Apple has just announced record quarterly sales, surpassing even the highest analyst iPhone sales expectations as it set new iPhone sales records (as predicted), and sets new company records, too.
Record breakers
A net income of $18 billion means the company just earned more in the quarter than any other company in the world ever has before.
Even as Apple announced its results, the company’s marketing chief, Philip Schiller, Tweeted: "1 billion iOS devices sold!" That’s highly significant as this means there’s now a huge market for iOS accessories – such as the Apple Watch, which ships in April, CEO Tim Cook said. The billionth device sold was a space gray iPhone.
Cook also said: “My expectations are very high on it, I'm using it every day," he said. “I love it and I can't live without it. I see that we're making great progress on development of it. Number of developers that are writing apps for it are impressive. Seeing some incredible innovation coming out there.”
Samsung’s fall
Results were fueled by all-time record revenue from iPhone, Mac and App Store sales, but the big focus will be on iPhone sales, which hit 74.5 million in the quarter. Apple is selling 34,000 iPhones each hour, that’s around 567 per minute/or just over nine units each second.
It will certainly be interesting to see how these sales compare with those of other devices the next time the analysts share market numbers. Given the collapse of Samsung and the lack of vitality shown by other players in the space, it looks like Apple may have another story to tell.
It looks like the Korean competitor has a little space to play in – it sold 78 million handsets in Q3 2014, but these include those cheap Samsung gadgets that don’t in any way compare with the iPhone.
With Apple now consolidating its position in its own traditional markets while chipping away at Samsung’s home market, the direction of travel isn’t hard to discern. And the Korean firm’s low end device markets are currently being ravaged by cheap devices from Chinese and Indian brands.
Incredible customers
“We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high,” said Cook. “Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal.” That’s above guidance, by the way.
Additional highlights:
Apple’s sales in China climbed 157 percent, snagging over $16 billion in revenue in the quarter. That’s roughly in line with expectations, as the country becomes the world’s biggest consumer market. Apple plans to have 40 retail stores in China by mid-2016.
Apple sold 5.5 million Macs, up from 4.8 million in the last quarter, but flat in line with the previous quarter’s sales.
iPad sales are indeed down – 18 percent in units and 22 percent in revenue, but the rumor machine seems pretty focused on the notion Apple has an idea to bolster this SKU.
The company also revealed that HealthKit is in 600 apps; its Swift development tools have been downloaded 11 million times; over 30 auto brands have signed up for CarPlay; and more than 750 banks and credit unions are signed up to Apple Pay.
This is just the beginning of 2015. Looking at the horizon, I’m predicting a little more excitement ahead.
Just how many times is Michael Dell going to have to eat his words?
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