Apple sold 5m more iPhones than expected

Apple’s third-quarter earnings beat analyst expectations after it sold 5million more iPhones than expected.

10:16 25 July 2013

Apple’s third quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectations and made a £4.5billion profit in the three months to June after it sold 5million more iPhones than expected. The company sold 31.2million iPhones for the June quarter. It sold 26million the same time last year.

However, profit is 22per cent down from the same period last year as profit margins shrank from 42.8per cent to 36.98per cent. Revenue was up from $35billion last year to $35.3billion this year.

"The iPhone number should provide some comfort to investors who were worried about smartphone demand," said Shannon Cross of Cross Research.

"That's one of the reasons the stock is up. Expectations were not strong for this quarter."

Apple shares rose nearly 5per cent in after-hours trading following the better-than-expected earnings.

This is the second quarter in a row that Apple reported earnings below those of the previous year. Analysts say that the company needed to come up with new products.

Apple boss Tim Cook seems to be listening as he confirmed the introduction of new products soon.

"We are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall [autumn] and across 2014," he said.