Thrilled Jobs reports Apple’s highest quarter yet


23 Jan 2008

An ebullient Steve Jobs last night reported Apple’s highest performing quarter in its 32-year history with revenues of US$9.6bn, up 35pc on last year and generating a profit of US$1bn.

This compares with Q1 revenues last year of US$7.1bn and a profit of US$1bn.

The company attributed the strong performance to record-breaking sales of its Mac, iPod, and iPhone products.

“We’re thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

“We have an incredibly strong new product pipeline for 2008, starting with the MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iTunes movie rentals in the first two weeks.”

During the first quarter, Apple shipped 2.3 million Macintosh computers, up 44pc in terms of units and representing a 47pc revenue growth on last year.

The company sold 22.1 million iPod media playing devices during the first quarter, up 5pc on unit shipments last year and representing 17pc revenue growth.

iPhone sales were 2.3 million for the quarter.

“Apple’s revenue grew 35pc year-over-year to $9.6bn, an increase of almost $2.5bn over the previous December quarter’s record-breaking results,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.

“Our strong results produced cash flow from operations of over $2.7bn during the quarter, yielding an ending cash balance of over $18.4bn.

“Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $6.8bn and earnings per diluted share of about $0.94,” Oppenheimer added.

By John Kennedy