Apple Sees Record iPad And iPhone Sales In Q1 2013

When you're on a roll, there's really one two places to go: ahead, or slipping back. Apple did a bit of both with its latest earnings report. While the company proudly proclaimed that Q1 2013 was one for the record books, Wall Street wasn't entirely thrilled. That said, Apple's Q1 2013 did have one fewer week than Q1 2012, so it's tough to compare year-over-year numbers with those lost days in the mix. At any rate, Apple's latest report showed record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, but oddly, neither of those figures measured up to Wall Street's inflated estimates -- sending the stock sliding in after-hours trading. These results compare to revenue of $46.3 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion in the 14-week year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.6 percent compared to 44.7 percent in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.


Average weekly revenue was $4.2 billion in the quarter compared to $3.3 billion in the year-ago quarter. Just think about that for a second: in the time you take to read this article, Apple has made more money than most people make in a year. It's truly astounding. Apple moved a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 37 million in the year-ago quarter, while also selling a record 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Mac sales dipped, however, with just 4.1 million moved in Q1 compared to 5.2 million a year ago. As for iPods? Those are declining as well, with 12.7 million sold this quarter compared to 15.4 million a year ago.


On one hand, Apple's moving a record number of its two hottest products: iPhone and iPad. On the other, it's clear that those two products are still eating into iPod sales, and with Mac sales down, Jobs' "post-PC era" theory seems all the more legitimate. The real question for investors, however, concerns Apple's ability to continually squeeze massive profits from each product sold. That's becoming increasingly difficult, of course, but it's seriously hard to gripe about 13 billion in net profit for a single quarter. There aren't too many companies in the world pulling in that sort of cash.