Apple earnings disappoint, kinda

APPLES & ORANGES: Yup, Apple’s fiscal Q4 earnings of $28.27 billion in revenue fell below Wall Street’s expectations for the first time in ages; it hasn’t happened since 2002, according to some historians. This is hardly a disaster, however, and there are two good reasons for it. First, it’s obvious that consumers were waiting the next version of the iPhone, so that sales dipped more than 3 million from fiscal Q3, to 17.07 million. First, as TechCrunch points out, analysts seem to have wised up to Apple’s traditionally lowball estimates and were projecting numbers far higher: they were looking for around $29.5 billion. That’s still their second best quarter ever—just shy of last quarter’s record $28.5 billion. Second, those 4 million iPhone 4S sales following last Friday’s launch will, of course, count toward the next quarter. Speaking of which, check this out… (10/19a)