Apple net soars
on record Mac sales
Apple
said Monday that fourth-quarter net profit jumped 67 percent, topping most
analysts' estimates, on soaring demand for the Macintosh computer, the iPhone
and new iPods.
Profit rose to $904 million, equivalent to $1.01 per share, from $542 million a year earlier on sales that climbed 29 percent to a $6.22 billion in the period ended Sept. 29. Analysts had on average estimated profit of 85 cents on sales of $6.02 billion.
Apple sold a record 2.16 million Macintosh personal computers during the back-to-school shopping season and shipped 10.2 million iPod media players. Apple also sold 1.12 million iPhones, topping a July forecast by Steve Jobs, chief executives, that it would sell 730,000 units, helped by a $200 price cut last month.
"They have superior insight into how people use technology," said Barry Jaruzelski of Booz Allen Hamilton in New York. "Apple has been the king of less is more. They are able to figure out the shortest list of features that would satisfy the most amount of people, and that translates into easy-to-use technology that people like to use."
Apple rose $3.94, or 2.3 percent, to finish at a record $174.36 in New York trading before the earnings announcement. They have more than doubled this year and are the fourth-best performer on the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Jobs, who returned as chief executive in 1997 after a 12-year absence from the company he founded, is working to change Apple from a computer maker into a consumer-electronics giant.
Since dropping the word "computer" from the company's name in January, Jobs has entered the cellphone arena with the introduction of the iPhone. He is counting on the device, introduced June 29, to sell 10 million units in 2008, capturing 1 percent of the market.
AT&T, the exclusive U.S. provider of wireless service for the iPhone, gives Apple a share of the $60 to $220 it charges subscribers each month. Apple is accounting for sales of each device over 24 months, the length of users' wireless contracts.
IPhone revenue will rise this quarter as the device spreads to Europe. Partners in Britain, Germany and France plan to start selling the $399 product next month.
Jobs has spent the past two years updating the Mac with faster chips from Intel. This year, he added software that lets users also run Microsoft's rival Windows operating system on the machine.
Apple's PC market share in the U.S. in the third quarter widened to 8.1 percent from 6.2 percent, according to Gartner. That was Apple's highest share in at least a decade.
Mac shipments rose 37 percent, Gartner said. Apple posted the fastest growth among the top five PC makers, outpacing such larger rivals as Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
"Apple is reaching a strong inflection point in terms of PC market share," said Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets, which raised its Apple share price estimate by 17 percent to $205 last week. "Even though there's a lot of focus on the iPhone, it's really the Mac that's driving the growth in revenue and earnings per share."
IPod demand also fueled sales last quarter. Apple has sold more than 110 million players since introducing the device in October 2001. Jobs added new versions in September, including a video player called the iPod Touch that uses the same touch-screen technology as the iPhone.
Profit rose to $904 million, equivalent to $1.01 per share, from $542 million a year earlier on sales that climbed 29 percent to a $6.22 billion in the period ended Sept. 29. Analysts had on average estimated profit of 85 cents on sales of $6.02 billion.
Apple sold a record 2.16 million Macintosh personal computers during the back-to-school shopping season and shipped 10.2 million iPod media players. Apple also sold 1.12 million iPhones, topping a July forecast by Steve Jobs, chief executives, that it would sell 730,000 units, helped by a $200 price cut last month.
"They have superior insight into how people use technology," said Barry Jaruzelski of Booz Allen Hamilton in New York. "Apple has been the king of less is more. They are able to figure out the shortest list of features that would satisfy the most amount of people, and that translates into easy-to-use technology that people like to use."
Apple rose $3.94, or 2.3 percent, to finish at a record $174.36 in New York trading before the earnings announcement. They have more than doubled this year and are the fourth-best performer on the Standard & Poor's 500 index.
Jobs, who returned as chief executive in 1997 after a 12-year absence from the company he founded, is working to change Apple from a computer maker into a consumer-electronics giant.
Since dropping the word "computer" from the company's name in January, Jobs has entered the cellphone arena with the introduction of the iPhone. He is counting on the device, introduced June 29, to sell 10 million units in 2008, capturing 1 percent of the market.
AT&T, the exclusive U.S. provider of wireless service for the iPhone, gives Apple a share of the $60 to $220 it charges subscribers each month. Apple is accounting for sales of each device over 24 months, the length of users' wireless contracts.
IPhone revenue will rise this quarter as the device spreads to Europe. Partners in Britain, Germany and France plan to start selling the $399 product next month.
Jobs has spent the past two years updating the Mac with faster chips from Intel. This year, he added software that lets users also run Microsoft's rival Windows operating system on the machine.
Apple's PC market share in the U.S. in the third quarter widened to 8.1 percent from 6.2 percent, according to Gartner. That was Apple's highest share in at least a decade.
Mac shipments rose 37 percent, Gartner said. Apple posted the fastest growth among the top five PC makers, outpacing such larger rivals as Hewlett-Packard and Dell.
"Apple is reaching a strong inflection point in terms of PC market share," said Mike Abramsky of RBC Capital Markets, which raised its Apple share price estimate by 17 percent to $205 last week. "Even though there's a lot of focus on the iPhone, it's really the Mac that's driving the growth in revenue and earnings per share."
IPod demand also fueled sales last quarter. Apple has sold more than 110 million players since introducing the device in October 2001. Jobs added new versions in September, including a video player called the iPod Touch that uses the same touch-screen technology as the iPhone.
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