It's possible that analysts were given ground rules on what they could, or could not ask, but it was still rather strange. On the other hand, there were a few somewhat veiled references to the future which implied questioning about Jobs.
At any rate, in terms of actual earnings, Apple's records included record revenue ($26.74 billion), record net quarterly profit ($6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share).
Those results compare rather nicely year-over-year: in its fiscal Q1 2011, Apple reported revenue of $15.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. Gross margin was 38.5 percent compared to 40.9 percent in fiscal Q1 2010. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
More records include the number of Macs sold in the quarter. Apple sold 4.13 million Macs, up 23 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, there were 16.24 million iPhones sold in the quarter, up an astounding 86 percent year-over-year. iPods continue to lag, with a 7 percent drop year-over-year, to 19.45 million.
In case anyone needs confirmation, the iPad is still a solid hit, with a record 7.33 million iPads sold during the quarter. That number beat the Street's consensus by a million units.
Steve Jobs, who is still Apple's CEO, you will recall, despite his medical leave, wrote the following:
“We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales. We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.”In after-hours trading, Apple stock is up to $340.90. With that price, Apple stock has nearly regained all its losses from last Friday, those related to the announcement of Steve Jobs medical leave. Good numbers overcome bad CEO news, it seems.
