Apple best-ever fourth quarter disappoints analysts BY Andy Goldberg,

Oct 18, 2011, 22:39 GMT

San Francisco - Apple posted its highest ever fourth quarter revenues and earnings Tuesday but the company's stock dived as much 6 per cent as its results, and specifically the company's sales of iPhones, fell short of analysts' forecasts.

It was the first time in recent years that the company had failed to live up to expectations and could be a sign that the success of Google's rival Android operating system is beginning to eat into the company's iPhone sales.

Apple, which is still mourning the death earlier this month of founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, posted quarterly revenues of 28.27 billion dollars, compared to 20.34 billion dollars a year ago, while quarterly profit rose to 6.62 billion dollars from 4.31 billion dollars. International sales accounted for 63 per cent of the quarter's revenue, Apple said.

Analysts had been expecting revenue of around 29.7 billion dollars, and the shortfall was explained by lower than expected iPhone sales.

Apple sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, a 21 per cent rise from a year earlier, but a 17 per cent drop from the June quarter. Analysts had expected sales to be flat as customers waited for the new model that came out last week.

iPad sales soared however, reaching 11.12 million, a 166 per cent increase over the year earlier quarter. Apple sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. But sales of iPod media player dropped 27 per cent to 6.62 million as customers preferred iPhones.

CEO Tim Cook promised investors that Apple would soon return to its all-conquering ways.

'We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to 108 billion dollars and growing earnings to 26 billion dollars,' he said. 'Customer response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline.'

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