Apple has revealed that it has now sold 1.2 billion cumulative iPhones since the device was first introduced in 2007.
The announcement came as part of the Q3 2017 financial results, showing a quarterly revenue of $45.4 billion and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.67.
These results compare to revenue of $42.4 billion and earnings per diluted share of $1.42 in the same quarter in 2016. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
“With revenue up 7 percent year-over-year, we’re happy to report our third consecutive quarter of accelerating growth and an all-time quarterly record for Services revenue,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We hosted an incredibly successful Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and we’re very excited about the advances in iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS coming this autumn.”
“We reported unit and revenue growth in all our product categories in the June quarter, driving 17 percent growth in earnings per share,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. “We also returned $11.7 billion to investors during the quarter, bringing cumulative capital returns under our program to almost $223 billion.”
While the April-June quarter is traditionally a quieter one for Apple as the market waits for the September launch of new iPhone models, the latest results show that iPhone buyers may be less inclined than they once were to delay purchases until a new model is out.
The iPad product lines also showed unexpected strength, selling 11.4 million units – generating $4.9 billion in revenue. Service revenue continued to grow at a healthy rate, and even the Apple Watch showed a 50 percent sales increase.
Apple is widely tipped to adopt higher-resolution OLED displays for the latest iPhone – due to be released in September, along with better touchscreen technology and wireless charging. It is also rumoured to come with a $1,000 plus price tag.
Looking ahead to its fiscal 2017 fourth quarter, Apple is predicting to collect between $49 billion and $52 billion in revenue.
