Apple beats rumor numbers on Wall St.

Apple did much better than the rumors predicted for its Q4 results. The pomaceous peddler of fashionable portable-computers-that-sometimes-make-phone-calls (NASDAQ:AAPL) surprised Wall Street with record numbers. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers try to put it all in context.
 
Your humble blogwatcher (@richi ) curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention: An Open Letter to Nickelodeon, Re: SpongeBob's Pineapple under the Sea...
 
 
Gregg Keizer reports "smashed sales records":

The quarter's revenue [was] $46.3 billion. .. Sales rose by 73%..net profit [was] $13 billion..more than double [year on year].
...
The quarter was fueled by a huge jump in sales of the iPhone..nearly 53% of Apple's revenue. .. 37 million iPhones, 82% more than the previous record..[but] Wall Street's estimate..had settled around 32 million. .. Demand for the iPhone 4S..continued to outstrip supply. .. iPad sales also set a record..15.4 million..up 111%.
..
Apple sold 5.2 million Macs, beating the previous record of 4.9 million..26% more [year on year]. .. However, Macs still account for a small percentage of total personal computer sales.   

  
Rik Myslewski adds:

Sales and profits were significantly above what the Wall Street moneymen had expected. .. Analysts polled by FactSet Research..predicted revenues of $39bn.
..
We can only assume that..maybe some of those Wall Street analysts might need to start looking for new [jobs].   

MG Siegler writes rude words:

Holy ****.
..
[The] stock [is] up 10% now in after-hours trading..pushing Apple’s market cap well past $400 billion. Apple now has $97.6 billion in cash.   

David Goldman contextualizes:

Apple's market cap is higher than the gross domestic product of Greece, Austria, Argentina, or South Africa..a stunning achievement for a 35-year old company that had a market cap of just $10 billion [in 2002].   

And Hillel Fuld has nothing to add... err except this:

I felt like I could not possibly add anything here to what has already been said..but on the other hand, how could I not? .. [T]hese numbers are by all standards, outrageous!
..
Apple sold..412k iPhones per day. Compare that to 371k people born around the world every day.
..
Apple generated..$13.06 of quarterly profit. .. That is more money than all of Google’s revenue, which stands at $10.6 billion.
..
Samsung, which was previously the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer sold 35 million..in the quarter..Apple sold 37 million iPhones.   

  
And Finally...
Open Letter to Nickelodeon, Re: SpongeBob's Pineapple under the Sea
  
 
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Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and security. He's the creator and main author of Computerworld's IT Blogwatch -- for which he has won American Society of Business Publication Editors and Jesse H. Neal awards on behalf of Computerworld. He also writes The Long View for IDG Enterprise. A cross-functional IT geek since 1985, you can follow him as @richi on Twitter, pretend to be richij's friend on Facebook, or just use good old email: itbw@richij.com. You can also read Richi's full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.