By the numbers: Apple makes more money in a quarter than any company ever

Apple has just reported the most profitable quarter for any company ever (and by one piece of analysis, it's still top dog if you adjust for inflation).

In a probably not unrelated development, Samsung recently said it missed its sales target for its flagship smartphone by 40%.

Analysts say fast-growing sales in China and the bigger screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are behind Apple's latest result. And beyond the pages and pages of financial analysis, it's easy to see the company would have got a big boost from the bigger iPhones. It was a simple fact that a larger display was the key advantage Samsung's Galaxy S series, and others in the Google Android camp, held over Apple's handsets.

Watching a lot of my TV through the US-based Hulu video streaming service, I've been surprised at the number of adds for Apple Pay, and also been a bit jealous: as yet, the big credit card companies don't have the necessary infrastruce in place in NZ for this iPhone-as-wallet swipe-to-pay service. 

The only real sore point was iPad sales, which again fell short of expectations.

What's its next trick? Apple used its results session to confirm Apple Watch will be released in April. I'm not 100% convinced on that one. With other smart watches I've tried, battery life has been a deal-breaker. Most people don't want yet another device they have to charge every day. We'll see. Apple has a habit of pushing new classes of gadget into the mainstream.

Here's how how Apple's boomer result (for the thre months to Dec 27, 2014) breaks down by the numbers.

Revenue: $US74 billion (up 30% on year-ago quarter)

Profit: $US18.1 billion (up 38%). That is more than 435 of the companies in the S&P 500 index each made in total profits since 2009, according to S&P Capital IQ

iPhone sales: 74.5 million (up 46%)

iPhone sales per hour: more than 34,000 phones an hour, around the clock

Average selling price of an iPhone: rose by $US50 to $US687

iPad sales: 21.4 million (down 18%)

Mac sales: 5.5 million (up 14%)

Revenue from China (incl Taiwan & Hong Kong: $US16.1 billion (up 70%)

App Store revenue: On Jan 8, Apple said in 2014 App Store billings rose 50% and apps generated over $US10 billion in revenue for developers (Apple typically gets 30% of revenue and developers 70%). 

ckeall@nbr.co.nz

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