Apple 2010 Q4 Results: 14.1M iPhone Sold, Jobs Blasts RIM

Today Apple announced their 2010 Q4 fiscal earnings via their regular conference call. The results of their most recent quarter are staggering. Here’s a breakdown of their financial numbers:

  • Record revenue of $20.34 billion (year ago quarter: $12.21 billion)
  • Net quarterly profit: $4.31 billion (year ago quater: $2.53 billion)
  • International sales accounted for 57% of Q4 revenue.

Apple Products Sold

  • 3.89 million Macs (27% increase over year ago quarter)
  • 14.1 million iPhones (91% increase over year ago quarter)
  • 9.05 million iPods (11% decline over year ago quarter)
  • 4.19 million iPads

Special Surprise Guest at the Earnings Call: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs happened to participate in the conference call, to the surprise of everyone. In his talks he mentions the fragmented state of Android devices, and the need for RIM to revamp its line up to keep up with Apple and the industry.

Here is his attack on RIM’s future:

First, let me discuss iPhone. We sold 14.1 million iPhones in the quarter, which represents a 91 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter, and was well ahead of IDC’s latest published estimate of 64 percent growth for the global smartphone market in the September quarter. And it handily beats RIM’s 12.1 million BlackBerrys sold, in their most recent quarter ending in August. We’ve now passed RIM. And I don’t see them catching up to us in the foreseeable future.

They must look beyond their area of strength and comfort, into the unfamiliar territory of trying to become a software platform company. I think it’s going to be a challenge for them, to create a competitive platform, and to convince developers to create apps for yet a third software platform after iOS and Android. With 300,000 apps on Apple’s App Store, RIM has a high mountain ahead of them to climb.

Below is the audio stream of Steve’s thoughts–in particular his “go for the jugular” rant about Android:

From the official Apple press release:

“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, Apple’s CEO. “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.”

It was interesting Apple jabbed RIM in their press statement about outselling Blackberrys. What continues to amaze me is how Apple is able to sell 14.1 million iPhones that are based on one or two models, whereas RIM achieved their sales through massive discounts and BOGO (buy one get one free) offers. RIM really needs to step up before they become the “Avro Arrow” of the smartphone industry.

Steve’s rant about Android being fragmented and a mess is absolutely correct. His example of Tweetdeck (not twitterdeck) having to deal with over 244 different Android handsets and over 100 versions of Android OS–illustrates how the platform can be more challenging compared to iOS.

One of the most important points to note is when Steve mentioned “We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.” Refreshed MacBook Air on Wednesday? CDMA iPhone 4?

What do you think of Apple’s Q4 earnings and Steve Jobs’ Android rant?

For a full transcript of earnings call, check it out at PC Mag.

[Apple PR, WSJ]

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