By — Travis Daub Travis Daub Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/apple-just-profitable-quarter-company-world-history Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Apple just had the most profitable quarter of any company in history Economy Jan 27, 2015 5:34 PM EDT After a rocky day in the markets, Apple computer began their quarterly earnings call and announced historically high numbers. (Listen live here.) Here are a few highlights: Apple’s earnings were more than $18 billion in the quarter ending in December 2014, which is 1.8 billion more than the second most profitable quarter ever, earned by Russian oil giant Gazprom in 2011. Apple’s profit this year is $5 billion more than last year. Perspective: Microsoft’s entire quarterly profit this year was $5.8 billion. — Farhad Manjoo | dad | husband | writer | surgeon (@fmanjoo) January 27, 2015 Apple sold 34,000 iPhones “every hour, every day of the quarter,” said CEO Tim Cook. iOS unit sales in the last quarter: just under 100m. Mac sales in last 10 years: 125m. — Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) January 27, 2015 The company shipped the billionth device running its mobile operating system, IOS, this quarter. For comparison Android devices topped 1 billion shipped in mid-2014. .@fmanjoo @cmreischman AT&T's market cap is $171 billion. Apple has $178 billion in cash. — Joe Dwyer (@stlbizjdwyer) January 27, 2015 The company, like most technology giants, is aggressively chasing growth in China. On the call they reported online revenues in China last quarter were more than that last five years combined. Total revenue grew 70% in China. Total revenue across Apple’s business in 2014 was $199.8 billion. iPads underperformed expectations, selling only 21.4 million units of and expected 22 million. By — Travis Daub Travis Daub Travis Daub is Director of Digital at PBS NewsHour. @tcd004
After a rocky day in the markets, Apple computer began their quarterly earnings call and announced historically high numbers. (Listen live here.) Here are a few highlights: Apple’s earnings were more than $18 billion in the quarter ending in December 2014, which is 1.8 billion more than the second most profitable quarter ever, earned by Russian oil giant Gazprom in 2011. Apple’s profit this year is $5 billion more than last year. Perspective: Microsoft’s entire quarterly profit this year was $5.8 billion. — Farhad Manjoo | dad | husband | writer | surgeon (@fmanjoo) January 27, 2015 Apple sold 34,000 iPhones “every hour, every day of the quarter,” said CEO Tim Cook. iOS unit sales in the last quarter: just under 100m. Mac sales in last 10 years: 125m. — Benedict Evans (@BenedictEvans) January 27, 2015 The company shipped the billionth device running its mobile operating system, IOS, this quarter. For comparison Android devices topped 1 billion shipped in mid-2014. .@fmanjoo @cmreischman AT&T's market cap is $171 billion. Apple has $178 billion in cash. — Joe Dwyer (@stlbizjdwyer) January 27, 2015 The company, like most technology giants, is aggressively chasing growth in China. On the call they reported online revenues in China last quarter were more than that last five years combined. Total revenue grew 70% in China. Total revenue across Apple’s business in 2014 was $199.8 billion. iPads underperformed expectations, selling only 21.4 million units of and expected 22 million.