Intel misses estimates

Apple today will report its financial earnings for its fiscal 2006 first quarter as well as hold its .

Jobs also noted that the company sold over 14 million iPods, a 300 percent increase from the year-ago quarter, and its iTunes music store surpassed 850 million in downloads.

Based on the Macworld numbers, analysts expect a strong quarter, according a CNN/Money report.

"We think it's going to be a very strong earnings call, with no heavy expenditures, and we expect earnings and growth to continue with the transition to Intel," said Richard Doherty, an analyst with market research firm Envisioneering Group. "We haven't seen any slowdown in sales since the close of the quarter."

Intel misses mark, lowers guidance

Meanwhile, Intel, who reported earnings on Tuesday, saw its fourth-quarter profit and sales rise but missed Wall Street expectations Tuesday as it faced difficulties in meeting demand for some products and experienced lower-than-expected average selling prices. Intel reported a profit of $2.45 billion, or 40 cents per share, compared with a profit of $2.12 billion, or 33 cents per share, in the same period in 2004.

Despite the 16 percent year-over-year improvement, Intel stock dropped nearly 9.5 percent in after-hours trading on the results and forecast, which the company blamed on a combination of "smaller events," including a chipset shortage, the lower prices and a weakness in demand for desktop PCs, according to the AP.

Despite expected gains from its partnership with Apple, Intel also reduced its revenue guidance for the first quarter, saying it expects sales of between $9.1 billion and $9.7 billion, below analysts' expectations of $10.05 billion for the upcoming quarter.

by MacNN Staff