Apple hits record highs for Mac and iPad sales, but iPhone drops off

Apple has released another strong set of results, based on record growth in its iPad and Mac ranges, although it did not manage to reach or surpass the record highs enjoyed in its previous quarter.

Apple sold 11.12 million iPads during its fourth quarter, up from 9.25 million iPads in the previous quarter leading to June 2011. The firm also shifted 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a leap of around 25 per cent from the 3.95 million Macs sold in the April to June quarter.

On the Apple investor call, Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, pointed out that the rise in Mac sales was six times the latest PC market growth forecast from analyst IDC, adding that MacBook Air sales “sealed the growth”.

The quarter was a less rosy one for iPhones, although this is no surprise considering the buzz around the possible launch of an iPhone 5 that dominated the period.

Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones during the quarter, down from 20.34 million in the third quarter. However, the firm managed to shift over four million iPhone 4S handsets in the three days after its launch last Friday, so the next quarter numbers should put the firm back on track.

Oppenheimer pointed out that Apple expected iPhone numbers to fall after the June quarter, after the announcements around iOS 5 and iCloud at Apple’s WWDC event in June.

Despite declining popularity for standalone MP3 players, now that most smartphones have integrated this function, Apple still managed to sell 6.62 million iPods, down from 7.54 million the previous quarter.

Oppenheimer also noted the $1.5bn-plus in iTunes revenue for the quarter and 180 million iBook downloads as highlights for the quarter.

Overall results were down from the previous quarter. Fourth-quarter revenue was $28.27bn, down from Apple’s third-quarter record revenue of $28.57bn. Profit was $6.62bn, compared to its previous record quarterly profit of $7.31bn.

Looking forwards, Oppenheimer said that he expected iPad and iPhone sales for the next quarter to be record ones for the firm.

In his first results call as chief executive, Tim Cook was also keen to throw his weight behind this prediction, adding that he still believed the tablet market would become bigger than the PC market, based on the devices’ ease of use.

Apple also noted that iPads currently account for three out of every four tablets sold.

This is despite growing competition from devices based on the rival Android platform, many of which Apple is currently waging a legal battle over.

However, Apple would not be drawn on the future for its cases against firms such as Samsung.

“We don’t like it when someone else takes [our innovations]. Unfortunately we’ve been pushed into the courts system as a remedy to that,” Cook said.

“But I don’t want to comment on any particular lawsuit.”