Apple has reported a 70% increase in Q4 profit to a record $4.31 billion, on a 90% surge in iPhone sales.
In an unusual appearance at Apple's earnings call, CEO Steve Jobs lauded the company's phone sales and dished out advice to the rivals.
With 14.1 million iPhones sold in the quarter, the company “handily beat” the 12.1 million phones sold by RIM, Jobs said, “We've now passed RIM, and I don't see them catching up with us in the foreseeable future.”
Jobs said RIM needed to expand from its traditional enterprise focus and woo consumers and developers.
“They must move beyond their area of strength and comfort into the unfamiliar territory if trying to become a software platform company. I think it's going to be a challenge to convince developers to build for a third platform after iOS and Android.”
Apple has been selling an average of 275,000 iOS devices per day, higher than the 200,000 Android units Google claims to activate per day, he said. Jobs contested Google's reported figures in any case. “There is no solid data on how many phones are shipped each quarter,” he said.
He defended Apple's walled-garden approach to iOS development, claiming that consumers want devices that “just work” and the fragmented nature of Android development jeopardizes this.