Soaring ipod sales see Apple profits ripen

Published on Thursday 20 July 2006 11:41

SOARING sales of iPod music players have helped Apple Computer bank a strong rise in quarterly profits.

The group, which has also seen a double-digit rise in shipments of its Macintosh personal computers, said net income in its third quarter surged 48 per cent to some 256 million.

Apple shipped just over 8.1 million iPods during the period, up 32 per cent year-on-year and beating some analysts' estimates of as low as 7.5 million.

Macintosh computer shipments rose 12 per cent to 1.33 million, against expectations of about 1.3 million.

Overall revenues totalled some 2.4 billion, including 39 per cent of sales outside the United States.

Analysts said the results were ahead of expectations and shares in the firm rose by eight per cent in after-hours trading having shed 24 per cent since early May.

Chief executive Steve Jobs said:

"We're thrilled with the growth of our Mac business, and especially that over 75 per cent of the Macs sold during the quarter used Intel processors."

Meanwhile, Intel itself posted sharply lower quarterly profits and issued a disappointing sales forecast as it slashed prices to compete with AMD.

The technology heavyweight has seen its shares fall by about a third over the past year as it has struggled to stem AMD's market gains.

Net profit for the group's financial second-quarter came in at about 480m, down nearly 56 per cent from a year earlier.