CUPERTINO, California—April 20, 2011—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2011 second quarter ended March 26, 2011. The Company posted record second quarter revenue of $24.67 billion and record second quarter net profit of $5.99 billion, or $6.40 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $13.50 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.07 billion, or $3.33 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Apple’s subtitle for the earnings report highlights a strong March, so surely a nice chunk of these earnings are from Verizon iPhone 4 sales.
Gross margin was 41.4 percent compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
The international sales figure really puts Apple’s reach into perspective. I can’t think of any other consumer technology or business technology company that is as popular as Apple is world wide. It’s also worth noting that the United States is no longer responsible for more than half of Apple’s revenue.
Apple sold 3.76 million Macs during the quarter, a 28 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 18.65 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 113 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.
Suddenly, these ground breaking increases in sales are no longer that shocking to us. We expect incredible growth from Apple no matter what and they’ve been delivering solidly for a decade.
Apple sold 9.02 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 17 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
See my post on the future of iPod.
The Company also sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter.
This brings the total amount of iPads sold to 19.48 million iPads.
“With quarterly revenue growth of 83 percent and profit growth of 95 percent, we’re firing on all cylinders,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year.”
It appears that Steve Jobs was on the call. This is fantastic news. When the audio goes live on iTunes, it will be interesting to hear his voice. Hopefully he is healthy.
My last iPod purchase was a first generation iPod Touch in August of 2007. Ironically, that happens to be Apple’s best quarter for iPod sales in the past 4 years, with growth of 17%. Since then, iPod sales have flattened, the second best being Q1 2010, with growth of 12%. Apple reported a 3% drop in iPod sales for Q3 2010, and just a 1% increase for Q4 2010.
So what’s the trade off here - what are people buying instead of iPods? One of Apple’s mediocre quarters for iPod sales, Q3 2008, with a growth of 3%, was met with iPhone sales growth of, that’s right, a whopping 801%. iPod sales are staying within the same 20% range and iPhone sales stun “analysts” every year.
Seeing that iPod Touch sales have surpassed 50% of all iPod Sales, it would seem wise to focus more on the iPod Touch in the coming years. Once the iPod Touch surpasses 75% of all iPod sales, the line should be simplified. Hell, it doesn’t even need to be a line - simply, iPod. Every 8 months one iPod disappears. The disappearance is accompanied by a nice update to the iPod Touch.
Who to trash first and why:
Forgive me, because I’m about to flip flop. I’m on the fence about the iPod Classic. It resembles the first iPod, the true leader of MP3 consumption. There are also those out there who do actually need the space, but not many. You could also make a similar argument for runners about the iPod Shuffle - that it’s the perfect fit for exercise. But the iPod Nano really does need to go. I already own a watch.
Assorted Slices is an editorial-based publication covering Apple Inc. and similar topics.
