Apple beats credit woes with 36 per cent net profit growth in Q2 2008

Boosted by the sales of its MacBook computers and iPods, Apple Inc has increased its profits in the second quarter ending 29 March of 2008 by 36 per cent. The technology firm reported a net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, up from $770 million in the same period last year on revenues of revenue of $7.51 billion, up from $5.26 billion last year.

This translates in to earnings $1.16 per diluted share compared to $0.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. The figures surpassed analysts expectations.
 
Apple said it shipped 2,289,000 Mac computers during the quarter, a rise of 51 per cent from the year ago quarter, while international sales made up 44 per cent  of its revenue. The company also sold 10.644 million iPods during the quarter, one per cent unit growth and eight per cent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter and 1.7 million in iPhone sales during the quarter.

''We're delighted to report 43 per cent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history,'' said Steve Jobs, Apple's founder and CEO. ''With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters.''

However the company is not upbeat in its forecasts for the rest of the year. Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, said ''Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.''