... record, and showed 40% Y-Y growth which in unseen by company of this size.
Wallstreet estimations were unreasonably overheated considering that iPhone 4S came four months late. Apple lost about $3 billion in sales and almost $1 billion in net profits because of that.
Considering that Apple always tops their own estimates for the quarter (including the one about this report is just done), $37 billion sales for Q4 might turn into topping $40 billion if manufacturing and economics will be right.
Why Apple set $37 billion for Q4? It is holiday quarter, so iPad sales might easily top 15 million, iPhone sales will top 25 million, Mac sales will top 5 million, and even iPod sales are expected to top 10 million -- significant increase in all areas comparing to Q3's $28.3 billion.
Apple has released its Q4 ‘11 financials and announced $6.62 billion quarterly profits.
Here are the highlights:
- Revenue of $28.27 billion (compared to $20.34 billion for year-ago quarter - analysts had been expecting $29.7 billion, but my guess is that analysts numbers were based on the expectation of a June release for the iPhone)
- Profits of $6.62 billion (compared to $4.31 billion for year-ago quarter)
- Operating margins represent 38% of revenue
- 17.07 million iPhones sold - 21% up on year-ago quarter - iPhone sales down on the last two quarters, most likely because consumers were waiting for the new release - Apple says this decline was expected
- 11.12 million iPads sold - 166% up on year-ago quarter - that makes almost 40 million iPads sold since launch
- 4.89 million Macs sold - 26% up on year-ago quarter - 6x IDC’s most recent forecast of 6% growth for PCs in the quarter
- 6.62 million iPods sold - 27% decline on year-ago quarter - iPod share of US MP3 players is still over 70% according to NPD
- iTunes Store generated record results with revenue of $1.5 billion - 16 billion songs and 650 million TV shows downloaded to date
A couple of quotes:
Tim Cook, CEO
“We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $108 billion and growing earnings to $26 billion. Customer response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline.”
Peter Oppenheimer, CFO
“We are extremely pleased with our record September quarter revenue and earnings and with cash generation of $5.4 billion during the quarter. Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 14 weeks rather than 13, we expect revenue of about $37 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $9.30.”
Note: Apple is being punished for missing analyst’s targets in after-hours trading.
Related:
- Apple’s fourth quarter dinged by iPhone 4S waiting game
- Apple’s enterprise approach: Passive aggressive
- Apple iPhone 4S: 4 million in sales in first weekend
- Apple’s R&D spending hits bottom as percentage of revenue
- Apple in the enterprise: The road forward
- How Apple’s iPhone 4S preorders stack up historically
- Replicating Steve: Can Apple recreate Jobs’ intangibles?
