Apple results reveal massive jump in Mac sales

Apple has once again out-performed analyst estimates, turning in record second quarter results and reporting another rise in the number of Mac computers sold.

For the period ending 29 March 2008, Apple sold 2.29 million Macs, 51 per cent higher than the second quarter a year ago, and only a fraction lower than the 2.3 million sold in the first quarter of this financial year, its best ever.

The growth in Mac sales, which have soared for the last four quarters have been helped largely by the lacklustre consumer response to Microsoft's Windows Vista, the successful launch of its own Leopard operating system in November 2007 and the launch of redesigned iMacs and the new high margin MacBook Air, which has done well after a slow start.

The company also shifted 10.65 million iPods and 1.7 million iPhones, the latter down from the 2.3 million it sold in the first quarter and suggesting that sales are slowing as users anticipate the arrival of a new 3G iPhone, most likely using HSDPA high-speed data technology in place of the current 2G GPRS and EDGE hardware currently in use.

"We're delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs, who went on to hint at new products in the pipeline for later in the year.

In addition to the buoyant computer sales, Apple reported quarterly turnover of $7.51 billion (3.75 billion) and a net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion (525 milion).

These figures compare well to Apple's record first quarter, when the company reported turnover of $9.6 billion (4.92 billion) and profit of $1.58 billion (810 million) for the quarter.

Sales outside the US accounted for 44 per cent of the second quarter's turnover, against 45 per cent in the first quarter.

Maintaining Apple's high profit margins on products has been a problem for the company, and it reported a drop in gross margins from 35.1 per cent in the second quarter of last year to 32.9 per cent in this quarter.

"Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion," added Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer.

The results did manage to outstrip analyst expectations, with Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster predicting 2.1 million Mac sales, 10.5 million iPods and 1.6 million iPhones. Citigroup analyst Rich Gardner predicted 2.1 million Macs, 9.5 million iPods and 1.5 million iPhones.

The most accurate analyst prediction overall came from AmTech analyst Shaw Wu, who predicted 2.15 million Macs, 1.5 million iPhones, 10 million iPods, but who also predicted margins of 33.5 per cent and per-share profits of $1.10 (55p), against actual per-share earnings of $1.16 (58p).