Apple profits exceed 11 billion dollars

Published:  26 Apr at 12 PM

According to the BBC, IT giant Apple has reported that its profits nearly doubled in January, February and March of 2012. The firm said its net profit reached at $11.6 billion (£7.2 billion), a rise from $6 billion from the same period in 2011 and far better than what was previously expected.

The firm sold 35 million iPhones during the quarter--also nearly double its figures from 2011. Apple shares went up by over 7%, jumping to $601 per share during after-hours trading.

The company’s profits are now actually greater than Google's quarterly income of $10.65 billion. Microsoft, the largest software company in the world, has a quarterly income of around $17 billion. Google makes Android, while Microsoft produces Windows Phone, which are both rivals to Apple's iOS platform.

JJ Kinahan from TD Ameritrade said Apple there already were great expectations for the company, but Apple blew all the expectations away. There were 11.8 million iPads sold by the company--150% more than during the same period in 2011.

CEO Tim Cook says that around 67 million iPads have now been sold. It took Aplle 24 years to sell the same volume of Mac computers, but three years for it to sell the same amount of iPhones.