Apple had a crazy earnings call this week. The company nearly doubled quarterly profits, vastly exceeding Wall Street expectations.
Apple’s stock price will probably now reverse course and head back into the stratosphere, and for one reason: China.
Apple sold 35.1 million phones during the quarter worldwide, which provided half the total revenue reported by the company. Half!
Chinese phone sales in the reported quarter were, incredibly, five times higher than the same quarter last year. What’s surprising about this growth is that Apple still hasn’t signed a long-awaited deal with China’s largest carrier — the world’s largest carrier — China Mobile.
So it has become clear to everyone that Apple’s highest-revenue product ever has enormous future sales potential in China.
Also: Apple feels that it has far fewer points of sale (stores) in China than it needs.
When the China Mobile deal happens and Apple builds more stores, watch out. China is likely to become Apple’s biggest handset market, far exceeding even the United States.
Overall revenue for China was $7.9 billion, three times higher than last year.
Another crazy milestone: Asia-Pacific revenue for the quarter was actually higher than European revenue for the first time ever. The relative importance of Asia over Europe is likely to continue indefinitely.
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