14 DAY TRIAL // Ever thought to look at Steve Jobs' flying bills for clues to how the company is doing and what its plans are? Well, Kathryn Huberty (Morgan Stanley analyst) did, and she believes that Steve Jobs' recent jet trips may indicate that we're in for a big announcement on behalf of Cupertino's most well known CEO.
Steve Jobs travels in a Gulfstream V jet on Apple business. However, he's been at it a little more than usual, according to the aforementioned source. A research note spotted by Barron's reveals that Apple has been spending some $550,000 for jet expenses during last yearly quarter. Which is a lot of course, given that 2007 fiscal saw Jobs being reimbursed for 776 Gs (not gravitational force, although we could also consider it for this airplane story).
In 2006, it was just $202,000 (for the whole year), while a more productive 2005 had Apple spending about $1.1 million on jet rides, which brings it to $275,000 a quarter. Comparing these quarterly figures with the $550,000 spent the last time Jobs had to fly around the world and take part to events, introduce his innovating gadgets, meet important people, establish mergers or even check if a certain Apple retail store keeps its bathroom clean, it does sound like Apple's CEO is keeping himself awfully busy lately.
Then again, as BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl notes, the aforementioned report makes no mentioning of the first fiscal quarter of 2008 when "Jobs flew himself (and presumably several members of his team) to Europe to unveil the iPhone in the UK, France and Germany."
It is also believed that Jobs' schedule included stops here and there, for meetings with "wireless execs" and an "iPhone-related trip to China." No need to do any math here or see how much kerosene currently goes for, as Jobs' flying bills offer too little clues to what the company is at lately. It does add AS a clue though.