KEY POINTS:
Apple has announced its financial results for the fiscal 2008 third quarter.
Expectations that it would be starting to suffer from recession woes and fuel costs have yet to bite - Apple posted revenue of $9.82 billion (US$7.46 billion) and net quarterly profit of $1.41 billion (US$1.07 billion).
In the year-ago quarter the comparable results were $7.12 billion (US$5.41 billion) with net quarterly profit of $1076.67 million (US$818 million).
Despite the growth, gross margins were down a bit - 34.8 per cent, down from 36.9 per cent in the year-ago quarter.
First Call estimated that Apple would deliver a slightly lower revenue of $9.69 billion (US$7.36 billion). Now investors are watching the company's performance for signs of exposure to weaknesses in the larger US and world economies.
International sales accounted for 42 per cent of the quarter's revenue - Australia and NZ have both been figuring strongly in the Asia Pacific sales figures in the last year.
The iPhone might be getting all the news but Apple shipped nearly two-and-a-half million Macs (2,496,000) in the last quarter, representing a fairly dramatic 41 per cent unit growth and 43 per cent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter.
iPod sales are still growing, too - over 11 million (11,011,000) iPods were during the quarter, representing 12 per cent unit growth and seven per cent revenue growth. The new 3G iPhone and the opening of over 20 new sales site internationally led to 717,000 iPhones being sold in the quarter, compared to 270,000 in the year-ago-quarter.
But will the recession bite Apple? Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO, said "Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.8 billion." That may be optimistic - the expectation equals $10.27 billion NZ compared to the just announced $9.82 billion.
Another worry appears to be Steve Jobs' health, with the New York Times chiming in a story stating industry concerns about Steve Jobs' health have not gone away more than a month after the Apple CEO appeared dramatically thinner at the firm's annual developers' conference [WWDC], fighting what insiders at the time were calling a 'bug'.
Jobs has already survived pancreatic cancer, and his health has hedge fund investors worried because there's no clear successor.
Apple has refused all comment on the CEO's health so far, but people who have met and even dined with Jobs have come away troubled by his thin appearance. Even Disney's board members (of which Jobs is one) have remarked on Jobs' weight loss.
Analysts and corporate-governance experts argue that for a visionary chief executive like Jobs, who drives Apple development of hit products, health is a material factor in the company's performance and something investors should be cognisant of.
For many reasons, I wish Mr Jobs good health.
Whatever the prognosis, economically or materially, the latest figures put Apple managers into in a very good position to chart the future of Apple Inc.
And for those who deride Apple as "just a marketing company", they're sure selling a lot of tangible products. They have Apple badges on them.
- Mark Webster mac.nz
