The iPhone 5. Apple's iPhone sales are up 58pc on last year
Californian tech giant Apple delivered another bumper quarter with revenues of US$36bn on the back of substantial sales of 26.9m iPhones and 14m iPads. The company reported a profit of US$8.2bn and declared a cash dividend of US$2.65 per share.
It has been a vital week for Apple as the results follow the launch of a brace of new products, including a new iPad mini, a new 13-inch MacBook Pro, a new ultra-slim iMac, a new storage technology called Fusion Drive and a new fourth-generation iPad.
The Q4 revenues were up from US$28.3bn last year and profits of US$6.6bn. Gross margin was down to 40pc from 40.3pc last year.
Apple sold 26.9m iPhone devices during the fourth quarter – up 58pc on last year in terms of unit growth.
It sold 14m iPad devices during the quarter, up 26pc on last year.
Apple sold 4.9m Mac computers during the fourth quarter, up 1pc on last year.
iPods continued to decline, with 5.3m iPods sold during the fourth quarter, down 19pc on last year.
Apple’s board of directors declared a cash dividend of US$2.65 per share of the company’s common stock, which will be paid on 15 November.
New product pipeline
“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”
Apple’s chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said that during the year the company generated a profit of US$41bn and over US$50bn in operating cash flow.
“Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about US$52bn and diluted earnings per share of about US$11.75,” Oppenheimer projected.
