Apple’s record-smashing Q1 2015 earnings: 74.5M iPhones, 21.4M iPads, $74.6B revenue!

Apple announced a record-breaking 74.5 million iPhone units sold during the first quarter of the fiscal 2015 that ended on December 27. Thanks to strong sales in China, the Cupertino giant posted a record-shattering quarterly revenue and net profit of $74.6 billion and $18 billion respectively.

The financial results amount to a net profit of $3.06 per share. The numbers show a staggering 30% increase over the same quarter last year. The latter ended with $57.6 billion of revenue and net profit of $13.1 billion ($2.07 per share).

At 21.4 million, Apple iPad sales came in slightly lower than expected (21.5 million). The company moved 26 million slates for the same period a year ago.

The iPhone sales were not the only reason for the record performance. Apple posted “all-time record revenue” from Mac (5.2 million sold) and App Store transactions. The company didn’t mention iPod sales this time around.

Going forward, Apple expects between $52 billion and $55 billion of revenue during next quarter. The company’s board of directors declared a cash dividend of $.47 per share for the quarter it just reported.

Apple Watch will begin shipping in April

Apple will begin shipping its smartwatch in April. Tim Cook, the Cupertino giant’s CEO, confirmed the news during today’s quarterly earnings call.

As it turns out, Apple Watch will ship later than expected. Recent reports suggested that the wearable device will ship in March. No specific date for the launch of the smartwatch is set just yet.

A slightly underwhelming battery performance might be the underlying reason for the delayed shipping of the Apple Watch. The device was initially supposed to become available in “early 2015.”

Apple’s App Store makes a Record $10 Billion in 2013!

Apple has just announced via a press release this morning that customers have spent north of $10 billion in the App Store in 2013, including over an astounding $1 billion in sales in December alone.

It was the best year for the App Store business thus far. The more than $10 billion in 2013 revenue should be music to developers’ ears as Apple’s platform continues to lead in terms of user engagement, stickiness, profitability and other metrics that matter.

And how much money did Apple pay to its “incredible developers,” as the company put it, since the App Store’s inception nearly seven years ago? Fifteen billion dollars (not a typo) – and that’s after its customary 30 percent cut!

The company said developers really took advantage of the new iOS 7 APIs to overhaul their apps and mentioned successful App Store developers such as Evernote, Yahoo, Pinterest and a few others. The company also cast spotlight on some surprise 2013 hits such as Ellen DeGeneres’ Heads Up and hit games from international developers like Clumsy Ninjaand Candy Crush Saga, which reached half a billion downloads in just a year…

The press release is right below.

CUPERTINO, California―January 7, 2014―Apple today announced that customers spent over $10 billion on the App Store in 2013, including over $1 billion in December alone. App Store customers downloaded almost three billion apps in December making it the most successful month in App Store history. Apple’s incredible developers have now earned $15 billion on the App Store.

“We’d like to thank our customers for making 2013 the best year ever for the App Store,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “The lineup of apps for the holiday season was astonishing and we look forward to seeing what developers create in 2014.”

With the introduction of iOS 7, developers were able to create stunning apps that took advantage of the redesigned user interface and the more than 200 new features and APIs.

Developers such as Evernote, Yahoo!, AirBnB, OpenTable, Tumblr, Pinterest and American Airlines re-imagined the user experience, bringing content to the forefront while increasing the overall efficiency and performance of their apps.

2013 saw surprise hits like Ellen DeGeneres’ Heads Up, ProtoGeo’s Moves, Simon Filip’s Afterlight and Kevin Ng’s Impossible Road. Many of the year’s biggest successes like Candy Crush Saga, Puzzles & Dragons, Minecraft, QuizUp and Clumsy Ninja were created by international developers, while Duolingo (United States), Simogo (Sweden), Frogmind (UK), Plain Vanilla Corp (Iceland), Atypical Games (Romania), Lemonista (China), BASE (Japan) and Savage Interactive (Australia) emerged as developers to watch in 2014.

Apple’s mobile application store is now home to over a million apps for iOS devices, half of which specifically tailored to the iPad’s bigger screen. Having opened for business nearly seven years ago, the App Store now operates in 155 countries around the world.

Despite this milestone – $10 billions in app revenue in twelve months translates to about $900 million in average monthly revenue – I’m pretty sure someone, somewhere is figuring out a way to spin this into another “Apple is doomed” story.

Microsoft, for example, made a big fuss of the fact that Windows Phone now outsells the iPhone in 24 countries, according to TechRadar.

But what Microsoft’s director of communications Christopher Flores ”forgot” to mention was these were emerging markets in the sub-$400 category. Apple’s iPhone does not compete at all in that price range because the company does not have an off-contract handset priced bellow $400.

Also, Apple’s release pretty much puts analyst Gene Munster to shame, who last night wrote in a note to clients that “apps are no longer a point of differentiation” for Apple because “the app ecosystem has transitioned to where it no longer matters how many apps each OS has, but rather the satisfaction the user gets out of them”.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I was under the impression that Apple users have been consistently more satisfied with the polish and quality of iOS apps compared to their Android counterparts.

Besides, wasn’t what Munster said always the case? Quality over quantity?

It doesn’t mattered how many apps these stores have as most folks just need a few dozen most commonly used apps, anyway.

Source: IDB

Apple earnings: $43.6 billion in sales, 37.4M iPhones, 19.5M iPads!

Apple surprised Wall Street today with stronger than expected earnings!

Apple reported earnings of $9.5 billion on $43.6 billion in sales. That was right on target with the $9.5 billion in profit and above the $42.3 billion in sales Wall Street expected, and above Apple’s own expectations, which were between $9.23 and $10.23 per share on sales of $41 billion to $43 billion.

By comparison, Apple tallied up a higher $11.6 billion in profit on sales of $39.2 billion during the same quarter last year. That was fueled by iPhone and iPad sales that were 88 percent and 151 percent better than the year before, respectively.

“We are pleased to report record March quarter revenue thanks to continued strong performance of iPhone and iPad,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. “Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

For its next quarter, Apple said it expects sales between $33.5 and $35.5 billion and a margin between 36 and 37 percent, which is less than the $38.6 billion in sales and 38.6 percent margin analysts, on average, were expecting ahead of the call.

 

Here are all of the important numbers:

• Revenue – $43.6 billion
• EPS (earnings per share) – $10.09
• Gross margin – 37.5%
• iPhones – 37.4 million
• iPads – 19.5 million
• Macs – Just under 4 million
• iPods – 5.6 million

Graph: