Apple allure continues as iPhone outperforms iPad...

Strong iPhone sales helped fuel encouraging third quarter results for Apple, who posted quarterly revenue of US$37.4 billion and quarterly net profit of $7.7 billion, or $1.28 per diluted share.

These results compare to revenue of $35.3 billion and net profit of $6.9 billion, or $1.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.4 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter with international sales accounting for 59 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

“Our record June quarter revenue was fueled by strong sales of iPhone and Mac and the continued growth of revenue from the Apple ecosystem, driving our highest EPS growth rate in seven quarters,” says Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“We are incredibly excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, as well as other new products and services that we can’t wait to introduce.”

According to the figures, Cupertino sold 35.2 million iPhones, representing a 13 percent increase from the same time last year, despite many analysts claiming customers are waiting for the eagerly anticipated iPhone 6.

On the flip side, Apple shipped 13.3 million iPads in the latest quarter, a 9 percent drop from the same time last year, marking the second straight quarter that the company's iPad sales have fallen from the previous year.

“We generated $10.3 billion in cash flow from operations and returned over $8 billion in cash to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases during the June quarter,” adds Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.

“We have now taken action on over $74 billion of our $130 billion capital return program with six quarters remaining to its completion.”