Apple profits rise but future projections are gloomy

San Francisco: Apple announced on Tuesday its profits rose 38 percent in the second quarter due to a surge in iPhone sales.

Headquartered in Cupertino, California, the company earned $10.7 billion during this period, its fiscal third quarter, compared to $7.74 billion in the same quarter of 2014, equivalent to earnings of $1.85 per share, reported EFE.

It sold 47.4 million iPhones in the second quarter, 35 percent more than the same period last year and more than double from four years ago.

iPhone sales in China too, more than doubled to $13.2 billion.

In total, iPhone sales contributed $31.4 billion, a 59 percent rise over last year, owing to an average $100 increase in their prices.

"The gap is widening between us and our competitors," Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said in an interview with the newspaper, the Wall Street Journal.

iPhone, Apple's flagship product, represents more than 60 percent of its sales.

The company's revenue also rose 33 percent to $49.61 billion.

Analysts had predicted per share profits of $1.81 and revenues of $49.43 billion.

The company did not share information on the sales of the Apple Watch, which they recently began to sell, although Cook said it exceeded internal expectations.

The gross margin of the company's profit was 39.7 percent, as opposed to the expected 38.5 percent to 39.5 percent.

Apple shares, however, fell 6.7 percent in after-hours trading at Wall Street, owing to what analysts called gloomy projections for coming months.

The company forecast revenue of $49 billion for the third quarter ending in September, against analysts' expectations of $51.13 billion.