As the market has come to expect, Apple comfortably exceeded earnings targets with revenues of $35bn and a net profit of $8.8bn, equivalent to $9.32 per diluted share. Also as usual, analysts were optimistic and fired high with estimated earnings of over $37bn, north of $10 per share. Apple had earlier forecast £34bn revenues but, as usual, the market took this as an overly pessimistic view.
During the quarter the company sold 26m iPhones and an estimate-beating 17m iPads. Mac sales at 4m were slightly disappointing, particularly in view of the interest created by the launch of the retina MacBook Pro. I think the full benefit of the new Pro and the updated MacBook Airs will be felt in the fourth quarter and it is clear that the anticipation of new models had a negative effect on sales in Q3.