Apple Earnings Rise on Strong iPhone Sales
Apple announced fourth-quarter earnings today with profits of $1.67 billion ($1.82 per diluted share). This is up 47 percent year over year from $1.14 billion ($1.26 per share), beating analyst expectations of $1.60 per share.
Much of this growth was driven by iPhones: The company sold more than any previous quarter with 7.4 million. This is a 7 percent year-over-year increase and brings the total number of iPhones sold during the fiscal year to about 21 million.
In other notable mobile hardware news, rumors abound that a Google-branded phone could be around the corner. This is different than device manufacturers that build hardware around Google’s Android OS: It would involve greater ties between the hardware and software — in both branding and functionality.
