Soaring iPhone sales have helped Apple boost its quarterly profits to a new world record for a public company - $18 billion.
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Apple Inc has announced the biggest profit ever reported by a public company – a net figure of $18 billion (15.9 billion euros) for its first fiscal quarter.
The reason: record sales of iPhones over the holiday season, including a 70 percent rise in sales in China – this despite stuttering economic growth in the country.
Consumers pounced on Apple’s larger-display iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus which went on sale in September.
Chief Executive Tim Cook has described the demand for the smartphones as “staggering” – this after years in which Apple had lost ground to its rivals.
Apple in 5 key figures
- $18 billion (15.9 billion euros): Apple’s net quarterly profit is equivalent to the budget of Nasa and around the same amount that France, Belgium and the Netherlands combined spend each year on overseas aid.
- $15.9 billion (14 billion euros): The previous record profit made by ExxonMobil in the second quarter of 2012, which has now been exceeded according to Standard & Poors.
- 74.5 million: – the number of iPhones Apple sold in the quarter, equivalent to about one for each person living in Turkey.
- $178 billion (156.9 billion euros): the value of Apple’s cash reserves, enough to give $556 (490 euros) to each person living in America.
- $74.6 billion (65.8 billion euros): Apple’s quarterly revenue, which on an annual basis would put it on a par with the GDP of Singapore or Israel.