Very little to report from my day today, lectures, gym and an hour of emails is about all that can be taken from today. I promise tomorrow will be more interesting, honest! However that does give me space to talk about some of the biggest business news of the day from a company near to my heart.

Apple’s fouth quater profits are up 47% on last year which has sent the stock to an all time high. Between July and September Apple sold 3.05 million Macs up 17% on last year, they also sold 7.4 million iPhones compared to 6.9 million one year previously.

All this means Apple posted a net profit of £1 billion working out at £1.10 per share in the fourth quarter. Yes you did read that right, one billion pounds net profit.

For a company like Apple who produces premium goods, which in a recession are normally hit hard with customers cutting their spending these are phenomenal results. The question is, how did they do it?

Well in short I don’t know but I think it’s clear that Apple can make people think the products they produce are essential to their lifes. I’m one of those people, I don’t know how I managed without my iPhone and without my mac I’d be lost. It’s this mentality that I believe is the main reason Apple can produce these results. It’s a lot easier said than done but they create a demand by being secretive and simplifying products, it’s amazing what focusing on quality can do. While the rest of the tech industry is struggling Apple is riding high. You can read more about the Apple results on Techcrunch.

On another note some of you may have noticed the comments on my post about the Shell Livewire awards a few days ago. There seems to be a controversy over the origins of the Shiply idea. I plan to write a post either tomorrow or the next day comparing the two services. I don’t want to wade into this argument as I don’t believe it’s my place but I do feel I should layout the facts for people to see plainly. I’ve sent an email to both companies for their comments but thus far I haven’t received an official response.

Anyway expect that in the next couple of days, I think I’ll leave it there for now, ciao.