Apple's earnings rose an outstanding 95% in the last quarter helped by strong sales of iPhones and Macs, but the company said it was struggling to produce enough of its latest version of the iPad to meet demand.
The company raked in $5.99 billion net income on revenues of $24.7 billion, up 83% compared with the year-ago quarter. Interestingly, almost 50% of Apple's total revenue now comes from its popular iPhone smartphone and iPhone-related products like carrier agreements, services and accessories -- not counting revenue from the App Store.
The company sold 18.6 million iPhones, more than double from the 8.75 million a year ago, and also maintained quarter-on-quarter growth from the 16.2 million sold in the last three months of 2010, indicating that demand for the company's phone remains strong. Keep in mind that these are global sales figures, though it would be interesting to know how many in the U.S. can be attributed to Verizon compared to AT&T.
Mac sales rose 28% despite a general slowdown in the PC market. In the second quarter, Apple sold 3.76 million Mac computers but also saw a 17% drop in iPod sales with 9 million units moved. Meanwhile, sales of iPad tablet devices dropped to 4.7 million after a huge Christmas rush in the previous quarter where it sold 7.3 million units. The iPad 2 went on sale in the U.S. on March 11, followed by a rollout in other countries on March 25, a day before the books closed on the quarter. The launch triggered a huge boost in demand and the company has been struggling to keep up.
Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, who is in charge while CEO Steve Jobs is on medical leave, said production would ramp up in the coming months and went out of his way to reassure investors on a couple of other issues: firstly, that the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, while an enormous tragedy, has caused no disruption so far to the company's supply chain, and secondly that the recent legal battle with Samsung shouldn't affect their business relationship.
