Apple Profit Sets Record on Strong iPhone Sales

Apple Inc. posted the biggest spring-quarter profit in its 45-year history, leading a streak of record-setting earnings for technology companies even as the pandemic continued to evolve.

Not to be overlooked, Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Microsoft Corp. also said Tuesday that their quarterly earnings surpassed records, underscoring how the pandemic has shifted life and work online and strengthened some of the world’s biggest and wealthiest private enterprises.

Apple earned $21.7 billion in profit for the three-month period that ended in June, while revenue rose 36% from a year earlier to $81.4 billion, beating expectations.

The Cupertino, Calif., iPhone maker is on pace for its best fiscal year ever with a projected profit of $86 billion for the 12-month period ending in September, according to an average forecast of analysts surveyed by FactSet. That would be about 51% better than last year’s record; analysts a year ago were predicting what now seems like a paltry 11% gain.

“This quarter saw a growing sense of optimism from consumers in the United States and around the world, driving renewed hope for a better future and for all that innovation can make possible,” Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said. “But as the last 18 months have demonstrated many times before, progress made is not progress guaranteed.”