Apple announced its fiscal 2012 third-quarter earnings Tuesday. There were no surprises; Apple continued to sell well across all its product lines. Even the iPod, which is down 10% over last year, sold 6.8 million units. Apple also announced that the new version of its operating system, Mountain Lion, will be released Wednesday.
The quarterly revenue was $35 billion, amounting to $8.8 billion in profit, or $9.32 per diluted share. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced a dividend of $2.65 per share, noting that he expects the earnings per share to be significantly lower next quarter as Apple is “continuing to invest in the growth of our business.”
In our preview of this quarter’s earnings we pointed to five numbers that matter. Apple scored on four out of five counts, and there were no blow-outs.
Apple sold 26 million iPhones this quarter. It’s lower than some optimistic expectations, but that’s still plenty of phones.
It sold 17 million iPads, also just on the safe side of expectations. That’s an 84% increase in iPad sales year-over-year.
Apple announced that it will release Mountain Lion Wednesday, right on schedule near the end of the July timeframe it announced at WWDC in June.
Apple came in just shy of the gross margin we expected, at 42.8%. Last quarter’s monster numbers – 47.4% – were driven by the iPhone, its most profitable product. Those sales are beginning to slow as consumers expect a major update to the model line in a few months.
International sales represented 62% of the quarter’s revenue.
The earnings call begins at 2:00 Pacific and is streaming live on Apple’s website.
