Apple Shines, But Mum On Steve Jobs Health

On Friday, I was sitting around a table with six people. Four of them had iPhones, and the remaining holdouts (myself included) weren't even thinking about upgrading to anything else (not a Blackberry, not a Palm Pre). We obviously weren't alone, as Apple posts another blowout quarter.

The highlights:

• Revenue passes the $10 billion mark, hitting $10.17 billion on a record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. Analysts were expecting about $1.40 a share as the consumer apparently continued to love iPods, iPhones and the Mac.
• Specifically, Apple sold 2,524,000 Macs in the quarter, up nine percent from a year ago.
• iPod sales hit 22.7 million, up 3 percent, which Collins Stewart analyst Ashok Kumar called the "best we can expect" given the macro backdrop.
• iPhone sales jumped 88 percent from a year ago to 4.36 million
• Guidance for Q2 was $7.6 billion to $8 billion, with earnings of 90 cents to $1 a share (just like this quarter that'll be conservative).
• Gross margins were steady at 34.7 percent -- an accomplishment given the currently weak retail environment.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history—surpassing $10 billion in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. He didn't mention his health in the release, though in the latest twist the SEC is apparently interested.