Apple’s Profit Doubles, Verizon Suffers $2B Loss

Considering that the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S were selling like hotcakes last year, Apple was never going to struggle to meet the investors’ expectations this year. It turns out Apple did not need an iPhone 5 at all. The company reported that its profits doubled for the holiday quarter last year. Apple has sold 183m of these smartphones since the product started selling in 2007.

The iPhone is not the only product that is selling well for Apple. The iPad sales have doubled to a record 15.4m in the last quarter. Apple’s great quarter generated $46.3 billion in sales. That is 73% up from last year. Wall Street analysts’ $38.9 billion sales forecast was easily shattered by these results. Apple’s performance was so good it easily topped the results for Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo combined.

We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs … Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline, 

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, explained. Apple does not seem to be too bothered from the challenge coming its way from Amazon in the tablet PC market. It is true that Amazon sold millions of Kindle Fire units last year. But it has ways to go to put together a tablet that could challenge the iPad.

Verizon’s results were not as great though. The company posted $2.02B loss on pensions and iPhone costs. That is a $4B swing form the quarter before. Verizon did add 1.2 million new contract customers. The pension costs were always going to set Verizon back. But the iPhone is also a costly device for carriers. The subsidies for the iPhone will eventually pay off though. Of course, as Apple brings new iPhones to the market every year, Verizon and other carriers are always playing catch up.