In a statement released to the press on Wednesday, Apple reported its best ever quarterly results (between October and December 2014).
The company said it posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion (approximately 15.8 billion euros).
This compares to the Portuguese budget deficit for 2014 which amounted to 7 billion euros after a series of harsh and unpopular austerity measures imposed by the government.
The results were fuelled by all-time record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales as well as record performance of the App Store. iPhone unit sales of 74.5 million also set a new record.
“We’d like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO in a statement
“Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal.”
Tim Cook later added that 34,000 iPhones were sold worldwide every hour during the 92 days that made up the final quarter of 2014.
The iPhone 6 alone generated profits of $51 billion, which is more than the combined revenue of Microsoft and Google over the same period.
But while Portugal’s economic woes are well-documented and the difficulty of its people a constant, it has emerged that stocks for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been completely depleted at most stores across the country, with stocks only expected to be fully replenished by mid-February for these smartphones, which at their cheapest, retail at 679 euros each.
Portugal’s biggest electronics retailer Worten, currently only sells the predecessor of the iPhone 6, the 5S, via its online store.
The shortage of the 6, has seen the 5S remain popular, even though it still retails at just under 600 euros.
Portugal’s three mobile operators, NOS, MEO and Vodafone, all ran out of the iPhone 6 earlier this month, but have since managed to obtain more stock, with many stores still directing customers to larger venues to purchase what is arguably the most-coveted smartphone on the planet.