Apple surpassed Microsoft two months ago as the world’s most highly valued tech company, and is now challenging the Redmond giant on another key metric: In a blowout third quarter, AAPL posted record revenue of $15.7 billion, which should be close to or exceed what Microsoft reports on Thursday.
Apple’s quarter easily surpassed consensus expectations, per Thomson Reuters, posting net income of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. Gross margins were down slightly year over year — 39.1 percent compared to 40.9 percent — and international sales accounted for more than half of all business, 52 percent.
The Thomson Reuters consensus for Microsoft’s revenue is $15.27 billion. Among the 29 analysts polled, the highest estimate was only a tad above what Apple has actually reported, at $15.74 billion. As of today Apple still has a higher market capitalization than Microsoft, but not by much.
Apple’s hardware story in the 3rd quarter is equally impressive:
- 3.47 million Macs (A record)
- 8.4 million iPhones (1.7 million were iPhone 4’s, which went on sale only six days before the quarter ended)
- 9.41 million iPods (The Touch model was up 48 percent year-over-year,)
- 3.27 million iPads (Went on sale three days into the quarter)
In after-hours trading, Apple was up more than $6, or 2-1/2 percent, to about $252.
In a conference call with analysts and reporters after the earnings report was released, chief operating officer Tim Cook said Apple would set aside $175 million to cover the cost of providing free iPhone 4 bumpers to any customer who wants one, in what CEO Steve Jobs had dubbed “Antennagate” last Friday. But the company will only book the cost when a customer gets one, meaning that if nobody asks for one, they’ll put $175 million on the revenue side of the ledger in the subsequent quarter.
But Cooke reiterated that iPhone 3 GS returns were greater than for the iPhone 4, and also that “the ones for this specific issue are extremely small.”
“We are selling every unit we can make currently,” Cook replied emphatically to a question about customer reaction to the issue. “My phone is ringing off the hook from people who want more supply,” he said when asked again in a slightly different way.
Asked if Apple was afraid that the iPad might cannibalize computer sales, Cook said the question was “one we do talk about internally.”
“The real answer is that it’s too early to tell,” he said, noting that sales of Macs set a record in the quarter that the iPad was launched.
“For us that’s a jaw-dropper,” he said.
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