Apple: 5.2 million iPhones sold in 3Q; enterprise sales ramping up

Everyone has been waiting with baited breath to find out just how strong Apple's iPhone sales are. Apple's results did not disappoint. It sold 5.2 million iPhone units during its fiscal third-quarter, the company's best-ever non-holiday quarter for earnings and revenue. Moreover, company executives touted the device's acceptance in the enterprise and government market.

According to Apple COO Tim Cook, about 20 percent of Fortune 100 companies placed orders of 10,000 units or more, while some governmental agencies ordered up to 25,000 units. The security and encryption features of iPhone OS 3.0 made an impact, he said.

"The iPhone is particularly doing well with small businesses and larger organizations that allow [employees] to purchase phones for individual use, both in corporate and government settings," Cook said.

Overall, Apple said its iPhone shipments in the quarter represented a 626 percent increase over the same quarter a year ago, when it shipped 717,000 iPhone units. However, that quarter did not reflect the sales of the iPhone 3G, which went on sale in July 2008. The company released the latest incarnation of the iPhone, the iPhone 3GS, on July 19, and Apple said it sold over 1 million in its first weekend of availability.

Apple reported a net profit of $1.23 billion, up nearly 15 percent from the net profit of $1.07 billion it had in the same quarter a year ago. The company posted revenue of $8.34 billion, up almost 12 percent from the $7.46 billion in revenue it had a year ago. Apple said its gross margin also was up, climbing to 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter.

Deutsche Bank analyst Brian Modoff said that Apple and Research In Motion only account for 3 percent of the world's wireless device market, but they are earning 35 percent of the operating profits.

For more:
- take a look at this post from ZDNet
- check out this FierceWireless article
- see this InformationWeek report
- look at this article from PC World

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