Apple Asia quarterly sales falls to US$64m

This compared with revenues of US$92 million for the same period last year.

The Cupertino, California-based company said its global revenues for the second quarter ended March 31, 2001 were US$1.43 billion. This is down 26 percent from the corresponding period a year earlier.

The computer maker revealed that sales from Japan in the second quarter were at US$214 million, compared with US$349 million for the same period in fiscal year 2000.

However, it was back in the black, posting a second quarter net profit this year of US$43 million, or US$0.12 per diluted share. For the corresponding period, its net profit was US$233 million, or US$0.64 per diluted share.

Analysts had expected earnings of US$0.01 a share, and revenues to be US$1.38 billion.

The company had in January reported a hefty US$247 million fiscal first quarter loss for 2001.

"Apple returned to profitability in this tough economic climate by launching several innovative new products," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. It said it shipped 751,000 Macintosh units worldwide during the second quarter of 2001.

Lower shipments For the quarter, Asia Pacific accounted for 38,000--or only about 5 percent--of Apple's global computer shipments of 751,000 computer units.

In the second quarter of 2000, the region shipped 53,000 computers.

On the other hand, Japan shipped 107,000 units of computers in the second quarter of this year compared with 174,000 units for the similar period last year.

Looking forward, Apple said it expects to generate US$3.2 billion to US$3.4 billion in revenue in each of the coming two quarters, with both revenue and profit growing in the quarters ending in June and September respectively.

In the US, shares of Apple last traded up US$2.39 to US$22.79.