Apple delivered yet another impressive financial quarter, earning a net profit of $8.8 billion on revenues of $35 billion. Amazingly, these lofty numbers came in well under expectations, and analyst disappointment in the results sent Apple’s stock tumbling in after-hours trading.
Frankly, I don’t get it.
Apple sold 26 million iPhones in the quarter, up 28 percent year over year. It sold an astonishing 17 million iPads, up 84 percent—a record quarter for the device. Mac sales came in at 4 million units, up just 2 percent despite a major launch event for new Macs. And Apple sold 6.8 million iPods, down 10 percent.
“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a prepared statement. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release [OS X] Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”
Analysts weren’t so pleased. They were expecting Apple to sell 29 million iPhones, for example, and as many as 20 million iPads. And iPad sales are cannibalizing Mac sales, Apple admitted.
No matter. For a company with several mature product lines, Apple’s numbers are simply fantastic. And with the firm widely expected to release a smaller iPad, a new iPhone, an HDTV, and other products in the quarters ahead, it’s pretty clear that the growth will continue.
