After record quarter, what's next for Apple?
LOS ANGELES — After a record first quarter, what does Apple do for an encore?
The company sold nearly 75 million iPhones, beyond analyst estimates, in the last three months of 2014. What is more, it reported a record $18 billion in profits.
So for 2015, with Apple Watch set to ship in April and new editions of the iPhone and iPad expected later in the year, it "should be a really big year," says Gene Munster, an analyst with Piper Jaffray.
Reflecting the good vibes, Apple shares were up 6%, to $115.31, in trading Wednesday.
The iPhone 6, which went on sale in September, will surpass 100 million phones sold in the next few months. It is the best-selling iPhone model yet. For the current quarter, analysts expect 60 million more phones to be sold, which brings the total to nearly 700 million phones sold since 2007, when they debuted.
But the market share disparity that is dominated by Google's Android won't change, insists Gartner analyst Tuong Nguyen.
He says Android devices have a 67% market share, to just 10% for Apple and 3.3% for Windows phones.
"Android's share will go up this year, while Apple will be flat," he says, because of many $50-and-under Android smartphones available in countries such as Brazil, Chile and Venezuela.
"Apple plays on the high end, but the growth is on the low end," he says.
IPad sales continue to decline, the iPod is virtually non-existent and Macintosh computers sales are growing. Still, some 69% of revenues for Apple now come from the iPhone. And the cash cow is so big that it doesn't matter, says Munster.
Apple Watch isn't expected to be a barn-burner like the iPhone, and Apple says it won't reveal sales numbers for the device when it goes on sale initially.
What is clear is that Apple CEO Tim Cook "is a hero" to investors, says Munster. "The stock has doubled since he took over" in 2011, he says.
Initially, analysts were skeptical he could live up to the legendary Steve Jobs.
"The world doesn't value the person who can see a vision and execute on it as much as the visionary," Munster says. "But he's done a flawless job, getting the phones to come out, getting them to work, all the difficult stuff.
"He's taken Steve's idea and refined it."
Follow Jefferson Graham on Twitter