Apple: Most profitable quarter ever

More Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter sold

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19 October 2009 22:28 GMT / By Stuart Miles

The world might be struggling following on from the fall out of the economic downturn that then became the worldwide recession, but that hasn't stopped Apple boasting its most "profitable quarter ever" suggesting they are charging customers too much for the latest must have gadgets.

According to the company's latest results it the company posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion. Gross margin was 36.6 percent, up from 34.7 percent in the year-ago quarter.

In the three months running up to the end of the quarter Apple sold 3.05 million Macs, no doubt spurred on by the launch of Snow Leopard, which experienced more than double the sales the company was expecting and therefore representing a 17% unit increase over the year-ago quarter. As for the iPhone, Apple says that it sold over 7.4 million iPhones - a 7% unit growth over the year-ago quarter bringing the total of iPhones sold to over 21 million handsets.

"We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter," said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO before promising "some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010."

However it's not all good news. Although Apple sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter it was an 8% decline in sales on the previous year. The results follow a a similar decline in Q3 where iPod sales were down 7% on the year previously.

Apple also used the results call to confirm that it would be launching the iPhone in China at the end of October (30th).

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