Apple Reports Q3 Results, Biggest Non-Holiday Quarter Ever

Apple today announced their financial results for the third quarter of 2009.  The results are quite astounding, with this quarter being the biggest non-holiday quarter in Apple's history. Apple posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, compared to revenue of $7.46 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion in the year-ago quarter.  Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue. Since we are all about iPhones, iPods, and the App Store, we are only going to focus on those numbers. Over 5.2 million iPhones were sold in the June quarter.  The response to the iPhone 3GS has been tremendous as they are unable to meet the demand.

"We're making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year."

Apple sold 10.2 million iPods during the third quarter, which represents a seven percent decline over the year-ago quarter.  Apple states that the reason for this was reduced channel inventory, and sell through decline.  Apple stated that the iPod touch sales have been extremely solid thanks to the App Store.  Traditional MP3 players sales declined year-over-year and they expect this to continue.  About 50 percent of recent traditional iPod purchases are first time iPod buyers.  The iPod owns 70 percent of U.S. market share. Apple's guidance for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 includes expected revenue of $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion. So what does all of this tell us?  Apparently Apple is recession proof. After the conference call was over, Tim Cook fielded a question about how Apple can help sort out the quality vs. quantity issue in the App Store. He revealed that Apple was working on a different app rankings system that may reduce the "race to the bottom" pricing currently found in the App Store. That's definitely good news no matter who you are. To win a download code for F.A.S.T., simply leave a relevant comment about this post or about F.A.S.T. itself. The winner will be chosen randomly at the end of the day today (end of the day means 11:59 PM ET). Download codes are only redeemable through US iTunes accounts. Please remember to include a valid email address so we can contact the winner.

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