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.

Wataniya Telecom announced that its customer base grew by 4.3 per cent year-on-year for the quarter to end-September, but revenue during the period declined by nearly as much as customers grew.

The total customer base increased to 19.7 million at the end of Q3 2013, up from 18.8 million a year earlier, resulting in growth of 4.3 per cent.

Revenues for the quarter however fell by 3.4 per cent to KD184.5 million (US$655 million). Net profit for the quarter also fell, by 1.2 per cent to KD15.3 million.

Revenues declined the most in the company’s home market of Kuwait, where the customer base and revenue both shrank. All the other markets the company operates in saw improvements.

Zain Saudi Arabia has reported a continued positive trend with Q3 revenues up seven per cent, EBITDA up 44 per cent, with net losses narrowing by a further 15 per cent.

Revenue and gross profit increased seven per cent to SAR1.6 billion (US$420 million) and SAR 761 million, respectively, compared to the same period last year, leading to a significant 44 per cent growth in EBITDA.

The net loss shrank to SA 420 million from SAR 493 million a year ago.

In addition, the customer base grew 24 per cent year-on-year reaching 8.6 million total subscribers.

Commenting on the Q3 2013 results, Fahd bin Ibrahim Al-Deghaither, chairman of the board of Zain KSA, said: "A key milestone achieved this quarter was the successful refinancing of our US$2.3 billion Murabaha facility that served to ensure Zain KSA’s viability going forward, improving cash flow and liquidity, and creating flexibility to support the further expansion and development of our network."

Samsung has posted a rise in its quarterly profits of more than a 25 per cent, boosted by strong smartphone sales and a recovering memory chip business.

The company posted a net profit of KRW8.24 trillion (US$7.6 billion) for the three months to the end of September – of which KRW6.7 billion came from the smartphone division.

This marks the seventh consecutive quarter that Samsung has reported a rise in quarterly profits.

The underlying operating profit rose to KRW10.2 trillion, in line with the company’s estimates.

Samsung also posted a strong improvement at its memory chips division, which was partly boosted by higher prices due to supply shortages caused by a fire at a Chinese factory owned by SK Hynix.

Looking ahead, Samsung warned of low growth in smartphone sales, but said that tablet sales should continue to remain strong.

Ericsson has reported its third quarter financial results and announced that its revenues fell by three per cent year-on-year, although net profits rose by more than a third.

Sales came in at SEK53 billion (US$8.3 billion), although the company noted that if adjusted for foreign exchange losses and asset disposals, sales would have been three per cent higher than a year ago.

Reported sales decreased year-on-year, mainly driven by lower sales in North East Asia and India.

Segments Networks and Global Services showed slightly lower reported sales year-on-year, while Support Solutions saw a more significant decline in volumes. CDMA sales in North America, as well as GSM sales in China, continued to decline.

Net profit came in SEK3 billion (US$470 million) – a sharp rise of 38 per cent over the previous year.

Operating income and operating margin were positively impacted by improved gross margin and no negative effects from ST-Ericsson.

"We are currently seeing sales coming under some pressure. In addition to FX, the major drivers for this development are the two large mobile broadband coverage projects, which peaked in North America in the first half of 2013. We also saw impact from reduced activity in Japan where we are getting closer to completion of a major project." said Hans Vestberg, president and CEO of Ericsson.