Apple released its financial results for the final quarter of 2011 (its fiscal Q1) last night. The company generated revenues of $46.33bn and posted a net profit of $13.06bn. That’s up from $26.74bn and $6bn respectively this time last year. The company says it sold 37.04m iPhones in the last quarter – up 128% year-on-year – and 15.43m iPads, up 111%. Apple also sold 15.4m iPods, down 21% year-on-year. The iTunes Store generated $1.7bn of revenues during the quarter, with more than $120m of apps and music sold on Christmas Day alone. But iTunes revenues were dwarfed by the revenues from iPhone and iPad hardware ($24.4bn and $9.1bn respectively). With iPod touch factored in, Apple sold 62m iOS devices during the quarter, and it now has $97.6bn of cash to hand for potential acquisitions and other uses. Context? Apple’s quarterly revenues of $46.3bn compare to global music revenues for the whole of 2011 of $16.2bn, while its net income for the quarter was $3bn more than Hollywood’s gross box-office receipts for the entire year. And the results take fourth place in a table of the largest corporate quarterly earnings of all-time – the only company in the chart that isn’t an oil and gas firm.
