I only hope we'll see something similar with Nintendo. You can say what you want about their products, but the business is amazing. OMFG, it's up $13 in after hours trading. 

http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/071022/apple_results.html 

Apple results top targets, Mac sales strong
Monday October 22, 5:21 pm ET

The results showed that the popularity of Apple's new gadgets was driving up sales of its core computer products, analysts said.

"There's no question that Mac sales are still having a halo effect from the iPod and iPhone," said Tim Bajarin, president of technology consulting company Creative Strategies.

Apple's net profit was $904 million, or $1.01 per share, in its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with $542 million, or 62 cents per share, a year earlier. Revenue was $6.22 billion, up 29 percent from $4.84 billion a year earlier.

The results handily beat Wall Street's average targets of 85 cents per share earnings and $6.06 billion revenue, according to Reuters Estimates.

Apple also forecast fiscal first-quarter revenue of $9.2 billion, ahead of the $8.7 billion average Wall Street target.

"The guidance was extremely strong, well north of consensus. It appears that they are expecting an extremely solid holiday shopping season and, I would guess, strength from the launch of the iPhone in Europe," said analyst Shannon Cross of Cross Research.

IPhone sales of 1.12 million were toward the high end of a range of forecasts given by three analysts in research notes. They expected between 900,000 and 1.2 million iPhones sold.

Apple shipped 2.2 million Macintosh computers, ahead of the three analysts' views of 1.9 million to 2.1 million, while iPod sales of 10.2 million were light of the analysts' range of 10.5 million to 11 million.

Shares of Apple have more than doubled since the start of the year, when Chief Executive Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. The stock trades at 37 times its expected 2008 profit, at the high end of the company's historical range.

Shares of Apple rose to $184.39 in after-hours trade from a Nasdaq close of $174.36.

OMG!

Thats a LOT!

I really think they should make a console

I'm still kicking myself for selling Apple at $35 LOL.

I just bought quite a few shares at $136. Pretty late in the game, but I'm still making $$$ =]

Apple is going to make a console, and its going to woop microsoft, and they will cry dammit!! CRY!!! For stealing the pc world from them!!

@FishyJoe, how long ago did you sell them at $35?

That's why I kinda wanna stay out of this business when I'm older. It's incredibly risky... but then the risks do sometimes pay off, big time (read: Warren Buffet).

What I find most interesting about this article is the accuracy of the analysts. They're within about 10% on all predicitions.

Compare that to what analysts are still saying about this generation of gaming consoles...

I think I sold around 3-4 years ago. And the price was pre-split, so it's more like I sold it at $17.

A lot of analysts got Apple very wrong, especially in the first few generations of iPods. People who call the Wii a fad make me laugh, because the very same comments were made about the iPod. Apple has beaten Sony, Dell, MS, Samsung, etc. in the music player business despite all the 'hardcore' audiophiles/techies bashing it.  Nintendo studied this phenomenon very closely which led to the DS and Wii. 

if only i understand Apple a bit better.

Macs' PC market now stands at 8.1%. i was gonna buy Apple shares based on my projection of that figure alone, but ultimately just didn't act on it.

EDIT: PC market SHARE is what i meant.