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Apple enjoys 50% Jump in Profits |
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Tuesday, 26 January 2010 |
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Apple on Monday fuelled anticipation about its expected launch of a tablet computer with a 50 per cent leap in quarterly profit and fresh evidence that the consumer technology juggernaut behind the iPhone is riding the popularity of that device into the corporate market.
“The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive officer, in his strongest hint about the tablet-sized device he is expected to reveal on Wednesday.
The company reported another blowout quarter, as net income soared to $3.38bn or $3.67 a share, from $2.26bn or $2.50 a year earlier, well above Wall Street estimates.
IPhone sales doubled to 8.7m units shipped and company executives said they were being welcomed inside many more offices.
Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said 70 per cent of the 100 biggest US companies were at least experimenting with supporting iPhone use by employees, double the proportion from before the summer’s introduction of a speedier operating system. Half of the largest companies worldwide now accept iPhones, he said.
“We feel great about what’s happening there,” he said. “This is a key focus.”
The iPhone’s advance inside companies, aided by frustration with security holes in Microsoft products, could pave the way for a more substantial share of the corporate market for Macintosh computers.
Apple Chief Operating Office Tim Cook said it was “too early” to evaluate the strength of such a halo effect, but he noted the rapid adoption of the iPod had helped Mac sales.
Apple sold a record 3.63m Macs in the quarter, up a third from a year earlier and about double the growth of the PC market, helping drive overall revenue up 32 per cent to $15.7bn.
Some experts think a tablet computer could extend Apple’s reach into the business market further. Alisa Bowen, head of consumer publishing at Thomson Reuters, said the tablet could become a significant business tool for executives, rather than just the entertainment device most commentators expect.
Recent Thomson Reuters research into how bankers, lawyers and wealth managers worked showed that most had ditched their laptops and traveled only with smartphones such as the iPhone and BlackBerry, she said.
“The tablet represents the next generation of how these senior executives are going to handle mobile working,” Ms Bowen said, predicting that the device’s mooted larger size and more sophisticated touch screen could allow users to edit PowerPoint slides and work on documents with colleagues.
Thomson Reuters is developing contextual applications to offer profiles of relevant companies or people when an individual adds a meeting to the tablet’s calendar, or details of a city in which an executive’s flight has just touched down.
It expects to launch its first tablet applications by the end of the first quarter, Ms Bowen said.
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