Another quarter is in the books, and Apple is once again rolling in cash. Apple generated revenue of $37.4 billion for fiscal Q3 and earnings of $1.28 per share. This translated into a record Q3 when it comes to profits, with the company raking in $7.7 billion. Analysts were expecting revenue of $37.99 billion and EPS of $1.23.
Apple issued guidance of $36 to $38 billion for the quarter, so these numbers are right in line with expectations.
Gross margins also ticked up compared to last year, rising from 36.9 percent to 39.4 percent. To go along with that info, Apple reported during its earnings call that the average selling price (ASP) for its Mac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad product lines were $1,255, $151, $561, and $444 respectively. The $444 figure for the iPad tells us that the iPad mini and iPad mini with Retina Display are accounting for the bulk of iPad sales.
“Our record June quarter revenue was fueled by strong sales of iPhone and Mac and the continued growth of revenue from the Apple ecosystem, driving our highest EPS growth rate in seven quarters,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Apple CEO Tim Cook [Image Source: Fast Company]
“We are incredibly excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, as well as other new products and services that we can’t wait to introduce.”
During the quarter, Apple sold 13.3 million iPads, 35.2 million iPhones, and 4.4 million Macs. These compared to last year’s figures of 14.6 million, 31.2 million, and 3.8 million respectively.
iPad sales continue to be a sore point for Apple as we saw with the fiscal Q2 numbers. Apple has seen demand for its iPad weaken as newer, cheaper competition has entered the fray. In addition, the emergence of “phablet” devices have somewhat blunted the demand for tablet devices.
The iPhone numbers are up year-over-year, which is to be expected considering that Apple opened the floodgates to the Chinese market earlier this year. The iPhone numbers could have likely been even higher, but Apple fans are likely waiting for the larger screen iPhones (4.7” and 5.5”) to hit the market this fall.
Apple iPhone 6 render [Image Source: 9to5Mac]
Apple has already [internally] admitted that it has failed to deliver on bringing large-screen iPhones to its customers and it looks to right that wrong with the iPhone 6. So we’ll be looking forward to the fiscal Q4 numbers to see how iPhone sales stack up compared to last year.