Apple today issued a media alert announcing details for tomorrow's release of its financial results for the third fiscal quarter and second calendar quarter of 2010. The results will be released after the close of tomorrow's trading at approximately 4:30 PM Eastern / 1:30 PM Pacific. Apple's conference call discussing the results will follow at 2:00 PM Pacific and will be available via a live audio webcast. MacRumors will provide running coverage of the conference call highlights.
Apple's third fiscal quarter saw a number of significant product introductions, beginning with the iPad very early in the quarter to begin a multi-stage roll-out across a number of countries. The company followed with revised MacBook Pros just ten days after the initial iPad launch and a MacBook update in mid-May. A redesigned Mac mini made its appearance in mid-June near the end of the quarter, with the iPhone 4 launching in several countries just three days before the end of the quarter. The company did announce, however, that it sold over 1.7 million iPhone 4s in those three days.
For the quarter, analysts are predicting net earnings of $3.10 per share on revenue of $14.74 billion, above Apple's guidance of $2.28-$2.39 profit on $13.0-$13.4 billion of revenue. Apple's year-ago results for the third fiscal quarter of 2009 initially included net earnings of $1.35 per share on revenue of $8.34 billion. Those calculations were based, however, on earlier accounting methods that utilized "subscription accounting" for iPhone and Apple TV revenue. Apple adopted revised accounting standards at the beginning of fiscal 2010, and after retrospective application (PDF) of the new standards, the year-ago quarter yielded net earnings of $2.01 per share on revenue of $9.73 billion.
