Apple trousers $20bn in record-breaking quarterly revenues

Apple’s soaraway success continues unabated, with the company reporting record breaking profits.

With shares surpassing an all time high of $300 a few days ago, the company unveiled its latest earnings report, notching up a best-ever revenue of $20.34 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, bagging an eye watering net profit of $4.31 billion.

Up, up and away

Product sales graphs were all upwardly mobile, except for iPods, with iPads notably outselling Macs.

Here’s the figures, by product:

3.89 million Macs, up 27% from the same quarter last year
14.1 million iPhones, up 91% from the same quarter last year
9.05 million iPods, down 11% from the same quarter last year
4.19 million iPads

Bye bye Blackberry

A no-doubt deeply chuffed CEO Steve Jobs purred that his company has now shimmied past RIM in terms of smartphone sales, commenting, “iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter.”

“We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year,” he added with, we suspect, more than a slight air of smugness.

Goading the Galaxy

Perhaps high on the smell of all that lucre lining his pockets, Jobs also took time out to diss Samsung’s forthcoming Galaxy Tab 7″ tablet, insisting that, “One naturally thinks that a 7-inch screen would offer 70 percent of the benefits of a 10-inch screen…this is far from the truth. Seven-inch screens are 45 percent as large as an iPad. This size isn’t sufficient for making great tablet apps.”

Thanks for that Steve, but perhaps not everyone wants to walk about with a comparatively massive iPad under their arms that has no built in camera, no SD card slot or USB port. Just a thought, like.

Still, that comment certainly puts the kibosh on those rumours of a forthcoming 7″ iPad that some traffic-seeking sites were getting all excited about.

Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

Record Mac, iPhone and iPad Sales

Highest Revenue and Earnings Ever
CUPERTINO, California—October 18, 2010—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter ended September 25, 2010. The Company posted record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $12.21 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.53 billion, or $2.77 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 41.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 27 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 11 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The Company also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.

“We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.”

“We’re thrilled with the performance and strength of our business, generating almost $5.7 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2010 financial results conference call beginning at 2:00 p.m. PDT on October 18, 2010 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq410/. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.