Smart figures
Apple and Qualcomm are arguably the two biggest players in the mobile device world, from a device and component perspective, respectively. So it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that both of them beat expectations with their earnings for the first quarter of this year.
Apple raked in $24.67 billion for the quarter, yielding net profit of just short of $6 billion. To put that into perspective, Intel's recent record figures were: $12.9 billion revenue and profit of $3.3 billion, so Apple did twice as well as Intel.
"With quarterly revenue growth of 83 percent and profit growth of 95 percent, we're firing on all cylinders," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year." The only negative was a forecast for the next quarter that was slightly below analyst expectations.
The breakdown of products sold was interesting. Apple sold 3.76 Mac, which was a 28 percent year-on-year increase. On the flip side, the nine million iPods sold was a 17 percent decline. Furthermore Apple sold only 4.69 million iPads in the quarter, which was well below the analyst assumptions of around six million.
But these minor disappointments were more than compensated for by sales of the iPhone, which reached 18.65 million units sold in the quarter, well above expectations of 16 million.
And Apple wasn't the only tech giant to benefit from strong smartphone sales. Mobile chip company Qualcomm reported revenues of $3.88 billion and profits of a cool billion, both of which were records.
"We are pleased to report record quarterly revenues, and we are raising our revenue and earnings guidance for the year as the demand for smartphones across an array of geographies and tiers continues to grow," said Paul Jacobs, chairman and CEO of Qualcomm.
"In addition, we have resolved the second of the two previously disclosed licensee disputes [Panasonic]. We continue to execute on our strategic priorities as our partners deploy our technologies and solutions to offer leading wireless products and services to consumers worldwide."
While smartphones continue to go from strength to strength, the lower than expected iPad shipments, combined with the strong PC chip figures from Intel, imply analysts have perhaps been a bit hasty in writing the PC industry's obituaries. It could well be smartphones that are proving the greater direct competitive threat to PCs.
