What would you buy with US$97.6 billion?
The numbers in Apple's latest earnings report are staggering. The company sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads during the last three months of last year, more than doubling sales of its flagship devices.
The sales pushed profits for the quarter to US$13.06bn (Dh47.97bn), more than double the same period a year earlier.
Revenues increased 74 per cent to a record $46.3bn and profit more than doubled to $13.1bn.
The shares jumped as high as 8.1 per cent after the announcement, in which Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, said the company had struggled to meet demand for iPhones in China.
Apple is now left with $97.6bn of cash on hand.
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said the company was "actively" considering options for its cash pile, although he did not reveal Apple's plans for its hoard.
The sum is only $9bn less than the US Treasury had available on Monday. It is also enough to pay the debts owed by Greece for the next two years.
For Apple, such an opportunity should be too good to waste.
The company's carefree California style would be more appealing to the downtrodden Greeks than that of the economic wrecking ball being applied by the EU and the IMF.
And Greece would do well to study Apple. The company's success shows that if you make something people want, even during hard times, they will still buy it in droves.
Analysts said they were astonished by the strength of Apple's earnings, with some having feared the death of the chief executive Steve Jobs last year would slow the company's meteoric growth.
"Going into 2012, I expect strength of iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad should carry on into the year," Hendi Susanto at Gabelli & Company told Reuters.
"Apple still has some tailwind, including opening up new retail stores and expanding its distribution channels.
"I would say Apple still has many unpenetrated international markets … Apple is still far from its saturation."
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