Apple profits go gangbusters on penultimate eve of iPad launch

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 26 January 2010 07:54

Opinion and Analysis

Just in time for the merry hoopla that will be unveiled in earnest come the first coming of the Apple iPad, Apple has announced that it has achieved “all-time highest revenue and profit”, something that looks set to soar to even greater heights once the iPad becomes iReal.

There’s good news all round for Apple even before the iPad launches with the release of Apple’s latest “first quarter results” ending Dec 26, 2009.

With revenue of US $15.68 billion and profits of $3.38 billion – in the quarter alone – Steve Jobs has noted, with “surprise”, that “If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company”.

This compares with $11.88 billion and profit of $2.26 billion in the same period last year.

Jobs also goes on to again confirm (following the “latest creation” invitation”) that there are new products on the way, saying “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about”.

Of course everyone takes this “major new product” to be the famed iPad, iTablet and/or iSlate, but as we have all heard, there are expectations that information will also be shared on an updated iPhone OS, content deals, Core iSomething processors for the MacBook range and more.

Over the all-important 4th quarter of 2009, Apple said it sold 3.36 million Macs, or a 33% increase from the same period last year, and 8.7 million iPhones which is a whopping 100% increase, again from the same period last year.

There was a decline, however – iPod sales dropped 8% to “only” 21 million iPods in the quarter compared with the previous year.  

Apple also notes in its report that: “During the quarter Apple elected retrospective adoption of the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s amended accounting standards related to certain revenue recognition. Adoption of the new accounting standards significantly changes how the Company accounts for certain items, particularly sales of iPhone and Apple TV” and goes into more detail about it all here.

Continued on page 2...