Apple posted the best ever quarterly revenues and profits today at an announcement made to its shareholders on Tuesday, blowing analyst expectations out of the water. In all, the company had a record revenue of $28.57 this quarter and a net profit of $7.31 billion, which is also a record.
The company has more to be proud of than its net revenue and profit numbers. More than just income, Apple has managed to sell a record number of Macs, iPhones and iPads. This quarter alone, 20.34 million iPhones were sold worldwide, up 142% from one year ago, and 9.25 million iPads and "iPad-related devices", presumably accessories sold by Apple, left the shelves, a 183% increase since last year. Mac sales also saw a modest increase, with 3.95 million Macs sold this quarter, up roughly 14% since last year. Figures like these suggest that neither the Mac side or the mobile side of the company are showing signs of slowing down despite increasing consumer uncertainty, especially when it comes to large purchases. Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs, weighed in on the news:
We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent, […] Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.
The only sector that hasn’t done remarkably well has been the iPod product line, which sold 7.54 million units, a 20% decline since last year’s 9.4 million. This drop has resulted in a softening of revenue of about 14%, which suggests that consumers are beginning to see the iPod as outdated. Should Apple be worried? Quite the opposite, in my opinion: customers are beginning purchase iPhones, which is confirmed by their aforementioned 142% jump in sales, and using them as portable media players instead of owning separate devices just for playing their media on the go. This might have been Apple’s plan all along by marketing the iPhone much more aggressively than its media-only counterpart.
With its best revenues ever, Apple has a lot to be proud of for having weathered through such a challenging economic period and having come out much stronger than before. With new iPhones around the corner, along with Mac OS X Lion, which is set to come out tomorrow, the company’s performance for the remainder of this year might turn out to be just as good.
In Q2 of 2011, Apple sold 18.65 million iPhones, 4.69 million iPads, 9.02 million iPods and made a healthy revenue of $24.67 billion.
(source Apple press release)
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