Apple's record results, sales top $20 bn

Apple Inc reported a 70 per cent jump in its net income to $4.3 billion, or $4.64 per share, from $2.5 billion, or $2.77 per share, in the same period last year. Revenue jumped 67 per cent to $20.3 billion, from $12.2 billion last year.

Wall Street's bar was so high for Apple Inc that the fact that it sold more iPads than Macs in the latest quarter wasn't enough to impress investors. Shares fell nearly 6 per cent after the release of results, even though Apple reported record net income and revenue as iPhone sales nearly doubled from a year ago.

Apple said it sold 4.2 million iPads during the fiscal fourth quarter. Although that was more than the 3.9 million Macintosh computers Apple sold, it was fewer than the 5 million iPads that analysts had estimated.

Apple sold 14.1 million iPhones from July through September, more than the 12 million or so analysts were looking for. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that had the company been able to make more iPhones, that number would have been even higher.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted that the company sold more iPhones than Research in Motion sold BlackBerry phones in the most recent quarter. RIM sold 12.1 million BlackBerrys, 2 million fewer than the iPhone.

On the new tablet computers built on Google's Android software, Jobs said, "The seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smart phone and too small to compete with an iPad." The iPad has a screen that measures nearly 10 inches diagonally.