Company sets global record with massive profit on iPhone sales

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January 28, 2015 11:09 AM

Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter ended December 27, 2014, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70 million. Revenue rose from $57.6 billion to $74.6 billion within a year.

Apple Inc quarterly results exceeded Wall Street expectations with record sales of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in the holiday shopping season.

The company recorded a 70 percent rise in China sales, pushing Apple to the largest profit in corporate history.

According to S&P analyst, Howard Silverblatt, Apple's profit of $18 billion was the biggest ever recorded by a public company, worldwide. The company's cash pile is now $178 billion, enough to buy IBM or the equivalent to $556 for every American.

Apple Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook said the Cupertino, California-based company would release its next product, the Apple Watch, in April.

The company's shares rose by 5 percent to $114.90 in after-hours trade.

Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Apple-shareholder Synovus Trust Company in Atlanta, Georgia, said that the report was a good sign in a quarter where big tech companies such as IBM and Microsoft Corp have disappointed.

Apple Chief Financial Officer, Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview that the company did not sell more iPhones in China than the United States, despite some earlier predictions by research analysts.

Also, the big-screen iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus drove revenues in China up 70 percent in the quarter from a year earlier. The company's success in the competitive Chinese market can be attributed to its partnership with China Mobile Ltd, the largest global mobile carrier, and the appeal of the larger screen size of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.

Maestri said he does not expect Apple to struggle because of China's slipping economic growth. "We haven't seen a slowdown," he added.

Maestri also said the company doubled iPhone sales in Singapore and Brazil.

Apple will reach 40 company stores in greater China by mid-2016, Maestri told analysts on a conference call.

Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, also lauded a 14 percent rise in unit sales of Apple Macintosh computers and sales of older iPhone models.

Apple was well positioned for the current quarter in China, she added, which will include the Chinese New Year holiday and reflect Apple's attempts to sell through new channels.

Cook said that the company's new mobile payment service, Apple Pay, which lets customer buy products from select merchants with their phones, was in its "first inning" and the company would consider adding new features as it looked at expanding outside the United States.

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