Apple revenues up but net profits down in fourth quarter
Apple wrapped up its 2013 fiscal year Monday with a $7.5 billion profit on $37.5 billion in revenue, reporting accelerating growth buttressed by strong iPhone sales and growth in the Chinese market. Compared to the same quarter a year ago, iPhone sales were up, iPad sales were flat, and Mac sales were down.
Apple announced that its revenues in its fiscal fourth quarter (ending September 28) were up 4 percent compared to the same quarter in 2012. That was good enough to once again beat most analyst estimates. But year-over-year profits fell 8 percent.
The iPhone continued to be the prime mover in Apple's fiscal world. The company said it sold 33.8 million iPhones—a record for the September quarter—compared to 26.9 million in that quarter last year. iPad unit sales were relatively flat at 14.1 million, up 100,000 from the year-ago quarter. And once again, Mac unit sales were down year-over-year, from 4.9 million in last year's fourth quarter to 4.6 million this year. (Mac unit sales were lower every quarter this year compared to the same quarter the year before.) In fact, revenues from all Apple product lines except for the iPhone and for iTunes, software, and services were down year-over-year.
iPhones continue to lead
The good quarterly sales for the iPhone were no doubt goosed by the introduction of the iPhone 5s and 5c, which famously sold 9 million units all by themselves in their debut weekend. The new iPhones were on sale for the last nine days of the quarter. Overall, iPhone unit sales were up 8 percent over the previous sequential quarter, and up 26 percent over the year-ago quarter.
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