Apple posts record quarter

23-01-2008

by Ciara O'Brien

Revenues were up at Apple as iPhone and Mac sales helped deliver a record quarter for the tech firm in the first three months of fiscal year 2008.

The company said the quarter represented the highest revenue and earnings in Apple's history, with revenue of USD9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of USD1.58 billion. This translated to USD1.76 per diluted share, and compares to revenue of USD7.1 billion and net quarterly profit of USD1 billion, or USD1.14 per diluted share a year ago.

Some 44 percent more Mac computers -- 2,319,000 -- were shipped during the quarter, growing revenue 47 percent year on year.

Meanwhile, iPod shipments continued to sell well during the quarter, which included the Christmas period, with 22,121,000 sold -- 5 percent more than a year ago. The iPhone sold 2,315,000 units during the three-month period.

Apple's international sales accounted for 45 percent of revenue.

"We're thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Apple boss Steve Jobs. "We have an incredibly strong new product pipeline for 2008, starting with MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iTunes Movie Rentals in the first two weeks."

Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer, said the company was expecting revenue of USD6.8 billion and earnings per diluted share of about USD0.94 in the second quarter of the year.

Despite the record results, however, analysts were disappointed with Apple's forecast. They had been predicting revenue of USD6.98 billion and earnings per share of USD1.09.