Apple sets new revenue record

Apple has set a new record for revenues in a non-holiday quarter, raking in $8.34 billion in the three months ending 27 June.

A net profit of $1.23 billion was fuelled by sales of 2.6 million Macs, up 4% year-on -year, and 5.2 million iPhones.

Such is the demand for the new iPhone, that chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said Apple is “unable to make enough”.

Indeed, shortages have been widely reported, but that did not deter chief operating officer Tim Cook from committing to launching the iPhone 3GS model in every country that is currently still selling the second-generation,3G model.

He added that Apple also hopes to enter the Chinese mobile market “by the end of the year”.

Charles Wolf, analyst with Needham & Co, described the iPhone figure as “astonishing” given that it only went on sale towards the end of the quarter.

iPod sales declined slightly, to 10.2 million, which was not unexpected. And the decline has to be set against the fact every iPhone is also an iPod.

Apple does not release a breakdown of iPod sales, but according to Needham, the iPod touch is selling well at the expense of the shuffle, nano and classic models.

“We expect the MP3 player business to decline over time," Oppenheimer said, adding that Apple has no plans to leave the business. Not least because the iTunes Store just last week passed eight billion songs sold and total revenues from “music related products and services” were 17% higher than last year.

Mac sales were buoyed by a surge in demand for laptops, coinciding with the release of the 13-inch MacBook Pro. The 1.75 million portables sold during the quarter is the company’s second best ever performance. Meanwhile desktop sales were only marginally down on the year-ago quarter.