Apple hints at B2B push as Mac sales soar

But tech giant disappoints with weaker-than-expected smartphone shipments

Apple has hinted it might focus more on its enterprise business in the coming quarters as it claimed its groundwork in the segment is beginning to pay off.

The news came as the tech giant reported booming sales in Macs for its first quarter, defying the troubled PC market.

But the tech giant's shares still slumped as much as nine per cent last night after its Q1 income remained flat and it disappointed Wall Street after iPhone sales did not meet predictions.

For its first quarter which ended 28 December, Apple's net profit remained flat at $13.1bn (£7.91bn) on like-for-like sales which jumped 5.7 per cent to $57.6bn.

Apple talked up its presence in the enterprise segment on its earnings call and said there was "huge potential" to sell into businesses.

It claimed its iPhones are used in 97 per cent of Fortune 500 firms, while the iPad is used in 98 per cent of them, and that the future is bright for B2B sales.

"I think the road in enterprise is a longer one," said Apple's chief executive Tim Cook on a call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

"The arc is longer than in consumer, which can immediately go out and buy things. I think we've done a lot of the groundwork as you can tell from these numbers that I've given you, and I would expect that it would have more and more payback in the future."

In Q1 Apple shipped some 51 million iPhones - a company record and up from 47.8 million a year ago - but analysts had expected the figure to be closer to 55 million.

IDC said Apple's record-breaking sales still might not be enough to measure up to rivals.

"Apple had the lowest year-on-year increase of all the leading vendors," it said. "Now that Apple has finally arrived at China Mobile, it remains to be seen how much Apple will close the gap against Samsung in 2014."

It was a different story for its Mac arm though after sales reached 4.8 million, up 19 per cent from a year ago.

Apple's chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said he was especially pleased with Mac sales in light of the troubled global PC market.

"Mac sales grew in each of our operating segments, led by Europe and... China," he said. "We were also very pleased to have generated such strong results for our Mac products, particularly given IDC's most recently published estimate of a six per cent year-over-year contraction in worldwide personal computer sales.

"Macs have now gained global market share for 30 of the last 31 quarters."