Apple(R) today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue.....
Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh(R) computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold a record 22,727,000 iPods during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
"Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history -- surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.
If you consider that other major players on the computer market, such as Intel and Logitech, have respectively reported results 70 to 90% lower than expectation, Apple's results are simply outstanding. But beside figures, for the current quarter, Apple can not only rely on the new MBP 17" to maintain its sales and/or its growth. The company will need to release new product to maintain interest and sales based on innovative hardware. The pipeline is far from being empty as new iMac, Mac mini, Apple TV and Mac Pro are expected. I could even hypothesize that Apple postponed some product launches to better spread them over the forthcoming months to maintain a steady state of new product to be introduced.
PS: Steve was at the conference.
