Apple also posted a stunning $74.6
billion in sales, up nearly 30% from the same period last year. That's not
close to a global corporate record, but it's the best quarterly revenue Apple
ever posted.
"Interest in Apple products is
at an all time high ... shattering our high expectations," said CEO Tim
Cook on a conference call with analysts. "This volume is hard to
comprehend."
Shares of Apple soared 9% in
premarket trading.
Mac sales grew about 15% to a record
5.5 million. Apple said iTunes sales also hit a record high, while iPad sales
continued to slump, falling 18% to 21.4 million
But the story was the iPhone.
Cook noted that Apple sold an average
of 34,000 iPhones every hour.
The iPhone is already the single
best-selling gadget of all time. But this past quarter, the iPhone outsold some
gadgets made by entire industries.
The whole TV industry sold fewer than
60 million televisions last quarter, according to IHS. The tablet industry sold
just 54 million tablets, IDC reported.
In fact, the iPhone very nearly
outsold the entire PC industry. Computer makers sold fewer than 84 million desktop
and laptops last quarter, according to Gartner. That's everyHP (HPQ, Tech30),
Lenovo, Mac, Dell -- everything.
Related: Can Apple live up to the
iHype?
Apple had never sold more than 51
million iPhones in a quarter, which it accomplished a year ago. But that was
before the deal with China's biggest mobile provider, China Mobile(CHL),
which went into effect in the first quarter of 2014.
That deal benefited Apple in a big
way last quarter. Apple's China sales soared 70% last quarter.
Making such gigantic inroads in China
was once believed impossible. Apple's brand did not hold the same cache as some
Chinese smartphone makers, including Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei. And those
brands heavily discount their phones, making them far more accessible to the
masses than Apple makes the iPhone.
Apple also rolled out the new iPhone
6 to other countries last quarter faster than it had in previous years, helping
Apple boost its iPhone sales. The iPhone 6 is available in 130 countries. Apple
also said its supplier efficiencies helped the company manufacture 7 million
more iPhones than it had expected to make last quarter.
Related: Microsoft sales soar ... no
thanks to Windows
But the iPhone's expected success
isn't solely due to China, the global market or supply chains.
The iPhone 6 has proven extremely
popular with customers who were holding out for a bigger Apple smartphone. The
4.7-inch screen competes much better with some larger Android smartphones, and
the superior camera has helped some would-be defectors stick with the iPhone
brand.
The new iPhone didn't just grow
Apple's smartphone volume -- it also grew revenue by convincing customers to
spend more money on their devices. The even giant-er, $100-more-expensive
iPhone 6 Plus has also helped drive sales, accounting for about a quarter of
all iPhones sold last quarter, Nomura Securites analyst Stuart Jeffrey believes
(Apple doesn't break out iPhone 6 Plus sales separately).
Even better for Apple, Jeffrey
expects that about half of all customers spent an extra $100 on their iPhone 6
and 6 Plus devices to upgrade to 64 gigabytes of storage -- four times the
amount of the standard 16 GB model. Last fall, Apple doubled the storage size
of its mid-tier iPhone. Previous editions had just 32 GB of storage, so
customers jumped at a good value.
All the good iPhone news is why Apple
posted a record quarter: About two-thirds of Apple's sales and earnings come
from the iPhone.
But Apple has more potential
billion-dollar products on the way. Tim Cook announced Tuesday that the Apple
Watch will go on sale in April.
Photo Credit: GSM Arena
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