Apple posted better than expected March quarter sales and profits, with especially huge iPhone and Mac shipments.

iPad sales were much lower than expected -- just 4.69 million shipped, versus expectations around 7 million. This is probably because of iPad 2 supply problems and low demand for old iPads leading up to the iPad 2 launch.

Apple shipped 18.65 million iPhones during the quarter, more than doubling year-over-year, and 3.76 million Macs, representing 28% year-over-year growth.

Apple's overall revenue for the quarter was $24.67 billion, representing 83% year-over-year growth -- an acceleration over Apple's 71% growth during the December quarter. For a company this size to grow this fast, and even accelerate growth, is astounding.

Meanwhile, Apple's guidance is very conservative, as expected. This is likely because of supply concerns after the Japan earthquake, and because the iPhone 5 isn't expected to ship until the September quarter.

Shares are up 3% in after hours trading.

Key Stats:

March qtr. revenue: $24.67 billion vs. $23.34 billion Street consensus, $24.86 high Street estimate, $25.34 billion "blogger" consensus, $25.7 billion "real" expectations (based on prior performance vs. guidance)

March qtr. EPS: $6.40 vs. $5.36 Street consensus, $5.98 high Street estimate, $6.33 "blogger" consensus, $7.06 "real" expectations (probably too high)

March qtr. iPad shipments: 4.69 million vs. 6.2 million Street consensus (via Piper Jaffray), 6.8 million "blogger" consensus

March qtr. iPhone shipments: 18.65 million vs. 16.6 million Street consensus (via Piper Jaffray), 18 million "blogger" consensus

March qtr. Mac shipments: 3.76 million 3.6 million Street consensus (via Piper Jaffray), 3.7 million "blogger" consensus

June qtr. revenue guidance: $23 billion vs. $23.8 billion Street consensus, $23.4 billion Piper Jaffray expectations

June qtr. EPS guidance: $5.03 vs. $5.25 Street consensus, $4.73 Piper Jaffray expectations

LIVE conference call notes. Paraphrased unless in quotes.

5:03 Call begins. Standard disclaimers.

5:04 CFO Oppenheimer: Very pleased to report highest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history. "Thrilled with momentum for iPad." 83% revenue growth fueled primarily by iPhone sales, Mac sales, and iPad.

5:05 Net income almost $6 billion. New March quarter record for Mac sales, up 28% y/y. Extremely pleased given IDC's estimate of 3% contraction for PC market overall. 20th consecutive quarter that Apple has outperformed the PC market.

5:06 Began and ended quarter with 3-4 weeks of Mac channel inventory. Released Lion preview during the quarter.

5:07 Sold 9 million iPods, lower y/y but ahead of internal expectations, with iPod touch accounting for over half. iPod share still over 70%, still the top-selling MP3 player in most countries tracked.

5:08 iTunes revenue $1.4 billion thanks to music, apps, books, etc. 2,500 publishers in over 20 categories on iBooks store, 100 million books.

5:08 iPhone outpaced smartphone market during the quarter, suggesting that it grew market share.

5:09 186 carriers in 90 countries. 5.2 million iPhones in channel inventory, 1.7 million more than last quarter because of new carriers. 88% of Fortune 500 are testing or have deployed iPhone. Hundreds of companies are supporting thousands of iPhones on their corporate networks.

5:10 iPad: Thrilled with momentum. 4.7 million sold, launching iPad 2 on March 11, and 25 additional countries on March 25. Working hard to get it into hands of customers as quickly as possible. Distribution in 59 countries by end of March quarter. Despite distro, iPad channel inventory declined by 400,000, implying sellthrough of about 5.1 million. Less than 850,000 of channel inventory. We sold every iPad 2 that we made during the quarter, and would like to have more channel inventory.

5:12 Now talking about iOS improvements, iTunes home sharing, personal hotspot for iPhone 4, etc. Well over 10 billion app downloads to date. More than $2 billion in payments to developers since opening the App Store.

5:13 1 billionth retail visitor in the next several days. Retail revenue up 90%. Stores delivered record Mac quarter, selling 790,000, up 32%. Half of Macs sold in stores during the quarter were to customers who had never bought a Mac before.

5:14 $9.9 million average revenue per store. International retail store sales stronger than U.S. Opening 5th store in China this fiscal year.

5:15 Higher gross margin thanks to higher iPhone sales, leverage on higher revenue, and lower than expected commodity, service, and other costs.

5:16 Cash + short term + long term up $6.1 billion during the quarter.

5:17 Gross margin forecast 38%. Working hard to get iPad 2 into hands as fast as can.

5:18 Now it's time for the Q&A.

5:18 Any supply chain disruption from Japan? How should we think about it? Tim Cook: Japan in general. This is an incredible tragedy and our hearts go out to everyone involved. Apple has many strong ties to people in Japan, very saddened, and have taken various actions to help. Some revenue income in Q2, but not material to consolidated results. Believe revs will be ~$200mm less in Q3. Regarding supply chain, as a result of teamwork and resilience, did not have any supply or cost impact in Q2, and currently do not expect any material supply or cost impact in Q3. Working around the clock, contingency plans. Incredible resilience that I've never seen before. Do need to caution everyone that the situation remains unpredictable. Some supply risks possible beyond current quarter, still uncertain, no guarantees. Unclear if will impact revenues beyond Q3, will address Q4 on next call in July.

5:21 Color on where constraints lie for iPad 2? Demand staggering. Heavily backlogged still. However, extremely pleased with progress of manufacturing ramp. Rolled out to 25 more countries at end of last month. Additional 13 countries next week. Will be able to make a very large number of iPads for the quarter.

5:23 What drove the iPhone strength in the quarter? Did very well everywhere, but two places "off the charts." U.S. grew 155% year-over-year. Adding Verizon was key in that. However, AT&T did extremely well during the quarter. China also huge, revenue up 4X year-over-year. Significant year-over-year increase in sales expected for the June quarter, but no comment on sequential.

5:25 What did you learn about price elasticity curve for iPhone with $49 3GS? Did very very well. LTE phones out from competitors: How do you think of maturity of networks? What bottlenecks? Was asked this question when launched iPhone with Verizon, first generation of LTE chipsets force a lot of design compromises with handset, and some of those we are just not willing to make. Extremely happy with iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, and hitting 18.6 million units was something much larger than we thought we could do this quarter. Happy to have gotten it out to 3 more large carriers.

5:27 Macs international versus US? Growth in Mac has been enormous in Asia. Up 76% in Asia Pac last quarter. Many multiples in growth than PC growing in those markets. Japan also did quite well on Mac for the quarter, and U.S. had a surprisingly strong quarter, up 25% in Americas and US up slightly higher than that.

5:29 Several intl countries extremely portable focused. Enormous growth in quarter, partially because of growth in MacBook Pro line.

5:30 Margin forecast decline driven by higher mix in iPad sales, lower revenue.

5:31 Are iPhones and iPads in corporations creating halo effect for Mac? Yes, says Tim Cook.

5:32 Not going to break out iPhone ASP. When will iPad constraint be fixed? Confident going to produce a very large number for the quarter. Don't know if that will be enough to meet demand. Has been staggering.

5:33 CDMA phone: which new markets looking at? Constantly looking at where we should bring on partners. Brought on three this quarter with Verizon, SKT and Saudi Telecom. On top of the ones we brought on in December, O2 and Vodafone in Germany. Constantly looking and adding where it makes sense, will keep doing it.

5:36 With rise of Android, similarities and differences vs. Windows in the 90s? Could Android become headwind? How do you maintain growth in face of that shift? Tim: Saw yesterday that iOS platform outreaches Android by 59% in U.S. On worldwide basis, just did 18.6 million iPhones. Launched iPad 2 and sold every one that we made. Gaining traction in enterprise, largest App Store. We feel very very good about where we are and we feel great about future product plan. Have also paid over $2 billion to developers. Well over 10 billion applications, and our business progress very strong. Believe that iPhone's integrated approach is better than Android's fragmented approach. (So, a non-answer.)

5:40 Purposefully putting emphasis on China, going to really learn and take that learning to other markets.

5:40 Gene Munster: How closely is Steve involved? Still on medical leave, but we do see him on a regular basis and as we have previously said, continues to be involved in major strategic decisions. Know he wants to be back full-time as soon as he can.

5:44 Produced a lot more iPad 2s than original ramp of first iPad, and so confident with ability to supply that we already put on 25 more countries, and will be placing on 13 more next week, and more during the quarter.

5:45 Growing all the time. Keep giving ridiculously low guidance. What are the things underpinning those assumptions? Top-line would highlight 2 things. Sequential revenue guidance is for 7% decline, had been up in prior years. Two things to point out. In most recent March quarter, increased iPhone channel inventory by 1.7 million units, and that had not occurred in prior years. Last year, launched iPad in year-ago June quarter without a comp to the prior march quarter. On y/y basis, very pleased to be providing revenue guidance for 46% year-over-year and EPS growing nearly as quickly.

5:46 iPad split, 2 vs. 1? Not giving that data because we don't want to help competition, but wish we could have made more iPad 2s. Any color for Macs as we enter edu buying season? Difficult funding environment for schools in US. Don't see any evidence of share loss and Macs are very popular in schools and iPads are proving to be as well.

5:48 Sounds like big potential opportunity for iPads in education.

5:48 Seen new iPhone in June, iPod in Sept. How historically viewed time horizon, what might cause timeline to change? We never comment on unannounced products, don't have anything share from that perspective. Updated thoughts on supply demand balance for iPhone? Still haven't met demand? By end of quarter, in supply demand balance in almost all of major markets. In balance virtually everywhere today. The other products, Mac in balance and iPod in balance, and iPad has the mother of all backlogs that we are working very hard to get out to customers as quickly as we can.

5:52 Component pricing has actually been increasing, more color why Apple has been able to beat that? Spot markets have spiked, particularly true if you follow NAND and DRAM markets. But we don't buy in spot markets, so see minimal impact. Beyond Q3, not sure, but for Q3, feel very good.

5:54 Samsung: We are their largest customer. Very valued component supplier, and I expect the strong relationship with continue. We felt the mobile communication division has crossed the line, and after working for some time to stop the issue, decided to go through the courts.

5:57 What's going to happen with iTunes? No comment. Etc.

5:58 That's all, folks!

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