By Alex Brooks This week Apple will announce the results of its fiscal third quarter of 2012. The results come amidst Apple’s competitors reporting not such impressive news and the International Monetary Fund talking of slowing economies around the world including Apple’s key growth markets: Brazil, China and India.
Last week Microsoft announced a quarterly net loss of $492 million following a $6.2 billion write-down for the value of its troubled online unit. During the same quarter last year Microsoft made a profit of $5.87 billion. Nokia also delivered lacklustre news although the market took it well, selling 4 million of its Lumia smartphones, running Windows Phone 7, a number double that of the previous quarter. However Nokia did report a $1.7 billion loss during the quarter. Then there is RIM, the maker of Blackberry handsets, who reported a 33% drop in revenue and announced that its upcoming operating system will be delayed until early 2013.
Compared to this rather biased look at Apple’s competitors Apple should give an impressive quarter. Estimates on the market range from $35 billion to $46 billion in revenue. The consensus is around $41 billion for revenue for the quarter on an EPS of about $11.5.
Apple’s quarterly revenue with company’s own Q3 estimate
The third quarter which ran from March 31 until June 30 included the company’s anticipated revamp of its MacBook lineup towards the end of the period which included a refresh MacBook Air and Pro as well as the new Retina MacBook Pro. Whilst the MacBook Pro with Retina has been constrained by stock through the quarter Apple’s popular MacBook Air should have sold in good volume.
Mac sales are expected to come in at around 4.5 million for the quarter.
The iPhone likely had a strong quarter but compared to Q2 when the iPhone launched in China sales may show little quarter-over-quarter change. iPhone sales will likely land below the 30 million mark with the consensus sitting around 28 million. Fortune’s Apple 2.0 blog highlights that these estimates often discount the role of China which saw 3G subscribers increase by 118% year-over-year in June.
The iPad will continue to be Apple’s strong performer with sales around the mid-20 million mark representing year-over-year growth in excess of 150%. The new iPad was released in China on July 20th, outside of Apple’s Q3 period but mixed with the back to school period in Q4, expect a blow out results session in October.
Source: World of Apple
