Apple records 39.3m iPhones sales in three months…Revenue hits $42bn

The figure, 16 percent more than a year ago, is a record for the quarter due to excitement over new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models that Apple began selling last month.The surge in iPhone sales helped the company beat Wall Street’s expectations for the three months that ended Sept. 27.Overall, the company’s profit rose […]

The figure, 16 percent more than a year ago, is a record for the quarter due to excitement over new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models that Apple began selling last month.
The surge in iPhone sales helped the company beat Wall Street’s expectations for the three months that ended Sept. 27.
Overall, the company’s profit rose more than 12 percent from a year ago, to $8.5 billion.
Total sales also rose more than 12 percent, to $42.1 billion.
“Our fiscal 2014 was one for the record books, including the biggest iPhone launch ever with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.
“With amazing innovations in our new iPhones, iPads and Macs, as well as iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, we are heading into the holidays with Apple’s strongest product lineup ever.
 “We are also incredibly excited about Apple Watch and other great products and services in the pipeline for 2015.”
While iPhone sales were up, Apple also sold 13 percent fewer iPad tablets than it did a year ago.
That follows an industry-wide decline in tablet sales.
But the company reported lower iPad sales than analysts had expected.
Sales of iPad were down 13%, to 12.3 million for the quarter.
Some investors hope that Apple’s recently forged alliance with IBM, intended to help drive tablet and phone sales to corporate customers, may help reverse a decline in sales of the tablet device.
Maestri said in an interview that the pair of tech giants had already signed on 50 “foundational” or initial clients, and the two intend to introduce their first jointly designed software apps next month.
International sales accounted for 60 percent of the quarter’s revenue, Apple said.
 “Our strong business performance drove EPS growth of 20 percent and a record $13.3 billion in cash flow from operations in the September quarter,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
“We continued to execute aggressively against our capital return programme, spending over $20 billion in the quarter and bringing cumulative returns to $94 billion.”