Apple Crushes Street Targets

Apple Inc’s quarterly profit almost doubled after a jump in iPhone sales, particularly for the greater China region, beating Wall Street expectations.

The world’s most valuable technology company posted quarterly revenue of $39.2 billion, a 59 per cent jump on the comparable period last year.

Apple posted quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion for its fiscal 2012 second quarter over net profit of $6.0 billion in the year-ago quarter.

International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the quarter’s revenue. The company sold 35.1 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 88 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

The company also sold 11.8 million iPads during the quarter, a 151 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter, as well as four million Macs and 7.7 million iPods, the company said in a statement.

“We’re thrilled with sales of over 35 million iPhones and almost 12 million iPads in the March quarter,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “The new iPad is off to a great start, and across the year you’re going to see a lot more of the kind of innovation.”

“Our record March quarter results drove $14 billion in cash flow from operations,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter, we expect revenue of about $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68.”