I am buzzing with excitement over Apple’s Q4 financial conference, which gets underway in just a short while. Or maybe that’s interference from my iPhone. Or a swarm of angry bees. So many potential sources. Anyway, as we get ready to liveblog the heck out of the Peter Oppenheimer and Tim Cook Power Hour over at the mothership (link below), here are the numbers from Apple’s own press release.
A nice tidy profit of $1.14 billion on a revenue of $7.9 billion was Apple’s taking for Q4, which ended on September 27th—that’s vs. $6.22 billion in revenue and $904 million in profit last year, so Apple’s still on its way up. Profits per diluted share were $1.26 for Q4 2008, vs. $1.01 in the year ago quarter. Gross margins were 34.7%, up from 33.6% last year at the same time, and international sales accounted for 41% of the quarter’s revenue.
Mac sales were strong, with 2.6 million shipped during the quarter, meaning 21% unit growth and 17% revenue growth over last year’s Q4. Apple also sold just over 11 million iPods, and an outstanding 6,892,000 iPhones, versus last year’s 1,119,000 in the Q4 2007, which puts them tantalizingly close to the vaunted 10 million mark (they ought to hit in next quarter, no problem).
And they said the economy is in recession. Paugh! And Apple’s all set to launch into its holiday quarter, which is typically its most profitable. It’ll be interesting to see how it all plays out. As always, you can follow our liveblog at the link below, where analysts will pepper Messrs. Oppenheimer and Cook with questions which they will dodge more adroitly than the presidential candidates.
