Apple Posts Huge Numbers
On Wednesday, Apple reported one of its best quarters in its history, including the incredibly revelation that they’d sold more iPhone 3Gs in one quarter than they’d sold iPhones since their introduction.
Apple posted revenue of $7.9 billion and a profit of $1.14 billion, compared to $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million in the year ago quarter.
Sales of Mac units reached a record high, up 21 percent over a year ago (2.611 million units; which also compares favorably to the 2.45 million in previous quarter) and iPod sales were up 8 percent (that’s 11 million iPods, about the same last quarter).
Apple sold nearly 6.9 million iPhone “3G” models in the quarter (year ago: 1.1 million), a huge increase that more than doubled the number of iPhones now on the streets. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said “we sold more phones than RIM,” referring the to maker of the Blackberry smartphone.
Apple also reported “non GAAP” results of $11.68 billion in sales revenue and $2.44 billion in profits. To conform to GAAP standards, Apple amortizes the sale price of iPhones and Apple TV units over the “life” of the product (24 months) to account for the fact that the products are offered continuous software updates and upgrades…in other words, because the products continue to cost them something even after their sold. So, Apple officially reported lower revenues in this quarter compared to the amount of cash brought in.
Apple ended its 2008 fiscal year with an extraordinary $25 billion in cash reserves and no long-term debt.
As for guidance for next quarter, Apple was somewhat unclear. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO said, “Looking ahead, visibility is low and forecasting is challenging, and as a result we are going to be prudent in predicting the December quarter. We are providing a wide range for our guidance, targeting revenue of $9.0 to $10.0 billion and earnings per diluted share between $1.06 and $1.35.”
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