Apple today announced its fiscal 2012 fourth quarter results. The company again posted numbers that would make many of its competitors envious but there were signs that competition is heating up.
“We’re very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’re entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline.”
Revenues came in at US$36.0 billion with a net profit of US$8.2 billion. A year ago, Apple recorded revenues of US28.3 billion and a net profit of US$6.6 billion. International sales accounted for 60% of revenues. It sold 26.9 million iPhones (a 58% unit growth over the same quarter a year ago) and 14 million iPads (a 26% unit growth over the year-ago quarter). It also sold 4.9 million iMacs, 5.3 million iPods, and 1.2 million Apple TVs.
iPad numbers in particular came in lower than many analysts predicted. Not only did many potential buyers hold out to see what Apple would announce back on October 23rd but sales of competing products are also improving. Collectively, Android tablets accounted for 41% of the global tablet shipments in Q3.
Apple remains a very healthy company with a solid device lineup; it’s just facing stiffer competition than it has in a while.
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