy stuff from you anyway. So which regions or countries are accounting for most of the demand that you are seeing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Stephen, if you're still on, can you elaborate on the countries you're talking about, specifically?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Stephen D. Ju,  Crédit Suisse AG, Research Division - Director    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          No, I'm just wondering, you already have a direct presence in some of the countries like China, Japan, et cetera, and the international shopping rollout presumably expands, so that's selection to most of the globe. So just wondering if you are seeing incremental demand, and where you might be seeing demand coming in from countries where you might not have a direct presence?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Oh, on the global store? Okay. Yes. Yes. Sorry, I thought you meant to some of our expansion countries. So yes, I don't have a lot to share on that today, but I think you hit on the main point, is selection and opportunities for sellers in -- who are with us in different countries to reach buyers outside of their home country. So it's a great benefit for sellers, and it only works if it's a great benefit for customers on the other side.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Justin Post with Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'd like to maybe dive into a couple of the local recent overhangs. First, on shipping partners, just wondering how dependent are you on any shipping partner? And can you talk about any initiatives you've had to build out your own shipping network? I know in some countries, you might be over 50% of the stuff you're delivering. Could you talk a little bit about dependency there? And then, secondly, on taxes, can you remind us what happened when Amazon started collecting taxes on your own items in various states, and just kind of overview of your view on collecting third-party sales -- taxes from third parties in other states if that were to pass?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with transportation. We have a great group of carriers that we use globally and you know who they are, but we're also growing our teams and capabilities to ensure that we can keep up with increased volume on our own, particularly around the holiday season. So that's driven a lot of our expansion of Amazon Logistics, it's driven the creation of sort centers, it's driven the purchase of airplanes to move product between points within our delivery network. So we will continue to operate with this combination of external partners and internal capability. We like what we see so far with our Amazon Logistics capability. It's well over 50% in some countries, particularly the U.K. It helps with, again, Prime Now and AmazonFresh and a lot of initiatives that we'll see, which again, we've mentioned that Prime Now is tied in with Whole Foods, now in 10 cities. So we think it's a core competency that we have and we need to have, and we'll continue to invest in that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and Justin, this is Dave, just on the sales tax piece. Today, on the first-party sales, we collect on our own products in all 45 states that have a state-imposed sales tax. On the 3P piece, we do collect on behalf of our sellers in 2 states, Washington State as of the first of this year and then, Pennsylvania turned on here on April 1. So in terms of your question of sort of impact from the first-party pieces coming online, many of those states came on over a period of time to get to that 45 total, going back over many years. So nothing really more to add on that. I think I would say we do continue to believe that the sales tax issue needs to be resolved at the federal level, and we're actively working with the states, with retailers and Congress to get federal legislation passed. We're not opposed to collecting sales tax within a constitutionally-permissible system that is both simple and applied evenhandedly.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Greg Melich with MoffettNathanson.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Gregory Scott Melich,  MoffettNathanson LLC - Partner    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I want to follow up on Prime little bit. The fee increase, why now? I mean, we've been adding value for a long time, obviously, shipping costs are going up. Why is now the right time to have that fee hike, especially since membership looks like the growth number's starting to slow? And tied into that, there's a lot of Alexa mentioned in the release. Could you give us some uptake on the importance of Alexa and basically voice commerce, and so the metrics you get in terms of usage there and the flywheel?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. We always evaluate the price of Prime in all the countries we're in, and we're looking for creative ways to reach the customer, as I mentioned earlier, create -- or excuse me, monthly plans, student plans, et cetera. So it's really nothing more than looking at the state of the program, the high benefit it's delivering. I mentioned that 4 years ago, when we last increased the price of Prime, if you get 20 million products within 2 days, today you can get over 100 million products within 2 days, and many, many, many, products within 1 day, same day, or 2 hours. So there's all kinds of new features that we've continually added to the Prime program. It's much different than it was in 2014. This is a reflection of that, that's a better reflection of the cost value of the program.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from John Blackledge with Cowen and Company.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+John Ryan Blackledge,  Cowen and Company, LLC, Research Division - Head of Internet Research, MD and Senior Research Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So the U.S. international revenue mix, ex Whole Foods and ex AWS, looks about 64%, 36%. Given investments in international markets, would you envision international kind of closing the gap in the coming years? And what would be the key drivers of the mix shift getting closer to 50-50?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Yes, I don't want to project relative proportions of the different segments, but what I can say is, that international continues to see the same level of investment as we're seeing in North America or have seen in North America. So when we add Benefits, Prime Benefits, we're probably adding them at an earlier stage of life in the Prime program internationally than we did in the U.S. So they have different dynamics. We think, at the end of the day, customers behave the same globally, and that they value low prices, selection and great customer experience. So we'll continue to make these investments in Prime. We'll continue to expand selection, continue to build FBA programs so that it increases selection even more and build great partnerships with sellers. We'll continue to accelerate shipping. We'll continue to lower prices. And sorry, I cut out -- the last person got cut off a bit. We'll continue to build device business globally including Alexa, which we think has great stickiness with -- in the home and I think creates a lot of value in the home and also allows you to access, over time, Amazon products better. We'll continue to invest in India where we're seeing great progress with both sellers, and also, customers. And we like the momentum we've seen there. The Prime program started in the first year in India, grew faster than any Prime -- excuse me, any Prime program we had seen in other countries. We're adding local content in India -- video content, excuse me. We're also adding other benefits, Prime Benefits. We are rolling out devices there, and we're seeing Indian developers developing skills for Alexa, and Alexa's up -- as you saw the press release, to 40,000 skills
+(technical difficulty)
+But it's -- it is important to us that they all are still delighting customers and growing to the best of their ability.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks, Brian, and thanks for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at least through the end of the quarter.
+We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com, and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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Transcripts/AMZN/2018-Feb-01-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,345 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q4 2017 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+FEBRUARY 01, 2018 / 10:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian T. Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO
+ * Dave Fildes
+    - 
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Kenneth Michael Sena
+   Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD, Head of Internet Equity Research & Senior Analyst
+ * Daniel Salmon
+   BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Media and Internet Analyst
+ * Youssef Houssaini Squali
+   SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst
+ * Ross Adam Sandler
+   Barclays PLC, Research Division - MD of the Americas Equity Research and Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark Stephen F. Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst
+ * Brian Thomas Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Mark Alan May
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst
+ * Douglas Till Anmuth
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD
+ * Scott Andrew Mushkin
+   Wolfe Research, LLC - MD and Senior Retail & Staples Analyst
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q4 2017 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded.
+For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Dave Fildes. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q4 2017 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO. As you listen to today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2016. Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, February 1, 2018, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
+During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures.
+Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC.
+Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It's not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+I'd also like to update you on the impact of the recent U.S. tax reform legislation. In our fourth quarter results, we recorded a provisional tax benefit for the impact of the new tax legislation of approximately $789 million, which is primarily driven by the remeasurement of federal net deferred tax liabilities, resulting from the permanent reduction in the U.S. statutory corporate tax rate to 21% from 35%. As we complete our analysis of this new legislation, we may make adjustments to the provisional amounts. Those adjustments may materially impact our provision for income taxes in the period in which the adjustments are made.
+With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Stephen F. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I'd like to focus on the North American retail operating margins. That 4.5% was the highest, I think, we've seen in a couple of years, maybe the highest since you've actually broken that segment out. So could you just go through the drivers behind that? I know you called out Alexa as being better than expected. Was that one of the factors? Was it the full quarter of the Whole Foods impact? Was it advertising revenue? Just what drove that result and how sustainable is it?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, Mark. Let me address your question by answering the entire company. I'll note where the North America elements are strongest. So for the quarter, we came in at the highest end of our revenue range, $60.5 billion, 26 -- 36% FX-neutral growth and 25% FX-neutral growth, excluding the Whole Foods acquisition. So the fact that we came in at the high end of the range, volume was high, especially in North America, and a lot of times in Q4 and other quarters actually, we see better efficiencies when the warehouses are busy. So it was very clean operational quarter, I would say. The ops team did a great job handling record volumes in Q4 and also incorporating all the new capacity we had opened in 2017. If you remember, we have added over 30% to our fulfillment square footage in 2017, coming off a similar increase in 2016. So amid all these opening of new buildings, many of them late in the year, the ops team did a fantastic job. Advertising was also a key contributor as we're continuing to make more value -- the offerings more valuable, both to customers and advertisers alike, and that was particularly strong in North America. Although not in the North America segment, I would also point out, AWS had a strong quarter, accelerating growth versus Q3 and also expanding operating margins by 100 basis points. So particularly in North America, I would say it was the -- the strong volume -- top line volume, combined with increased advertising revenues and also a very clean operational performance. Obviously, there's a lot of things that can happen in Q4 from weather to demand patterns changing. We've seen additional costs creep in, in the name of customer experience in prior years. And this was, in hindsight, probably one of the cleaner Q4s recently.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Till Anmuth,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, I was hoping you could talk about how you're thinking about your primary investment areas in 2018 and perhaps if you could put it in context of '17. Are there things that are notably different this year relative to last year and also how you would think about the margin trajectory relative to what we saw last year?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. I -- we'll be giving you guidance quarter by quarter, but I can talk to the general trends in the large investment areas. Let me start with AWS infrastructure and growth in technical and sales teams. That will continue. We're in a $20 billion run rate in top line revenues for AWS, up from 18% -- excuse me, $18 billion last quarter. So we're very happy with the -- both the progression in new services and features that we've been able to bring to customers and also their response. We'll continue geographic expansion and continuing to, again, build on our tech teams and our sales teams. So that would -- that expense is going to continue and likely increase. Prime benefits will continue to increase as well. Prime Now -- excuse me, Prime Video, Prime Now, AmazonFresh, all of our major Prime benefits we continue to expand globally. Devices, as Jeff said in the press release, we are very happy with the results of Alexa. It's a very positive surprise for us, both on a -- adding a little bit more to that, we had record device sales, we had very high levels of customer engagement, including increased levels of voice shopping, growth in functionality, growth in our partner -- partners we work with. Skills there, we've increased rapidly. We're over 30,000 skills for Alexa. We've got 4,000-plus smart home devices from 1,200 unique brands. So the -- the relationships we're having with external companies is actually helping to accelerate the adoption of Alexa with customers. So really strong usage of -- excuse me, Alexa with our devices. Obviously, Echo, Echo Show and the Echo family all directly tied to Alexa, but also Fire TV and tablets. And we're seeing more and more engagement. Alexa usage on Fire TV is up 9x year-over-year. Music listening time on Alexa was 3x higher this holiday season. So that's what we mean when we said far exceeding our expectations. Those are the things I would point to. And that is an area, again, where we'll continue to invest heavily and as we say, double down on that. Fulfillment, again, is -- fulfillment capacity, especially to fuel the strong top line growth and growth in Amazon fulfilled units, which, again, is growing much quicker than our unit growth rate, we expect that and hope that to continue as well into 2018. Video content, we spoke about on the last call, we do like the results we're seeing with engagement on customers, their buying habits, their engagement with the video content, their use of it on devices. And we will continue to increase our budget in that area. But I'll be release -- yes, I'll incorporate that into the guidance each quarter as we move through the year.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Ross Sandler with Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Adam Sandler,  Barclays PLC, Research Division - MD of the Americas Equity Research and Senior Internet Analyst    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hey guys, just 2 questions. AWS reaccelerated again this quarter. Can you just give us some color on what were the key drivers there? Was it lapping some of the price activity from a year ago? Was it higher utilization, moving up the stack? Any color there would be helpful. And then a question on shipping costs. So it looks like it grew about 31% up on shipping costs in the quarter, and that's been kind of moving in tandem with the Amazon fulfilled unit growth. Is that the right way to think about it? It looks like it might be getting a little bit of leverage in the model right now as -- is that -- what's driving that, the shipping cost leverage?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with that last one. Yes, shipping costs are going to be very tied to AFN unit growth and also the impact of greater Prime adoption and faster shipping methods. So yes, we consider that a very strong quarter, down sequentially in the growth that we've seen recently. That will fluctuate quarter to quarter. Again, it was a very strong operational quarter in Q4, and we've expanded the number of items that shipped free. We're now over 100 million items in the U.S. So yes, shipping cost is always going to be a strong part of our offering, and we're -- it's going to be increasing due to our business model. And we, at the same time, look to minimize the cost by getting more and more efficient in that area. AWS, yes, if you remember last year, we did have price increases in December of last year towards the end. So it had a partial impact on the quarter. But generally, just strong usage growth. Usage growth continues to be strong, growing at a higher rate than our revenue growth rate and customers continue to add workloads and expand. And as I said, we're adding new services and features all the time, over 1,400 in 2017 alone. So it's a number of factors, I would say. It's not as simple as lapping a cost there -- excuse me, a price decrease last year, but very happy with the performance in -- of the AWS business. Now over a $20 billion run rate.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Mark May with Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Alan May,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Brian, if you look back historically, your Q1 operating income guidance is typically about $300 million, $400 million lower than your Q4. Obviously, it's significantly greater than that this quarter. Maybe if you could shed a little light on why that is so and what are some of the key drivers there. And AWS and cloud pricing appears to have been more subtle in recent quarters. Maybe if you could talk a little bit about the pricing environment and why that has been the case at least compared to trends from back in '14, '15 and previously.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with guidance. So yes, the operating income guidance is $300 million to $1 billion. Operating income last year was $1 billion. Q1 is generally when we see the volume drop off from Q4, obviously, but a lot of the costs remain from the year-over-year buildup in costs, particularly in the fulfillment network. So it's generally a headwind every Q1. It's -- given the 30%-plus growth in square footage last year that we've built, that's one major headwind from Q4 to Q1. But we also continue to invest, particularly in Alexa and our device area. As I mentioned in a number of comments earlier, we're very happy with the results, the customer adoption, the device sales that we're seeing and the general customer acceptance there. So we will continue to invest there. Those are probably the 2 largest factors in Q1, I would say.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. This is Dave. Just on the second piece on just pricing. I think in the pricing environment, I mean, nothing really to call out there. I guess, just a reminder on our pricing philosophy for AWS. Periodic price reductions are a normal part of our business. We reduced prices more than 60 times with AWS since launching. So really, our kind of goal and philosophy here is to drive efficiencies in our ops and pass those savings on to customers. And some of that's through, again, with the more than 60 price reductions, but also finding through new service and feature launches better options for a customer that present -- customers to present more efficient features for them to be able to run their businesses.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Dan Salmon with BMO Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Daniel Salmon,  BMO Capital Markets Equity Research - Media and Internet Analyst    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          First, Brian, any comments on the impact of ASC 606 accounting changes on your first quarter guidance here? And then just second on the advertising business, in particular, the ads that we see in the search results on the site, the headline search ad, sponsored product ads, do you aim for a certain particular ad load across the entire platform? Do you look at sort of tailoring it based on user's activity, maybe a combination of both? Would just be interested in your thoughts on that.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. This is Dave. I'll take the first part of that question just around the new revenue recognition standard. We did adopt the new standard on January 1 of this year, 2018. And you'll see that reflected in our financials for the first quarter coming up. There -- it touches on a number of different parts of our business in terms of how we recognize revenue. In terms of in the aggregate and the impact to our expectations for the revenue guidance for the first quarter, it's not material. There's a number of different areas, at least, that we've called out in our filings with the 10-Q in the past and the 10-K that will be on file shortly that talk about the different areas that are impacted with this. But again, not material in the aggregate.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          And on advertising, I would say our strategy is to make the customer experience additive by the ad process. We want customers to be able to see new brands and have easier time discovering products that they're looking for. For brands, we think the value proposition is that we can find ways for them, especially emerging brands, to reach new customers. So we're working with advertisers of all types and sizes to help them reach our customer base and the goal of driving brand awareness, discovery and better purchase decisions by the customer.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Justin Post with Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think I have 2 questions. First, Whole Foods, you've got over a quarter under your belt. How's it going versus your expectations? And what can Amazon really bring now that you've been there for a while, how you're thinking about that? And then secondly, international decelerated a little bit this quarter, just wondering if there was any country to call out or anything going on there. And we know that you spent about $3 billion international investment, I guess, last year. Where do you think the high-water mark is on that? So just maybe a little bit more color on your international business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with the Whole Foods question. We're continuing to be very excited about the opportunities we have to innovate with the Whole Foods and Amazon teams together in our physical stores. It states in our supplemental disclosure that physical stores revenue was $4.5 billion in Q4, which is primarily comprised of Whole Foods and was slightly better than what was built into our guidance that I gave you last call. So -- so far, our focus has been on continuing to lower prices even beyond the initial ones that we discussed at the close of the deal in late August. We've launched Whole Foods products on our Amazon website. And the technical work continues to make Prime the Whole Foods customer rewards program. And we expect to have more on that later in the year. We've also added Lockers and much more to come. So we're very happy with the initial results out of the team in Whole Foods down in Austin. Also, I will mention that we did see a small operating income/loss for the quarter from Whole Foods. At the time of the acquisition, we had stepped up the fair market value of certain assets on the balance sheet. This is going to increase the amortization. It's a noncash charge, but it will increase the amortization over the useful life. And a lot of that is forward front-loaded, so we'll see higher amortization in the first few years and then it reverses later. So excluding these noncash expense items, Whole Foods had a positive operating income in Q4, but you'll see in the 10-K that the operating income, including the charges, was slightly negative in Q4. International growth, your comment about slowing down, I think there's a slowdown versus Q4 -- 3, if that was your point. 28% growth in Q3, FX neutral, was helped quite a bit by Prime Day and kind of the strengthening of Prime Day in a number of locales. Although we've had Prime Day in most of those countries, it's really starting to gain more and more traction there. So that is probably more of a help to Q3 than a discussion of any weakness in Q4. So we're -- continue to be pursuing the same strategy as we have in North America, adding Prime benefits, adding devices, adding video content, adding AmazonFresh, Prime Now, giving a lot of value to the Prime customers in international countries as well. And also in that number is India. And India continues to be a good story for us. We feel that it's had a lot of growth in the past year. In fact, more Prime members joined India's Prime program in the first year than we've seen in any other country in the history of the world, our world. So the selection is also increasing Prime eligible selection is up over 25 million items, launching video there and also continuing to add other Prime benefits such as Prime Music will be coming soon. Amazon Family is there. As I said, Prime Video, and we had our first Prime Day in India. So that's a little bit on international growth.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Thomas Nowak,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2. The first one, in the press release, you talk about the strength of the Prime member growth in 2017. Could you talk a little bit about to the -- what you're seeing in growth in Prime subscribers in the United States at this point? And are you still seeing a similar tick up in consumer spending as they come into Prime as you have in the past? And the second one, Brian, to go back to an earlier question on areas of investment this year, you didn't talk a whole lot about kind of new categories to expand into beyond the old retail business. Curious to hear about the investment needed to go into logistics, health care and kind of new areas you haven't really cracked into as hard yet.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. This is Dave. Thanks for the question, Brian. Just on the first piece, in terms of just Prime membership and Prime behavior, we continue to see that we're seeing sign-ups for memberships at a strong clip. When we look at the year-over-year growth in paid Prime members on a global basis, it's been consistent in Q4 year-over-year, similar growth rates year-over-year to what we've seen in some of the earlier quarters of this year. So that's, of course, a mix of strength in the U.S. and also strength in some of the newer markets that we've launched or introduced the Prime program in. We continue to see that as Prime members sign up and engage into the program, their purchasing patterns change and they do spend more as they move into the program. And of course, our focus is -- continues to be on adding some of the features around Prime that Brian's been talking about, but also importantly, making sure we're adding more selection to the offering through our own efforts, first party, but also programs like Fulfillment by Amazon, which is -- continues to be a fast grower for us.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. And on new businesses or expansion of categories, as you discussed, I would not talk to anything that's not been publicly announced, but on some of the ones you mentioned, they are underway and are continuing. I would say on logistics, we will continue to build our logistics capability both -- and that will be all the way, too. And delivery, we've been able to increase service levels in many cases by delivering it ourselves. And although we have a strong partner network here, we will always be able to leverage our strength and our knowledge about where shipments are going, both within our network and to final customers that will create opportunities for us there as we increase or better the customer experience as well. We continue -- I would say on the category side, the biggest effort will continue to be on groceries and consumables with the Whole Foods acquisition. And again, we continue to look at our whole offering of AmazonFresh, Prime Now, Whole Foods, how can they work together to create better and better offerings for our customer base. And to a lesser extent, versus grocery, I would say, we continue to build our business, B2B businesses, and very happy with the initial performance there with a number of the companies and universities that we've been working with and their initial results.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Scott Mushkin with Wolfe Research.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Scott Andrew Mushkin,  Wolfe Research, LLC - MD and Senior Retail & Staples Analyst    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          So I want to go back to -- and I think you said one of the big focuses of the year is going to be on the consumables, Now, Fresh, Whole Foods. There's been a lot of press on the Whole Foods front, the out-of-stock issue and then clearly in the Now as we've been testing it and Fresh has the same issue. So I was wondering if you guys could talk about what the company plans to do. I mean, there is obviously the reputational risk that could come from that to kind of correct some of these issues and kind of what the view of the company is on the out-of-stock issues, not just at Whole Foods, but just generally across the consumables business in Fresh and Now.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I'm not -- let me just back it to a more general statement. I'd say, Whole Foods is not less in their commitment to providing the best selection of high-quality products and having them in stock for customers. We made no changes post the acquisition that would have impacted anything related to in-stock, except perhaps the fact that price decreases have brought up demand and there's an amount of rebalancing related to that. So I think the out-of-stock issues that may be getting press are tied more to the increased demand that we're seeing and also selective weather-related restocking issues. But stepping beyond any short-term issues, the commitment is -- remains to have healthy, high-quality selection in stock for products. That's what the Whole Foods team has committed to. That's what the Amazon team, with them, is committed to. And also across any delivery channel that we have, AmazonFresh, Prime Now or Whole Foods. So where there's issues, they'll be corrected. Where there's areas we can improve our selection and delivery for customers, we'll do so. But it'll be something that we're working on. So the immediacy, the perishability are all challenges everyone has in this area, but we're confident that we will have a good service and continue to delight customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Youssef Squali with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Youssef Houssaini Squali,  SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          We've seen that the number of private-label products on the site has increased pretty dramatically over the last 12, 18 months. Can you speak to your private-label strategy in general? How big is that segment today? How big can it become? And just broadly speaking, how are the margins in that segment versus comparable third-party products?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. Thanks for the question. This is Dave. I think broadly, when I look at our strategy, it's focused on, number one, providing a broad selection for customers across a number of categories so that they can find and buy exactly what they're looking for. When you look at private brands, it's very much meant to supplement that great selection. And we look for ways to be able to find private-label items that have a high caliber of quality, but also can bring that selection and that convenience for customers and really supplement what vendors and sellers are already providing to customers in many cases. We've not broken out kind of how significant or how large that is. I think for a lot of these initiatives, when you look across categories that we offer, many of them are still earlier stage and have been around even from kind of infancy for shorter period of time, a year, a couple of years in some cases. Amazon Fashion is one area where you're seeing us offer a number of private apparel brands. Some of the more sort of popular lines with customers have been things like Goodthreads, Amazon Essentials, which is men's and women's basics. Consumables is, of course, another big area where we have the benefit of working with some of the Whole Foods private label, but also doing some of our other Amazon brands, things like Happy Belly and Wickedly Prime and others so. I think we'll continue to iterate on those and try to find different areas. And certainly, there's other verticals that I didn't mention there that we're interested in continuing to kind of learn from customers what they want and what they're looking for there. And so we'll keep adding selection.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Ken Sena with Wells Fargo.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kenneth Michael Sena,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD, Head of Internet Equity Research & Senior Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Maybe if you could just remind us of the thinking that -- behind keeping AWS and retail under one corporate structure. And does it make sense given the scale of where AWS is right now? And then -- and I'm sorry I have a little bit of an echo, I don't know why, but -- and we're hearing from marketers just how important Amazon is to their media strategy. So I don't know if you could just maybe talk about that a little bit more broadly in terms of the approach and your philosophy to that business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. We see a lot of value in all of our businesses. And AWS is a key component as is the physical consumer business. The -- what I'll point out is the management team is a common management team. The consumer business, if you will, is, if not the biggest, one of the largest customers of AWS. So we see a lot of commonality there where we as -- depending on position in the company. On the consumer side, the use of AWS has driven great infrastructure efficiencies, just like other companies see when they use AWS, turning fixed cost into variable cost and pooling resources and not having a lot of trapped capacity throughout the company and taking advantage of all the new services and features. So as a internal customer, the consumer business is very happy with AWS. And I think AWS is also very benefited by the fact that they have a large internal beta customer that tries out and uses a lot of their products and services. So it's a good combination for a lot of reasons, and we see no reason to change the structure that we have.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. And sorry, Ken, your second question was?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Kenneth Michael Sena,  Wells Fargo Securities, LLC, Research Division - MD, Head of Internet Equity Research & Senior Analyst    [35]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. The second question was just on the advertising side. And just -- we're just hearing so much more how important Amazon is to broader media budgets. And so just hoping to get maybe a little bit more color just on your approach to the business right now, some of the drivers behind the recent success and just maybe just more of a sort of, as you look out over the next few years, kind of how important do you see this business becoming in the grand scheme of things?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [36]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes. I mean, I think right now, we're really just focused on finding ways to work with those companies, whether it's vendors or sellers that are coming to us and offer them a great experience on the website and an ability to be able to reach customers. So I think there's more to come on that side. As we said, we're definitely seeing some strong growth in our advertising revenue as part of the other revenue line item. And I think we're going to keep building more new tools based on what we're learning from our customers there to better serve in the future.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [37]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I think we're also part of the key lean in from a lot of brands and agencies into the e-commerce marketing space. So whether it's our site alongside search or social marketing, it's really helping them engage customers on a high, efficient -- highly efficient manner.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,   -     [38]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thanks for joining us on the call today and for your questions. A replay will be available on our IR website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon.com and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Definitions
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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+
+EDITED TRANSCRIPT: "Edited Transcript" indicates that a team of professional 
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+
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Transcripts/AMZN/2018-Jul-26-AMZN.txt

@@ -0,0 +1,319 @@
+
+
+Thomson Reuters StreetEvents Event Transcript
+E D I T E D   V E R S I O N
+
+Q2 2018 Amazon.com Inc Earnings Call
+JULY 26, 2018 / 9:30PM GMT
+
+================================================================================
+Corporate Participants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Brian T. Olsavsky
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO
+ * Dave Fildes
+   Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR
+
+================================================================================
+Conference Call Participiants
+================================================================================
+
+ * Eric James Sheridan
+   UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst
+ * Jason Stuart Helfstein
+   Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Youssef Houssaini Squali
+   SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst
+ * Heath Patrick Terry
+   Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD
+ * Ross Adam Sandler
+   Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Equity Research & Senior Internet Analyst
+ * Justin Post
+   BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD
+ * Mark Stephen F. Mahaney
+   RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst
+ * Brian Thomas Nowak
+   Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst
+ * Mark Alan May
+   Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst
+ * Douglas Till Anmuth
+   JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD
+
+================================================================================
+Presentation
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Thank you for standing by. Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Amazon.com Q2 2018 Financial Results Teleconference. (Operator Instructions) Today's call is being recorded. For opening remarks, I'll be turning the call over to the Director of Investor Relations, Dave Fildes. Please go ahead.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hello, and welcome to our Q2 2018 financial results conference call. Joining us today to answer your questions is Brian Olsavsky, our CFO.
+As you listen today's conference call, we encourage you to have our press release in front of you, which includes our financial results as well as metrics and commentary on the quarter. Please note, unless otherwise stated, all comparisons in this call will be against our results for the comparable period of 2017. Our comments and responses to your questions reflect management's views as of today, July 26, 2018, only and will include forward-looking statements. Actual results may differ materially. Additional information about factors that could potentially impact our financial results is included in today's press release and our filings with the SEC, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K and subsequent filings.
+During this call, we may discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures. In our press release, slides accompanying this webcast and our filings with the SEC, each of which is posted on our IR website, you will find additional disclosures regarding these non-GAAP measures, including reconciliations of these measures with comparable GAAP measures. Our guidance incorporates the order trends that we've seen to date and what we believe today to be appropriate assumptions. Our results are inherently unpredictable and may be materially affected by many factors, including fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, changes in global economic conditions and customer spending, world events, the rate of growth of the Internet, online commerce and cloud services and the various factors detailed in our filings with the SEC. Our guidance also assumes, among other things, that we don't conclude any additional business acquisitions, investments, restructurings or legal settlements. It's not possible to accurately predict demand for our goods and services, and therefore, our actual results could differ materially from our guidance.
+With that, we will move to Q&A. Operator, please remind our listeners how to initiate a question.
+
+
+================================================================================
+Questions and Answers
+================================================================================
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [1]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          (Operator Instructions) Our first question comes from the line of Justin Post from Merrill Lynch.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Justin Post,  BofA Merrill Lynch, Research Division - MD    [2]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I guess the standout metric of the quarter was the profitability and the margins. Both U.S. and international have improved year-over-year. Could you talk about, was it better than your expectations for the quarter? And then maybe a reason for the ad business to accelerate within the other line.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [3]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, yes. Thanks, Justin. Yes, for the quarter, so it was a strong quarter. We had, what I attribute it to is continued strength in some of our most profitable areas. AWS had its third consecutive quarter of accelerating growth, 49% FX-neutral growth. Advertising also had strong growth. Elsewhere, we saw probably better-than-expected efficiencies in operations, our infrastructure costs and generally all of our fixed costs. You'll note that in the first half of the year, capital leases were flat year-over-year, although we're up 20% for the full trailing 12 months. In the last 6 months it's been pretty flat as the team has really worked well to plan our data centers, run our data centers more efficiently even to meet, again, increasing usage by our customers, usage rates that are exceeding our growth rate. So that's what I would point to. Internationally, a lot of the same factors hold. I would say that in addition to the operating efficiencies, advertising is also starting to make an impact on gross profit, although advertising is smaller in international segment than it is in North America. It's growing at the same rapid clip year-over-year. Even while in international, we're continuing to invest in a lot of areas. We continue to frontload Prime benefits for the newer geographies. We continue to launch new countries. We launched Prime in Australia recently. We've launched devices in multiple countries. Echo and Alexa were launched in France. Echo Spot was launched in India and Japan in the last quarter. So continued -- it's a mix of operating efficiencies as we grow and then also continuing to invest on a lot of fronts.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [4]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark Mahaney with RBC Capital Markets.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Stephen F. Mahaney,  RBC Capital Markets, LLC, Research Division - MD and Analyst    [5]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Okay. Hey, maybe 2 things. Just a little bit of color on that unit growth. I think it was 17%. Any particular things to call out there that would have stunted that growth or negatively limit it? Or is that just kind of a new, new normal? And then Brian, I'm sorry. You just talk better-than-expected efficiencies in operations. Can I ask you to tease that out a little bit more? And a little more color, particularly on the retail side of the business. Are there particularly newfound efficiencies that are sustainable?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [6]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let's start with the unit growth. So I will note, we did a very strong unit growth rate last year in Q2 with 27%, so we're comping against that. As we look back on that, there were a number of factors. I mean, in any quarter, there can be product mix or ASP differentials would shift the unit growth figure, but if you also remember, we dropped our Super Saver shipping threshold twice in early part of last year from $49 to $35 and then down to $25. So there was a bit of growth, particularly in lower ASP items from that, that we saw a last year. So we're comping that. Another factor is digital content that moves to subscription. So Amazon Music and Kindle Unlimited, while they're very successful and it's a good transition, they just -- the units do not count in this unit calculation. So there's some things like that, that maybe obfuscate the numbers a bit, but we're really pleased with the retail growth. We think it's driven by, again, Prime -- the Prime program, the efficiency -- or excuse me, the engagement of Prime customers as well as increased selection and particularly third-party selection. On operations, if you look at probably the last 18 months, you're going to see a lot of different pace of increase in both infrastructure, cost and capital cost and the addition of fixed cost heads. So one thing that you'll notice is that we've grown -- that we've stepped down our rate of growth of fixed headcount, excluding acquisitions. We've grown 26% year-over-year at the end of June on a trailing 12-month basis. But the 23% of that was in the second half of last year. So we are continuing to look at where we're investing headcount. We're seeing a lot of our growth areas being fueled by headcount that's moving within the company. There's a lot of movement of tech headcount. And so there was less external hiring in the first half of this year. We don't think that, that's necessarily the long-term trend, but it's certainly created a lot of operating efficiencies and now we'll reset and evaluate where we need to still add people. So I think the first half of the year can be a good test of where our cost structure is coming off of the investment that leads up to the holiday. Last year, there was a lot of first half investment. If you look back on infrastructure and fixed headcount, that may be made that less pronounced. But this year, it's a little more apparent.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [7]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from line of Douglas Anmuth with JPMorgan.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Douglas Till Anmuth,  JP Morgan Chase & Co, Research Division - MD    [8]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I want to ask 2 if I could. First, 3Q is typically a heavy fulfillment center build-out period, ahead of the holidays and then lower utilization, but obviously your outlook is good. Can you just give us a sense of how you're thinking about FC build-out in square footage increases this year? And then secondly, a lot of excitement around the pharmacy opportunity with the acquisition of PillPack. Can you frame some of the strategic rationale there around the acquisition and how that helps advance your efforts and how we should think about integration going forward?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [9]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. On the fulfillment center capacity, I don't have a number for you today. I'll probably clarify that at the end of next quarter as we head into the holiday. But if you think back the last 2 years, we've added square footage that's exceeded 30% growth both in 2016 and 2017. We anticipate it's going to be lower this year as we get some efficiencies off what we've built over the last few years. But we don't have a number for you today. I will say that the majority of it is being put in service in the back end of the year, just like in the last 2 years. But we'll clarify that next quarter. On PillPack, yes, the deal of course, hasn't closed yet. We expect to close it in the second half of the year, so I'll limit my comments right now. But we're excited. I think the company has a really highly differentiated customer experience, and they've done a great job getting to the size and scale that they're at today. We think that working together with them, we can expand on that in the future. They're like a lot of the other acquisitions we've done. Recently, we're looking for well-run companies with highly differentiated customer experience and a real sense of customer obsession that matches ours. So we think PillPack has got all those traits, and we look forward to the deal closing and working with them.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [10]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Mark May with Citi.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Mark Alan May,  Citigroup Inc, Research Division - Director and Senior Analyst    [11]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On AWS, does the backlog there give you confidence in the ability for this business to continue to post the type of robust growth that you've seen of late? And on Alexa, now that you're reaching a meaningful number of Alexa users, I wondered if you could discuss a bit more about how Alexa is impacting their retail business.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [12]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. Let me start with AWS. Yes, we're very happy with the results we're seeing and the backlog that we see and the new contracts and new customers and the expansion of existing customer business that we see. Again, the businesses accelerated in the last 3 quarters, and we're seeing great signs in a number of areas. We've added 800 new services and features so far this year. That's an accelerated pace from last year, which was a record year. We see customers have migrated more than 80,000 databases using the AWS data migration service -- excuse me, Database Migration Service. And customers are just branching out to a lot of new products from us. There are new areas like machine learning, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things. Serverless computing and database and analytics are really big. So we think that when you look at it, why do people come to us essentially? It's that functionality and pace of innovation that we've demonstrated for multiple years. We've built a very strong partner and customer ecosystem. And frankly, we're the most proven in reliability, security and performance, and we've been at this longer than anyone else. So again, we continue to deliver for customers. We continue to use feedback from customers to develop new services and features. The operating margin itself will fluctuate quarter-to-quarter. A very strong performance this quarter, obviously. Part of that was in the capital expenditures -- excuse me, or capital leases being flat year-over-year and the team's ability to really run the data centers at a higher efficiency.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [13]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and I think the second question was really just how is Alexa impacting the business overall.  Hey, this is Dave. And I think we're having a lot of success with devices and customers are enjoying those. We talked to coming out of Prime Day, had some good success and happy customers enjoying some of the devices there. So I think that's a lot of -- the focus now is really having good and exciting roadmap of recent revises and more to come ahead and getting those into customers' hands.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [14]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from the line of Heath Terry with Goldman Sachs.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Heath Patrick Terry,  Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Research Division - MD    [15]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Just on the AWS point, as you're seeing in customers to AWS -- you're adding new customers to AWS, can you give us a sense of sort of where you're seeing customers spend focus? How successful you mentioned database, but what other areas are you potentially seeing as customers move up the stack with you and grow? And then you flagged the flat capital lease growth on a year-over-year basis. In the past, when you've talked about the growth in CapEx and capital lease, you generally referred to trying to grow those numbers or that infrastructure growth overall with more or less with the business. Is there some level of efficiency breakthrough that you've gotten there where that's no longer the case? Or is it a function of timing? How should we think about what that CapEx and capital lease spend signals about your expectations for growth?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [16]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. I would say it's just a demonstration of a very tight period where we -- we're still adding a lot. I mean, $4.6 billion is a lot of capital leases. But the rate of growth over last year was flat. So what I would say is, I'm not sure about the breakthrough element of it. We do spend a lot of time driving better efficiency in our data centers. We do see it. Sometimes it is higher than other quarters. The starting point for our expectation would be that usage growth would be very -- that our growth in infrastructure cost would start with the growth in usage, which has been exceeding the revenue growth rate. But we can do -- we can drive more efficiently and we can sometimes bank the efficiencies of prior investments that we've made in other periods. So it will fluctuate quarter-to-quarter. I would say last year, in the first half, was a pretty large investment area. I'll lump it in with capital expenditures. But in the first 2 quarters, Q1 of last year was 82% growth year-over-year in capital expenditures. Q2 was 67%. This year, those numbers are 33% in Q1 and 1% in Q2. So there's a bit of timing at play here, but I think overall, in the longer term, we certainly work to drive efficiency in both AWS infrastructure capability and also in our warehouse networks. I don't have, on the other piece, on the product detail, I don't have anything more for you. I would just say that our growth is coming from customers that span from start-ups to enterprise customers to government agencies, and they start small and then they continue to build and shift their businesses to us. And many of them have gone -- a large number have gone all-in on AWS and have had a chance to lower their cost structures as a result. I would count Amazon in that category because on the consumer side of the business, we increasingly see infrastructure savings due to the conversion to AWS resources.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [17]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Brian Nowak with Morgan Stanley.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian Thomas Nowak,  Morgan Stanley, Research Division - Research Analyst    [18]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          I have 2. The first one, on the ad business. Brian, I was just wondering, could you give us some examples of some products you have particular success with on the ad side? And then I know you guys are always focused on removing customer friction points and solving pain points for customers. Maybe talk to us about some of the still existing pain points for your advertiser customers you're looking to address with the advertising product. And the second one, I know it's an accounting question, but we're going to be asked a lot. On revenue accounting, can you just sort of walk us through any of the accounting changes that any of the revenue lines had in the current quarter because of the multiple accounting moving pieces?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [19]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me give Dave a chance afterwards to talk about that piece, but I'll start with advertising. So conceptually, stepping back, it's now a multibillion-dollar business for us. We're seeing strong adoption across a number of fronts. Amazon vendors, sellers, authors, as well as third-party advertisers who want to reach Amazon customers. So we have hundreds of thousands of emerging and established advertisings -- advertisers, and they're using our services to achieve their marketing goals, whether that's to drive new brand awareness, discovery or ultimately purchase decisions on our site. Pain points and improvements, I would say our priorities include improving the usability of our tools for advertisers, helping make smarter recommendations for customers. Automating, we're doing a lot of work on automating the activities that the advertisers need to do and continue to invent new products for the advertisers. We also think measurement is going to be important, so we're focused on our measurement capabilities, so advertisers understand what outcomes they're driving on our properties. And we think that we're uniquely positioned to show them the direct benefit of their advertising.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [20]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and Brian, this is Dave. Just on the accounting piece, specifically to Q2, the impact of the accounting standards update revenue recognition changes we did starting in the first part of year, it's $640 million increase to other revenue, specifically related to how we treat some of the advertising service. So you remember, as part of the adoption, beginning in 2018, certain of the advertising services were classified as revenue rather than cost of sales. So $640 million more is another revenue this second quarter. You'd see that in that line item, which is about $2.2 billion here in the second quarter. In addition to that, some of the other factors I talked about last quarter, some of the treatment of gross to net changes in some sales of apps and app content, digital media costs, some of that shift created a headwind for online stores revenue. So that year-over-year growth rate for that line item would have been higher but for that change.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [21]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan with UBS.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Eric James Sheridan,  UBS Investment Bank, Research Division - MD and Equity Research Internet Analyst    [22]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Two questions, if I can. On Whole Foods, any update on the integration of Whole Foods within the broader Prime ecosystem, the way in which you're tying those assets and customer bases together to sort of promote the flywheel that you've talked about a fair bit? And Prime Now, any update on the scale of markets globally and what you're learning as Prime Now continues to scale in terms of how users adopt the service, putting SKUs closer to prem, what that does to the velocity of purchasing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [23]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure. So it's a big quarter for Whole Foods and Prime. We launched Prime for -- sorry, we launched Additional Savings for Prime members at Whole Foods. If you go a Whole Foods store or a Whole Foods market, 365 store, you'll see a lot of yellow stickers for 10% discount off hundreds of sale items. You'll also see deep discounts on selected popular products. So Prime members have adopted this benefit. It's one of the fastest rates we've ever seen for a Prime benefit, and they've already saved millions of dollars on everything from seasonal favorites to, as I said, popular daily sales. So in addition, we've expanded the grocery delivery to 20 cities, so that's picking up steam. During the Prime Day, we had some unique deals with -- for Prime customers at Whole Foods. Actually, the deals lasted for a week at Whole Foods, and people had, again, the ability to see the benefit that Prime membership -- save incremental dollars because of it at Whole Foods. And the Prime Rewards Visa card, which gives you $5 -- excuse me 5% off on all purchases, has been applied to Whole Foods purchases as well. So that is the second wave. Probably after the first wave, when we've talked in previous calls about initial price drops, putting lockers in the stores, selling some of the Whole Foods products on the Amazon site and other things. So the invention level is still really high. We're -- we think it's a big milestone this quarter to launch Prime benefits with Whole Foods, and we'll keep going. We'll see how that develops. Prime Now, I guess my comments are that it's in 50 cities worldwide. It's across 9 countries. The -- it is different than -- we have multiple options for you in grocery delivery. We have the delivery services, so AmazonFresh and Prime Now, which serve a certain need. We have a traditional grocery store now with Whole Foods. And then we have the combination of those 2 with home delivery and we're using Prime Now or Whole Foods products through Prime Now to make those deliveries, as well as the new kind of stores with Amazon Go that we're experimenting with. So lots of innovation, invention on that front as well.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [24]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Ross Sandler with Barclays.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Ross Adam Sandler,  Barclays Bank PLC, Research Division - MD of Americas Equity Research & Senior Internet Analyst    [25]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Hey guys, I had 2 questions. First is on the Music business. So I think you said recently you have tens of millions of paying subscribers. So are those paying music listeners coming from Prime and using the mobile app? Or are they coming in from Echo? Any color on what's driving that uptick and converting users into paid members? And then the second question is, you mentioned efficiency gains in retail and the improvement in retail operating margin. If we look at international, it's still negative, but it's also improving pretty meaningfully. So can you parse where that improvement is coming from between India and the other emerging markets versus some of the more mature markets in Western Europe?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [26]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Sure, let me start with that second question. So yes, we have seen, over the last few quarters, improved operating margins internationally. I would say in places like Europe and Japan, we're seeing many of the efficiencies I talked about earlier on fixed headcount, operations cost, infrastructure cost and also things like marketing, working to be very efficient. I would also say that although it's smaller internationally, the impact of advertising is starting to show up more and more internationally. It's growing quite quickly just as it is in North America. But you're right. We continue to invest. We're investing in India, obviously, and have seen good traction there. We just passed our fifth year anniversary. We just celebrated our fifth year anniversary. And it's the most visited site in India. So we think there's a lot of great innovation that has continued to occur for Indian customers, consumers and sellers, and that will continue. But you're also seeing additional expansion. So we launched Prime Australia. We're rolling devices out. We launched Echo and Alexa in France. The Echo Spot in India and Japan, and we announced that we're going to expand Echo and Alexa soon to Italy, Mexico and Spain. So I would say that we're continuing to frontload Prime Benefits in the newer geographies. So that's one of the issues that we see with operating margin. But we think it's the right thing to do. We are seeing strong traction in that front as well. We also like that on Prime Day, we're able to expand our list of countries that experienced Prime Day this year to Australia, Singapore, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. So we're very bullish on our international business. We do realize it's a period of investment, and we're at different stages of growth in different countries.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [27]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, this is Dave. Just quickly on Music, as you mentioned, tens of millions of paid customers are enjoying Amazon Music. When you look at the Amazon Music Unlimited subscription, it continues to grow very quickly. We've got those offerings in more than 30 countries now, and the catalog, there's tens of millions of songs, and a lot of rich playlists, personalized stations, those kinds of things. Of course, we started in Music with Prime Music a little bit earlier in that space, and I think that's been a great way for Prime members to enjoy some of that catalog for free, and then as they enjoy that, be able to move into the Amazon Music Unlimited scale. One of the great things that's also part of that, I think, you alluded to is just Alexa, and one of the most popular features we see, as you probably imagine, for using those devices or just interacting with Alexa wherever you may be is being able to listen to music, so that's proven to be, I think, a good skill for folks to be able to enjoy, in addition to a really kind of rich and growing Amazon skill set. We now have more than 45,000 skills available to customers.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [28]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our next question comes from Youssef Squali with SunTrust Robinson Humphrey.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Youssef Houssaini Squali,  SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, Inc., Research Division - MD & Senior Analyst    [29]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          On the new Supreme Court decision, you guys have been collecting state taxes in all 45 states where it's applicable for 1P. And for 3P, I think it was in 2 states. Have you seen any slowdown to growth in these 2 states since you began collecting taxes? I think you started maybe last 12 months or so. When will you start collecting taxes in the rest of the other -- in the rest of the country? And will you charge for it? Because my understanding is that in those 2 states, you do not collect or you do not charge to help these 3P sellers file taxes or collect state taxes.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [30]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, hey, Youssef, this is Dave. So right now, as you mentioned, 45 states that have state-imposed sales tax, first-party products, we do our own collection on that. For 3P sellers, right now, it's 3 states. So Washington State started as of January 1, Pennsylvania as of April 1, and most recently, Oklahoma on July 1. So those are the ones where we're collecting in and remitting. We haven't said -- and to your second point, we've not talked about any kind of trends. As you imagine, some of these are still really early days.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Operator    [31]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Our final question comes from Jason Helfstein with Oppenheimer & Co.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Jason Stuart Helfstein,  Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Research Division - MD and Senior Internet Analyst    [32]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Given the focus in the press release about Alexa Voice Services, any thoughts about how you would monetize on third-party devices? And then just a follow-up, Amazon Prime Video channels, any plans to offer standard skinny bundles to become a cable replacement thing?
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Brian T. Olsavsky,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Senior VP & CFO    [33]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, let me start with Alexa. So right now, our emphasis is around expanding the reach of Alexa and the usefulness. So as Dave mentioned, we're now up over 45,000 skills. We have a developer network that's expanded, and we have over 13,000 smart home devices from 2,500 unique brands. You're seeing things like expansion into the hotel space, where we're partnering with hotels to allow you to experience Alexa while you're traveling. And you saw from the quote that was in our press release that Jeff -- from Jeff, the number of Alexa-enabled devices has tripled in the past year, including some really large companies like Polk, Sonos, Acer, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, BMW, Ford, Toyota, to name a few. So that's the biggest emphasis, is getting the expansion of Alexa to places where it can be useful. We also are developing new machine learning tools to help developers more easily build Alexa skills. We feel like we're getting great traction there. So I think your original question was about monetization of Alexa, but right now, the biggest thing we can do is to make it as useful as possible and make devices that can use the skills.
+
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+Dave Fildes,  Amazon.com, Inc. - Director of IR    [34]
+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+          Yes, and then just on the second question, I mean, I can't speculate on what we might do in the future, but I'd say today, with Prime channels, I think we're very pleased with the growth we're seeing. We've seen some good channels come online over the last few quarters and have seen some good traction there. So we'll keep focusing on building out even better selection because it's clear to us that customers want that option to be able to add that content as part of their Prime memberships.
+Thanks for joining us today on the call and for your questions. A replay will be available on our Investor Relations website at least through the end of the quarter. We appreciate your interest in Amazon and look forward to talking with you again next quarter.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
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