Powered by skyrocketing sales of its iPod handheld music player, Apple this week reported a 29 percent year-over-year revenue gain and a profit of 12 US cents per share for its fiscal 2004 second quarter, beating Wall Street's earnings forecast by two US cents.
The US vendor posted sales of US$1.91 billion for the quarter ended 27 March, up from US$1.48 billion a year earlier.
A total of 749,000 Macintosh computers were shipped in the quarter, representing a five percent year-over-year gain. International sales accounted for 43 percent of the quarter's revenue, Apple said.
Leading the way in CPU unit sales were the iBook, up 51 percent, and the Power Mac (including servers), up 12 percent. The iMac (including eMac) and PowerBook lines saw unit sales declines of 15 percent and five percent respectively.
But the iPod was the main story in Apple's 2004 second quarter. The company sold 807,000 iPods in the period, a 909 percent increase from unit sales in the year-ago quarter. Altogether, the iPod accounted for
US$264 million of Apple's revenue in its 2004 second-quarter, compared with US$1.16 billion for Mac computers. A year ago, iPod sales totalled just US$31 million.
Apple's retail stores posted sales of US$266 million in the 2004 second quarter, a 97 percent increase from US$135 million in the company's fiscal 2003 second-quarter.
Apple said it generated a profit of US$46 million in its 2004 second-quarter, compared with US$14 million, or 4 US cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding an after-tax restructuring charge of US$7 million, the company's earnings for the quarter would have been US$53 million or 14 US cents per share, Apple said.
Thomson Financial's consensus analyst forecast for the quarter was 10 US cents per share. Apple said gross margin in its 2004 second-quarter was 27.8 percent, down from 28.3 percent in the year-ago period.
For the six months ended 27 March, Apple reported sales of US$3.92 billion, a 33 percent year-over-year gain, and earnings of US$109 million or 29 US cents per share, up from US$6 million or two US cents per share a year earlier.
'Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2004, we expect our fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year, double-digit growth in both revenue and earnings, with revenue of about US$1.925 billion,' Apple CFO Fred Anderson said in a statement.
'We expect GAAP earnings per diluted share of 12 US cents to 13 US cents, including approximately two US cents per diluted share in restructuring charges.'
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