Apple announces most profitable quarter ever: Q4 2009

Summary: Apple announced record Mac and iPhone sales and its most profitable quarter ever in its Q4 2009 earnings conference call today.The Company posted revenue of $9.

Q4 - 2009Apple announced record Mac and iPhone sales and its most profitable quarter ever in its Q4 2009 earnings conference call today.

The Company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Jobs also noted that the company has some “really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.Tablet, anyone?

As always, the most interesting comments happen when they open the conference call to questions. When asked about competition for the iPhone in the holiday season (i.e. Android), Apple responded:

Almost 21 million for the fiscal year sold now in terms of iPhones, so we have momentum. Plus the App Store with 85,000 apps is so far beyond anyone else. We feel good about competing with anyone. I think people are still trying to catch up with the first iPhone, announced 2 years ago. We’ve moved beyond that.

You can listen to a rebroadcast of the call in QuickTime, it will be posted later as a podcast in iTunes.

Topics: Banking, Apple

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60 comments
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  • Q4 early?

    Doesn't Q4 end Dec. 31st? Shouldn't these figures be for Q3??
    scott.pei
    • ya

      thats what i was thinking. How could they know
      their earnings before the Quarter is even over?
      Jimster480
    • RE: Q4 early?

      It's fiscal year. Q4 ended September 26th.
      jose.ordaz@...
      • Thanks

        I googled "fiscal year for apple" and their annual report and the first hit was their 2008 first quarter: "fiscal 2008 first quarter ended December 29, 2007"
        But it would have been such a simple thing to use the word "fiscal" in this story!
        scott.pei
        • Basic

          Come on people. This is basic stuff.

          First of all, smacdonald@ could have Googled Apple's fiscal year, instead
          of posting a fatuous post on here, and Jimster480 could have done the
          same before empathising.

          But even possessing the the ability to google "fiscal year for apple"
          doesn't seem to exempt them from the urge to request that the author
          stated the obvious.

          Assuming we're all adults here, isn't it stark staringly obvious that a
          company will be posting financial results in time with their financial or
          fiscal year - not the calendar year?

          And for those who aren't adults, don't know how to use Google, or are
          simply too stupid to use lateral thinking, business trading, financial or
          fiscal years usually begin on their date of incorporation.
          Graham Ellison
          • Insult anyone lately

            Or are you just getting your fix here?

            Lighten up
            use_what_works_4_U
          • Eeeeeeeaaaasy.....

            .....college boy! "Stupid?" Kinda harsh, don't ya think?
            An Apple a Day
          • From the vacuum came forth...

            macadam, An Apple a Day, here's a question for you guys:

            Why bother to learn anything? No, really. Why bother thinking
            even? Why not just blunder on through life, ignorant of everything that's around you and everything that's possible.
            That way you can be utterly average in an absolutely average
            world, and have all the average examples of everything you
            could not be bothered to want.

            Or, you can be curious, enjoy the learning process and avoid
            appearing dumb by defending and empathising with
            stupidity.

            The first road leads to a world of Windoze PeeCees,
            stagnated development, ugly, unimaginative products and
            unadventurous business models, basement prices, microscopic profits, flatlining stock prices, failing businesses
            and redundancies.

            The second gives you Apple and Google: models of innovation, beautiful, imaginative products and adventurous
            business models, fantastic, market trend-defying margins
            and meteoric market results on Wall Street and the High
            Street.

            It's your choice. But criticising someone who knows the
            difference is really retarded.

            And all I asked was that they recognise one simple, basic
            detail about how businesses return quarterly results.
            Graham Ellison
          • Graham, if you want to be taken seriously...

            ...then you might want to work on your sentence structure.

            Just a thought.
            Sleeper Service
          • Huh?

            Sleeper Service, I'm sure you believe you're being smart, but I
            write copy for a living.
            Graham Ellison
          • You miss my point

            Yes, we need to learn and understand our world. My point is about
            the tone of your commentary which is condescending and mean
            spirited. Rather than lifting up the prior posters by simply sharing
            your knowledge, or suggesting sources of information you choose to
            chastise them for not already knowing all the answers.

            Yes, Google is a source which will tell you what dates Apple's fiscal
            year is based upon. It is also true that every day people - actual
            human beings - teach each other through <i>discourse</i>. Rather
            than encourage the exchange of information by people you denigrate
            others for daring to ask questions. Bear in mind that these could be
            your peers, but they might just as easily be teenagers who may not
            have taken Econ 101 yet. Do you really want to discourage someone
            seeking knowledge from asking questions?

            I am in fact very curious, and I do enjoy the learning process. If you
            read through posts I leave here you will find quite a few eloquent
            passages. You will also find quite a few where I don't know as much
            as I think I do and I become educated <i>through the discourse that
            follows</i>. You will also find some where I "merely" ask questions
            hoping that someone will enlighten me. Are you saying that asking
            questions is bad?

            I am not criticizing you for knowing the difference between doing your
            own research and asking questions of others. I am criticizing you for
            the mean spirited way you reply. That mean-spiritedness has the
            effect of making people not want to engage and learn from each other.
            Discouragement of the inquisitive nature of human discourse is how
            we end up with people "educating" themselves in a vacuum and
            forming opinions based on half-truths. Google and Wikipedia are not
            the fonts of all wisdom and the implication that one should seek their
            knowledge there rather than from other people is short-sighted at the
            least.

            Inferring that I am mentally delayed because I call you out for putting
            others down is hardly taking the "Intellectual High Road". In one of
            your other posts you mention that you write copy for a living, I
            believe. I can't see it as I type this but I think that was you. If that's
            the case then you should be embarrassed. I mean, really, is "really
            retarded" actually the best descriptive phrase you can come up with? I
            expect that from my son and his peers, but they are in the first grade.
            Once again you resort to taunts, insults, and name calling in a
            pathetic attempt to appear superior. I could tell you that it sounds
            moronic but I won't. That would sound too much like something from
            the elementary school playground. Come to think of it, it sounds
            much like something you would say.
            use_what_works_4_U
  • RE: Apple announces most profitable quarter ever: Q4 2009

    I find it intrestering how the typical apple user is the berkinstock wearing granola eating Profit hating hippy... but when Apple makes wickid profits, all is forgiven.

    perhaps the US should investigate Apple.
    zeeboid
    • Thanks for Surveying Millions of Mac Users

      You must have spent a great deal of time and analysis
      surveying tens of millions of Mac users to discover what the
      typical one is like. However, I fear there is some flaw in your
      data. The only thing I know about Berkinstocks is that they are
      some kind of footwear. Of course, I live in the mountains of
      Tennessee and, as everyone knows, we don?t wear shoes.

      And I don?t hate profits; I only hate greedy corporations that
      rake in obscene amounts of money while contributing little to
      society. Like, say, Microsoft which has avoided innovation,
      except in marketing. The large software company I used to
      work for spoke admiringly of ?The Microsoft Model,? letting
      small, creative companies break new trails and take all the
      risks, then going in and producing a knock-off product and
      undercutting and outmarketing them.

      I would not be so foolish as to try to characterize all Windows
      users. Except, of course, that they are sheep-like conformists,
      not comfortable with the new and the unfamiliar. And, too, in
      general, a lower class of people, but entitled to compassion
      and understanding.
      http://news.cnet.com/2100-1040-943519.html
      JohnMayer
    • Ummm.... What???

      "berkinstock wearing"
      What the hell is Berkinstock?"
      "granola eating"
      Wrong - I love pizza and Macallan
      "Profit hating"
      Not me, gimmie money.
      "hippy"
      Wrong again - SUV driving, sports loving, nut scratchin', cursing madman here!
      "all is forgiven"
      Nope - Eye for an eye!

      You couldn't be more wrong in your "typical user" statement! :)
      An Apple a Day
    • zeeboid are you a complete retard or just a troll?

      [b]I find it intrestering how the typical apple user is the berkinstock wearing granola eating Profit hating hippy... but when Apple makes wickid profits, all is forgiven.

      perhaps the US should investigate Apple.[/b]

      The word is spelled interesting... this could be a very common keyboard slip but at the same time one could proofread prior to hitting the "submit" key. Okay so...

      Birkenstocks... those are shoes, right? I wear steel toed boots at work and usually barefoot at home - I think my wife might have a pair.

      Granola eating? Sure, I like granola - it's healthy. But I also eat pizza, thai food, hot dogs, baklava, and a lot of other things that are not good for me.

      Profit hating? Not at all - I feel like some CEO profits and pay ratios to worker pay is really off but I have nothing against anyone who makes a buck.

      Hippy? The music and free love was great from what I understand - it was a bit before my time.

      Apple making WICKED (the work is spelled WICKED not wickid BTW) profits... see above for that. If or rather when they do something asinine such as charging the iPod touch users a fee to upgrade their OS, no that is screwed up. Since they made this profit it would not hurt them to stop charging the iPod users for that update.

      [b]Perhaps the US should investigate Apple. [/b]For what exactly? A "monopoly" with iTunes? One CAN always sync anything purchased or downloaded from iTunes with any other smartphone or MP3 player - they just can't use the iTunes software to do it. The fact they made a profit? Then the US better investigate EVERYONE who made a profit... I made a profit does that mean I need to be investigated? Bring it on.
      athynz
      • This isn't a zoo...

        So Stop feeding the troll!

        zeeboid can't spell, indicating he has as much respect for others, and
        for detail, as he does for Apple.

        Who, but a fascist would dream of classifying people in such a
        narrow-minded way? unless he was paid to do so?

        Fast car driving, profit creating, red meat eating, Mac user since 1985,
        who happens to know that the German shoe company is spelled BIRKENSTOCK, not "birkinstock.

        Graham Ellison
      • Perhaps your spellchecker isn't working either?

        "thai" as in "thai food" should be spelled "Thai"...

        <b>... this could be a very common keyboard slip but at the same time one could proofread prior to hitting the "submit" key. Okay so...</b>
        adornoe
        • You are indeed correct...

          my most humble apologies.
          athynz
      • All Ready Happened

        Why do you think they really freed up the music they sell on iTunes? Not everyone has/had the know how to burn to CD and then rip back as an mp3... even today I'm sure many average consumers have no clue you can convert a "purchased AAC" to an mp3.

        Then again, they technically have an OS that is locked into systems that cost 3 times the amount they normally would to anyone else - again unless you are tech savvy and technically breaking the law.

        There's always two sides of every arguement.
        mlbslugger
    • Right wing apple users

      Right wing mac heads are out there, even though Apple doesn't use their
      images much. Rush Limbaugh is a pretty famous mac user. Steve Jobs
      has been asked about the ideological breakdown of mac users and he
      says it's 50/50 left/right.

      Do you really think that it should be on Apple to fix the fact that there
      are rabid lefties that would boycott them if they plastered Rush
      Limbaugh or the Vatican (who encourage mac use among the priests they
      train there) on their advertisements?
      dbrutus