Technology giant Apple Inc has reported a 54 per cent jump in net income to $ 6.62 billion in its fourth fiscal quarter, helped by record sales of its Mac and iPad computing products.
The company’s revenue accelerated to USD 28.27 billion in the quarter, up 39 per cent from the year-ago period.
Apple, whose financial year ended on September 24, 2011, was upbeat about its financial results, media reports said that earnings and revenue figures fell short of the market expectations.
In the previous quarter, Apple had registered a two-fold rise in net income and a 82 per cent revenue growth.
The company posted total sales of $ 108.2 billion for the full financial year, up from $ 65.2 billion posted in last fiscal.
The full-year net income nearly doubled to $ 25.92 billion, from 14.01 billion in the previous fiscal.
It was Apple’s first quarterly earnings under Chief Executive Tim Cook, who took over reins from Steve Jobs in August. Earlier this month, the company’s co-founder Jobs died after a long battle with pancreatic cancer.
Upbeat over the results, Mr. Cook said: “We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $ 108 billion and growing earnings to $ 26 billion.
“Customer response to iPhone 4S (the latest model of its iconic mobile phone products) has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline.”
Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones in its fiscal fourth quarter, up from more than 14 million a year ago. It sold 11.12 million iPads during the quarter under review, a 166 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.
However, Apple witnessed a 27 per cent decline in the sales of iPod music players to 6.62 million units.
Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2012, the company said, “We expect revenue of about $ 37 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $ 9.30.”
