iPhone sales secure Apple against downturn

Apple sold almost four million iPhones in its second quarter

Apple has showed its continuing strength despite the economic downturn, posting positive second quarter financial results for 2009.

As most technology firms are reporting losses and cutting staff, Apple has finished the quarter ending on 28 March with revenue of $8.16bn (£5.61bn) and a profit of $1.21bn (£830m) or $1.33 (£0.92) per share.

These results compare to revenue of $7.51bn (£5.17bn) and net quarterly profit of $1.05bn (£720m), or $1.16 (£0.80) per share, in the same quarter last year.

“We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history,” said Apple chief financial officer, Peter Oppenheimer.

“Apple’s financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29bn (£20bn) in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet."

Looking ahead to the next quarter, Oppenheimer added Apple expected revenue in the range of about $7.7bn (£5.3bn) to $7.9bn (£5.4bn).

A large part of Apple's success is due to the iPhone. The quarter results show 3.79 million iPhones were sold, representing a 123 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

The growth enjoyed by Apple contrasts with Nokia’s latest earnings reported on 16 April, which dropped by 90 per cent. Nokia sold 93.2 million mobile devices, down 14 per cent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, financial results released on Wednesday by US provider AT&T, Apple’s exclusive US provider, were also positive due to iPhone sales. While the provider posted a 0.6 per cent loss in revenue since the same quarter the previous year, it beat analyst expectations and gained 1.2 million new iPhone subscribers, reaching a total of 78.2 million.

However, Apple Mac sales appear to be suffering in line with the rest of the PC market, if not quite as bad.

Apple sold 2.22 million Macs during the quarter, representing a three per cent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

A recent Gartner report showed worldwide PC shipments totalled 67 million units in the first quarter of 2009, a near seven per cent decline versus the first quarter of 2008. Gartner said that low-priced mobile PCs continue to be the growth driver for the PC industry.

For example, HP, which accounted for 20 per cent of global shipments in the first quarter of 2009 and registered higher growth rates than the regional averages, derived its strength from a “solid consumer PC portfolio, including low-priced mobile PCs”, noted the report.