It was probably hard to miss last week, but in case you did happen to miss it, Apple last week released its earnings results from the December 2011 quarter and the results were absolutely unprecedented.
Apple reported earnings of $13.87 a share on revenue of $46.33 billion and profits of $13.06 billion.
During the same quarter a year-ago, Apple recorded revenue of $26.7 billion and a quarterly profit of $6 billion. So believe it or not - and indeed, the folks on Wall St. may still be struggling to grasp the behemoth that is Apple - Apple was able to double its quarterly profit in just one year. For a company that's already as profitable as Apple, that's absolutely astounding - to put it mildly.
At the heart of Apple's absolute blowout quarter were 37.04 million iPhone sales, a new quarterly record and a 128% increase from the December quarter last year. But the iPhone wasn't the only start this past quarter. Apple set new sales records across its entire product lineup, save of course for the iPod. iPad sales checked in at 15.4 million units while Mac sales came in at 5.2 million units.
“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an official press release. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”
New products in the pipeline, eh? Perhaps this is referring to upcoming iPhone and iPad models, or, perhaps, a subtle nod to the Apple HDTV rumors circulating about.
Regardless, Apple seems to be doing just fine with its current lineup of products and services.
Some noteworthy tidbits touched upon during Apple's earnings conference call include:
- Over 85 million folks have signed up for iCloud
- The iTunes App Store now boasts over 550,000 apps, 170,000 iPad apps with Apple thus far paying out over $4 billion to iOS developers
- Foot traffic at Apple's retail stores came in at 110 million people for the quarter. On average, Apple retail stores see about 22,000 visitors per store per week
- Money wise, Apple now has a whopping $97.6 billion in cash and securities.