Apple posted another record quarter with profits up 70 percent, as it sold 4.19 million iPads for the period ended September 25.
“We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple,” said CEO Steve Jobs.
He noted that Apple sold more phones during the quarter—14.1 million iPhones—than RIM sold in its most recent quarter. And he added, “We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.”
iPhone unit sales were up 91 percent over the year earlier. Apple also sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, up 27 percent in units over the year-ago quarter. iPod sales declined 11 percent from last year.
iPad sales actually came in slightly below expectations of 4.7 million units according to AllThingsD. But Apple said the iPad was backordered and it wasn’t able to meet iPad demand until September.
iPhones are still having trouble meeting demand. “We would have sold even more iPhones if we were able to supply them,” said a spokesman on a conference call today. .
Apple said it will introduce a new version of iOS4– iOS4.2–for the iPad in January which will permit updates including AirPrint, which automatically finds a local printer and enables printing over WiFi without the need to install drivers. There are now more than 35,000 apps specifically for the iPad.
Steve Jobs, joined the call, although he usually doesn’t participate in quarterly earnings calls, stating, “I just couldn’t resist dropping by for our first $20 billion quarter.”
In answering a question he said it’s not a matter of ‘if’ the iPad will affect notebook sales but ‘when.’ “We haven’t pushed it real hard in business and it’s being grabbed out of our hands…I’m convinced we have a tiger by the tail here.”
Over 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies are already deploying or testing iPads. Apple COO Tim Cook added, “I’ve never seen an adoption like this from the enterprise, which…historically adopts very slowly.”
Jobs also revealed that Apple has shipped more than ¼ million Apple TV units at $99.
See 7-inch tablet story for more of Job’s comments.
Source: Apple and AllThingsD