Apple’s third quarter earnings beat analysts’ expectation

On July 20, 2010, Apple posted its third quarter earnings and it exceeded analysts’ expectations. Apple iPhone 4, which was released in June 2010 at the Apple World Wide Developers’ Conference, was a runaway success. Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, said that Apple iPhone 4 is the most successful product launch in the history of Apple.

In January 2010, Apple unveiled its much talked about tablet PC, Apple iPad. Initially, many were apprehensive whether the device would become a success but now those critics had been silenced. The company shipped a total of 3.27 million Apple iPads. In the first 80 days, Apple sold 3 million Apple iPads.

The third quarter, which ended on June 27, 2010, Apple reported a revenue of $15.7 billion which is higher compared to the $9.7 billion revenue at the same time last year.

Apple revenue also exceeded analysts’ estimate of $14.74 billion polled by Thomson Reuters.

The Cupertino based producer of the most popular smartphone in the world, reported a net income of $3.25 billion in the third quarter compared to its net income of $1.83 billion at the same time in the previous fiscal year. Diluted earnings per share were estimated to be $3.51 which also beat analysts estimates of $3.11.

Shipments of Mac desktops amounted to 3.47 million which is a 33 percent rise on a year-over-year basis.

Apple sold 8.4 million iPhones in the last quarter which is a 61% rise on a year-over-year basis. However, it observed an 8% decline in shipment amounting to 9.41 million.