IBM and Apple Net Income Surge

Apple (News - Alert) and IBM are living proof that there’s still money to be made in today’s downtrodden economy.

Thanks to strong sales of its iPad and iPhone (News - Alert) 4, Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter profit skyrocketed a whopping 70 percent. Macintosh computer sales also reached a record high. The company achieved a record revenue of $20.34 billion and a quarterly profit of $4.31 billion. That’s compared to revenue of $12.21 billion and quarterly profit of $2.53 billion, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.9 percent compared to 41.8 percent last year, and international sales accounted for 57 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 27 percent unit increase since last year. But at the heart of Apple’s growth is the wild popularity of the iPhone, 14.1 million of which were sold in the quarter, representing 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 9.05 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 11 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The company also sold 4.19 million iPads during the quarter.

“We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple,” said Steve Jobs (News - Alert), Apple’s CEO, in a statement. “iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.”

IBM (News - Alert) also came out a winner with a net income surge of 12 percent. Revenue rose 3 percent, or 4 percent excluding currency fluctuations. Third-quarter net income was $3.6 billion compared with $3.2 billion in the third quarter of 2009. Total revenues for the third quarter of 2010 hit the $24.3 billion mark.

"In the third quarter, we grew revenue in our hardware, software and services businesses, expanded margins and again increased earnings per share at double digits," said Samuel J. Palmisano, IBM chairman, president and chief executive officer, in a statement. "We achieved excellent performance in our growth markets unit, reflecting sustained investments through the downturn and the continued strength of the infrastructure build-out in these countries.”