Strong iPhone and Mac sales and the continued dominance of Apple’s iPod drove the company to deliver a new record March quarter in revenue and profit.
Admitting these results, chief operating officer Tim Cook also confirmed iPad sales so far have “shocked” company execs.
Asked how the iPad compares to netbooks, Cook said, “To me, it’s a no-brainer. It’s sort of 100 to 0. I can’t think of a single thing a netbook does well.”
Returning to the results, Apple CEO, Steve Jobs said: “We’re thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent.”
Apple’s got more products planned, he admitted, “We’ve launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year.”
Let’s just look at the figures for the quarter, which ended March 27, 2010: Apple booked revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion – that compares to revenue of $9.08 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Apple sold 2.94 million Macs, 8.75 million iPhones (up 131 percent) and 10.89 million iPods during the quarter. iPad sales (now speculated to be approaching a million) weren’t disclosed as they did not fall within the quarter.
“We are just ecstatic about the fact that roughly half of the Mac sales that occur each quarter are to people who have never owned a Mac before,” Apple chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer said.
iPod sales are significant because a decline in these sales is inevitable as the market moves to smartphones. However, iPod touch sales climbed 63 percent year over year, the company revealed, meaning the iPod retains c.70 percent share of the MP3 player market in most key markets, despite a 1 percent decline in iPod sales overall.
Profit margins were frightening, particularly in a recession-hit, value-conscious market, Apple’s margins hit 41.7 percent, up from 39.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple anticipates $13-$13.4 billion revenue in the current (third) quarter.
