iPhone 4s Rakes in the Dough

Apple reported revenue of $46.33 billion and profits of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2011. That was up from the $26.74 billion, or $6.43 per share, the company saw at the same time last year.
"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads, and Macs," Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said in a statement. "Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline." Analysts polled by FactSet Research Systems, on average, forecasted that the company would bring in $10.06 per share on revenue of $39 billion. The performance obliterated Apple's own estimates, which called for earnings of $9.30 a share on sales of $37 billion. Apple made a rare miss in its previous quarterly earnings, posting results that were strong but lower than analysts expected, due in no small part to customers holding off on buying new iPhones in anticipation of a newer model. For its current quarter, Apple expects revenue of $32.5 billion and projected earnings of $8.50 per share, 48 cents above analyst expectations.
Apple's gross profit margin for the quarter was 44.7 percent, up 38.5 percent percent from the same quarter last year.

By the numbers
As expected, the iPhone was the star of Apple's quarter, with the company having sold 37.04 million units. That's well above the 30 million analysts were expecting. This is the first quarter to include sales of the iPhone 4S, which hit shelves in mid-October and had stronger launch sales numbers than any previous iPhone model. Apple also said it sold 15.43 million iPads during the quarter, up 128 percent from the 7.33 million it sold during the same time a year ago. That exceeded the 13 million to 14 million units analysts were expecting. Of special note were Apple's Mac sales, coming in at 5.2 million units. That surpasses the 5 million units for the first time ever and bests the company's previous top tally of 4.89 million units set in its previous quarter. That figure matched up exactly to the 5.2 million analysts were expecting Apple to sell. iPods continued their decline, with Apple posting sales of 15.4 million units, a decrease of 21 percent compared to the company's sales during Apple's first quarter last year. This was the first time in recent years in which Apple did not do a full refresh of its iPod Touch line, which continues to make up the majority of iPod unit sales. When debuting the iPhone 4S in October, Apple opted instead to offer it in a new color (white), as well as cut its price.

Shares of Apple's stock were up $1.80 (0.43 percent) in after-hours trading

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