Apple's profits soar to $10.7 billion in three months

Apple has announced that it earned a quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion amidst an increase in sales of both the iPhone and more surprisingly its personal computer range of Mac units, even as iPad sales continued to drop.

“The growth was fueled by record third quarter sales of iPhone and Mac, all-time record revenue from services and the successful launch of Apple Watch,” the company said in its statement to the media.

“We had an amazing quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 per cent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

iPhone sales continued to excel increasing by 35 per cent over the same period last year with 47.53 million units sold.

iPhone sales alone accounted for $31.36bn in revenues.

Nadeem Khanzadah, head of omnichannel retail at Jumbo Group told Emirates 247 that iPhone sales across all Jumbo units have been phenomenal and is expected to continue the same performance during the next quarter.
 
"Though the iPhones during the third quarter is usually low in anticipation of the new models that hit the market by October, we are not expecting any major changes in the form factor or design this year. The new 2015 models will only have a minor upgrade in terms of camera, RAM and certain other features," said Khanzadah.

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Commenting on the iPhone and iPad sales Emax CEO Neelesh Bhatnagar says, "The iPhone 6 has so far been our best performer. We are expecting sales to fall marginally during August and September, on account of the new model." he says and adds that it will depend on the features of the new device.

Bhatnagar says Macintosh computers have been doing exceptionally well and at times had even run out of stock.

"The Mac machines are especially a hit among students. We had ran out of stock on many occasions," he said adding that "Compared to all other brands Mac PCs have done really well."

While most quarterly sales figures and predictions, be it by Gartner or IDC, have been of a drop in PC sales and negative growth forecasts, Apple today announced that it has registered a nine per cent increase in sales compared to previous year with about 4.8 million Macs sold globally.

In contrast the iPad sales continued to drop.

Apple reported that it has sold about 10.9 million iPads during the quarter, an 18 per cent drop compared to last year’s figures.

Commenting on iPad sales Bhatnagar says, "We did not experience any negative trend in iPad sales. In fact, the sale of cheap and unbranded products were affected," he says.

Apple did not give any specific numbers for the Apple Watch, but Cook during the Apple earnings conference call said that the Apple Watch sales had exceeded expectations and it had sold more units compared to what the iPhone and the iPads did during the first quarter it was launched.

Both the iPhone and the iPad were available for sale officially only in the US market when it was first launched. Compare that to nine markets where the Apple watch is now available.

In its note Apple said the company posted quarterly revenue of $49.6 billion and quarterly net profit of $10.7 billion.

These results compare to revenue of $37.4 billion and net profit of $7.7 billion, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.7 per cent compared to 39.4 per cent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

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