Apple iphone and mac sales

Apple Inc. today announced it had sold 1.1 million iPhones and 2.2 million Macintosh computers in the quarter that ended Sept. 29, with the Mac numbers setting a new record for the company.

Mac sales were up 34% over the same quarter last years, enough to break the previous best by 400,000 machines. Apple sold 817,000 desktop machines and 1.35 million notebooks during July, August and September, a stretch during which Apple ran its usual back-to-school promotion and rolled out a refresh of its iMac desktop lineup.

Apple's data noted that sales of Mac computers had surged 46% in Europe over last year, and 52% in the Asia Pacific region, which includes China but excludes Japan. Although the numbers of systems sold in the latter remained small -- just 155,000 for the three months -- Apple sold nearly half a million machines in Europe, slightly more than the company sold in all its retail stores.

The exchange rate played a part in those sales, said Gottheil, but the weakness of the dollar against other currencies, especially the euro, wasn't the only reason.

Price cut pays off big

The iPhone, meanwhile, reached total sales of 1.4 million since its late-June launch. Its impact to the bottom line, however, was minimal, since Apple spreads iPhone revenue earnings over the 24 months of the life of the AT&T contract customers sign. Apple refused to get specific about payments it receives from its wireless partner, however, even though during the previous quarter's call in July, executives hinted that they would be more forthcoming.

For the record, the Cupertino, Calif. posted earnings of $904 million, up from $542 million a year ago, one revenues of $6.22 billion, compared with $4.84 billion a year earlier. In July, Apple had forecast revenues of $5.7 billion, and said it expected profit margin to drop from 36.9% to 29.5% to fund what it called "product transition."

Apple's actual margin for the quarter was 33.6%, considerably higher than the company projected even after it revamped both the iPod and iMac lines and lowered the price of the iPhone. Apple ascribed the less-than-anticipated drop in profit margin to greater-than-expected sales.

iPod sales were also brisk, said Apple, which claimed it sold 10.2 million of the digital music players during the quarter, an increase of 17% in units over the same quarter last year, but only a 4% boost in revenues. The most expensive model in the new line, the iPod touch, missed all but a few days of the quarter with its late-September launch. Apple, however, said it expected the touch to play a bigger part in iPod revenues going forward.

For the October-December run toward year's end, Apple has pegged revenue at $9.2 billion, said Peter Oppenheimer, the company's chief financial officer. If that carries through, the revenue goal would be about 28% above the same quarter last year, when Apple raked in approximately $7.2 billion.