On Wednesday, Apple announced that it had its most profitable second quarter in the history of the company, with a posted revenue of US$7.51 billion, of which it got to keep a $1.05 billion profit . Compared to the same quarter a year ago, Apple brought in $770 million in revenue. Apple shipped nearly 2.3 million Macs during the quarter, which represent a 51 percent increase in unit growth.
iPod shipments didn’t grow quite as fast, though, posting a 1 percent unit growth and 8 percent revenue growth on 10.6 million iPods sold. Quarterly iPhone sales were 1.7 million, and Apple noted that it still expects to reach its goal of selling 10 million iPhones sold by 2009.
Interestingly, when addressing the iPhone shortages that set the Apple blogosphere on fire with speculation over the last several weeks, Tim Cook, chief operating officer for Apple, provided a clear explanation:
“We expected iPhone to decline more on a sequential basis than it did, so we really beat our unit expectations, and as a result, as we got toward the end of the quarter, we started to experience some stock out. At this point, both inventory in our stores and our channel inventory are currently low,” he explained, noting that U.S. Apple stores continue to have particularly low inventory. Apple believes iPhones are being purchased with the intention of unlocking them, and the number of unlocked iPhones “remains a significant number.” Cook declined to estimate the number of unlocked iPhones — but only because the company just isn’t sure of the numbers.
In any event, Apple’s results gave Mac enthusiasts plenty to be pleased about.
