Image: 3Gstore.de

Apple has reported record quarterly profits, up 124% year-on-year, as sales of its ever popular iPhone and iPad products more than doubled.

The company’s net income was $7.31bn in their last quarter and in that time Apple sold 9.25 million iPads and 20.34 million iPhones, with an increase of 142% from the number of phones sold in the same period last year, this is the largest number of phones Apple has sold in one quarter.  There have also been hints that September may see the release of the next version of the iPhone as a “future product transition” is in the pipeline.

Apple did however see a slump in iPod sales as they slipped down 20% to only 7.54 million units, possibly due to the increase in iPhone sales.

The news caused a surge in the company’s stock as shares jumped to their highest for a year, increasing by $23.22 or 6.2%.

Peter Oppenheimer said of the record results: “We are extremely pleased with our performance. Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25bn.”

This announcement comes after 350 years of cheque usage, however because of the use of credit, debit and contactless payment cards, alongside online shopping and banking, it seems that in recent years the cheque has fallen into a ‘terminal decline’.

The council stated that as long as the needs of the vulnerable and elderly are met, then, “The goal is to ensure that by 2018 there is no scenario where customers, individuals or businesses, still need to use a cheque.”

With an execution date decided for the cheque, and a rise in the use other forms of payment, it looks as though cash may be next to face the block. While the advent of a cashless society has been widely heralded for around 40 years it has not seemed possible until recently.  However through the successful widespread use of mobile phone sims for small contactless purchases in countries like South Korea, it may just be that cash may also finally be coming to an end.

Better known for their mobile phones, Finnish telecoms giant Nokia is branching out – into the world of financial services.

In March this year, Nokia sank $70million into mobile payment specialist Obopay and Nokia will now be working alongside the company to develop services which will enable consumers to send and receive money via mobile phone as well as pay merchants for goods and services and pay bills.

The service will be called Nokia Money and is believed to be targeting emerging markets where banking services may not be readily available.

In a news item on telecoms.com, Mary McDowell, Nokia’s chief development officer is quoted as saing: “We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential … In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. Global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services.”

With mobile phones outnumbering bank accounts by almost 3-to-1 worldwide, there is a potential market for the provision and use of basic financial services via telecoms, and Nokia are also looking to create a network of approved Nokia Money agents where users of the service can deposit and withdraw cash from their accounts.

Nokia are expected to debut the service at next week’s Nokia World with deployment of the service scheduled to take place in 2010.