Despite claims within the tech industry that Apple has lost its lustre in recent years, the company has gone from strength to strength in the eyes of investors. In a conference call to investors yesterday, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled revenue growth of $74.6bn, causing $18bn in profits; the largest ever quarterly profit by a publicly traded company.
Cook described the iPhone sales as “staggering”
This is increase in profits is largely down to the deal struck last year with China’s biggest mobile phone carrier – China Telecom – which has seen the country flooded with Apple’s hugely popular iPhone. The company sold 74.5 million of its flagship iPhone smartphone in the final three months of 2014; far more than many analysts had expected. During this period it became the leading smartphone provider in China and increased its revenue by 157 percent to $16.1bn.
Cook described the iPhone sales as “staggering”, adding that the company has an even bigger year to look forward to. He says that Apple Pay is set to take off during 2015, moving from just a US service to markets across the globe. The much anticipated Apple Watch will also be launched in April. Cook was also bullish about the prospects of both its in-car CarPlay and home-automation HomeKit platforms, which he says will lead to new product categories over the course of this year.
The better than expected profits have led to Apple’s already considerable cash pile soaring to $178bn. While the company has been reluctant to offer dividends to investors in the past, the rising level of cash is likely to mean there will be further calls for an increase in the dividends that it started offering over the last couple of years.
