IPhone Sales of 6.8M ‘Off The Charts’
5:43 am, October 22nd, 2008, Ed Sutherland
Apple blew past analyst expectations, reporting Tuesday it sold 6.9 million iPhones for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Despite outselling RIM, the stock target price was cut Wednesday by one financial expert.
In a long-awaited pronouncement of Apple’s financial health, the company announced a 35 percent jump in revenue, posting $7.9 billion for the quarter, up from $6.2 billion for the same quarter in 2007.
Leading everything were iPhone sales of 6.9 million units, a nearly 10 percent jump over the same period a year ago. Wall Street had estimated between 4.5 million and 5 million iPhones were likely sold during the fourth quarter.
Those sales helped Apple establish “a pole position by being the first to market and with a competitive price point,” ThinkPanmure’sVijay Rakesh told investors Wednesday.
Mac sales were 2.6 million, largely unchanged from the 2.4 million reported in June. Notebook computers, however, experienced an 8 percent increase during the quarter compared to June.
Earlier this week, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster said Mac sales were “key” to Apple’s fourth quarter numbers. The analyst predicted 2.8 million in Mac sales.
Apple did meet analyst expectations with iPod sales, reporting 11.052 million, up slightly from the 11.011 million sold in June.
The company offered guidance of $9 billion to $10 billion for the first quarter of 2009, recognizing the changing economic winds. As a result, ThinkPanmure cut its price target to $140 from $170 and dropped its revenue projection for the December quarter to $9.7 billion, down from the previous $10.8 billion.
Posted by Ed Sutherland in Apple, News | Comment on this article
The G1 has sold 1.5 million in pre-sales. Given a year it will be the standard platform.
mj, on October 23rd, 2008 at 3:46 am