Apple’s Q3 results were announced after the market close yesterday.
For a company that traditionally softpedals its projections, this was a blowout quarter for 3 reasons. 1. We were in a recession at the start of the quarter and 2. We were in a recession at the end of the quarter and 3. The days in between weren’t exactly great either. Trailing GDP numbers may show that technically the recession ended in March, but consumer sentiment was brutal for April – June 2009 – a quarter that kicked off only 24 days after the NASDAQ scraped the bottom. All the more amazing then, that Apple should sell 5.2 million iPhones in those 3 months. 5.2 million. In 2008, in a very different economic climate, the company sold 717,000 iPhones in the same quarter. That’s an increase of 625.4% year over year. In the most challenging economy in decades. 57,000 phones per day globally, with US unemployment above 9%, and even higher rates outside the US.
What other product, if any, can claim year-over-year growth like the iPhone in the same 2008-2009 quarter. None that I can think of immediately, at least as a purchased consumer product. There hasn’t been a Crocs of 2009 yet, probably because the consumer is cautious, which means it hasn’t been a great year to launch products – except the iPhone 3GS, apparently. Twitter, I suppose. Up 1900% in visitors from June 2008 (1 million visitors) to June 2009 (20 million visitors). Meteoric in its own right, but hardly in the same category – no commercial strings attached for the user – free, just tweeting time.
625.4% growth – what a phenomenon…
