That time we look forward to every three months has come around again with Apple announcing their earnings for Q3 of 2012. It seems that the world can’t help but be fixated on the company’s earnings call to see just how well the most profitable company in the world has done. As is always the case when these kind of figures are presented, they are compared against estimates made by experts in the industry as well as Apple’s own projected earnings.
The iPhone and iPad are two of Apple’s most successful products so it is understandable that a lot of attention is paid to these two product lines whenever this time of the year comes around. The iPhone has continued to push the limits set by Apple with 26 million units flying off the shelves in the quarter, a number that represents an impressive 28% rise year to year. Perhaps surprisingly, they also managed to offload 17 million iPads during the same period, which represents a phenomenal success. The success of the iPad represents an 84% rise in sales.
Once again, sales of the iPod touch continued to dip, with this quarter seeing a 10% decrease represented through a total of 6.8 million units sold. Sales of the Mac saw a slightly increased figure with 4 million Mac OS X powered computers leaving the Cupertino inventory. The poor and declining sales of the iPod touch is definitely a concern for the company, but with the popularity of iCloud and the iTunes Match service, users are finding themselves no longer requiring a separate device for personal music.
Sales of mobile devices and Macs are all well and good, but what about financial figures? Well, Apple have reported that revenue during the quarter totaled out at $35 billion with a total net profit of $8.8 billion. Those figures represent an earning of $9.32 per share held, and although they seem extremely impressive, they do fall short of predictions made by analysts, although the numbers do represent a better turnover than Apple themselves imagined. Tim Cook, the current CEO of the fruit company took the opportunity to express his delight with the earnings and in particular the success of the iPad as well as future products:
We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter. We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.
Although falling short of some industry estimates, the numbers show that Apple is continuing to perform at an extremely high level with Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer pleased at the financial performance and some predictions going forward:
We’re continuing to invest in the growth of our business and are pleased to be declaring a dividend of $2.65 per share today. Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $7.65.
The official conference call from Apple will being at 2PM PDT in which they will stream the financial results for the quarter mentioned.
(source Apple)
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