In its quarterly earnings call this afternoon, Apple threw around quite a few very large numbers. For starters, the company brought in $46.3 billion dollars in the last quarter, which was a 73% increase over the previous year. In terms of profit, they netted $13.1 billion, a 118% year-over-year increase and a number that exceeds Google’s entire quarterly revenue, as one observer pointed out.
By far the biggest chunk of revenue came from the iPhone and related products. This isn’t surprising considering the highly successful launch of the iPhone 4S in October, which landed at the same time as iOS 5 and iCloud. The quarter on which Apple was reporting today also included the holiday shopping season, which is always a peak time for smartphones, MP3 players and tablets.
In total, the company sold 37 million iPhones throughout the quarter, which exceeded those sold in the same time period last year by 128%. Apple CEO Tim Cook cited the “breathtaking” customer reception to the iPhone 4S, as well as the launch of Siri, iOS 5 and improved camera optics.
It also didn’t hurt that in the previous quarter, sales missed expectations due to the fact that so many consumers were holding out for the next iPhone. That device was finally launched during the last quarter, and it was a huge one for Apple. In January, the iPhone 4S began shipping in China and now has a presence in over 90 countries.
iPad: Still Dominant, But What About the Competition?
The next biggest growth area for Apple was the iPad. Taken together, the iPad and iPhone product lines now account for 72% of the company’s quarterly revenue. This is a trend that’s been underway for awhile and the share of revenue generated by the iPad and iPhone just seems to keep growing. The stats speak volumes about the explosive growth of smartphones and tablets in general, two markets that Apple has played a massive role in.
The company pointed to the enterprise and educational institutions as two key sources of growth for the iPad. The latter point is no shock in light of last week’s launch of iBooks 2, iBooks Author and an enhanced iTunes U app. While it was received with mixed reactions, the move marked Apple’s biggest formal foray into the education space, where it intends to use the iPad as a way to deliver interactive digital textbooks to students.
When asked about other players in the tablet space, Cook said that the company doesn’t “really see these limited function tablets, these e-readers, as being in the same category.” In other words, it’s not worried about the Kindle Fire or any other Android-based tablets. The iPad may continue to be overwhelmingly dominant, but we’ll see in a few weeks whether the iPad 3’s features or price point are changing in response to any of the other players on the market.
While less dramatic than its iPad and iPhone results, Apple did see quarterly and year-over-year growth in almost every other category, including Mac desktops and laptops.
The only category that saw a decrease from 2012 was the iPod, although it’s worth noting that iPod sales did increase notably from the prior quarter. Year over year, however, the devices are no longer a huge source of growth for Apple, whose smartphones and tablets include all of the functionality of an iPod, in addition to access to 550,000 apps available in the iTunes App Store. Despite being overshadowed by its more sophisticated siblings, the iPod is still the top-selling MP3 player in many major markets.
At this point, Apple is sitting on a ton of money. The company now boasts $97.6 billion in cash, but Cook declined to comment on how they plan on spending that.
