|
Apple Inc. reported Tuesday its best quarter ever as
profits soared to 1.58 billion dollars in the last three months of
2007 on demand for its Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPods.
"We're thrilled to report
our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in
Apple's history," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.
Apple's profits of 1.76 dollars
per share topped those from the same quarter in 2006 by more than 50
percent.
Apple posted revenue of 9.6
billion dollars, with sales outside the United States accounting for
45 percent of that figure.
Apple reported shipping 2.32
million Macintosh computers, a 44 percent increase from the number
of machines shipped in the last three months of 2006.
Sales of iPod MP3 players rose 17
percent to top 22 million, while iPhone sales for the quarter were
2.32 million.
Jobs said last week that Apple
has sold more than four million iPhones, touch-screen mobile devices
that combine telephone, video, music and Internet access.
Apple chief financial officer
Peter Oppenheimer says the California company expects per-share
earnings of 94 cents on revenues of 6.8 billion dollars in the
current quarter.
The price of Apple's stock
dropped more than 10 percent to below 140 dollars per share in the
wake of the report as investors seized on what they saw as a
lackluster forecast.
"I guess you can't win for
losing sometimes with Wall Street," said Gartner technology
analyst Mike McGuire.
"It would seem Apple is
simply being relatively conservative in what they are putting out
there, which to me makes sense. Apparently, that is not what Wall
Street wants to hear."
Historically, sales of consumer
electronics gadgets slow in the months after the year-end holiday
shopping season, and this year an economic slump in the United
States could exacerbate that pattern, McGuire said.
"The short term, given the
economy, is anything but extremely clear," McGuire said.
"I expect most companies, unless they sell heating oil or
winter overcoats, to be relatively conservative going forward."
Apple's stock is being punished,
in part, due to expectations set by a long string of quarters in
which it has been "knocking the cover off the ball" with
its hip products, McGuire said.
Macintosh computers that
benefited from a "halo effect" cause by Apple's hot iPods
and iPhones are "proving themselves in the marketplace,"
McGuire said.
Jobs pulled off a coup by uniting
major film studios behind an iTunes online movie rental service he
announced last week at Apple's annual Macworld Expo in San
Francisco, according to analysts.
Investors may have locked onto
the fact that unit sales of iPods were flat in the United States
while Apple took in more money in the category because people bought
more costly models, such as the new iPod Touch.
"People are wondering if the
iPod market is saturated," said Gartner analyst Van Baker.
"I don't think it is. I do think that the bigger you get the
harder is to achieve huge growth numbers."
Challenges ahead for Apple
include plans for a February release of an Android developers' kit
expected to clear the way for a mobile phone with service supported
by Google advertising.
"Apple has strong growth and
a lot of cash in the bank," Baker said. "It is hard to
argue with what they are doing. Still, Apple has to keep working and
innovating so as not to ride the curve down."
 --
AFP
|
