He may be taking six months’ sick leave, but this is one quarterly result the co-founder of Apple Steve Jobs would not miss announcing – ever!
Apple tonight reported a quarterly net profit of US$1.6bn, based on record revenues of US$10.17bn.
“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing US$10bn in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Jobs, Silicon Valley’s enduring, but uncrowned, king.
The results compare to revenue of US$9.6bn and net quarterly profit of US$1.58bn last year.
Gross margin was 34.7pc, equal to the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46pc of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple sold 2.54 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing 9pc unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
The company sold a record 22.72m iPods during the quarter, representing 3pc unit growth year-on-year. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4.3 million, representing 88pc unit growth year-on-year.
“Our outstanding results generated over US$3.6bn in cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.
“Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about US$7.6bn to $8bn and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about US$.90 to US$1.00,” Oppenheimer added.
By John Kennedy
