Apple’s quarterly results fail to sparkle

Apple reported only a modest rise in revenues, but a fall in profits as its gross margin shrank in the quarter to end-September. Although iPhone sales rose, sales of its tablets were flat and computer sales fell.

For the three months to the end of September, the company posted revenue of US$37.5 billion, as compared to US$36 billion a year ago. Net profit came in at US$7.5 billion, down on the US$ 8.2 billion a year ago.

Gross margin was 37 per cent compared to 40 per cent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 60 per cent of the quarter’s revenue.

The company sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple however, only sold 14.1 million iPads during the quarter, flat on the sales of 14 million a year ago.

The company sold 4.6 million Macs, compared to 4.9 million in the year-ago quarter.

"We generated US$9.9 billion in cash flow from operations and returned an additional US$7.8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the September quarter, bringing cumulative payments under our capital return program to US$36 billion," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO.