Executives highlight strong performance for Q4

Apple executives fielded a variety of iPhone- and Mac-related questions during a conference call for investors, following the announcement of yet another forecast-beating fiscal quarter. COO Tim Cook provided insight into the company's iPhone pricing while transitioning away from exclusive carrier agreements. Although he did not speak specifically about US plans, Cook expects wholesale prices to remain steady even as the device is sold through additional carriers.

Despite the suggestion that Apple does not gain much more profit on each phone sold through an exclusive agreement, Cook still acknowledged benefits to such relationships. "In an exclusive relationship, you can generally have some level of innovation that would be more difficult to do with multiple carriers," he claims. "Also, in some cases, an exclusive carrier may be willing to invest more, although we found no lack of people willing to sell iPhones, frankly."

When asked about Apple's stance on the wide range of upcoming iPhone "wannabes," the COO downplayed the threat from competing platforms such as Android. "Frankly I think that people are really just trying to catch up with the first iPhone that was announced two years ago, and we've long since moved beyond that," said Cook, while reminding attendees that the App Store's catalog of over 85,000 apps is "a country mile more than anyone else."

Although Apple typically provides modest forecasts, the executives hinted that the rise in Mac sales -- up 17 percent -- even exceeded their personal predictions. The performance was partly attributed to the strongest back-to-school period the company has experienced. Cook claimed several factors combined to push sales "above 3 million, which was beyond our own expectations internally or even some of our stretched targets."

Snow Leopard also achieved double the initial sales of OS X Leopard, while international Mac sales proved to be particularly strong. Average revenue in international stores was up 20 percent, with overall shipments up more than 30 percent in several European countries.

Cook highlighted the company's ongoing efforts to make OS X and the iPhone more attractive to enterprise customers. The iPhone is allegedly being deployed or piloted in over 50 percent of Fortune 100 companies, with similar numbers in the Financial Times 100 for Europe.

Apple expects Q1 revenue to fall between $11.3 and $11.6 billion. Gross margin, however, is expected to decline as component prices increase and the company continues to focus on introducing devices with "ever-increasing value."

by MacNN Staff