Edible Apple

Here are a few interesting tidbits relayed by COO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer from Monday’s earnings conference call.

In the last quarter, Apple sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter, a fact which Apple is more than pleased with given the economic environment. 

Apple’s operating margin was the highest ever, and came in at $2.91 billion.

Revenue from back to school sales were extremely strong, and were the highest ever for Apple in the U.S. education market.

Through the end of the September quarter, upgrade sales of Snow Leopard went out the door at twice the rate as Snow Leopard, a fact which shouldn’t be all that suprising given 1) The larger installed base of OS X users and 2) the affordable $29 pricepoint of Snow Leopard

50% of all iPod buyers were brand new iPod owners, a fact made all the more impressive given that this figure applies even in high marketshare countries like the U.S., Japan, and Canada.

iPod Touch sales were up 100% year over year, in large part due to a sucessful back to school season/promotion, and the growing popularity of the app store.

The iTunes Store is now available in 23 countries, and offers 11 million songs, making it the largest music retailer.  The iTunes Store also offers 50,000 TV Episodes and 7,500 films.

The iPhone will be arriving in China later this month.

Confirming earlier reports, Apple will be expanding its carrier relationship later this month in both Canada and the UK.

There were half a billion app downloads in the September quarter, with over 85,000 apps available.

Apple’s cash+securities position comes in at $34 billion, a $3 billion increase from last quarter

Looking forward to the next quarter, Apple gave analysts a range of guidance, with estimated EPS to fall anywhere between $1.70 and $1.78 a share.  Revenue is forecasted to fall somewhere between $11.3 billion and $11.6 billion. (Note: these forecasts are based on the assumption that full revenue from iPhone sales will be accounted for over a 24 month period).