Apple Posts Near-Record Sales
Online Staff -- EDN, April 20, 2006
Apple Computer reported Wednesday that fiscal Q2 sales that ranked the second highest in the company's history.
The company posted Q2 revenue of $4.36 billion and a net quarterly profit of $410 million, or 47 cents per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $3.24 billion and a net profit of $290 million, or 34 cents per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Apple shipped 1.11 million Macintosh computers and 8.53 million iPods during the quarter, representing 4 percent growth in Macs and 61 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.
"We've generated over $10 billion in revenue and almost $1 billion in earnings in the first half of fiscal 2006," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a statement. "Our transition to Intel processors is going very well, and our music business just experienced another quarter of outstanding growth."
"We're very pleased to report the second highest quarterly sales in Apple's history, resulting in year-over-year revenue growth of 34 percent and earnings growth of 41 percent," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, in a statement.
Oppenheimer said Apple expects current fiscal Q3 revenue to be in the range of $4.2 billion to $4.4 billion and GAAP earnings per diluted share of about 39 cents to 43 cents.
PortalPlayer Played Out on iPod?
In related news, chipmaker maker PortalPlayer Inc. said later Wednesday Apple did not choose its follow-on to the PP5021 SoC to be used in Apple's mid-range and high-end flash based iPods. PortalPlayer said it believes that the PP5021 will continue to be the processor of choice in other members of the iPod family, however.
It was definitely bad news for PortalPlayer, which derives 90 percent of its revenue from its iPod business. Wall Street had a predictable reaction; in mid-afternoon trading today, shares in PortalPlayer were down more than 40 percent, to $13.15. The company's share price closed at $22.59 on Wednesday before it made its Apple announcement; it opened this morning at $12.72.
