Profits up almost 120% year on year for the Cupertino company on the back of huge increase in iPhone sales.
Profits up almost 120% year on year for the Cupertino company on the back of huge increase in iPhone sales.
Apple’s Christmas was always going to be a good one; their dominant market position in Smartphones, Tablets, Apps and Music retail virtually assured it. However few were predicting the meteoric rise in profits last quarter to $13.06bn, representing an increase of 118% from the quarter to December 2010.
Revenue had also increased to $46.33bn in the three months to December 2011 on the back of better than expected sales of the iPhone 4S, iPad 2 and Mac PC lines. Apple sold 37 million iPhone 4S smartphones, 15 million iPad’s and 5.2 million Mac’s, the latter of which is especially noteworthy as it breaks the 5 million barrier for the first time. The only device significantly down in sales was the iPod Touch, chiefly down to Apple choosing not to refresh the line to coincide with the release of the 4S.
Today hasn’t been all good news for the Cupertino outfit however. A court in the Netherlands has failed to uphold Apple’s claims against Samsung Electronics, concluding that visual similarities between the iPad and the Galaxy Tab were not sufficient to declare the latter device as infringing Apple’s design. The Dutch Court argued that a previous ruling in Germany banning the Tab had not considered sufficient prior art also available at the time of the iPad release, ruling that whilst Apple’s design was perfectly valid it wasn’t unique enough to warrant special protection.
The Patent Wars are set to continue, but with the profits registered today Apple have a huge war chest to wage continuing legal battles in an effort to out-litigate as well as out-compete Samsung, Google, Microsoft et al.
Source: 1, 2, 3
