iPods Cash Cow for Apple

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2005 first quarter ended December 25, 2004. For the quarter, the Company posted a net profit of $295 million, or $.70 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $63 million, or $.17 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue for the quarter was $3.49 billion, up 74 percent from the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 28.5 percent, up from 26.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple shipped 1,046,000 Macintosh units and 4,580,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 26 percent increase in CPU units and a 525 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

“We are thrilled to report the highest quarterly revenue and net income in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve sold over 10 million iPods to date and are kicking off the new year with a slate of innovative new products including iPod shuffle, Mac mini and iLife ’05.”

“We’re pleased to report 74 percent revenue growth, 26 percent Mac unit growth and 525 percent iPod unit growth,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second quarter of fiscal 2005, we expect revenue of about $2.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $.40.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2005 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime™, Apple’s standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq105/ and will also be available for replay. The QuickTime player is available free for Macintosh and Windows users at www.apple.com/quicktime.

Apple Reports First Quarter Results