Apple Mac HQ

If you don’t want to listen to the Quicktime stream or read a live blog, here are the most interesting numbers from Apple’s 2008 Q3 results which were released today. My comments are in parentheses.

B = Billion
M = Million
YAQ = Year ago quarter
FY = Fiscal Year

Revenue/Financials
-Best June quarter for revenue and earnings in Apple history
-Revenue of 7.46B; 38% increase over YAQ
-Net Income 1.07B; 31% increase over YAQ
-EPS of $1.19
-Gross margin was 34.8%; down from 36.9% in YAQ
-International sales accounted for 42% of revenue
-Europe revenue growth was 43% over YAQ
-Operating Expenses were 1.21B
-Capital expenditures were 304M in quarter
-1.33B in cash generated in quarter
-5.4B in cash generated in first 3 quarters of fiscal 2008
-20.8B in cash on hand
-Q4 estimates of 7.8B in revenue

Mac
-Shipped 2.5M Macs; a new quarterly record
-Mac unit sales up 41% over YAQ
-49% increase in Mac desktop sales over YAQ
-37% increase in Mac portable sales over YAQ
-25% growth in Mac US education sales over YAQ
-Mac channel inventory is currently below average, currently at 3-4 weeks
-Mac products and services accounted for 61% of total quarterly revenue

iPhone
-Sold 717,000 iPhones (iPhone 3G was not released in this quarter)
-Sold 1M iPhone 3Gs in 3 days (sales not recognized in this quarter)
-Over 25M iPhone apps downloaded to date (sales not recognized in this quarter)
-Q4 iPhone sales are expected to be the highest for any quarter yet (well duh; a distribution in over 20 countries will do that)
-”About” 20 additional countries will have an August 22nd iPhone 3G launch; bringing the total to over 40
-iPhone will be in 70 countries by the end of the year
-Apple still expects to sell 10M iPhones in calendar year 2008
-Revenue of 419M was recognized from iPhone sales, iPhone accessories, and payments from phone carriers. This does not include iPhone sales between March 6th and July 10th (due to accounting methods in relation to the announcement and release of iPhone 2.0 software).

iPod/iTunes
-Sold 11M iPods; 12% increase over YAQ
-7% iPod revenue growth over YAQ
-Over 70% market share in MP3 players in the US; based on latest public data
-Over 5B songs sold since iTunes released

Apple Stores
-58% growth in Apple Store retail sales over YAQ
-About 32M visitors to Apple Stores; up 10M over YAQ
-Apple Stores reported 1.44B in revenue
-Average revenue per store was 6.8M; up 33% over YAQ
-Over 50% of in store Mac sales were to new Mac customers
-8 new Apple Stores opened in quarter; including first in Australia
-Q3 ended with 216 Apple Stores
-Apple Stores coming to Switzerland and Germany in 2008
-Expect to close FY 2008 with 242 Apple Stores

Other
-Gross margin will decline for Q4 in part from a “future product transition” (ideas anyone?)
-Added 170 Best Buy mini stores; bringing the total to 570
-Added over 1600 storefronts to Mac distribution in the last year
-In a question about the health of Steve Job’s: “Steve loves Apple, he serves as the CEO at the pleasure of Apple’s board and has no plans to leave Apple. Steve’s health is a private matter.”
-Apple continues to invest in the Apple TV; yet it remains a “hobby”
-Analysts seemed overly concerned about the 30% gross margin Apple predicted for FY 2009

As of this post, the stock is down more than $16 in after hours trading. Record sales, incredible growth, stock tumbles. I guess you can’t always please The Street!

Apple will report their much anticipated 2007 fourth quarter earnings report on Monday at 5:00 EDT. Analysts are expecting Apple to beat their guidance of $.65 cents per share on $5.7 billion. Apple is often cited as giving conservative guidance so beating guidance comes as no surprise.

Mac sales are expected to take center stage on the earnings report. The fourth quarter is usually a strong quarter for the Mac due to back to school sales. While the Mac may take center stage, iPod and iPhone sales will also be of interest to investors. During the quarter, Apple announced redesigned iPods (except the shuffle which only got new colors), a new iMac, iLife 08, iWork 08, and the price cut heard around the world.

You can listen to the fourth quarter results conference call a number of ways.

Phone: (719) 325-4745.

Webcast: You can listen to the audio webcast here.

Disclosure: I own an insignificant number of Apple, Inc (AAPL) shares.

Update: You can find a breakdown of the fourth quarter results here.