Apple Takes a Bigger Bite of International Sales

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Global Watchtower

Common Sense Advisory Blogs

Posted by Donald A. DePalma on April 27, 2010 in the following blogs: Business Globalization, Global Marketing
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Last week Apple chairman Steve Jobs announced first-quarter revenue of US$13.5 billion, blowing past analyst estimates of $12.97 billion. With the recent launch of the iPad and the continuing contribution of the iPhone to the numbers, Jobs allowed “we’re thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever.”

Given the blow-out numbers, financial analysts focused on the products that contributed to the big number — iPhone at 8.75 million units sold, 2.9 million Macs sold, a reported sell-out of the first run of iPads, but sales of the iPod and iTouch players were flat.

What interested us was where all this iStuff was being sold. For years we’ve been flagging the importance of revenue originating outside home markets as a big reason for investing in translation and localization. So let’s review the underlying figures.

For its last two fiscal quarters, Apple’s sold 58% of its products outside the United States. We looked back over the last few years of Apple results, where we saw a progressive rise in non-U.S. sales over the last three years. For the first 10 of those 12 quarters, international revenue rose from 40 to around 47% of Apple’s gross — about 15% growth over nearly three years. Two quarters ago, non-U.S. revenue leapt another 25% to account 58% of total sales, which it matched in the just announced quarter.

This is clearly good news for Apple shareholders, but just as heartening for those who localize the Mac and iStuff for global markets — and who have to prove the value and return on investment (ROI) of their work. With international long accounting for about two-thirds of revenue at companies like Hewlett-Packard, Apple still has plenty of global upside in its revenue forecast.

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