Apple records another record quarter -- $1.61B profit
Apple just announced its quarterly results, and it looks the brutal economy isn't bruising the fruit at all -- the company posted a record $1.61B profit on $10.17B in revenue. Adjusted to reflect the subscription accounting Apple uses for the iPhone and Apple TV, that's $2.3B of income on $11.8B of revenue. Sales were all strong -- Macs were up nine percent to 2.5M sold, iPods up three percent to 22.7M sold, and iPhones were up 88 percent to 4.3M sold. If you're keeping track, that means Apple's now sold well over 10M iPhone 3Gs on top of beating its goal of 10M total iPhones in 2008, which is pretty tremendous. Acting CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer are taking questions from analysts now, we'll let you know if anything interesting happens -- as you'd expect, the first question was "How's Steve?" and it got basically a non-answer.
2:18PM - After rattling off Apple's core goals and beliefs, Tim Cook said that "regardless of who is in what job, those values are so embedded in this company that Apple will do extremely well." Neither him or Peter would speak to succession plans or comment on Steve's health.
2:22PM - Apparently no immediate plans to lower iPhone's $199 pricepoint, since Apple still feels "years ahead of the competition," though Tim agreed that the iPhone's price is "elastic" like iPods, as opposed to the static Mac pricing.
2:30PM - When asked about netbooks, Tim said "we're watching that space" but feels like products in that market are too slow and cramped, and that people won't be pleased. "But we'll see." Apple has some ideas for the space, and is aware of the crazy sales numbers, but doesn't like the "inferior" consumer experience that's there right now.
2:31PM - Apple TV sales are up 3X, partly thanks to iTunes movie rentals. Still considers it a "hobby," but will continue to invest in the market
2:33PM - No comment on Snow Leopard progress. "We're very excited by this next release, but we have no launch date at this time."
2:45PM - Mac growth was two percent in the US year-over-year, but 16 percent internationally, and over 20 percent in several countries.
