Mac, iPod Sales Gains Drive Big 1Q For Apple

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2005, Apple posted sales of $5.75 billion and earnings of $565 million, or 65 cents per diluted share. Earnings topped Thomson Financial’s consensus estimate of nearly 61 cents per share. In the year-ago quarter, Apple saw revenue of $3.49 billion and profit of $295 million, or 35 cents per diluted share.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company shipped more than 1.25 million Mac computers and 14 million iPod media players in the first quarter, up 20 percent and 207 percent, respectively, from a year earlier.

Leading the way on the Mac side were iBook and PowerBook laptops, which saw a 39 percent year-over-year rise in unit sales. Apple’s desktop segment--which the company said includes the Power Mac, iMac, eMac and Mac Mini desktop and Xserve server product lines--had a 7 percent unit sales gain vs. the year-ago quarter.

Sales at Apple retail stores during the fiscal first quarter, which covered the lucrative holiday selling season, rose 91 percent year over year to $1.07 billion, Apple reported.

The 2006 first quarter was the best quarter in Apple’s history, according to CEO Steve Jobs. “Two highlights of an incredible quarter were selling 14 million iPods and getting ready to launch our new Macs with Intel processors five to six months ahead of expectations,” Jobs said in a statement. “We are working on more wonderful products for 2006, and I can’t wait to see what our customers think of them.”

At Macworld in San Francisco earlier this month, Apple launched its first Intel-based computers: two MacBook Pro laptop models and two new iMac desktop models, all of which are powered by Intel Core Duo processors.

For its fiscal second quarter, Apple projects sales of $4.3 billion and earnings per diluted share of 38 cents, including charges from compensation expenses, according to CFO Peter Oppenheimer.