Apple Posts Highest Ever First Quarter Profit -- Fresh on the heels of its Macworld Expo product announcements, Apple released its first quarter results for fiscal year 2005, with CEO Steve Jobs boasting the "highest quarterly revenue and net income in Apple's history." The quarter ending 25-Dec-04 gave the company a net profit of $295 million, compared to a net profit of $63 million in the first quarter a year ago. Revenue was $3.49 billion, up 74 percent, and gross margin was 28.5 percent, up from 26.7 percent, from the year-ago quarter.

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/07504>
<http://db.tidbits.com/article/07853>
<http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jan/ 12results.html>

In the first quarter, Apple shipped 1,046,000 Macintosh computers and 4,580,000 iPods, representing an impressive 26 percent increase in CPUs and a stunning 525 percent increase in iPods over the same quarter a year ago, which includes the traditional holiday shopping period running from late November until Christmas. The company has now sold over 10 million iPods. [MHA]