DISAPPOINTED EXPECTATIONS

Apple's share price has fallen by 30% since last September, and is still wobbly. Apparently, the revenue figures it has just released were "dismal".

Dismal? Hang on a minute. Revenues in the three months to the end of December 2012 were US$54.5 billion, up 18% from a year previously; net profit was US$13.1 billion. In these tough economic times, nearly all companies would die for revenue growth greater than zero; and die even more for a net margin of close to 25%. Let alone a cash pile of some US$137 billion.

But this is Apple. Although it sold 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 37 million in the same quarter the previous year, and 22.9 million iPads, up from 15.4 million, analysts were expecting even higher numbers.

Some people are never satisfied.

Update: the fall in Apple's share price over the past couple of days means that it has lost its ranking (to Exxon Mobil) as the world's most valuable traded company. At Friday's close Exxon Mobil was worth US$418 billion, Apple US$413 billion.

Walter Blotscher