Apple quarterly profit misses estimates

Apple reported its latest quarterly results as the company beat analysts' expectations on revenue but fell short on profit.

For the fiscal 2012 fourth quarter ended Sep 29, Apple posted quarterly revenue of $36 billion and net profit of $8.2 billion or $8.67 per diluted share, reported Xinhua.

Analysts had expected the company to report $8.75 per share in profit on $35.8 billion in revenue.

According to Apple, it sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, an increase of 58 percent year over year. A total of 14 million iPads were sold during the quarter, a 26 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The iPhone sales number is higher than estimates by Wall Street analysts that had expected 25 million to 26 million units. But the iPad number falls short of predictions which was between 17 million to 18 million units.

Apple also sold 4.9 million Macs, including laptops and desktops, during the quarter, increasing by one percent on an year- over-year basis.

The iPod is the only Apple product that saw a decline. The company sold 5.3 million iPods during the quarter, down 19 percent from a year before.

"We're very proud to end a fantastic fiscal year with record September quarter results," Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

"We're entering this holiday season with the best iPhone, iPad, Mac and iPod products ever, and we remain very confident in our new product pipeline," he added.

Apple's Board of Directors also declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the company's common stock.

The upcoming holiday shopping season is crucial to Apple's performance in the current quarter as it just unveiled iPad mini, a smaller version of its tablet, as well as fourth generation of the full-size iPad, while its major competitors like Google, Amazon and Microsoft are also rolling out new products.