Apple Profits $1.61 Billion, Highest Ever

As the stock market closed today, Apple released its first fiscal quarterly earnings report filled with good news.

Apple set new records for itself with revenue of $10.17 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. All figures are up from the same period last year’s $9.6 billion revenue, net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share. Gross margin remained the same at 34.7 percent.

The company is optimistic that it will stay profitable in the upcoming quarter. “Our outstanding results generated over $3.6 billion in cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $7.6 billion to $8 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $.90 to $1.00.”

It’s no coincidence that we’ve been seeing more Apple products in people’s hands during their commute, or more MacBooks in coffee shops. Apple said that it sold 2,524,000 Macs computers during the quarter, representing nine percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. 71 percent of those Macs were notebooks, partially thanks to the introduction of the newly designed unibody MacBooks.

Apple also sold more iPods than it ever before with 22,727,000 during the quarter, representing three percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 4,363,000, representing 88 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter (but down from the previous quarter).

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history--surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO.

Do you credit Apple's recent success to Steve Jobs? Or do you believe that Jobs' role in Apple is over perceived and the products that the company dishes out should be credited to others like Ive?