The primary reason why Apple made this money are the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus. These are the two devices that propelled Apple. These are also the two devices that are radically different from the earlier iPhones.
The iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus are also two devices that prove venerable Steve Jobs wrong!
In 2010 when Android phones started coming with 4.3-inch and 4.5-inch screens, steve jobs was asked about the big-screen phones. Here is what he said:
"No one is going to buy a big phone."
Jobs not only ruled out Apple making a big-screen phone but also dubbed such devices "Hummers" and said that users can't get their hands around such phones and hence they would not sell.
Five years later -- and four years after Samsung introduced Galaxy Note and created the phablet market -- Apple has clearly changed its mind. Last year, not only the company came out with the iPhone 6, a phone that has a 4.6-inch screen, but also the iPhone 6 Plus, a phone with 5.5-inch screen.
And it has reaped big rewards for this. Initially, there was some doubts about the big-screen phones. But once people discovered them they realised that the phone with a big screen allowed them to do more. Almost everything is better on a big screen. Movies look better on big screen. Browsing is easier. Reading something is easier. Playing games is more enjoyable. But until 2014, Apple continued to be in denial. By the 2014, the situation had become so drastic that even die-hard Apple fans were enviously eyeing the large-screen phablets sold in the Android world.
Finally, Apple realised that market realities were more important than the belief of Jobs. The iPhone 6 has not only nudged the old iPhone users to upgrade -- the larger screen is a real draw -- but as company CEO Tim Cook saidit has also helped Apple gain consumers who were earlier using an Android phone.
The iPhone 6 has been a total phenomenon, largely because of its bigger screen. While the iPhone 6 Plus is not as popular, it too has sold well. In total, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones in the last quarter.
Jobs was a great visionary. He was probably the most versatile product person the modern world has seen. He had this uncanny ability to spot what will work with consumers and what won't. He was almost prophetic in the way he identified a product that would do well. But he wasn't infallible. At least on the matter of the big-screen phones, he was wrong. The $18 billion that apple earned in the last quarter as profit is a proof of that.
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