Apple quarterly net profit down 22% to June 29

Apple has posted a net fall in its third fiscal quarter profits to June 29, although its revenues managed to rise only very slightly during the three month period.

The company posted revenues of US$35.3 billion, as compared to US$35 billion a year ago.

Net profit fell to US$6.9 billion from US$8.8 billion last year. The profit figure is even lower than Apple achieved back in 2011 when it booked a quarterly profit of US$7.3 billion

Gross margin was 36.9 per cent compared to 42.8 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

International sales accounted for 57 per cent of the quarter’s revenue, a decline on the 62 per cent of sales generated a year ago. The company saw particularly strong declines in China and Hong Kong, which the company’s CEO, Tim Cook admitted had been puzzling.

The company sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for the June quarter, compared to 26 million in the year-ago quarter, beating most analyst expectations.

However, sales of the iPad tablets fell to 14.6 million, compared to 17 million in the year-ago quarter. The company sold 3.8 million Macs, compared to 4 million in the year-ago quarter.