Dear Friends,
Busy, busy week for Apple as they refreshed their product line, introduced the much-anticipated iPad mini, a new 4th Generation iPad, a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, a new Mac mini and new iMacs. They also introduced a new version of the iBooks app that enhances the use of the iPad as a reader. If that wasn’t enough for one week, Apple also announced their 4th Quarter earnings and posted a record quarter for both earnings and profit.
Apple posted quarterly revenues of $36 billion, up from $28.3 billion a year ago. Net profit was $8.2 billion (or $8.67 per diluted share), up from $6.6 billion (or $7.05 per diluted share) last year.
Apple sold 26.9 million iPhones, which indicates a 58 percent growth over the same quarter last year. The company sold 14 million iPads during the quarter, up 26 percent over the previous year. 4.9 million Macs were sold, representing a 1 percent increase over last year’s quarter. Apple finishes the fiscal year with revenues of over $150 billion! I distinctly remember the Apple resellers conference where the stated objective was for Apple to hit $5 billion in revenue for the year — what an amazing accomplishment in a very short time.
Apple’s board of directors declared a $2.65 dividend for the quarter, and Apple projected sales of $52 billion and profit of $11.75 per share for the next quarter (which is the holiday quarter). These results were pretty much in line with analysts’ expectations, but they’re never satisfied unless Apple clobbers their expectations.
Apple has just refreshed their product line with some of the most exciting and innovative products on the market — congratulations to the entire Apple team for another great quarter!
I think I’ll be moving to the iPad mini from my iPad (3rd Gen), if only to gain more experience with this latest iOS 6 device. However, I’m going to stick with my 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina. We are thinking that while the iPad mini may cannibalize some full-size iPad sales, the price point and features will draw in some new customers to the iPad platform, too!