Apple fails to meet analyst expectations

APPLE last night reported fourth-quarter profit and sales that missed analysts’expectations after it sold fewer iPhones than analysts’ projected.

Wed, 19 Oct, 2011 - 01:00

Adam Satariano (Bloomberg)

Profit was $4.84 billion (€3.4bn) or $5.16 a share, compared with $3.15€bn, or $3.39 a share, a year earlier, Cupertino, California-based Apple said in a statement. Revenue in the quarter that ended in September was $20.69bn. Analysts had predicted profit of $5.35 a share on sales of $21.64bn.

Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones, compared with the 20 million predicted by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg. Consumers held off buying the smartphone ahead of the release of a new version last week, after the quarter ended.

Apple shares fell in extended trading. The stock had closed at 308.75€ in New York.

Apple had been expected to sell 11.5 million iPads and 4.4 million Macs, according to the average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Gross profit margin, the percentage of sales left after deducting production costs, was 40.3% last quarter, compared with 36.9% a year earlier, Apple said.

Apple regularly exceeds its own outlook and Wall Street analysts’ expectations. The company has exceeded analysts’ profit expectations for at 32 straight quarters, according to Bloomberg data.

Apple is facing serious competition from companies including Samsung Electronics Co and HTC, which use Google’s Android operating system to power rival smartphones and tablets.

And Research In Motion, looking to regain sales lost to Apple and Google, unveiled a new operating system designed to help developers create applications for its PlayBook tablet computer and new smartphones.

The software, called BlackBerry BBX, bridges RIM’s current BlackBerry operating system and its newer QNX platform, co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis said.

That should remove developer “roadblocks” and make it easier for them to build applications for RIM. Lazaridis didn’t say when the new BBX program will be available.

“I can’t say how important you are to us,” he told the audience of developers at the BlackBerry DevCon conference in San Francisco. “It’s a really exciting time for BlackBerry developers.”