Apple used its fiscal fourth-quarter results announcement yesterday to claim a number of record-breaking achievements for the iPhone. The company claims it sold more devices in the quarter than Research In Motion (RIM), is now the third largest mobile vendor by revenue, and has hit its target of 10 million iPhone sales months ahead of schedule. According to its Q4 results statement for the quarter ending September 27, quarterly iPhone units sold were 6,892,000, compared to 1,119,000 in the year-ago quarter. “In their most recent quarter, RIM reported selling 6.1 million BlackBerry devices,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs said on the earnings call. “Compared to our most recent quarter sales of 6.9 million iPhones, Apple outsold RIM last quarter and this is a milestone for us. RIM is a good company that makes good products and so it is surprising that after only 15 months in the market, we could outsell them in any quarter.” CFO Peter Oppenheimer added that “with more than two months to go in the calendar year, we have already surpassed our goal of 10 million iPhone sales in calendar 2008.” But perhaps the most impressive statement of all came again from Jobs: “Measured by revenues, Apple has become the world’s third-largest mobile phone supplier. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s true – as measured in revenues, not units, Apple has become the third largest mobile phone supplier. Let’s look at the ranking; Nokia is clearly number one at 12.7 billion; Samsung number two at 5.9 billion; Apple is number three at 4.6 billion; Sony Ericsson, number four at 4.2 billion; LG, number five at 3.4 billion; Motorola, number six at 3.2 billion; and RIM number seven at 2.1 billion. Pretty amazing.”
According to Jobs, the company’s App Store is also experiencing success. “Customers will download the 200 millionth application from the App Store tomorrow, only 102 days since its launch on July 11th – the 200 millionth app. We’ve never seen anything like this in our careers. There are now over 5,500 applications offered on the App Store in 62 countries around the world and the rate of new applications being submitted is increasing every week.” As a whole, the company reported a 25 percent rise in profits for its fiscal fourth-quarter, recording net profit of US$1.14 billion compared to US$904 million a year ago. Revenue was US$7.9 billion, up from US$6.22 billion in the year-ago quarter.
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