Visit Apple’s website to join the conference call webcast of the Q3 - 2008 financial results. The report begings at 2:00pm PT / 5:00pm ET today!

If you would prefer to dial-in, you can listen to the conference call using this phone number at Briefing.com.

Earnings

- Revenue of $7.46 billion (last year $5.41 billion)
- Net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion or $1.19 per diluted share (last year $818 million or $0.92 per share)
- Shipped 2,496,000 Macintosh computers
- Shipped 11,011,000 iPods
- Shipped 717,000 IPhones (and that was with people waiting for the 3G)
- Apple did not recognize ANY iPhone revenue sold after March 6th till July 11th
- Steve Jobs “We’re proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple’s history. We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G, and we’re busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months.”
- Mac sales numbers represent 41% unit growth over last year’s quarter
- iPod sales represent 12% unit growth over last year’s numbers
- Q4 2008 expectations: revenue of $7.8 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.
- AAPL did not recognize ANY IPhone revenue sold after March 6th until 2.0 software came out on 7/11 so they sandbagged Apr, May and June’s IPhone sales!

Conference Call Highlights

- Very pleased to report highest June quarter earnings and revenue.
- 38% growth in revenue over previous year-ago quarter
- Highest quarterly Mac shipments ever
- Continues to see healthy growth in all regions, sales in retail stores very strong
- Mac: 2.5 million Macs shipped. Most in any quarter in Apple’s history.
- Apple’s share of total personal computers up to 19.5% in June
- Best Mac quarter ever in U.S. education
- Sold 11 million iPods. Up 12% from year ago.
- Great start with iPhone 3G. 22 Countries. 1 millionth iPhone 3G just 3 days after its launch.
- Customer reaction to iPhone 3G overwhelmingly positive.
- App Store: offers more than 900 applications, with 20% free. 90% less than $10.
- Customers loving the App Store. Over 25 million Apps downloaded so far.
- Retail Stores. 476,000 Macs sold. 1/2 were sold to customers new to Mac.
- 216 Stores Worldwide by end of Quarter. Extending international stores. Switzerland and Germany coming.
- Looking forward to 4th Quarter: Great start with iPhone 3G. Expect to sell more iPhones in Q4 than any previous quarter. Due to subscription recording, much of the revenue will be deferred to future quarters. “Future product transition“. Can’t discuss today.
- More great new products later this year.
- Apple reiterates they will be delivering state of the art new products at prices their competitors can’t match. Very excited about what they have in their new product pipeline.

Apple Investor Relations Website: http://www.apple.com/investor/

Apple earnings commentary to follow:
15:30 APPLE SEES 3Q REVENUE ABOUT $7.2B
15:30 APPLE SEES 3Q EPS ABOUT $1
15:30 APPLE 2Q REVENUE $7.51B
15:30 APPLE 2Q GROSS MARGIN 32.9%
15:30 APPLE 2Q EVENUE $7.51B
15:30 APPLE 2Q EPS $1.16
15:30 APPLE 2Q REVENUE $7.51B
15:30 APPLE 2Q EPS $1.16
15:30 Apple Reports Record Second Quarter Results

15:30 APPLE 2Q EPS $1.16; ANALYST EST. $1.06
15:31 APPLE 2Q REVENUE $7.51 BLN; ANALYST EST. $6.96 BLN
15:31 APPLE 2Q MACINTOSH SHIPPED 2.3M UNITS UP 51%
15:31 APPLE SEES 3Q REVENUE ABOUT $7.2B, ANALYST EST. $7.198B

Falling down from $170 in After-Hours because:
Apple-AAPL sees Q3 EPS about $1.00 vs. consensus of $1.10

Sales notes from the quarter:
- 2,289,000 Macs shipped (51% unit growth, 54% revenue growth)
- 10,644,000 iPods shipped (1% unit growth, 8% revenue growth)
- 1,703,000 iPhones sold

Jobs guided down Q2 to .94 on the January call, and they came in at $1.16.
Currently he’s trying to minimize expectations for Q3 here, thus creating a little breathing room for a nice beat in Q3. Remember WWDC is coming in June and so will 3G iPhones.

iPhone unit sales down 26% Q1 -> Q2. Revenue is up 56% over the same period.

Apple “Unaudited Condensed Consolidated Statements of Operations”
http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q208fin_statements.pdf

“We’re delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters.”

“We’re thrilled to have generated $4 billion in cash flow from operations in the first half of fiscal 2008, yielding an ending cash balance of $19.4 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00.”

Conference Call Notes:
- Pleased to report highest March quarter revenues and profit.
- Very strong Mac demand.
- Revenue growth accelerated to 43%, up from 21% last year.
- Retail sales up 74%…number of visitors in retail stores up 57%.
- Mac sales up 3.5 times the rate of PC industry as a whole.
- 3-4 weeks of Mac channel inventory at quarter’s end.
- Very pleased with customer response to iPod touch.
- iPod shuffle sales were down until price drop, then accelerated.
- 73% share of MP3 player market.
- iTunes Store with 85% of legal music download in US. Movie rental service well-received.
- 200,000 developers have downloaded iPhone SDK. One-third of Fortune 500 companies have contacted Apple about the program.
- Retail stores: 208 stores. Looking forward to opening first stores in Australia, China, and Switzerland.
- $19.4 billion in cash. Generated $4 billion in cash over the last two quarters.
- Q3 Outlook: Targeting $7.2 billion revenue, gross margins of 33%, earning of $1.00 per share.