Apple’s $US53 billion profit for 2015 has blown away the record previously held by Exxon which achieved $US45.2 billion in 2008. Who’d have thought tax avoidance on a global and vastly immoral scale and choosing business partners whose behaviour would make a robber baron blush, could work so well?

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook (pictured), “Fiscal 2015 was Apple’s most successful year ever, with revenue growing 28 per cent to nearly $234 billion. This continued success is the result of our commitment to making the best, most innovative products on earth, and it’s a testament to the tremendous execution by our teams.

“We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week.”

CFO Luca Maestri said: “Apple’s record September quarter results drove earnings per share growth of 38 per cent and operating cash flow of $13.5 billion. We returned $17 billion to our investors during the quarter through share repurchases and dividends, and we have now completed over $143 billion of our $200 billion capital return program.”

Among the other highlights of the result (all values in $USD):

• Revenue between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion
• Gross margin between 39 percent and 40 percent
• Operating expenses between $6.3 billion and $6.4 billion
• Other income/(expense) of $400 million
• Tax rate of 26.2 percent

The result was driven by particularly strong iPhone sales in the last quarter.  However if you are looking for grey clouds amongst the sunshine it’s this. The company finds itself back where it has traditionally rested – captive to hardware product cycle – but serious, right now, who would care.