Apple Laughs At Recession: Record Profits on Record Sales of Macs and iPhones

Leander Kahney ()

Apple Mothership

“Recession? What recession?” said Steve Jobs and co. on Monday as Apple reported record sales and near-record revenues for 2009”s fourth quarter.

While Wall Street and most of the technology industry limped along for the last three months, Apple’s fourth quarter revenues rose to a whopping $9.87 billion — the second best quarter ever after last Christmas.

Apple sold a record 3.05 million Macs during the quarter (17% year-on-year increase); 10.2 million iPods (down 8%); and 7.4 million iPhones (up 7%).

“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs in a statement. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

The results do not reflect the new accounting rules that recently went into effect allowing Apple to realize iPhone and Apple TV sales, which are currently spread over two years. If these sales were taken into account for the quarter, revenue would have been $12.25 billion, Apple said.

DON'T MISS
Apple Q1 Results: It’s Another Blockbuster With More Sales, More Revenues, More Profits

The company is a runaway profit machine. Gross margins were up to an unbelievable 36.6%, which rocketed profits 46% to $1.67 billion for the quarter. Yeah, that’s a lot of cash. Companies like Dell and HP are lucky if they can squeeze 5% profits out of their products.

10 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

(sorry, you need Javascript to see this e-mail address)| Read more posts by .

Posted in Apple, News |

  • http://www.QuigleyChiro.com Reno Chiropractor

    Doesn’t surprise me a bit. I have been a big fan of Apple for years now and I don’t know how I would run my life or my business without some of their great products. Just wish I also owned some of their stock, rather than just their products. Good article.

  • space guru

    I hemmed and hawed when Apple was at $112, and at 119 and at 124 and then at 136, can they really keep going? Then I looked seriously at buying when Apple hit 142, and then at 164. At 174 I told my wife let’s get Apple now! She looked at it, and then all by itself it went to 182 without waiting. We bought it then @ 182. Apple since has gone to 192, back down to 186 and after the earnings report and after hours trading it hit $204. If you didn’t buy Apple when are you going to? I’m glad we got on the bus when we did.

  • http://www.digital-mind.org/ Tony

    With what Apple is charging for their products this should come as no surprise. Honestly, I love the Apple hardware and more importantly, I’m a big fan of the Mac OS X (any flavour). However, when it comes to bleeding their potential customers and staunch supporters they’re number one at it. Imagine how many more customers they would win over if their hardware, especially their hardware, and software was more affordable.

  • http://53degrees.wordpress.com Eoin O’Mahony

    “Gross margins were up to an unbelievable 36.6%…” Umm, that’s our money they’re accruing. Is this a war chest for something?

    I’m with Tony on this one, the premium price paid is little compensation for the fact that most people will just accept Win7 when it arrives at their work PC or sits on the shelf on their local big box store in the next few months.

  • http://www.start-a-business-faq.com Ron Derven

    Maybe Apple will convince the really smart guys to leave Wall Street banks and go to Silicon Valley.

    Ron D

  • http://www.loglod.com free online games

    Yap “Doesn’t surprise me a bit. I have been a big fan of Apple for years now and I don’t know how I would run my life or my business without some of their great products. Just wish I also owned some of their stock, rather than just their products. Good article.”

  • CaryMG

    Hey, man.
    This is ONLY good news ….

    Hopefully more & more & more people’ll get on the stick & make Macintosh — a VASTLY superior product than it’s PeeCee counterpart — the de facto standard in the everyday world.
    Then, after that, Apple could afford to come down on the prices a little.

    “My First Mac”, anyone?

  • http://apteka-online.org/ apteka online

    Nie dziwi mnie nieco. Byłem wielkim fanem Apple od lat i nie wiem w jaki sposób mogę uruchomić mojego życia i mojej firmy bez niektórych swoich doskonałych produktów. Chciałbym również tylko niektóre z własnością ich czas, a nie tylko ich produkty. Dobrej pracy.

  • http://www.pinoygambling.com Oliver Jones

    economic recession is always a bad part of history, we must avoid it at all cost*,-

  • http://missionviejochiropractors.info Chiropractic in Mission Viejo

    The above seems to be a goal for the straight chiropractic profession. It is undoubtedly a very noble goal, for we know that an individual without vertebral subluxations functions better on every level. Further, there is nothing wrong with having lofty goals as long as they are reasonable. I am not quite sure that a subluxation-free world is a reasonable goal, especially from a philosophical viewpoint. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to say our goal is a “regularly-checked and adjusted-when-necessary world.” After all, if we see the vertebral subluxation as a worldwide plight that occurs in all people of all ages as a result of the normal activities of life, we cannot expect to wipe it out as we would some medical plague.