Apple iPhone Sales Breaks Record at 39 Million Units

Apple saw its fourth-quarter net profit surge by more than 13 percent to $8.47 billion after the company sold over 39 million iPhones, beating its 33.8 million iPhone sales in the same period last year and predictions from analysts, the New York Times reported.

The report said that the release of the new iPhone 6 models last month also pushed Apple's sales despite the slowing sales of its iPad. The company's revenue for the quarter ending September 27 totaled to $42.1 billion, higher than the $37.5 billion recorded in the same period a year ago, The New York Times noted.

Apple's chief executive Timothy D. Cook was quoted in the said report saying that there is a "staggering demand" for the new iPhones.

"Our fiscal 2014 was one for the record books, including the biggest iPhone launch ever with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus," Cook said in a statement quoted in a report published by BBC News. He was also cited in the report saying that he is positive that this trend will continue in time for the holidays.

Reuters said the company is eyeing its revenue to soar to over $63 billion in the December quarter, especially now that the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, and iPad Mini 3 have already been released. Apple's revenue recorded in the same quarter a year ago totaled to $57.6 billion, The New York Times said.

However. Reuters said that the iPad sales did not help much this quarter, showing a decline for a third straight time. The report revealed that the iPad sales plunged by over 7 percent to 12.3 million units from the previous quarter and down by 13 percent from its 14 million sales a year ago.

However, a financial analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein research Toni Sacconaghi revealed that Apple's quarter performance is somewhat "risky" since more than half or around 70 percent of its profits comes from iPhone.

The New York Times report said that if Apple keeps on relying on one single product -- iPhone -- the company would be more vulnerable especially when its rivals such as Samsung continues to develop new products.

The report said that despite the slowing smartphone sales in the US and Europe, iPhone sales continued growing "steadily." In 2013, it even released two new iPhone models for the first time -- iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c. This year, it happened again with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

It was noted that the new iPhone models had favorable reactions from the public that Apple sold at least 10 million units in the first week of September. This was higher than the nine million new iPhones sold in the previous year.

The New York Times said that Apple's revenue this quarter even surpassed the predictions by made Wall Street. The report said that it was expected that Apple's revenue for the quarter would reach $39.9 billion. "Apple's $1.42 a share profit also exceeded analysts' expectations for $1.31 a share. For Apple's full fiscal year of 2014, profit was $39.5 billion on revenue of $182.8 billion," the report also said.