Strong Mac sales bolster Apple results

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 24 April 2008 03:43

IT Industry - Strategy

Apple has delivered solid results for its March quarter, led by Mac sales.

The company shipped more than 2.2 million Macintoshes, 51 percent more than in the year-ago quarter.

iPod growth was weaker at one percent year-on-year, and unit sales of 10.6 million were less than half of those in the December quarter - no surprise there, as many iPods are purchase as Christmas presents.

Similarly, iPhone sales dropped from 2.3 million to 1.7 million since the previous quarter, leaving Apple with a lot of work to do in order to reach its own 10 million unit target. The expected arrival of the 3G iPhone and its launch in additional countries should help.

Overall, Apple reported revenue of $US7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $US1.05 billion. Analysts had expected revenue of around $US7 billion.

"We're delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said CEO Steve Jobs. "With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters."

The company is sitting on a huge cash balance of $US19.4 billion.

Some of that has been put to use with the acquisition of semiconductor design firm PA Semi.