Following last quarter's record setting revenues, Apple once again beat expectations.
Apple's second fiscal quarter revenue came in at $24.67 billion, or $6.40 earnings per share. That's way above the $23.34 billion and $5.36 per share Wall Street analysts had been expecting, and puts the company at 83 percent growth compared to the same quarter last year.
And in the news most of the tech world has been waiting for, Apple revealed it sold 4.69 million iPads during the quarter. Much like the Hollywood box office, Apple has a habit of announcing opening weekend unit sales, though has stayed mum on iPad 2 numbers, with analysts pushing estimates in the 5 to 9 million units range. This number comes well under those estimates, and does not include a breakdown of how many of those units were the iPad 2, which went on sale in early March, just two weeks before the end of the quarter.
Apple said it sold 3.76 million Macs during the quarter. Included in that number is the new MacBook Pro refresh with Intel's Thunderbolt technology, which was released in late-February.
Leading the way was the iPhone, of which Apple said it sold a whopping 18.65 million, 113 percent more than in the same quarter from last year. This was the first quarter to include sales of the iPhone compatible with Verizon Wireless' network, which went on sale in February. Despite reports that sales had been underwhelming, Verizon's CEO rebuffed the claims. Data from a ComScore study earlier this month also suggested Verizon sales had been strong, pushing it to the top-acquired phone for that month.
On the decline were iPods, of which Apple said it sold 9.02 million units during the quarter, a 17 percent drop from the same quarter last year.
"With quarterly revenue growth of 83 percent and profit growth of 95 percent, we're firing on all cylinders," Apple's CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. "We will continue to innovate on all fronts throughout the remainder of the year."
Apple's stock was going for $356.31 a share in after-hours trading.
Apple is holding its second quarter results conference call at 2 p.m. PT. CNET will be updating this post with additional information from that call once it's underway.
Updates from the conference call:
Update at 2:25 p.m. PT:
On Japan: Apple COO Tim Cook said the earthquake and subsequent tsunami were a tragedy, but as a result of the company's supply chain, there were no supply or cost impact during the second quarter. Cook said it would make a $200 million impact for the next quarter's revenue, but that's been factored into the company's guidance. Cook said the company sources "literally 100s of items" from the country including LCDs, optical drives and NAND flash drives.
Greater China saw iPhone sales increase three times year over year. iPhone US sales grew 155 percent year over year.
iPod, iPad and iPhone combined, Apple now has just under 189 million iOS devices sold.
This is the 20th consecutive quarter Apple has outgrown the PC market according to data from IDC.
Apple's retail stores turn 10 years old on May 19th.
Apple has 65.8 billion in cash.
On phones with 4G LTE: Cook said first generation LTE chipsets "force a lot of design compromises" the company is unwilling to make. Cook added that the company is extremely pleased with iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS.
Update at 2:40 p.m. PT:
On iPad 2 stock meeting demand: Cook said he could not say when the two would reach equilibrium. He did say that the company was continuing to produce a large number to help meet the "staggering" demand.
On Steve Jobs' day to day involvement with the company, Cook said: "We do see him on a regular basis. And as we've previously said, he continues to be involved on major strategic decisions and I know he wants to be back on full time as soon as he can."
Update at 2:48 p.m. PT:
Cook noted that the end of this quarter was just two weeks after the iPad 2 went on sale, and that the company produced many more iPad 2s for that launch compared to the ramp up for the original iPad. Cook said he was so confident in the company's supply chain, they were making the iPad 2 available in 13 more countries next week.
Cook on why there was no breakdown of iPad 2 vs. iPad 1 units in the total sales number: Cook said "we're purposefully left it out" to keep competitors from getting an idea of that. "I wish we could have produced a lot of iPad 2s," he said.
Update at 2:58 p.m. PT:
Cook flung off a question about the next iPhone not arriving during its usual June timeframe.
On supply and demand for other products: Cook said he iPhone is now in a supply and demand balance in almost all Apple's major markets. Same goes for the Mac and iPod. The iPad however has the "mother of all back logs," Cook said.
On the freshly-filed Samsung lawsuit, Cook said the company was a very valued component supplier, and that he expected the relationship to continue. However, the mobile communications division had done things Apple did not like, and after trying to talk it over, Apple took its issues to court.
