Edible Apple

You know, it’s almost becoming old hat. Analysts speculate what Apple’s earnings and revenue will come in at, and Apple proceeds to blow those expecations out of the water.

A short while ago, Apple released its earnings statement for the quarter gone by, and posted revenue of $15.68 billion and a net profit of $3.38 billion. By way of comparison, during the same quarter a year-ago, Apple posted revenue of $11.88 billion and a net quarterly profit of $2.26 billion. In other words, Apple’s profits soared by nearly 50% on strong sales of 3.36 million Macs and 8.7 million iPhones. The iPhone figure in particular represents a staggering 100% increase from sales figures in the same quarter a year-ago. In the end, Apple realized earnings of $3.67 a share.

“If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it’s surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” Apple CEO Steve Jobs noted in a press release. “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

And so, the stage is set.

We’ll have more on Apple’s blowout quarter as the news from the earnings conference call trickles in.