Ok, I know my blog has become, more or less, an “Apple’s Latest Financial Numbers” blog. Such was not my intent, but my current schedule and other responsibilities severely restrict my parenthetical thinking. It will eventually (I am certain) return to normal, but not for a while. In the meantime…

Earlier this week, Apple announced their numbers for Q4 of 2010. And, as expected, they were very good (once again, their best quarter *ever*).

Revenue for the Quarter was over $20B, bringing the grand total for FY 2010 to just over $65B. As I expected, this should place them comfortably above the 50 mark in the 2010 Fortune 500 list of the largest companies. Depending on how things play out for the others on the list, they may even make it into the low 30s. I’ll go out on a limb and predict 35, just to pick a number, and we’ll see how I do, ok? Gotta wait for the list to come out.

Revenue for FY 2010 was also increased by 52% compared to FY 2009. And the average increase in Apple’s annual revenue for the past 5 years has been 36%. That’s amazing. So, based on that, I’ll make a second prediction also. That by 2012 (two years from now), Apple will join the “$100B a year club.” And I bet they get there before Microsoft and before Dell. Keep tuned here to find out how I do! But I digress…

Interestingly, most of their revenue for FY 10 was from iPhone; about 38% total. CPUs (laptops and desktops) accounted for about 27%, and iPods for almost 13%.

Now, as you may know, the Fortune 500 list places companies in “industries,” based on where they get their revenue. There was a bit of a kerfuffle a while back when General Electric was moved to the “diversified financials” industry, because that’s were they were making most of their money.

Apple has, up to now anyway, been placed in the “computers and office equipment” industry. But with most of their revenue coming from iPhone, will that still be the case? I don’t think there’s a “cellphone” industry in the Fortune 500. We shall have to wait and see, I guess.

Even more interesting, as has been noted by others, between iPhone and iPad, in Q4 2010, Apple generated almost 60% of its revenue from products that did not even exist 5 years ago. And iPad has been an amazing success; in Q410, they sold more iPads than CPUs. And, of course, more iPods than iPads, and more iPhones than iPods…

Another example of how successful iPad has been; if we look at their last three “new” products, and their first quarter of availability:

  • iPod: Q402, where they sold 140,000 units and generated $53M in revenue.
  • iPhone: Q307, where they sold 270,000 units and generated $5M in revenue.
  • iPad: Q310, where they sold 3,270,000 units (!) and generated $2.16BILLION in revenue!

So, in the first quarter that Apple started selling iPad, they were already a $2B per quarter, $8-$10B a year business. Amazing. As Gruber has noted, there is no way Microsoft and Intel, not to mention Dell, HP and RIM, are not paying attention to this…

But even more interesting… if we look at those same three quarters, and look at Apple’s CPU business at the time:

  • Q402: 734,000 units, $1B revenue
  • Q307: 1,760,000 units, $2.5B revenue
  • Q310: 3,470,000 units, $4.4B revenue

So, while it is true that iPod, iPhone and iPad have been huge successes for Apple, and apparently growing quite nicely, it is also true that Apple’s CPU business (which was pretty much it’s ONLY business 8 short years ago), has been doing very well also. Apple is still a computer company, and, as I noted in my last, short blog post; the combined CPU and iPad sales have given them some significant gains in Market Share.

Oh, and speaking of the Market… just did a quick check of the stock market. Apple stock is trading at 307.47 a share, putting its Market Cap at 281.63B, and making Apple the second largest company by Market Cap. Exxon Mobil is still number one, with a Market Cap of 337.79B… based on a stock price of 66.34 a share… I think it’s still possible for Apple to become number one, but given the variable nature of the stock market, it’s impossible (for me anyway) to predict when. We’ll see.

Cheers!