Apple: More revenue in one quarter than Google will do in a year

To put Apple’s $20 billion in quarterly revenue into perspective, consider that Wall Street is expecting $19 billion in revenue from Microsoft in the seasonally strong December quarter while Google is expecting revenue of $21.6 billion for all of 2010. Now Apple is projecting fiscal first quarter sales of $23 billion.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, Apple reported net income of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per share on record revenue of $20.34 billion. Wall Street was expecting earnings of $4.08 a share on revenue of $18.9 billion. (Statement, Techmeme) For the full year, the company reported $14.01 billion in net income, or $15.15 per share, on sales of $65.23 billion.

iPhone sales saw 91 percent unit growth over the same quarter a year ago, with 14.1 million sold. The company said it also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter, a number that some analysts say could have been stronger if not for some supply constraints.

Even Macs, which are due for a refresh and likely will the topic of a news event later this week, saw a 27 percent unit gain from a year ago, with 3.89 million sold. The company also sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, an 11 percent drop.

Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 41.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In a statement, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said:

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. iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.

Looking ahead to its fiscal first quarter, the company said it expects earnings of $4.80 per share on sales of $23 billion. Wall Street was expecting earnings of $5.07 a share for the first quarter of fiscal 2011 on revenue of $22.4 billion.

The company will host a conference call to discuss the results. We’ll update this post with details.

Shares of Apple were up slightly, closing at $318.00. Shares were slipping in after-hours trading.

TBH I don't really see the interest
revenue != profit (directly) and Google make a shedload off advertising which doesn't need them to sell products

Unfortunately it is suffering from fartware, just looked on the free puzzle section and it was awash with shovelware for sliding picture puzzles, all with a different image, all blatantly infringing copyright (as I doubt they have permission to use the Toy Story 3 images without permission)

Apple: More revenue in a qt. than Google will do in a year

To take up the point you made above, is a million downloads as important as how many sales they get of the full version? How much money (e.g. how many ad views average) do you get out of an ad supported free version vs the ad free paid version?

Jon

Well 2 million downloads now, the full version is free + ad supported. Reports show ad supported apps make better revenue sources than paid ones in some cases
http://www.macrumors.com/2009/05/06/adw ... lucrative/

There was a better article than that but I can't find it, it was about someone on the app store who released a paid app, then later released a free and ad supported one and the free app generates more than the paid one does/has done due to it being much more popular

Also to bear in mind the ad supported app can generate revenue as long as it is installed, as opposed to a flat rate per unit

What's the deal structure like any way for an app supported by ad space? Is it a few cents per download? Per successful click through?

"For those of us who live outside of Apple's distortion field, we know that 7" tablets will actually be a big portion of the market and we know that Adobe Flash support actually matters to customers who want a real web experience. We also know that while Apple's attempt to control the ecosystem and maintain a closed platform may be good for Apple, developers want more options and customers want to fully access the overwhelming majority of web sites that use Flash. We think many customers are getting tired of being told what to think by Apple. And by the way, RIM has achieved record shipments for five consecutive quarters and recently shared guidance of 13.8 - 14.4 million BlackBerry smartphones for the current quarter. Apple's preference to compare its September-ending quarter with RIM's August-ending quarter doesn't tell the whole story because it doesn't take into account that industry demand in September is typically stronger than summer months, nor does it explain why Apple only shipped 8.4 million devices in its prior quarter and whether Apple's Q4 results were padded by unfulfilled Q3 customer demand and channel orders. As usual, whether the subject is antennas, Flash or shipments, there is more to the story and sooner or later, even people inside the distortion field will begin to resent being told half a story."

- Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion (RIM)

- Jim Balsillie, Co-CEO at Research In Motion (RIM)

we know that 7" tablets will actually be a big portion of the market

I think Steve's losing it...

A fair, unbiased source then.

Unbiased source of what, Rim's response to Jobs lies?
What kind of unbiased source would you expect to defend RIM? I am confused!
Shall we commission a independent inquiry whether Jobs is lying again?

I tell you what, shall we just cut it and just stop with the trolling?