Apple Posts Another Record Quarter
The good news kept coming out of Cupertino on Wednesday as Apple announced its best quarter financially in the company's history, and touted record iPod sales and the best sales numbers for its Mac line in four years.
Apple posted a quarterly profit of $320 million, or 37 cents per share on revenue of $3.52 billion. Revenue grew 75% and profit grew 425% year over year.
However, in a call for financial analysts, CFO Peter Oppenheimer warned of flat growth in the coming quarter. "We are being prudent in the quarter following our Intel announcement," he explained.
Apple shipped 6,155,000 iPods, a record number and almost a million more units that the previous quarter. But the number was more than Apple had initially expected as it projected flat sales for its iconic music player this quarter.
Oppenheimer mentioned third-party research that showed that Apple maintained a 75 percent market share in May among digital music players, with its next closest competitor coming in at less than five percent market share.
Company executives refused to confirm whether or not reports of the iTunes phone being released next month in the UK were true, with Oppenheimer saying "I just cannot comment on that at this time."
On the computer side, Apple shipped 1,182,000 Macintosh computers, which was slightly above last quarter's numbers, however still was the highest sales numbers in four years.
"I couldn't be happier with the performance this quarter of our Mac line," Oppenheimer said. He also added that Apple remained committed to the Mac Mini. "We believe it's attracting a broader and more price sensitive customer. It's also expanding our install base."
New-to-Mac buyers at retail stores remained at 40 percent, which was even with last quarter.
"We are delighted to report Apple's best quarter ever in both revenue and earnings," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The launch of Mac OS X Tiger has been a tremendous success, and we have more amazing new products in the pipeline."