Apple continued its torrid sales pace in the second quarter of 2010, with strong sales of the iPhone, iPad, and Mac product lines driving record profits. Only the iPod line has seen any slowdown, and Apple continues to be immune to the industry's economic conditions despite its premium pricing model.
"It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple's history with iPhone 4," said Apple CEO Steve Jobs, refusing to back down in the face of mounting criticism for that product. "iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year."
In the quarter ending June 26, 2010, Apple earned a profit of $3.25 billion on revenues of $15.7 billion. Those revenues matched expectations, but Apple's net profit was a record for the company, and both are significantly higher than the results from the same quarter a year ago.
Apple sold 3.47 million Macs in the quarter, a new quarterly sales record. Based on preliminary PC market share figures, that figure puts the Mac at just over 4 percent worldwide market share for the first time in almost 15 years.
The company sold 8.4 million iPhone smartphones in the quarter as well, though most of those were the previous-generation iPhone 3GS and 3G models. Apple's next-generation iPhone, the iPhone 4, appeared very late in the quarter, and although Apple has sold 3 million units so far, the product has been tarnished by an unusually high number of hardware and software defects. Apple has done little to actually fix the problems, though its marketing assault against the complainers is perhaps unprecedented.
Apple's new iPad is off to a very strong start with 3.27 million units sold in the quarter. The only bad news for Apple (and it's minor) is that its iPod lineup is continuing a steady decline. Apple racked up 9.41 million in iPod unit sales in the quarter, but that's down almost 9 percent from the same quarter a year ago. The good news? Revenues in the iPod business were up slightly, as customers have gravitated to the iPhone-like iPod touch model. In fact, iPod touch unit sales were up 48 percent year-over-year.