apple earnings | steve jobs

Apple earnings | steve jobs - Technology juggernaut Apple reported blowout earnings results Tuesday, but the news was overshadowed by the company’s disclosure Monday that CEO Steve Jobs, who has battled pancreatic cancer, has taken medical leave.

After hours trading of Apple shares was halted briefly as the numbers were released. Apple just recently became the second most valuable publicly traded company in the world, behind Exxon.
The iPad, just one year old, generated $4.4 billion in revenue for Apple during that time.

“We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales,” Jobs said in a statement. On a conference call with analysts, Apple COO Tim Cook said there is still a “significant backlog” in iPhone 4 orders. In other words, Apple literally cannot produce the devices fast enough to meet market demand.

Cook also took a shot at the current crop of 7-inch tablets running Google’s Android operating system. International sales accounted for 62 percent of Apple’s quarterly revenue. Apple investors will be pleased to know that the company forecast $22 billion in sales for next quarter, nicely ahead of Wall Street’s $20.6 billion expectation.