Apple reports highest profit in its history

IPhone: For the fiscal 2015 fourth quarter ending September 30, iPhone sales rose 22.3 percent in units to 48 million, and dollar sales rose 36 percent to $32.2 billion.

The company reported $51.5 billion in revenue and $11.1 billion in profit, or $1.96 per share, beating analysts’ predictions of $51.12 billion in revenue and $1.88 per share in profit.

CEO Tim Cook said Apple closed the books on its fiscal year, calling it the company’s “most successful year ever”, following strong iPhone sales and a range of new or upgraded devices. It also announced a larger iPad, the iPad Pro, and will begin shipping a new Apple TV this week. Apple has a total of 25 China outlets and there are plans to open around 12 more every year, according to Apple spokesperson Luca Maestri. But in recent quarters, Apple has made a concentrated effort to court enterprise customers, modifying iOS to make it more attractive to businesses, and partnering with other firms to help drive sales.

Apple is celebrating after beating quarterly earning expectations with revenue of $51.5 billion – mostly thanks to selling 48 million new iPhones, Digital Spy reports.

The issue was stoked by Apple’s muted forecast for its all-important holiday quarter, as well as the unwillingness of Timothy D. Cook, the company’s chief executive, to go into detail in an earnings conference call about how Apple plans to rev up sales next year.

For the fiscal first quarter of 2016, Apple expects to generate revenue of $75.5 billion-$77.5 billion, and gross margin between 39% and 40%. As iPad tablet sales decline and adoption of Apple Watch remains modest, the company’s expansion has become increasingly dependent on demand for new iPhones.

The fretting was enough to prompt Cook to take the unusual step of reassuring investors in a message that nothing had changed the company’s “fundamental view” on China.

Apple released its Q4 2015 financial results a few hours ago.

Apple’s iPhone business still has lots of growth opportunity ahead, he said.

Crucially, sales in China, which is Apple’s second-largest market behind North America, grew 99 percent – even as the economy continued to face struggles there. The company said it sold 5.71 million Mac computers this quarter.

For the December quarter, Apple projected sales of $76.5 billion at the midpoint of guidance. One of the Apple product lines which Cook mentioned – along with iPhone, Mac, and Apple Watch – was ‘enterprise’.