Apple Mac sales hit 2.61 million - up 21 percent

Apple unveiled its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter financial results, the company reported a profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per share, on a revenue of $7.9 billion. Earnings are up 26 percent year-over-year and a lot better than the $1.10 per share analysts had predicted, although the revenue is a bit lower than the consensus of $8.02 billion.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter ended September 27, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million, or $1.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, up from 33.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.68 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.44 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

This is one of the best quarters in Apple's history and the firm is proud they sold more phones than RIM. Steve Jobs states they don't know how this economic downturn will affect Apple, but he stresses the company has $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt and that Apple has the strongest product lineup in their history, the most talented employees and the best customers in their industry.

Apple shipped 2,611,000 Mac computers during the quarter, a 21 percent unit growth and 17 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The iPhones were strong sellers as well, Apple sold 6,892,000 units in the quarter, compared to 1,119,000 a year ago. Sales of iPods totaled 11,052,000 units, up 8 percent year-over-year but with a revenue growth of only three percent.

The guidance for the fiscal Q1 2009 earnings is rather broad, Apple targets a revenue of $9.0 to $10.0 biillion and earnings per share between $1.06 and $1.35.