Apple

Apple reported another record quarter yesterday, posting impressive numbers once again. But with expectations running even higher (not to mention a stock market getting bruised by fears of a recession), investors sent AAPL shares tumbling. Once again, Apple shipped the most Macs ever in one quarter: 2.32 million, 7 percent increase over the previous quarter and a 38 percent increase year-over year.

The surprise here was that desktop sales increased 20 percent from the previous quarter, while laptop sales were flat. Year-over-year, laptop sales rose 38 percent and desktops a hefty 53 percent. Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said the Mac desktop rate of growth was over five times that projected for the overall PC desktop market (estimated at 10 percent in the most recent IDC figures).

He attributed the desktop gains to the popularity of revamped iMac models released in August. Investors had no gripes with the Mac’s performance, but deflated by the iPod’s. Though iPod sales rose to 22.1 million, an increase of 5 percent from last year, many analysts had estimated sales closer to 25 million. Meanwhile, the iPhone sold 2.3 million units. So far it appears sales of the most hyped product of 2007 have not slowed.

Oppenheimer said during the earnings conference call with analysts that Apple is ‘њconfident in our goal for 10 million for calendar 2008.’ќ In his Macworld keynote Jan. 15, Steve Jobs said that 4 million iPhones had been sold to date, Oppenheimer noted, which included 3.7 million sold through the end of December. That means Apple sold 300,000 iPhones over the first two weeks of January ‘“ not bad post-holiday sales for a pricey consumer electronics device.