Apple sells more iPhones, iPads but profit falls; $100b cash return

Apple defiied speculation of slowing iPhone and iPad sales with its March quarter result.

But the company did report lower margins.

And while it snapped its long run in profit growth, the disappointment was counter-balanced by a plan to double its capital return. The company now says it will return $US100 biillion to shareholders by the end of 2015 through increased dividends and share buybacks.

The company also said its cash pile had increased to $US145 billion.

Apples says it sold 37.4 million iPhones, compared to the year-ago quarter's 35.1 million (in its Christmas quarter, always strong, Apple sold a record 48 million iPhones).

And iPad sales surged to 19.5 million from 11.8 million in the year-ago quarter (the Christmas quarter saw a record 22.9 million iPads sold).

Mac sales were steady on 4 million.

The bad news: gross profit margin slipped to 37.5% from the year-ago 47.4%.

And some new products, noteably the iPad mini, are cheaper than previous products in their segment as Apple faces stronger competition from Google Android-based devices, and nibbling at the edges from Windows smartphones and tablets released by Microsoft and partners including Nokia (which managed sales of 5.6 million Windows Phone-based Lumia smartphones in its most recent quarter).

Net profit for the quarter was $US9.5 billion, against the year-ago quarter's $11.6 billion.

Revenue increased to $US43.6 billion from the year-ago quarter's $39.2 billion.

CEO TIm Cook said his company had "amazing" hardware, software and services products in the pipeline, but offered no details.

Media speculation has ranged from an Apple television or smart watch to cheaper iPhones.

Apple shares [NAS: AAPL], which are now 40% off their all-time high of $US702.10 on September 19 last year (valuing the company at a planet-leading $US658 billion), closed today up 1.9% to $US406.13 (for a market cap of $US381 billion - meaning Apple is now behind Exxon Mobile, valued at $US400 billion).

In after hours trading they rallied as much as 6% before slipping to $404 during Mr Cook's conference call with analysts for a 0.5% loss on the day.