Apple Notches Record Profit, iPhone Sales Surge

This week is earnings week for a slew of technology outfits, and there's one in particular that Wall Street was waiting for: Apple. During what's likely the worst recession since the Great Depression, analysts and consumers alike were eager to hear how the tech world's darling made out in the quarter ending June 27th. Needless to say, Apple blew away any and all expectations.

With the market on a rebound and morale heading north, Apple added fuel to the good-news fire with its fiscal 2009 third quarter earnings. So, just how good were things? Oh, it was only Apple's best-ever non-holiday quarter in terms of revenue and earnings. You read that correctly -- during a time where spending was down dramatically, Apple managed to have the best non-holiday quarter in the company's history. Pretty amazing. Over the course of the past three months, Apple managed to net a quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, which is even an increase over the $1.07 billion in profit it recorded a year ago at this time.

The company managed to move 2.6 million Macintosh computers, which marks a 4% increase year-over-year. Yet again, we're pretty baffled that Mac sales went up during a non-back to school period filled with market troubles. The outfit also sold 10.2 million iPods, which was actually a 7% dip from last year. The reason? Apple knows that "traditional" iPod sales are being "cannibalized" by the iPhone and iPod touch, but considering that both of those units are also made by Apple, it's not a huge deal for them.



So, we know you're wondering about the hot-selling iPhone. Apple sold 5.2 million iPhones in the past three quarters (the iPhone 3GS launched just prior to the quarter's end, which definitely helped), and that marks a whopping 626% increase year-on-year. Of course, you must take into account that Apple's iPhone is sold in far more places now than it was a year ago, but still, that's a wild number.

There's no doubt that the last quarter was tough for most firms, but not for Apple. In fact, we're scared to think how amazing its quarter would've been had it not been for the recession. Just think--if the company did this well under these circumstances, how well would it have done in a bull market?