Apple net profit soars 54% but misses expectations

Technology giant Apple Inc hasreported a 54 per cent jump in net income to $6.62 billion in its fourth fiscalquarter, helped by record sales of its Mac and iPad computing products.

The company's revenue accelerated to $28.27 billion in thequarter, up 39 per cent from the year-ago period.

Though Apple, whose financial year ended on September 24,2011, was upbeat about its financial results, media reports said that earningsand revenue figures fell short of the market expectations.

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In the previous quarter, Apple had registered a two-foldrise in net income and a 82 per cent revenue growth.

The company posted total sales of $108.2 billion for thefull financial year, up from $65.2 billion posted in last fiscal.

The full-year net income nearly doubled to $25.92 billion,from $14.01 billion in the previous fiscal.

It was Apple's first quarterly earnings under ChiefExecutive Tim Cook, who took over reins from Steve Jobs in August. Earlier thismonth, the company's co-founder Jobs died after a long battle with pancreaticcancer.

Upbeat over the results, Cook said: "We are thrilledwith the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annualrevenue to $108 billion and growing earnings to $26 billion.

"Customer response to iPhone 4S (the latest model ofits iconic mobile phone products) has been fantastic, we have strong momentumgoing into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about ourproduct pipeline."

Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones in its fiscal fourthquarter, up from more than 14 million a year ago. It sold 11.12 million iPadsduring the quarter under review, a 166 per cent unit increase over the year-agoquarter. The company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 per cent unitincrease over the year-ago quarter.

However, Apple witnessed a 27 per cent decline in the salesof iPod music players to 6.62 million units.

Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2012, thecompany said, "We expect revenue of about $37 billion and we expectdiluted earnings per share of about $9.30."