Steve Jobs' leave not a hurdle for Apple

New York, Jan 19: Proving all rumours and speculation wrong, Apple recorded a whopping 78 per cent jump in net income at USD 6 billion for the Oct-Dec period of 2010. During CEO Steve Jobs' absence, the gains of the company is a striking move for Apple inc.

Jobs on sick leave, Apple stocks tumble

The company had a net income of USD 3.38 billion in the Oct-Dec quarter of 2009, Apple said in a statement. Apple has registered record revenue of USD 26.74 billion in the first quarter of the fiscal compared to USD 15.68 billion in the year-ago period.

"We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales," Apple CEO Steve Jobs, said adding, "We are firing on all cylinders and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon, which customers can't wait to get their hands on."

During the quarter, Apple sold 4.13 million Macs, a 23 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The company sold 16.24 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 86 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Besides, the company also sold 7.33 million iPads during the quarter.

While, Apple has witnessed a decline of seven per cent in iPods sales to 19.45 million unit. The company, which has reported a strong performance in the first quarter, expects that momentum will continue in the next quarter as well.

"Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2011, the company expect revenue of about USD 22 billion and expect diluted earnings per share of about USD 4.90," Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said.

Oppenheimer further said, "We could not be happier with the performance of our business, generating USD 9.8 billion in cash flow from operations during the Dec quarter."

PTI