My view on this is that the real motive for the record high sale of iPhone is actually to help fund the Max OS which is the main market Apple might be targeting at. It can be only in the background. Imagine Apple were to takeover the OS industry too, it will be the grestest company in the world in no time! Just my point of view.

But iPhones is the gadget of the century! It’s a must have for teenagers and a sign of trend nowdays, it’s a big hit for the world youngsters. Even for working adults, it’s a useful tool too! Able to access the internet and checking emails on the go, is a plus point for adults as they are always on the move.

Key Stats:

• Q4 Revenue: $7.9 billion vs. $8.05 billion consensus, $7.8 billion guidance, $8.3-8.4 billion whispers
• Q4 EPS: $1.26 vs. $1.11 consensus, $1.00 guidance, $1.22-1.25 whispers
• Q4 Mac Sales: 2.6 million vs. 2.7 million consensus, whispers up to 3.0 million
• Q4 iPod Sales: 11.1 million vs. 10.8 million consensus, whispers up to 11 million
• Q4 iPhone Sales: 6.9 million vs. 4.5 million consensus, whispers up to 7.5 million

Guidance:

• Q1 Revenue: $9.0-$10.0 billion vs. $10.57 billion consensus, whispers down to around $10.1 billion
• Q1 EPS: $1.06-$1.35 vs. $1.65 consensus, whispers down to around $1.41

Below is the earnings of Apple iPhone:

Apple Reports Fourth Quarter Results

6.9 Million iPhones Sold Mac Sales Reach All-Time High

CUPERTINO, California—October 21, 2008—Apple® today announced financial results for its fiscal 2008 fourth quarter ended September 27, 2008. The Company posted revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $6.22 billion and net quarterly profit of $904 million, or $1.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, up from 33.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 41 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, the Company recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone™ and Apple TV® over their economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures* for the quarter are $11.68 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $2.44 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

Apple shipped 2,611,000 Macintosh® computers during the quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth and 17 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 11,052,000 iPods during the quarter, representing eight percent unit growth and three percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone units sold were 6,892,000 compared to 1,119,000 in the year-ago-quarter.

“Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone—we sold more phones than RIM,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We don’t yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple. But we’re armed with the strongest product line in our history, the most talented employees and the best customers in our industry. And $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt.”

“We’re very pleased to have grown revenue 35 percent and to have generated $9.1 billion in cash in fiscal 2008,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead, visibility is low and forecasting is challenging, and as a result we are going to be prudent in predicting the December quarter. We are providing a wide range for our guidance, targeting revenue of $9.0 to $10.0 billion and earnings per diluted share between $1.06 and $1.35.”

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q4 2008 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime®, Apple’s standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/earningsq408/ and will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

Source: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/10/21results.html

Right now, today, the whole world is very frightened about the whole economy of the world right now. It’s one of the worst since the Year 1932 Great Depression that strikes the world. It may become one and now the ball is in the US. In the Great Depression, when over three years the economy shrunk by nearly half and unemployment reached 24%.Although the current stock market has a long way to go to match the Great Depression’s collapse but still the world need to do something about it. Current economic measures are still far cheerier than of the Great Depression. When Depression strikes, the whole nation had virtually no safety net for the needy and no regulation of banks. Government officials then were reluctant to rescue distressed players in the market. It can that worst.

Historian Bryant Simon of Temple University, director of American studies said:” It is a very similar process to the Great Depression, because what you have is people not spending enough money,” said Debt-ridden consumers and troubled banks are toxic to a consumption-driven economy”, he said.

“It is not as severe as it was,” Simon said. “But if the banks are not going to lend money, you can’t get the economy back in gear. What you have is people not spending enough money.”

The United States although had always struggled through periodic and painful downturns during its history but bounces back everytime too. But during that Great Depression, it was so terrible and deep and broad that it sparked dramatic action to change the rules of the market. The current credit crunch may test the theory or maybe the history again.

The late economist Hyman Minsky said capitalist systems tend to “constantly leverage up with more debt,” noted former Fed economist Tim Yeager, who was one of Minsky’s students and is now a finance professor at the University of Arkansas.

“Credit becomes weaker, loans become worse and worse and risk grows,” Yeager said. “It is like a Ponzi scheme.”

For both stocks and homes, the game could go on as long as prices kept rising. We all have to really save up for the upcoming financial storm coming ahead, right at us directly.

Despite similarities, most experts don’t think the 2008 crisis will lead to a full replay of the Depression.

But Yeager, the former Fed economist, said the worst may still be to come.

“There is a big storm brewing.”