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If you’ve been checking your iOS Stocks app lately, you’ll have seen the world’s most valuable stock – Apple Inc – taking a bit of a dive. When the company’s shares tumbled by three per cent, we questioned whether Apple had had its day.
It’s now clear the answer is no: Apple has just posted record revenues – to the tune of US$54.5 billion, while profit had a smallish bump, up from US$13.06bn to US$13.08bn (we say smallish, but that is US$20m).
Most of that staggering income is accounted for by iOS devices. Apple has taken a fistful of cash for over half a trillion of the blighters to date, with nearly 23 million iPhones and iPads sold in the last quarter alone. The unsurprising side-effect is that Apple has cannibalised a couple of its own markets – Mac and iPod sales both dwindled as a result of iOS’s ongoing success.
Apple’s healthy balance sheets were further aided by the Chinese, who bought twice as many iPhones as in the previous year. Not a bad market to collar, if you can get it.
Meanwhile, Cupertino continues to embarrass banks and governments with its impressive coffers – the company’s assets are now valued at nearly US$200bn which, should they come, will keep it out of trouble on plenty of rainy days.
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