Apple Tops Expectations as iPhone Use Spreads

Jobsが始めて決算発表に登場。Nokia，Samsungに次いで，世界3位の携帯電話メーカーだと豪語したそうな。

Apple sold about 6.9 million of its iPhone 3G units in its fourth
quarter, compared with 6.1 million cellphones for R.I.M., he said. Apple has already surpassed its goal of selling 10 million iPhones during 2008, he said.

新型MacBookのせいで，粗利益は現在の34.7％から2009年には30％に低下とのこと。

The gross profit margin improved to 34.7 percent from 33.6 percent in the year-ago quarter. Apple’s margins are being closely watched, because during its previous quarterly earnings call this summer its executives said that the company was expecting to substantially change its business model in an effort to take away a pricing “umbrella” from its competitors. Analysts have since been expecting the company to lower prices.
The company said that it was still guiding analysts to a margin of about 30 percent during 2009, in part because of the added costs of new manufacturing processes for the aluminum-case laptop computers that it announced last week.