Apple's quarterly results blew past Wall Street's
expectations after U.S. consumers purchased
unprecedented numbers of iPhones and iPads.
Apple posted record quarterly revenue of $46.33
billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.06
billion, or $13.87 per diluted share. These results
compare to revenue of $26.74 billion and net quarterly
profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, in
the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 44.7 percent
compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter.
International sales accounted for 58 percent of the
quarter's revenue.
Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones in the quarter,
representing 128 percent unit growth over the year-ago
quarter. The company also sold 15.43 million iPads
during the quarter, a 111 percent unit increase over
the year-ago quarter. Sales of Macs reached 5.2
million Macs, a 26 percent unit increase over the
year-ago quarter. Finally, Apple sold 15.4 million
iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago
quarter.
"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and
record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,"
said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Apple?s momentum is
incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new
products in the pipeline."
"We are very happy to have generated over $17.5
billion in cash flow from operations during the
December quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's
CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of
2012, which will span 13 weeks, we expect revenue of
about $32.5 billion and we expect diluted earnings per
share of about $8.50."
Despite the great quarter, Apple might face a rougher
ride than usual in 2012, as Google 's Android has been
adopted heavily by Samsung Motorola and others, and
a host of tablets from Amazon.com Inc, among others,
offers buyers viable alternatives.
On the other hand, an iPhone 5 for the end of the year
with a new form factor and with LTE could drive
another set of gains in 2012.