Apple Q2 profits zoom to $1.21 bn on iPhone sales

Shrugging off the economic gloom shadowing the corporates, software giant Apple has reported a 15 per cent jump in net profit at $1.21 billion for the second quarter ended March 28, 2009, bolstered by strong sales of iPhones and iPods. In the year-ago period, the entity had a profit of $1.05 billion, it said in a statement.

The robust second quarter performance was driven by a 123 per cent growth in iPhone sales and a three per cent in sales of iPods. During this period, Apple sold 11.01 million iPods and 3.79 million iPhones.

However, the economic turmoil took a toll on Macintosh computer as Apple witnessed a three per cent decline in sales of that product at 2.22 million units.

Apple's net sales rose shot up to $8.163 billion in the latest quarter from $7.51 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.

According to the company, nearly 46 per cent of the total revenues came from international sales.

The company's iconic chief executive Steve Jobs is on leave since January this year on health grounds.

"We are extremely pleased to report the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history," Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said.

"Apple's financial condition remains very robust, with almost $29 billion in cash and marketable securities on our balance sheet," Oppenheimer added.

For the current quarter, the firm expects revenues in the range of $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion and diluted earnings per share to be about $0.95 to $1.

Meanwhile, for the six months ended March 2009, Apple recorded a profit of $2.81 billion as against $1.17 billion in the year- ago period.

The revenues for the six months stood at $18.33 billion as compared to $17.12 billion in the corresponding period a year ago.