Apple Inc. is pulling off a feat rarely seen in any industry, much less the cutthroat world of consumer electronics: gaining market share while also commanding higher prices.
Led by the larger-display iPhones it introduced last fall, Apple on Monday said it sold 61.2 million iPhones in the three months ended March 28, up 40% from the year-earlier period. Many of those sales came in emerging markets, including a 72% gain in the number of phones sold in China.
In the six months since Apple introduced the new iPhones, the company’s revenue increased by more than $29 billion, compared with the year-ago period. That is roughly equal to Nike Inc.’s annual revenue in 2014.
Since it began its capital-return program in 2012, Apple said it has returned $112 billion to shareholders. Over the same period, its cash hoard grew by $76 billion. The latest update means Apple plans to return an additional $88 billion in cash to shareholders over the next two years.
On the other hand, Apple’s Mac line of personal computers is gaining market share against competitors. Mac unit sales rose 10% in the March quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 7% decline for the overall PC market, according to International Data Corp.
