The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter
ended Dec. 27, while many analysts had expected fewer than 70
million. Revenue rose to $74.6 billion from $57.6 billion a year
earlier.
Profit of $18 billion was the biggest ever reported by a public
company, worldwide, according to S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt.
Apple's cash pile is now $178 billion, enough to buy IBM or the
equivalent to $556 for every American.
Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said the Cupertino,
California-based company would release its next product, the Apple
Watch, in April.
Shares rose about 5 percent to $114.90 in after-hours trade.
Daniel Morgan, senior portfolio manager at Apple-shareholder Synovus
Trust Company in Atlanta, Georgia, said that the report was a good
sign in a quarter where big tech companies such as IBM and Microsoft
Corp have disappointed.
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Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told Reuters in an
interview that the company did not sell more iPhones in China than
the United States, despite some earlier predictions by research
analysts.
But the big-screen iPhone 6 and 6 plus drove revenues in China were
up 70 percent in the quarter from a year earlier. The company's
success in the competitive Chinese market can be attributed to its
partnership with China Mobile Ltd <0941.HK>, the largest global
mobile carrier, and the appeal of the larger screen size of the
iPhone 6 and 6 Plus.
Maestri said he does not expect Apple to struggle because of China's
slipping economic growth. "We haven't seen a slowdown," he added.
Maestri also said the company doubled iPhone sales in Singapore and
Brazil.
Apple will reach 40 company stores in greater China by mid-2016,
Maestri told analysts on a conference call.
Carolina Milanesi, an analyst with Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, also
lauded a 14 percent rise in unit sales of Apple Macintosh computers
and sales of older iPhone models.
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Apple was well positioned for the current quarter in China, she
added, which will include the Chinese New Year holiday and reflect
Apple's attempts to sell through new channels.
Apple reported net profit of $18.02 billion, or $3.06 per diluted
share, compared with $13.07 billion, or $2.07 per share, a year
earlier. That topped expectations of $2.60 per share, according to
Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Analysts had expected revenue of $67.69
billion.
Maestri said that Apple faced "a clear headwind" from the strong
dollar but that it had included the challenge in its forecasts.
Apple predicted revenue of $52 billion to $55 billion in its fiscal
second quarter, compared with Wall Street's average target of $53.79
billion.
Cook said that the company's new mobile payment service, Apple Pay,
which lets customer buy products from select merchants with their
phones, was in its "first inning" and the company would consider
adding new features as it looked at expanding outside the United
States.
(Reporting by Christina Farr in San Francisco; Additional reporting
by Supantha Mukherjee in Bengaluru and Caroline Valetkevitch in New
York; Editing by Peter Henderson, Ted Kerr and Lisa Shumaker)
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