Apple has torn up the record books by becoming the most profitable company in corporate history.
The tech giant recently recorded staggering profits of $18 billion (£11.9 billion), which smashes the previous record set by oil companies ExxonMobil and Gazprom.
Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook hailed the figures as ‘phenomenal’ adding ‘This volume is hard to comprehend’.
Some experts have worked out that Apple have sold, ’34,000 iPhones an hour every day’.
In total, a record 74.4m iPhones were sold in the last three months of 2014, which comfortably beat analysts’ expectations – as sales of its newest models soared during the Christmas holidays. What is more, Apple have also found new fans in China.
The figures
The record $74.6 billion in revenues was well ahead of the $67.5 billion expected by analysts. Making Apple the world’s most valuable company, as they ended the quarter with $178 billion in cash.
Sales in China were up by 70% on last year. While sales in the Americas and Europe were up 23% and 20%, respectively.
Advertisement
With its share price hitting new highs, their stock market valuation is $650 billion.
This performance beat Apple’s previous quarterly record for iPhones, which was 51 million. A record that was originally set in December 2013.
Apple’s latest iPhone, which was introduced in September, has been a huge a hit with consumers. Prior to its release, the company had avoided making iPhones with larger screens. Then with the iPhone 6, Apple decided to deploy larger screens. A key decision, which has clearly paid off.
The introduction of the larger iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, alongside the lower-priced iPhone 5S and 5C pushed Apple’s iPhone sales past the 20 million a month mark for the first time in November.
Japan, Korea and China have proven to lucrative markets for Apple, with higher-than-expected demand for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus models.
According to eMarketer, iPhone owners accounted for 42.3 per cent of all smartphone users in 2014. A figure which was up from 40 per cent in the previous year. In comparison though, Android users accounted for 51.3 per cent in 2014, up from 50.5 cent in 2013.
Whereas In the UK, the number of iPad users reached 15.7m in 2014, which is up from 12.9m in 2013, according to eMarketer estimates. It’s not all good news for Apple though, as they lost market share in tablets, with tablet owners falling to 53 per cent from 57 per cent in 2013.
The post 74.4 Million iPhones Sold In the Last 3 Months of 2014 appeared first on Mind The Money – Finance Made Easy | Personal Finance Blog.