18
October
2006
|
05:19 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Apple wows with 3Q numbers


Apple reported some awesome numbers for its third quarter after the bell today - earnings of $61 million, or 16 cents a share, more than tripling revenues of a year ago, $19 million, or 5 cents a share.

So where's the growth? A mass migration from PC to Mac? Mac sales were actually quite healthy, at 19 percent growth from 2005, but, if you haven't gotten the message yet, Apple is a consumer music company. iPod sales increased 35 percent and total music sales increased 162 percent from a year ago. Jobs crowed:


"It was an outstanding quarter — our highest third-quarter revenue in eight years."


Apple's only problem - well, not the only, there's still that nasty options business to worry about - is that they still can't fully deliver on the demand they've built up. USA Today reports that Apple hasn't been able to get enough Hitachi one-inch drives to meet the demand for Mini iPods.


"The demand for the Mini far exceeds the supply," says Apple Executive Vice President Timothy Cook. "Internationally, the order stream has just opened up, and the numbers are just unprecedented."


Continued problems with getting chips from IBM also hurt iMac sales. Apple's received 80,000 orders for its new AirPort Express, which streams music from computer to stereo.