Return of the Mac
Apple continues to go from strength to strength and at a pretty decent pace.
Its financial results for the first quarter of the financial year (its second) revealed overall revenue of $7.51 billion, yielding a net profit of $1.05 billion. These were jumps of 43 and 36 percent respectively.
The discrepancy in the two percentages can probably be accounted for by a drop gross margin to 32.9 percent from 35.1 percent a year ago – still not bad.
The big jump appeared to be in Mac sales, with 2,289,000 units being shipped during the quarter. This was a massive leap of 51 percent unit growth on the same quarter last year and was not made at the expense of margin, with revenue growth vaulting 54 percent.
Apple still makes the minority of its money outside the US, with only 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue coming from international sales. Apple seems to expect a similar overall performance in the next quarter.
“We’re delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, in what was, for him, an understated summation. “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.”
Just the one superlative this time. Very good Steve – less is more.
Further reading: Apple buys chip maker
