NEW YORK – Apple made more money in the last quarter than ever before, by selling more of its costliest iPhones ever. And it’s not about to ease up — Apple Watch is shipping out in April.
The Cupertino, California-based company sold 34,000 iPhones (6 and 6 plus) every hour, posting a net profit of $18.0 billion for the quarter ended December 27.
Net profit rose by 38% against a year ago, more than what each 435 S&P 500 companies made in total profits since 2009, The Wall Street Journal said in a report.
“Demand for iPhone was staggering,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts. “This volume is hard to comprehend.” A lot of consumers switched from rivals, apparently.”
It did far better than the rosiest of the forecasts.
Apple’s own revenue projection for the current quarter — anywhere between $52 billion and $55 billion, however, is closer to market analysts’ $53.8 billion.
In the next quarter, Apple will launch Apple Watch, the company’s, and Cook’s, first completely new post-Steve Jobs product — the last was iPad in 2010. It is likely to start at $349, the company had said earlier in September.
Since their launch in September, iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 plus have done remarkably well with supply constantly lagging behind demand, and waiting periods going into weeks.
Cook said supply finally caught up with demand, but only towards the end of the quarter. And the company muscled back a share of the market it had ceded to Samsung.
Apple also made significant inroads into China, where the latest iPhones didn’t start selling until October, which is close to dethroning Europe as the its second-largest market.
