Apple on Wednesday reported financial results for its 13-week fiscal 2013 first quarter ended December 29, 2012. During the quarter the company ramped up sales of its most popular product ever, the iPhone 5, as well as released fourth-generation iPad 9.7” and first-generation iPad mini. While the company sold record number of smartphones and tablets, shipments of Macintosh PCs and iPod music players declined year-over-year.

The company posted record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $46.3 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, in the 14-week year-ago quarter. Gross margin of Apple in the first quarter of its fiscal 2013 was 38.6% compared to 44.7% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61% of the quarter’s revenue. Average weekly revenue was $4.2 billion in the quarter compared to $3.3 billion in the year-ago quarter.

“We are thrilled with record revenue of over $54 billion and sales of over 75 million iOS devices in a single quarter. We are very confident in our product pipeline as we continue to focus on innovation and making the best products in the world,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

The company sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the first quarter of fiscal 2013, compared to 37 million in the year-ago quarter, which represents 29% growth. Apple iPhones were sold at a rate of almost 3.7 million iPhones per week in the current year quarter compared to 2.6 million per week in the Q1 FY 2012.

Apple ramped up production and rolled out its latest iPhone 5 in many countries in the calendar Q4 2012, therefore, it is not surprising that the company managed to sell a record number of smartphones. While, a 77% sequential and 29% annual increase of iPhone shipments can be considered as solid, previously Apple’s smartphones grew faster. It is evident that competition between Apple and Samsung is intensifying and when more companies release comparable smartphones, sales growth of the iPhone will likely get even slower. Life-to-date sales of iPhone totaled 318.8 million so far.

Apple sold a record 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple sold over 1.7 million iPads per week in the current fiscal year quarter compared to 1.1 million per week in the year ago quarter.

The company managed to boost shipments of media tablets by 48.7% compared to the same period a year ago. iPad continues to be sold well across the globe and the introduction of smaller version helped to set a new shipments record. Life-to-date shipments of iPads surpassed 100 million milestone in Q1 FY2013 and totaled 120 million units.

The company shipped 4.1 million Macs in Q1 FY2013, compared to 5.2 million in the year-ago quarter, a decline of 22.84%.

Surprisingly, but despite of new product introductions sales of Macintosh personal computers declined both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. The company admitted that production of its new MacBook Pro 13” with retina-class screen and the new iMac all-in-one PC was constrained and that the company could not ship all the units it wanted to. In fact, Apple could begin shipments of the new iMac only in December.

Apple sold 12.7 million iPods in the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the same period a year ago, a nearly 18% drop.

Being an outgoing product, iPod once again demonstrated that the demand for portable digital media players peaks during the holiday season.Traditionally, iPod touch player was the most popular model in the lineup. Life-to-date sales of Apple iPod have reached 368 million units. iPod’s share of U.S. market for MP3 players was over 70% in the Q4 2012 based on the latest data published by NPD; the iPod continued to be the top selling MP3 player in most countries based on the latest data published by GFK.

Considering the fact that Apple is unlikely to roll-out and ramp up production of major new products in the first calendar quarter of 2013 (Q2 FY2013), it is unlikely to expect major improvements of the company’s sales versus year-ago quarter. Apple itself expects revenue of between $41 billion and $43 billion compared to 39.2 billion in the year ago quarter as well as  gross margin between 37.5% and 38.5%.

Tags: Apple, iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Macintosh, iOS, Mac OS