Sales of the iPhone in Asia, the home of Apple’s strongest competitors, have nearly quadrupled from a year ago, helping the company trump analyst expectations for yet another quarter.
Apple also said iPad sales worldwide nearly doubled from a quarter ago, a sign that it has left the worst of its supply problems behind. Apple’s stock surged nearly 5% after the results came out.
Net income in the fiscal third quarter, which ended in June, was 7.31 billion dollars (£4.53 billion), or 7.79 dollars (£4.83) per share. That is more than double the 3.25 billion dollars (£2 billion), or 3.51 dollars (£2.17) per share, a year ago. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of 5.82 dollars (£3.61) per share.
Revenue was 28.6 billion dollars (£17.7 billion), up 82% from 15.7 billion dollars (£9.74 billion) a year ago. Analysts were expecting 24.8 billion dollars (£15.4 billion).
The results were lifted by the sale of 20.3 million iPhones, millions more than analysts had expected. The phone’s popularity in Asia, particularly in China, is helping. So is the fact that Apple keeps expanding the number of carriers that sell the phone. It was the first full quarter in which the phone was sold by Verizon Wireless, the largest carrier in the US. Before, only AT&T sold the phone in the US.
Apple usually has the year’s new iPhone model out by early July. That has not happened this year, and analysts expect the new model to come in September instead. Apple executives did not provide any specifics on a call with analysts.
IPad sales came in at 9.25 million units, also above analyst expectations. Last quarter, the company was struggling to make enough of the new iPad 2. Apple has sold nearly 29 million iPads since they first went on sale in April 2010.
In other product categories, trends were less impressive. IPod sales were down 20% at 7.5 million, as the music and video players continue to lose out to iPhones and iPads. It was the fastest quarterly decline yet. Sales of Mac computers were 3.95 million, up 14% from a year ago, the lowest quarterly growth rate in two years.
Some buyers may also have been holding off while waiting for Lion, the new version of the Mac OS X operating system. Apple had said it would go on sale this month, and Apple confirmed on the call that it will go on sale on Wednesday. Lion will cost 29.99 dollars (£18.60) and mimics some of the features of the iPhone and iPad interface.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said he expects earnings of 5.50 dollars (£3.41) per share and revenue of 25 billion dollars (£15.5 billion) in the quarter that just started. Both figures point to a decline from the third quarter. Apple’s stock surged 18 dollars (£11.17), or 4.8%, to 394.85 dollars (£245.23) in extended trading after the company announced results late on Tuesday. In the regular session, it hit a 52-week high of 378.65 dollars (£235.17), before closing at 376.85 dollars (£234.10), up nearly 1%.
Source : Press Association