Wednesday 28 January 2015 3:03 am

Apple’s record earnings: Five things showing just how massive those numbers are

Apple’s quarterly earnings after the iPhone 6 launch completely smashed expectations.

Its profits of $18bn (£11.8bn) are so big, they are officially the biggest quarterly profit of any company in history. Ever. That’s just how huge it is.

To put that in perspective…

1.

Apple sold 34,000 iPhones every hour, more than 500 every minute, or nine every second.

2.

75m iPhones were sold during the quarter. That’s the equivalent of selling an iPhone to every single person in the UK, and still having around 10m spare.

3.

If Apple was a country, its profit this quarter would have a GDP bigger than Greece, equal to Yemen and almost the same as Denmark.

4.

Apple’s profits for a single quarter would fund the UK government’s entire yearly spend on university education (£11bn), social housing (£1.2bn), jobseekers' allowance bill (£5bn) or fund the entire foreign aid budget (£10bn).