Apple today filed it's quarterly 10Q (Download PDF) with the SEC, within the filing the company revealed some key details of the past quarter in particular the companies growth factors and rising costs of retail space and R&D.
During Apple's second fiscal quarter which ended March 29th the company experienced a 51-percent rise in Mac unit sales compared to the same quarter in the previous year. According to todays filing this steep increase was mainly thanks to sales of the MacBook Air which was announced in January and the iMac which was refreshed in August 2007.
Apple also attributed a $228 million net sales rise on "music related products and services" at its iTunes Store to "heightened consumer interest in downloading third-party digital content, as well as the expansion of third-party audio and video content."
As of the end of September 2007 the company's total future minimum lease payments under noncancelable operating leases were $1.4 billion, of which $1.1 billion related to leases for retail space. As of March 29th 2008 this increased $192 million to $1.3 billion, and Apple Retail as a whole employed approximately 12,000 full-time equivalent employees.
In the quarterly filing Apple also noted that Research and Development increased by 59-percent or $90 million to $273 million in its second fiscal quarter, and increased 41 percent or $152 million to $519 million during the first six months of 2008 compared to the same period in 2007.
The company attributed the rise to an increase in R&D headcount for the current year to support expanded R&D activities and higher stock-based compensation expenses.
"Although total R&D expense increased 49 percent, it remained relatively flat as a percentage of net sales given the 43 percent and 38 percent increases in revenue in the second quarter and first six months of 2008 compared to the same periods in 2007," Apple noted. "[Apple] continues to believe that focused investments in R&D are critical to its future growth and competitive position in the marketplace and are directly related to timely development of new and enhanced products that are central to the Company’s core business strategy. As such, the Company expects to make further investments in R&D to remain competitive."