Another 'best ever' quarter for Apple

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 20 October 2009 05:29

Opinion and Analysis

Not only has Apple set a new record for shipping Macs and iPhones, it also achieved record profitability in its September 2009 quarter.

Market watchers were predicting a good quarter for Mac sales, but the actual numbers were even better than they suggested.

Apple has reported sales of 3.05 million Macs during the September 2009 quarter, up 17 percent year-on-year. Given the economic conditions and the absence of low-cost models in Apple's lineup, that's quite an achievement at a time when the overall market is thought to have grown by between 2 and 4%.

iPhone sales also grew, this time by 7% to 7.4 million units.

"We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

"We've got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010," he added, a statement that will doubtless spark a fresh round of speculation about tablets, e-book readers, and other devices.

While iPod sales fell 8% year-on-year to 10.2 million units, that's not really the bad news that it may initially seem.

In 4Q08, iPod and iPhone unit sales totalled 17.9 million units. In 4Q09, the total was 17.6 million, showing that almost all of the decline in iPod sales has been offset by increased iPhone sales. Once carrier subsidies are taken into account, revenue - and presumably profit - is higher on each iPhone than an iPod.

Please read on for details of Apple's profitability.