Apple reported significant growth in iPad and iPhone sales for the fiscal 2011 third quarter, on its way to quarterly revenues of $28.57 billion and net profit of $7.31 billion.
In all, Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones during the quarter, a year-over-year increase of 142 percent. It also sold 9.25 million iPads, good for a year-over-year increase of 183 percent. Sales of 3.95 million Macs represented a 14 percent increase from the same quarter in 2010.
“We sold every iPad we could make,” CFO Peter Oppenheimer told analysts and media listening to Apple s July 19 earnings call, while suggesting that significant majorities of the Fortune 500 are studying how to best integrate the bestselling tablet into their employees workflow. The iPhone is also apparently enjoying an uptick in adoption among enterprise users.
As with previous quarters, Apple faced a significant decline in iPod sales: 7.54 million units sold, a 20 percent dip from the year-ago quarter. The company traditionally ascribes this softness in media-player sales to cannibalization by the iPhone.
“We re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in a July 19 statement accompanying the numbers. “Right now, we re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”
Even before Apple’s July 19 earnings report, analysts and pundits had turned their attention to the back end of 2011, when the company is expected to release a host of new software — including the Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5 operating systems along with a new iPhone.
“The concern on Wall Street seems to be more about the outlook for the third quarter, ongoing supply constraints for the iPad and the timing of the iPhone introduction,” Tony Ursillo, an analyst with Loomis Sayles & Co., told Reuters July 15.
To read the original eWeek article, click here: Apple’s OS X Lion Launching, iPad, iPhone Quarterly Sales Soar
