Apple posts $295m profit


Apple has announced that it has posted a net profit of $295 million, or $0.70 per diluted share for Q1 2005. This compares to a $63-million profit ( $0.17 per share) in the year-ago quarter. Revenues were $3.49 billion, up 74 percent.

"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."

The really big news is that Apple shipped 1,046,000 Macs and 4,580,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 26-percent increase in CPU units and a 525-percent increase in iPods over last year. Gross margin was 28.5 percent, up from 26.7 percent last year, and international sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Mac unit volume breakdown

• 623,000 desktops, up 44 percent
-- 456,000 iMacs (119,000 eMacs inclusive)
-- 167,000 PowerMacs
• 423,000 portables, up 7 percent
-- 271,000 iBooks
-- 152,000 P'Books

Going forward CFO Peter Oppenheimer states that Apple anticipates revenues of $2.9 billion or earnings of $0.40 per share in Q2. And, last but far from least, the company has $6 billion in cash on hand.

Get the full story, including unit number breakdowns, by listening in to the stream of the just-concluded conference call, here.

Editor's note: I guess Apple's once again a $10-billion company. These numbers will solidify the company's phenomenon status and we'd better get used to those noisome neighbors...

Then again, we've never had it better, though I think Apple could sacrifice a little on margins to drive market share even more.

What's your take?