Apple Reports Record Quarter…Again

It was Apple’s turn to report third-fiscal quarter earnings today, and the results didn’t disappoint: A whopping $28.57 billion in revenue (up 82% from the previous year) and a surge in net profit ($7.31 billion, up from $3.25 billion in Q3 2010). All of this news pushed Apple stock briefly above the $400 mark, according to CBS Marketwatch.   “We’re thrilled to deliver our best quarter ever, with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent,” said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a prepared statement accompanying the earnings report. “Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall.”   The follows on the heels of positive Q3 financial results from IBM, and expected good financial news from Microsoft later this week. According to Apple, the bulk of their revenue came from burgeoning iPhone sales: More than 20 million (20.34 million, to be precise) were sold in the quarter, indicating unit sales growth of more than 140 percent compared to the same quarter last year. Here are some additional stats about the quarter from Apple: 9.25 million iPads were sold during the quarter, a 183 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter 3.95 million Macs were sold during the quarter, a 14 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter 7.54 million iPods were sold during the quarter, a 20 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter One interesting tidbit: Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook mentioned that Mac sales were possibly impacted by sales cannibalization from the iPad.   While the economy at large seems stuck in perpetual gloom, IBM, Microsoft, and Apple seem to be weathering the economic storm better than some of their less fortunate competitors and corporations in other industries.   Surprised by Apple’s fiscal performance? Let me know what you think by commenting on this blog post or following the discussion on Twitter. Follow Jeff James on Twitter at @jeffjames3