Apple reported earnings on Monday for the first three months of the year, and the results were impressive. We cut through the numbers and chatter to bring you five things to know about the company fiscal second-quarter performance.

1. The year of the sheep. Larger-screen iPhones seem to have made the perfect New Year's gift in China, where people celebrated the spring festival in February by exchanging presents. Apple's phone sales rose more than 70 percent in the greater China region, making it the world's largest iPhone market, Luca Maestri, chief financial officer, said.

2. Bigger than New Zealand Apple's cash stash grew 8.9 per cent from the end of December, to $194 billion, more than the 2013  gross domestic product of New Zealand. To a ppease such shareholders as activist investor Carl Icahn, Apple announced an increase in the size of its capital return programme by $70 billion through to March 2017. Part of that effort includes raising its dividend by 10.6 per cent to $2.08, making it the largest source of dividends in the Standard and Poor's 500 index.

3. Second-best quarter ever for Apple Apple's profit during the first six months of its fiscal year totaled $31.6 billion. That's more than the $29.3 billion market value of Tesla Motors.

4. More watches are coming There isn't enough inventory of the new Apple Watch, which won't ship until June for some customers. Apple is rushingto produce more, hoping to have enough for everybody who wants one by the end of June. That's also when the company plans to release the watch in additional countries.

5. The iPhone is eating the iPad for lunch Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook admitted that the iPhone is cannibalising iPad sales, which fell 23 per cent compared with the same period last year. Some relief could come in the form of a 12.9-inch iPad, which is expected to begin production later this year.

– Bloomberg