earnings

With Apple's fourth-quarter earnings in the bag, we now have a full picture of how the company has done during its entire fiscal year.

Though Apple's last quarter was a disappointment on the profit side, and soft on iPad sales, the company surprised with stronger-than-expected iPhone sales.

The company's current quarter, during which Apple expects to bring in $52 billion in sales, kicked off last month.

Here's some of Apple's 2012 by the numbers:

$156.5 billion. Apple's total sales for the year. The biggest chunk of that came during the first quarter, when … Read more

But seriously, Tim Cook, how do you really feel about smaller tablets?

The Apple CEO let loose on 7-inch tablets during a conference call with investors, insisting that the company would never build one. "We would not make a 7-inch tablet," he said today. "We don't think they're good products."

Cook, of course, is staying true to the late Steve Jobs' proclamation that a tablet that's smaller than the original 9.7-inch iPad was too uncomfortable, and that consumers would have to shave off parts of their fingers to actually use it.

But … Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook said today that there's plenty of room for the Cupertino, Calif.-based company to grow in China.

"We continue to see it as an extremely exciting market," Cook said during a conference call with analysts held after Apple disclosed its most recent earnings.

Cook said that Apple's revenue in China over the last few months was $5.7 billion, the bulk of its overall Asia-Pacific revenue of $7.5 billion. Apple's total China revenue for the entire fiscal year ending last month was $23.8 billion, he said, now making up … Read more

Apple CEO Tim Cook, speaking during the company's fourth-quarter earnings conference call, didn't hesitate to take some shots at Microsoft's Surface tablet, which launched today.

It's a "fairly compromised, confusing product," said Cook, who added that he hasn't used one yet. "One of the toughest things you do with what product to make, is to make hard trade-offs and decide what a product should be, and we've really done that with the iPad, so the user experience is incredible. I suppose you could design a car that flies and floats, but … Read more

Apple isn't expecting a very happy holiday season, financially anyway.

The company today issued its forecast for its fiscal first quarter ending in December, calling for per-share earnings of $11.75 and revenue of $52 billion.

That's short of Wall Street's average forecast of $15.43 a share in earnings and $55.02 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters. Apple is known to be overly conservative with its own estimates, and Wall Street investors often pump up their own projections a little higher.

Still, the expectations call for growth in the quarter and underscore Apple's … Read more

Apple said today that it sold 26.9 million iPhones in the last three months, an increase of 58 percent from the same period last year and slightly more than analysts had expected.

The popular phone -- the iPhone 5 went on sale last month -- accounted for the largest category of Apple's hardware sales, up from 26 million sold in the previous quarter and 17 million sold during the same period last year.

By comparison, Apple said in this afternoon's earnings statement that it sold 4.9 million Macs, 5.3 million iPods, and 14 million iPads … Read more

Apple's knack for surprises held up in its quarterly earnings today.

The company narrowly beat expectations on revenue, but missed on profits.

Buoyed by sales of the iPhone and iPad, the company reported revenue of $36 billion and profits of $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per share, for the quarter ended September 29.

Wall Street expected Apple to report $35.80 billion in sales, with earnings per share of $8.75. Apple's own forecast for the quarter was $34 billion, with earnings per share of $7.65.

"We're very proud to end a fantastic fiscal … Read more

Facebook's stock is on a tear today, poised to post its biggest one day gain since it went public in May. This comes a day after the company's strong third-quarter earnings report and, perhaps more importantly, its upbeat call with analysts in which CEO Mark Zuckerberg said flat out, "I want to dispel this myth that Facebook can't make money on mobile."

While Zuckerberg and his top execs stressed that Facebook is in the early days on this front -- it only started trying to make money from mobile in March -- they did share … Read more

Apple may disappoint investors tomorrow with fiscal fourth-quarter results that show weaker sales of its key iPad and iPhone product lines.

Wall Street is expecting Apple to report $36.27 billion in sales, with earnings per share of $8.91. Apple's own forecast for the quarter is $34 billion, with earnings per share of $7.65. Much of that tally is expected to come from the iPhone and iPad, which together made up 72 percent of the company's revenue last quarter.

This is the first quarter to include sales of Apple's iPhone 5, but only a few … Read more