MacWorld Apple Reports Record Sales, Profits for the Holiday Season January 25, 2010 By Philip Michaels Apple posted record revenue and profits for the 2009 holiday season, according to the fiscal first quarter numbers reported by the company on Monday. For the three-month period ending December 29, 2009, Apple tallied sales of $15.68 billion and a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion. That compares to year-ago figures of $11.88 billion in sales and $2.26 billion in net quarterly profit. If those year-ago numbers seem off from what Apple reported last January, it’s because the company retrospectively adopted the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s amended accounting standards during the 2010 first quarter. Adopting those standards significantly alters how Apple accounts for certain items–most significantly iPhone and Apple TV sales. For the 2010 fiscal first quarter, Apple sold 3.36 million Macs, up 33 percent from the 2.5 million units the company sold in last year’s first quarter. The fall revamp of the iMac line helped boost desktop sales for the quarter. Apple sold 1.23 million desktops in its first quarter of 2010, an increase of nearly 70 percent from the 728,00 desktops it sold a year ago. However, portable sales continue to drive the Mac business. Apple sold just under 2.13 million laptops during the first quarter–63 percent of all the Macs it sold during the quarter were portables. iPhone sales doubled to 8.7 million for the quarter. However, iPod sales fell 8 percent year-over-year, as Apple sold 21 million music players during the quarter.