Profit up 62% as Apple breaks yet more records

Last night Apple announced financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter (Q4) 2021: the three-month period ended 25 September. It was an almost universally positive set of results, with arrows pointing upwards across the board.

Total revenue for the period was $83.4bn (roughly £60bn), compared to $64.7bn for Q4 in 2020. That’s a healthy year-on-year increase of 29%.

Net profit after tax was $20.6bn, up 62% on the $12.7bn profit Apple announced in Q4 2020.

These are strong numbers, but it might be worth remembering that the year-on-year growth the company saw last quarter was even more impressive. For Q3 2021 Apple announced that revenue was up 36% and profit up an astonishing 93% compared to the previous year.

This dip from supersonic to merely outstanding growth was probably at least partly caused by supply problems, which CEO Tim Cook said led to the loss of $6bn in revenue. Supply constraints are expected to continue into the next quarter; Christmas shortages have been predicted.

Where did Apple make its money?

Broken down by product category, the iPhone accounted for $38.9bn of revenue, the Mac for $9.2bn, the iPad for $8.3bn, remaining hardware for $8.8bn and services for $18.3bn. Every category saw a revenue increase compared to the same quarter of 2020.

Sales were also up in all regions. Revenue in China, for example, nearly doubled from $8bn to $14.6bn.

This being the fourth and final quarter, Apple was able to give numbers for the full fiscal year 2021. Total revenue was $365.8bn, which means that the company made more than a billion dollars per day.

“Our record September quarter results capped off a remarkable fiscal year of strong double-digit growth, during which we set new revenue records in all of our geographic segments and product categories in spite of continued uncertainty in the macro environment,” Apple CFO Luca Maestri said in a press release.

“The combination of our record sales performance, unmatched customer loyalty, and strength of our ecosystem drove our active installed base of devices to a new all-time high.”

This article originally appeared on Macworld Sweden. Translation (using DeepL) and additional reporting by David Price.