Apple’s quarterly earnings are out, and there’s some reasons for its normally oversensitive investors to worry about the company’s overall health (which, in my opinion is outstanding considering the current market climate).

But Steve was on hand to make sure investors didn’t sour on Apple.

The company sold 2.6 million Macs during the quarter, up 100,000 from the quarter previous, but 100,000 below the consensus of Wall Street estimates. 11 million iPods sold, which was stronger than expected, and a stunning 6.9 million iPhones sold during the quarter, well above the 4 million predicted by the street.

Other positives and highlights: revenues of $7.9 billion and profits of $1.14 billion ($1.26 per share), the company pointed out in its release that “we have sold more phones than RIM,”  $25 billion in cash in the bank and zero debt.

Gotta say that’s pretty positive. But here’s the negative: the company said the December quarters revenue would range between $9 and $10 billion, which CFO Peter Oppenheimer said “visibility is low and forecasting is challenging, and as a result we are going to be prudent in predicting the December quarter.”

Details from the conference call, updated as we get them below the fold:

(PS – whaddya know, Apple shares up 5% in afterhours trading according to Marketwatch…)

• If iPhone revenue would have not been deferred as it is under “subscription accounting,” it would have comprised 39 percent of Apple’s total revenues
• Already surpassed goal of 10 million iPhones in 2008
• Mac shipments grew 21 percent, sales are record for any quarter. Company believes that speculation over future products held back sales, unsure of economy’s affect on sales.
• iPod sales are record for a non-holiday quarter
• Apple retail stores sold 596,000 Macs during quarter, over half new-to-Mac
• …STEVE JOBS ON CALL..
• Steve says the company actually had $11 billion in revenue. “If this isn’t stunning, I don’t know what is.”
• He’s talking up the fact that RIM sold only 6.1 million BlackBerries, and that Apple is now the third biggest mobile phone supplier in terms of revenue.
• Regarding the effect of the economic crisis on Apple: “Your next door neighbor can probably predict as good as we can.” Says he thinks customers will delay purchases rather than switch.
• “October is always a foggy month for us in terms of predicting the whole quarter.”
• He’s mentioning netbooks, “its an evolving marketplace,” and says “we’ve got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve.” So yes folks, Apple’s working on a netbook.

 
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