25 January 2012

Apple profit doubles from holiday sales

Apple made some serious bank over the holidays.

Apple announced on Tuesday that it brought in revenues of $46.33 billion (£29.8 billion) and a net profit of $13.06 billion (£8.4 billion) in the quarter ending 31 December 2011 - smashing Wall Street projections and making it the highest quarterly profit on record for the company.

Cupertino also sold a record number of products over the holidays - 37.04 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads and 5.2 million Mac computers.

The numbers were also good for Apple shareholders, as Apple shares soared as much as 12 per cent following quarterly profit report.

Though, not overly welcome news to Apple's largest rival in mobile operating systems, as Apple's net income exceeded the total revenue posted by Google for the same period.

"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," said Chief Executive Tim Cook in a statement. "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

Analysts expect the rest of 2012 to be a very good year for Apple, as well - particularly with the likelihood of a new iPad coming in March, a redesigned iPhone being introduced in the summer and an Apple-branded television set later in the year.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, also said, "We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter."

He also told analysts that the company and its board of directors are "actively discussing" uses for the cash increase, including potential acquisitions and investments in the supply chain. "We're not letting it burn a hole in our pockets," he said.

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