iPhone and iPad power Apple's surging numbers

by Steven Mostyn - Oct 19 2010, 05:04

With the iPhone 4 smartphone selling by the bucketload – despite recent Antennagate shenanigans – and the iPad tablet boasting unprecedented consumer appeal since its launch in April, it arrives as absolutely no surprise to see Apple Inc. posting surging business numbers.

More pointedly, the Cupertino-based computer and gadget giant has said it sold a whopping 14.1 million iPhone handsets between July and September, which eclipses the 12 million units analysts had initially predicted.

When added to the 4.2 million units of the touch-screen iPad sold during the year's fiscal fourth quarter, along with the sale of 3.9 million Mac computer systems and 9.1 million iPod players, it's not hard to see why Apple is reporting record net income.

That being said, shares in the company actually fell by almost six percent following the report, due to extremely generous fourth-quarter analyst projections that outpaced Apple's real-world achievements.

“I think expectations got a little out of hand,” commented Kaufman Bros. analyst Shaw Wu in an Associated Press report.

Taking a closer look at the figures, Apple's net income increased by a massive 70 percent year-on-year, hitting $4.3 billion USD ($4.64 USD per share), which is a significant rise over the $2.5 billion USD ($2.77 USD per share) the company posted during the same period in 2009.

Revenue improved by a similar percentage, rising 67 percent year-on-year from $12.2 billion USD in 2009 up to $20.3 billion USD.

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