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Posted at 3:15 PM PT, Apr 15, 1998
Apple Computer continued its move toward sustained profitability Wednesday, posting a quarterly profit of $55 million, up from a loss of $708 million for the same quarter in 1997.

This quarter builds on momentum that started with Apple's $47 million profit last fiscal quarter. In the past three months, QuickTime 3.0, which had long been delayed, finally shipped; Claris was reorganized as FileMaker Inc.; and the Newton product line was discontinued.

The last time Apple had two back-to-back profitable quarters was in 1995, the company said.

"Apple had a great quarter, no question about it," said Steve Jobs, Apple's interim CEO, in a prepared statement. "We are very pleased with the strong demand for our Power Macintosh G3 computers, which accounted for 51 percent of all units sold."

According to Apple, revenues for the quarter were $1.4 billion, down from $1.6 billion in the same quarter of last year. International sales accounted for 50 percent of total revenues. Unit shipments were 650,000, an 8-percent increase from the prior-year quarter.

Without officially announcing when it would introduce its lower-priced consumer line this year, Apple chief financial officer Fred Anderson said it would be out in time for the December quarter (read: Christmas).

"When we get the new consumer line out there, we'll see some more growth for Apple," Anderson said during a teleconference Wednesday with financial analysts.

Apple Computer Inc., in Cupertino, Calif., is at http://www.apple.com.

Jeff Walsh is a reporter for InfoWorld.