Apple to Post Record Quarterly Earnings, Analysts Say

Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc is expected to announce today its earning results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2009, and analysts already started to predict what the company was planning to unveil. According to some of them, including Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, Apple is about to announce record sales for the quarter, due to the fact that Mac shipments rose 16 percent in June thanks to the addition of new devices in the lineup.

Munster also points towards 2.6 million in Mac sales for the three-month period, about the same as Wall Street's predictions of 2.45 million Mac sales. In case this prove true, Apple would register a 5 percent growth in Mac sales compared to the same period a year ago. Last year the company announced that during the June quarter it managed to sell 2.496 million Mac units, yet this year it might top its record.

When it comes to iPods, Apple is expected to report a 10 percent decline on a yearly basis, Munster says, a prediction that is in line with the NPD data, which points towards a 13 percent drop, and with Street's forecast of a 14 percent decline. The company should announce around 9.6 million units shipped during the quarter.

“If the company follows its standard operating procedure of extremely conservative guidance relative to Street expectations, we believe it would be particularly over-conservative given the factors outlined above,” Munster stated. “While it is impossible to predict the company's language around guidance and the numbers, we believe it is more likely than usual that the company could guide September revenue in line with consensus.”

As for the iPhone sales, analysts point towards a small market share that Apple enjoys. It seems that the iPhone and RIM's Blackberry devices only account for 3 percent of the market, yet they are capable of registering the highest available revenue from this percentage. To be more precise, the estimations point towards 35 percent of total worldwide operating revenue. More details on this should surface along with the official quarterly earnings, so stay tuned to learn the news.