Apple announces its financial results for Q4 of its 2014 fiscal year

Apple has just announced the company's financial results for Q4 for the fiscal of 2014. The Cupertino tech giant raked home a profit $8.5 billion or $1.42 per diluted share from $42.1 billion in revenue. . The company's gross margin for this quarter is at 38%.

The aforementioned result is an improvement over the $7.5 billion net profit from $37.5 billion for the same quarter the previous year. Gross margin for last year's quarter was 37%.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the iPhone can be credited as the driving force behind this year' stellar financial performance. The Cupertino company had sold 39.2 million smartphones this fiscal year- that being a 4.4 million increase from the same point last year.

Mac sales have impressed as well with a total of 5.52 million computers being sold, way more than the expected 4.9 million that had been predicted.

Things aren't all positive however, as sales of the iPad have disappointed. Apple sold a total of 12.3 million units, some way less from the expected 13.1 million units. In comparison, Apple had managed to sell 14.1 million tablets in the same quarter last year.

Apple's expectations of the next fiscal year are optimistic. The tech company is expecting a revenue somewhere in the ballpark of $63.5 and $66.5 billion and a gross margin between 37.5% and 38.5%.

The above projection should't come as a surprise to anyone, as next quarter is going to include the lucrative holiday shopping season. Besides that, it will also mark the first full fiscal period of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The yet to be released iPad Air 2 should also help Apple's cause.

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