Apple Details Q3 Earnings, Has Best Quarter Ever

Apple has announced its quarterly earnings just ahead of its Sandy Bridge MacBook Pro refresh and the launch of OS X Lion.

Apple has attracted a lot of attention for its MacBook Air refresh and the launch of Lion but the company also announced earnings for its third fiscal quarter this past Tuesday. The Cupertino-based company posted record quarterly revenue of $28.57 billion and record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $15.70 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share, for the same period last year.

"We are extremely pleased with our performance which drove quarterly cash flow from operations of $11.1 billion, an increase of 131 percent year-over-year," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $25 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $5.50."

iPhone, iPad, and Mac sales were all up, increasing 142 percent, 183 percent and 14 percent respectively. The only product that saw a decline in sales was the iPod, which suffered a 20 percent unit decline compared to the same period last year. As far as unit sales go, Apple sold 20.34 million iPhones, 9.25 million iPads, 3.95 million Macs and 7.54 million iPods.

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs said that with revenue up 82 percent and profits up 125 percent, this has been Apple's best ever quarter.

"Right now, we’re very focused and excited about bringing iOS 5 and iCloud to our users this fall," Jobs said.