In the last few days a number of technology companies have announced their quarterly earnings and, while many have been below expectations, there have been some positive developments too.
The largest member of our list to report yesterday was Apple, only days after revealing its new NVIDIA powered MacBooks. Its revenue of $7.9 billion was 27 percent up year-on-year, but narrowly below estimates.
The pleasant surprise for investors came in the form of net profit of $1.14 billion, which was 26 percent up year-on-year and equated to $1.26 per share. Analysts had been expecting more like $1.11 per share.
There was a fair bit of wierdness with Apple's shares after this news, with them closing the day seven percent down but then jumping nearly ten percent in after-hours trading.
Product wise, this has been a good quarter for both Macs and the iPhone. The 2.6 million Macs sold were 21 percent more than this time last year and the number of iPhones sold wasn't far short of seven million. Analysts were expecting more like five million.
Apple boss Steve Jobs was feeling bullish: "Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone-we sold more phones than RIM," He said. "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."
