Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2011 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 26, 2010 to March 26, 2011) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. It was yet another great quarter for Apple, with sales of $24.67 billion and net profit of $5.99 billion. If you want to hear the full call yourself, you can download it from iTunes or you can read the transcript provided by Seeking Alpha. Apple's press release is here. Here are the highlights of the call that I think would be of interest to attorneys who use an iPhone or iPad:
- Apple saw $24.7 billion in revenue this quarter, which is $11.2 billion more than Apple saw this time last year. The difference, according to Apple's Peter Oppenheimer: "This tremendous increase of 83% was fueled primarily by record iPhone sales, vey robust demand for iPad and strong growth in Mac sales."
- Apple sold a record 18.6 million iPhones this quarter.
- One reason for the increase in iPhone sales is that more companies are supporting the iPhone, companies such as Cisco, Prudential, Boston Scientific, General Motors, American Airlines, Deloitte, Yum! Brands and Xerox.
- Apple sold 4.7 million iPads during the quarter. A lot of people waited until the very end of this quarter to buy an iPad because they were waiting for the iPad 2, and demand far outstripped supply so many who wanted an iPad were unable to get one by March 26, 2011 when this quarter ended.
- One reason for the strong demand for iPads is that more companies are supporting the iPad. Oppenheimer said: "Employee demand for iPad in the corporate environment remains strong and CIOs continue to embrace iPad in an unprecedented rate. In just over a year since its debut, 75% of the Fortune 500 are testing or deploying iPad within their enterprises" such as Xerox, AutoNation, Yum! Brands, ADP, Boston Scientific, Estée Lauder, Disney, Stryker, Prudential Financial, Rite Aid and USAA.
- The App Store has over 350,000 apps available and there have been well over 10 billion apps downloaded. Apple has paid over $2 billion to app developers.
- When Apple announced the Verizon iPhone, some wondered why the faster 4G LTE network wasn't used. Apple's answer remains the same today as it was then. Tim Cook explained: "I was asked this question or a similar question when we launched the iPhone with Verizon. And what I said then, and I still see it as being the case today, and I think you can see this in the products that have been shipped, is that the first generation of LTE chipsets force a lot of design compromises with the handset, and some of those, we are just not willing to make. And so we are extremely happy with the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS. And hitting 18.6 million units was something much larger than we thought we could do this quarter, and we're happy to have gotten it out to 3 more large carriers." I'm positive that we will see an LTE iPhone at some point in the future, but the technology just isn't there yet to make a great product (for example, battery life is horrible), and Apple wants to wait until it can release a great LTE iPhone.
- Tim Cook said that Steve Jobs "is still on medical leave ... but we do see him on a regular basis. And as we previously said, he continues to be involved in major strategic decisions. And I know he wants to be back full-time as soon as he can."
- Many of you (like me) probably used your first Apple computer when you were in school. Education continues to be an important market for Apple computers, but Tim Cook noted that as of last quarter, Apple was at "about a 1:1 ratio of iPads to Macs, which is amazing with the short life of the iPad, and really demonstrates what kind of opportunity there probably is there." So Apple is now seling just as many iPads to schools as Macs. That really is pretty amazing.
- One analyst noted that for several years now Apple has introduced a new iPhone in June and asked if that would happen again this year. Tim Cook didn't answer, just saying that Apple never comments on upcoming products. (If you want to believe the latest rumors, though, my guess is that we'll probably see the next iPhone in September.)
Yet again, Apple had a fantastic financial quarter. And yet again, the iPhone and iPads were the key to Apple's success.