Apple absolutely crushed its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings. Even the most bullish estimates were light when Apple revealed on Monday that it racked up a massive $8.5 billion net profit on $42.12 billion in sales — both records for the September quarter. The company sold 39.3 million new iPhone handsets in the quarter, which was also a record that was undoubtedly made possible by Apple’s huge iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus launch last month.
To congratulate his team on Apple’s record-smashing quarter, Cook sent the following internal letter to his staff:
Team,
Today we reported Apple’s highest September quarter revenue ever and our strongest revenue growth rate in seven quarters. These very strong results were made possible by your hard work and dedication.
Customers around the world are loving the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, quickly making this the fastest and most successful iPhone launch in history. The Mac set a new all-time record while the rest of the PC market declined. And the App Store was once again an important driver of our overall revenue growth.
Today we’re launching Apple Pay in the U.S., giving our customers a simple, secure and private way to pay. Later this week we’ll be shipping the new iPad Air 2, the world’s thinnest tablet and the most powerful iPad we’ve ever made. The new 27” iMac with Retina 5K display, which we just introduced last week, is already being hailed as the best visual experience ever on a computer. This is an amazing lineup for the holidays.
The user experience across all our products keeps getting better, thanks to the deep collaboration among our teams. iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite have raised the bar for mobile and desktop operating systems, and they work together in elegant, intuitive ways that only Apple can deliver.
Later this week, I’ll be talking with a group of Apple employees in Beijing. We’re going to record the meeting so you can watch it on AppleWeb, and we’ll include questions from other sites. Please visit AppleWeb to submit a question and I’ll answer as many as I can.
Congratulations on the strong results we’ve achieved together. We can all be proud of the quarter we just reported, and the work that keeps Apple the most innovative company in the world.
Tim
