Apple continues its strong fiscal year with record-breaking second-quarter iPhone sales: The company sold 61.2 million iPhones in the quarter ending March 28, which also happened to be the second biggest quarter for iPhone sales ever. (The first? Last quarter, when the Cupertino company sold 74.5 million iPhones.)
Apple raked in a profit of $13.6 billion off $58 billion in revenue, beating analyst expectations and its own. Apple forecast internally that it would hit $55 billion and analysts expected $56.08 billion from the company during the second quarter, up from $45.6 billion during the second quarter of 2014.
iPhone sales alone contributed $40.2 billion in revenue to Apple’s killer second quarter.
“We are thrilled by the continued strength of iPhone, Mac and the App Store, which drove our best March quarter results ever,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in the company’s earnings report press release. “We’re seeing a higher rate of people switching to iPhone than we’ve experienced in previous cycles, and we’re off to an exciting start to the June quarter with the launch of Apple Watch.”
We expect to hear more about Apple Watch preorders on Apple’s second-quarter earnings call Monday afternoon.
Analysts expected Apple to sell 58.1 million iPhones, 13.6 million iPads, and 4.7 million Macs, according to predictions collected by Bloomberg. The company slipped on iPad and Mac sales with 12.6 million and 4.6 million sold, respectively. To compare: Apple sold 21.4 million iPads last quarter and 16.3 million in Q2 of last year; and sold 5.5 million Macs last quarter and 4.1 million in the second quarter of last year.
Apple’s success in China is contributing to the company’s strong financial showing this year. While revenue in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and the rest of Asia Pacific fell from Apple’s gangbusters first quarter, revenue in China grew from $16.1 million to $16.8 million. Revenue in China jumped 71 percent year-over-year. International sales contributed 69 percent of the company’s Q2 revenue.
Tune into Apple’s earnings conference call at 2 p.m. Pacific/5 p.m. Eastern, or check back here for a recap when it wraps.