Apple announces $46 billion quarter, sells 37 million iPhones

Leeky

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Apple sadly lost their iconic co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs after his long battle with cancer late last year, raising questions about whether the Cupertino-based tech giant could continue its success in his absence. Though it may be early for a definitive judgement on that, investors can put their worries to rest after seeing Apple's record first quarter results, which surpassed the $40 billion predictions by Wall Street insiders.

The figures (PDF) for the quarter ending December 31 speak for themselves; Apple sold a record 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads. Their profits more than doubled at $13.06 billion, up from $6 billion during the same period in 2010, with sales up 73% on last year’s figures ($26.74 billion) to an incredible $46.33 billion.

apple biggest buyer semiconductors

"We would attribute it to just a breath-taking customer reception of the iPhone 4S," CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. The iPhone accounted for 53% of Apple’s sales during the first quarter period. He continued, "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

There is no question that a lot of the American firm’s success is due to its phone and tablet lines, but their computers sold well too. Apple sold 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, up 26% on last year’s 4.1 million.

They look forward to a healthy second quarter as well, with a projected revenue of $32.5 billion. In response to the news the company’s shares jumped eight percent to $453.16 in trading yesterday. Apple also reported total sales of $127.8 billion for the 2011 calendar year.

In related news, Gartner just published new figures for semiconductor components, with Apple now topping the list as the world’s largest purchaser of semiconductors. Last year the firm was ranked third, behind Hewlett Packard and Samsung. The new figures mark a 34.6% growth in purchases during the last year.

apple biggest buyer semiconductors

"Those companies that gained share in the smartphone market, such as Apple, Samsung Electronics and HTC, increased their semiconductor demand, while those who lost market share in this segment, such as Nokia and LG Electronics, decreased their semiconductor demand," Yamaji said in a statement to Ars Technica. "Given the rapidly changing competitive structure of the IT and electronics industry, no semiconductor device vendor can afford just to monitor the requirements of the current market leaders."

Image credit: Forbes

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That's the second biggest quarterly earnings reports of all time in the US (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_corporate_profits_and_losses#Largest_Corporate_Quarterly_Earnings_of_All_Time) and the only non oil and gas company in the top 10.

Verizon also reported that 55% of all of their smartphones sold in the last quarter are iPhones.

Apple has really accomplished something impressive in the last decade and I really don't see them going down anytime soon, this year we are supposed to see the releases of the iPad 3, iPhone 5, expansion of the Macbook Air line and maybe a TV from Apple. I would say it is a pretty safe bet to say next year's quarters will be better than 2011's. Last year, they sold more iPhones than every year before that combined.
 
I cannot wait for the next iPad if the screen resolution rumors are true, Apple are doing rather well at the moment and would hate to see them slow down.
 
I still don't understand how a company that sells such an expensive luxury good like the iphone can do so well when the economy is slow.

Do we have our priorities messed up and we're buying iphones when we shouldn't be?
Maybe the middle class isn't that poor?
Or maybe that top 1% bought a few thousand iphones each.

it sure does make me sick of listning to Occupy protesters though. I have trouble believing things are that bad when we all have iphones.
 
milwaukeemike- I think the numbers are world wide.

I still don't quite understand why people are willing to shell out so much money for phones and entertainment devices. The phone then leads to expensive data plans.
 
Impressive blowout quarter by Apple, no second guessing that. As for iPhone sales, think of it in terms of today's smartphones replacing any and all kinds of digital assistants, people upgrading their feature phones, and even delaying a laptop purchase because they can get great connectivity and get stuff done using their handheld device. Apple just happens to be selling the most popular device in this category, same with music players and tablets.
 
Steve Jobs was one hell of a business man that's for sure. To take a company that was on it's death bed to this, in ~15 years is undeniably impressive.

What I don't really understand is why so many people are buying iPhones, for that matter, why so many people are buying smartphones in general. I just can't bring myself to buy a smartphone when I can buy a fully featured, can-do-everything-you'd-want-it-to desktop or laptop, without carrier's absurd data plans and contracts.

I see a smartphone to a PC the same way I see a console to a gaming PC. The PC always makes more sense to me in both scenarios. Anybody share the same thoughts with this last paragraph?
 
You can make tons of money selling a product at a huge markup. WOW! That is brilliant on how Apple does that.
 
Rhood:

I kind of see it that way too, but it is hard to lug a desktop or even a laptop around. I could not see using a smartphone for any length of time the screen is to small.

But it is useful for somethings. Like GPS to find your way or taking a quick photo, oh and I almost forgot, calling someone.

Way to expensive for what you get or actually use.
 
RH00D said:
Steve Jobs was one hell of a business man that's for sure. To take a company that was on it's death bed to this, in ~15 years is undeniably impressive.

What I don't really understand is why so many people are buying iPhones, for that matter, why so many people are buying smartphones in general. I just can't bring myself to buy a smartphone when I can buy a fully featured, can-do-everything-you'd-want-it-to desktop or laptop, without carrier's absurd data plans and contracts.

I see a smartphone to a PC the same way I see a console to a gaming PC. The PC always makes more sense to me in both scenarios. Anybody share the same thoughts with this last paragraph?

100% agree, well said!

The price is, what it is since its fairly "new" tech, touch screen and all that gimmicks. If I had the money, sure id buy iPhone but other then that id rather have a PC which can do alot more then a smartphone and to call someone id have some mediocore phone.

In todays age, kids tend to show off their super phones, get new ones every few months to show how "cool" they are :S
 
Guest said:
milwaukeemike- I think the numbers are world wide.

I still don't quite understand why people are willing to shell out so much money for phones and entertainment devices. The phone then leads to expensive data plans.
I think people do it because they can. They may or may not regret it but that's just what I think xD
 
Another news around the world:
Foxcon trying to stop MULTIPLE SUICIDE' s of their workers after the record quarter from APPLE news
 
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