Apple presented its revenue at $7.51 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.05 billion, or $1.16 for every diluted share.Both these Apple records were for the second fiscal quarter. This compares to $5.26 billion revenue and $770 million profit, or $.87 for every diluted share from the quarter from the year ago. Gross margin was 32.9 percent whcih was down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue were attributed to sales, particularly, International Sales.

“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.”

 Apple for sure went far ahead of every prediction made for the second quarter, Apple’s guidance for the third quarter falls below the street’s expectations for profit of $1.09 a share on $7.23 billion in sales.

The following were observations made during the conference call that immediately followed the above announcements:

·        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.