Apple Posts Earnings Just High Enough to Please Wall Street

Apple very slightly beat Wall Street expectations in the 3rd quarter because of better than expected iPhone sales of 31.2 million units, bringing its revenue to $35.3 billion, just a little bit higher than the $34.9 billion expected by analysts, which has its stock up around five percent in after-hours trading.

Apple very slightly beat Wall Street expectations in the 3rd quarter because of better than expected iPhone sales of 31.2 million units, bringing its revenue to $35.3 billion, just a little bit higher than the $34.9 billion expected by analysts. "We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, Software and Services," CEO Tim Cook said in the release. The reports has its stock up around 5 percent in after-hours trading.

An earnings report from Verizon earlier this week suggested this might happen, when the wireless carrier reported surprisingly high sales, with more than half of its smartphone upgraders choosing the iPhone over an Android device. This time last year — just before the iPhone 5 release — Apple had only shipped  26 million devices this same quarter. So by comparison things look good. And, contrary to popular news reports, Cook "does not subscribe to the view that high-end smartphone demand has peaked," he said on the call. Even though, as Asymco's Horace Dedieu points out, people are opting for cheaper devices over newer, costlier ones:

iPhone average price is down to about $580 (from $613 last Q). This is first concrete signal that the mix is shifting to lower end variants.

— Horace Dediu (@asymco) July 23, 2013

Elsewhere in the report, everything else pretty much disappointed or fell in line with the expected disappointments. Both iPad and Mac sales were down from a year ago today. Overall, sales were pretty much flat, as this TechCrunch post demonstrates in charts.

There was, however, another small part of the report that might have Wall Street giddy: New products coming this fall. "We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014," Cook said in the release. Later, on the earnings call October was mentioned — suggesting the cheaper iPhone and 5S might come out then. Apple's lackluster performance over the last couple of quarters have resulted in some weak earnings reports. With some new products, though, Apple can sell more things, which makes investors happy.