Apple's push to go global has paid off big, with China as the billion dollar feather in its cap. Not only did they just notch a record-breaking $26 billion quarter, but the company recently revealed its stunning growth overseas in Asia over the last year.
"We, several years ago, identified China as our top priority, and we put enormous energy into China," Apple COO Tim Cook said in an conference call. "And the results of that has been absolutely staggering."
Staggering is certainly the word for it. Chinese revenue in the last quarter was $2.6 billion--four times the amount for the previous year, and especially impressive considering that annual revenue from the region in 2010 was $3 billion total, and $1 billion in 2009.
China is not the only country fueling Apple's Asian expansion, though it's certainly a big factor. For the region as a whole, Apple had over 50 percent sales growth, with retail stores in China reporting the highest traffic and revenue of any store in the world. But Japan also recorded an 83 percent revenue growth.
To put Apple's growth in perspective, take a look at Mac expansion numbers. Apple saw sales grow 23 percent worldwide, compared to overall market growth of only 3 percent. Asia's Mac growth led the charge with a 67 percent increase from the year before--ten times the rate of the overall market.
"It's clear that we're introducing a lot of people to Apple who previously had not been introduced to the company," said Cook. "I think that helps across the product line."
Not that Apple's been a laggard in the domestic sphere. The company reported that 88 percent of Fortune 100 companies are now testing or using iPhones--key figures for companies that have long been BlackBerry-dependent. And according to Apple executives, iPhone sales have actually been restricted by production.
"We believe we could have sold even more iPhones if we had been able to supply them," said CFO Peter Oppenheimer.
Read more about Apple's record-breaking earnings here.