EXCLUSIVE: Apple Australia appears to be struggling when it comes to making a profit, with financial documents obtained by SmartHouse revealing that profits fell in 2009 to just $2.5 Million despite revenue growth of 42% to $1.64 Billion dollars.
The Company claims that the move to open their own Apple shops is paying dividends, but they refuse to elaborate on the cost of their expansion into retail or whether the profit plunge is attributable to the opening of retail operations in direct competition to their reseller network or payments to executives.
Documents lodged with the Australian Companies & Securities Commission show that Apple Australia is a large proprietary Company that is “Not a disclosing entity”.
In 2009 Apple Australia had revenues of $1.64 Billion dollars at September 2009 an increase of 42%, over the $1.1 Billion in revenues reported for the same period in 2008.
Apple attributed their growth to increased demand for the new Apple 3Gs iPhone and new MAC PC’s, however they have failed to identify why profits plummeted to just 0.15% of total revenues.
Selling and marketing costs increased from $75M to $103Million while salaries increased from $27.8M to $41.3M.
During 2009 Apple opened a new Apple store in Sydney and Melbourne they also launched several new products including new MAC PC’s. However the Australian operation is refusing to say how many iPhones or MAC PC’s they sold in the 2009 financial year.
Earlier this month we revealed that Telstra was selling more Google Android based phones than iPhones with demand for Android based devices set to grow as several vendors such as Samsung, HTC, LG and several PC Companies launch a mix of Android Smartphones, Tablet PCs and netbooks.
Apple Australia did say that that momentum in growth experienced during 2008 continued into 2009, and that the release of new products such as the iPhone 3Gs and further expansion into retail contributed to their revenue increase.
During the past two months Apple has sold two million iPads with that number likely to grow further now that iPads are being sold in markets like Australia.
This week Apple is expected to announce a new iPhone that has a faster processor, different body shape and a smaller screen.
Apple will introduce its yearly iPhone upgrade at the Worldwide Developers Conference, on June 7 through June 11. It has been rumoured that the new phone, might go on sale as early as June 7.
In April Apple globally reported that second-quarter profits rose nearly 90% to US$3.07 billion. These results compare to revenue of $9.08 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.62 billion during the same period in 2009.
During the same quarter Apple sold 2.94 million, MAC PC’s during the quarter an increase of 33%.
The company said that they sold 8.75 million iPhones in the quarter, representing an increase of 131%. iPod sales declined 1% to came in at 10.89 million units.
