Apple reports stellar quarterly performance, and the stock drops like a rock

Apple yesterday released its 2005 fiscal Q4 and fiscal numbers. Despite the stellar numbers, AAPL dropped like a rock in after hours trading, by almost 11% to US$45.99.

Sales of iPods were up 220% to 6.451 million units since the previous quarter last year, and sales of Macs were up 48% to 1.236 million units. However, the numbers, particularly for the iPod, were evidently simply not good enough for the investors. It seems the street believed the analysts' unrealistic rosy predictions for iPod sales and when those numbers were not met, decided to lock in profits. That is reasonable I suppose though, as gains on AAPL have been astronomical since last year. As they say, buy on rumours and sell on news.

Before the Apple financial conference call, I had made a (somewhat) flippant prediction at Ars Technica of 1234567 Macs and 6543210 iPods sold during the quarter. Ironically, that prediction beat all the analysts. ;) Sometimes it pays not to think too hard. :)

The big news for today however is what's on deck for Apple's One More Thing event, scheduled for 10 am in San Jose. I had predicted new Power Macs and PowerBooks, but just about all the rumour sites now state I am wrong, and this is about iPods. Perhaps, but even if so, we should expect new Power Macs and PowerBooks sometime soon.