iPod leads way to profits for Apple


Apple announced Wednesday that they have had another profitable quarter, with revenues jumping 30% and profits increasing 200%, thanks to a 909% increase in iPod sales.

During the quarter, the company shipped 749,000 Macintoshes and 807,000 iPods for revenues of $1.9B.

And, to top it off, they're still sitting on about $4.6B in cash and have a very hot iPod Mini product that they can't make enough of (although there is some question as to whether manufacturing has been intentionally slowed to deal with an audio quality problem).

The questions now are:

  • Can they continue to grow market in the consumer electronics area?
  • Will the record companies stifle them by increasing prices?
  • What will happen to their "tiny" market share in computing?
  • What's coming out in June?
  • Will they release a 3.0GHz G5 this summer?
  • Can the computer products regain momentum?
  • Can Apple push back into Japan (which has seen significant year-to-year drops)?