Apple Profits Soar As iPhone Sales Rise 88 Percent

Apple has posted another remarkable set of quarterly financial results, as the company benefited from a huge rise in sales of its iPhone and iPad devices.

Indeed it is hard to believe that Apple was slumping so badly 16 years ago that it almost was sold to Sun Microsystems for $6 (£3.7) per share. But Steve Jobs returned, the company came out with all those iGadgets, and history was changed.

Stunning Figures

Those dark days of 1996 are especially difficult to fathom when one examines the company’s current stock price of $560/£347 (in after-hours trading 24 April) and its Q2 2012 earnings report, made public 24 April.

Apple is the world’s richest company and it made $39.2 billion (£24.3bn) last quarter and banked $11.6 billion (£7.2bn) as profit.

Doing the math, the $39.2 billion equates to a 59 percent year-over-year increase in revenue and the $11.6 billion a whopping 94 percent upsurge in net profit over the same quarter a year ago.

The Cupertino, California-based smartphone, tablet and PC maker and online music purveyor continues to ride the iPhone and iPad wave that started a mere five years ago with the launch of the first iPhone. Apple sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. It sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter, including 10,000 alone to the San Diego Union High School District.

The company sold 4 million Macs during the quarter, a 7 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter, so not everything the company does breaks records.

Looking Forward

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation that only Apple can deliver.”

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion (£8.7bn) in cash flow from operations,” Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion (£21bn) and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68 (£5.38).”

The latter number is a sharp drop from the company’s EPS of $12 (£7.43) in Q2 2012.

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