Apple's Record Quarter.

Today, Apple released financial results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012. The quarter was simply astounding.

The Numbers

• Revenue was a record $46.33 billion, an increase of 73% year-over-year
• Profit was a record $13.06 billion, an increase of 118% year-over-year
• Earnings per share were $13.87, an increase of 116% year-over-year
• Cash flow was increased by $17.5 billion
• Gross margin was 44.7%

iPhone

Apple sold a record 37.04 million iPhones, representing an increase of 128% year-over-year. The iPhone accounted for $24.4 billion in revenue, increased a whopping 130% year-over-year, and comprised 53.3% of the total quarterly revenue. Not bad for a product line that includes the “disappointing” iPhone 4S.

iPad

Apple sold a record 15.4 million iPads in the quarter, an increase of 111% year-over-year. The iPad accounted for $9.1 billion in revenue, increased 99% year-over-year, and comprised nearly 20% of the quarterly revenue. That sure sounds like a lot of iPads, especially considering that people who think the iPad is a game-changer are tools.

iPod

The one slumping product line was iPod. Year-over-year sales dropped 21% to 15.4 million units, with iPod touch comprising around 9.5 million.¹ This likely represents a shift to iPhone instead of a larger problem. NPD data still claims that iPod maintains a 70% market share.

Mac

The quintessential Apple product line, the Mac, also had a record quarter. Apple sold 5.2 millions Macs - 1.48 million desktops and 3.72 million laptops - representing a 26% year-over-year increase. Constrast that growth with a stagnant PC market. In fact, this is the 23rd consecutive quarter that Apple has outpaced the PC market.

Apple TV

The Apple TV set a quarterly record with 1.4 million units. That represents half of the entire amount sold during the previous year. Not bad for a hobby.

Perspective

Just how big are these results? Let’s put them in perspective.

The iPhone growth is astounding. As Matt Richman points out, the iPhone in 2009 outsold the combined total from 2007 and 2008. In 2010, Apple sold more iPhones than in 2007, 2008, and 2009 combined. Today’s results show that the trend continued for 2011.

The iPad’s success has directly led to tablets outselling desktop PCs in the US for the first time ever last quarter. That’s pretty amazing considering the iPad was deemed a consumption-only, large iPod.

If you also take into account Apple’s assertion that 62 million iOS devices were sold over the quarter, Matt Richman estimates that iOS outsold Android.

Apple’s previous record for quarterly revenue was $28.27 billion. They shattered that by 64%.

Apple’s reported profit of $13.06 billion is greater than Google’s $10.58 billion in total revenue during the same quarter. In fact, it represented the second-best U.S., and fourth-best worldwide, quarterly earnings ever reported. Of the top 19 historical earnings reports worldwide, Apple is the only company not affiliated with oil and gas.

The $17.5 billion in cash added during the quarter gave Apple over $97 billion in on-hand cash/cash equivalents. In fact, their cash alone is worth more than all but 52 companies on Earth.