Charting Apple’s Growth Q3 2011: iPads, iPhones, Macs, Profit

Apple reported yet another record quarter Tuesday when the company turned in its June quarter, the company’s fiscal third quarter for 2011. Record revenue (US$28.6 billion), record earnings ($7.3 billion), and record earnings per share (EPS of $7.79). The company also had record iPad sales (9.25 million), record iPhones sales (20.34 million), and the second best quarter for Mac sales (3.95 million, which was also a record June quarter).

We’ve been slicing and dicing the numbers and put together the following charts to act as visual aids for all those numbers (All quarterly references are to Apple’s fiscal structure).

Let’s start with a look at iPad sales, where Apple reported sales of 9.25 million iPads during the quarter. The device has been available for five quarters now, and during the time, Apple has almost tripled quarterly unit sales, from 3.27 million in Q3 2010 to 9.25 million in Q3 of 2011.

iPad Unit Sales

iPhones were also a smash hit in the 3rd quarter, despite the iPhone 4 going longer than any other iPhone device without being updated (as of this writing, the iPhone 4 is approximately 13 months old and not expected to be updated until September. The chart below shows that the iPhone has done phenomenally well for the last four quarters.

iPhone Unit Sales

Apple’s Mac shipments, also did very well for the June quarter, with Apple turning in the second best Mac unit shipment numbers to date. In the chart below, you can see just how far the Mac has come since 2003, when many people were still labelling the company as “beleaguered” and near-death.

 

Mac Unit Sales

Along with all those longer and longer graph bars (size definitely matters with these things), Apple’s revenue and profits have also grown. In the figure below, we charted out Apple’s revenue and earnings since Q1 of 2003 through Q3 of 2011. You’ll note that the company’s profit was so small in the early quarters compared to its current performance, it hardly registers in the graph.

AAPL Revenue & Earnings

Breaking out Apple’s earnings as standalone data makes it easier to see the sharp increase the company has enjoyed in the last two years. You may also note that Apple made more in profit during the last quarter than it did in revenue for all of fiscal 2003.

AAPL Earnings

John Martellaro assisted with this article.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a tiny, almost insignificant share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.