Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) had a record-breaking fiscal first quarter 2012, which ended Dec. 31, 2011, posting iPhone sales of 37.04 million and iPad sales of 15.43 million in the quarter. Not only did Apple beat analyst estimates but its iPhone sales were up 128 percent year-over-year and its iPad sales increased 111 percent year-over-year.
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The company also posted quarter revenue of $46.33 billion and net profit of $13.06 billion, compared to $26.75 billion in revenue and net profit of $6 billion in the year-ago quarter. According to the company, this was the highest quarterly earnings and quarterly revenue in Apple's history.
"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."
The iPhone and the iPad, which did not exist five years ago, now account for 72 percent of the company's total revenue. Apple's iPhone sales could vault it back to being the world's largest smartphone maker, depending upon how many units Samsung Electronics, its closest smartphone rival, moved in the fourth quarter.
The company said that consumers were particularly enamored with Siri, the voice-activated service on the iPhone 4S and also noted the increase in Fortune 500 companies that approve and support the use of the iPhone in the enterprise.
Interestingly, the company said that it wasn't worried about the growing number of tablet competitors. Cook reiterated that the company believes that one day the tablet market will be larger than the PC market and noted that already in the U.S. market, it's clear that tablets are exceeding desktop computer sales. "We believe people want to do multiple things with tablet. We don't see limited function tablets and e-readers in the same category," he said. Cook said that Apple had not seen a big move in the tablet market after Amazon.com launched its Kindle Fire late last year.
Apple's results were a big improvement over the firm's fiscal fourth quarter when it sold 17.07 million iPhones and reported $28.27 billion in revenues.
Regarding the upcoming quarter, Apple's fiscal second quarter, the company said they expect revenue to be $32.5 billion compared to $27 billion in the previous year's quarter. In addition, the company said it expected margins to be in the 32 percent range.
For more:
- see this release
- see this NYT article
- see this AllThingsD article
- see this Bloomberg article
- see this Forbes article
Special Report: Wireless in the fourth quarter of 2011
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