Telecom Lead America: Apple has sold 37.4 million iPhones in Q2 FY 2013, compared to 35.1 million in the year-ago quarter. But its profit declined to $9.5 billion from $11.6 billion.
The dip in quarterly profit was for the first time in nearly a decade as it earned less money in the competitive smartphone and tablet markets. Net profit decreased primarily due to aggressive marketing and product innovation by rivals such as Samsung, Nokia, Sony, BlackBerry, LG, etc.
Apple’s iPads sales reached 19.5 million against 11.8 million.
Meanwhile, sales of iPod MP3 players dropped by more than a million to 5.6 million and Macintosh computers sales slipped about two percent to just below 4 million.
Apple’s second quarter revenue in 2013 rose to $43.6 billion from $39.2 billion.
Apple said gross margin was 37.5 percent compared to 47.4 percent in the year-ago quarter.
International sales accounted for 66 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
Apple says its revenue from rest of Asia Pacific (including India, but excluding Japan and China) rose 26 percent.
India is becoming an important market for Apple. In a March 2013 report, IDC said Apple’s India shipments saw a sudden surge in Q4 2012, sending it to the second spot in terms of revenue in the overall smartphone market. The surge in shipments can be attributed to the channel restructuring and the launch of iPhone 5 in Q4. With the newly appointed National distributors – Redington and Ingram Micro, Apple reached out to a consumer base bigger than ever before.
Revenue growth in Greater China (including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan) was 8 percent, while Japanese revenue increased 19 percent in the first quarter.
Revenue in China was up 11 percent to $8.8 billion, with iPad sales more than doubling despite Apple reporting that growth had slowed there.
China served as an example of an Apple strategy to win over smartphone buyers with affordable prices on iPhone and iPad models, letting margins shrink in order to build ranks of loyal customers.
“China has an unusually large number of potential first-time smartphone buyers and that is not lost on us,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
“We are excited about the products in our pipeline,” Cook added.
Forecast
Apple says revenue will be between $33.5 billion and $35.5 billion in its fiscal 2013 third quarter.
Last month, IDC said global sales of connected devices like smartphones, tablets and PCs are expected to surpass 2.2 billion units and earn $814.3 billion revenue by 2017. Worldwide shipment of such devices grew 29.1 percent to 1 billion units worth $576.9 billion in 2012.
