Apple just announced its Q2 2012 results with $11.6 billion in profit from $39.2 billion revenue — a huge increase from the $5.99 billion profit and $24.67 billion revenue reported in Q1 2011. It didn't quite hit the same level as Apple's record-breaking previous quarter, but that had the added benefit of a gift-giving holiday season. As usual, this is a record quarter for the company. Cue the surprise.

35.1 million iPhones were sold in this quarter alone — an 88 percent increase over the 18.65 million sold in Q2 2011 and almost equal to the 37.04 million sold during just last quarter. Apple also sold 11.8 million iPads, which 151 percent more year-over-year but down 4 million from the 15.43 million sold during the holiday quarter. Macs stayed largely consistent, up 7 percent to 4 million (and only slightly off Q1's reported 5.3 million in sales). iPods once again were in decline, 15 percent to 7.7 million units sold.

Oh, and Apple's cash on balance sheet? $110 billion — $12.4 billion more than last quarter.

Apple is holding a conference call at 5:00PM ET / 2:00PM PT to discuss the results, and of course, we'll be updating with notes from the call!



Q2 2011 Q2 2012 % Change Net profits $5.99b $11.6b +93.7% Revenue $24.67b $39.2b +58.9% Cash on hand $65.8b $110.2b +67.5% Mac 3.76m 4m +6.4% iPhone 18.65m 35.1m +88.2% iPad 4.69m 11.8m +151.6% iPod 9.02m 7.7m -14.6%

Notes from the conference call. All times in PT

2:01PM PT: An abrupt halt to the classical string arrangement. CFO Peter Oppenheimer and CEO Tim Cook will be speaking on the call.

2:04PM: Mountain Lion is still due out this summer. Just FYI.

2:05PM: iPod continues to be the best-selling MP3 player in most markets. 28 million songs in the iTunes stores.

2:06PM: "Very strong iPhone sales growth." Sales in Japan more than doubled year-over-year.

2:07PM: Recognized revenue from accessories was $22.7 billion for the quarter, an 85 percent year-over-year increase.

2:08PM: San Diego school system? You're buying a lot more Macs this quarter.

2:10PM: 600,000 apps, including 200,000 for the iPad. More than 125 million iCloud customers since launching in October.

2:11PM: How are Apple stores doing? $12.2 million average per store, a 23 percent increase.

2:13PM: Revenue is expected to be 34 billion in this June quarter, which we're guessing would be a record for Q3.

2:15PM: Question time!

2:17PM: What about lower iPad price points? "We're just learning about the elasticity of demand and the $399 [iPad 2] price, it's doing well, but I have to tell you, the new iPad is on fire and we're selling them as fast as we can make them." In other words, no point in cutting price for either iPad 2 or new iPad — at least until the next new iPad.

2:21PM: More pressing on the lower price points, iPhone and iPad. "We're actually thrilled with the results [of the $399 iPad 2], but it's too early to see... this unlocked some education demand [that's more price sensitive]." There was a "marked" change in demand at that price point. But as it stands, the new iPad is still constrained by supply — which is another way of saying it's selling very well.

2:23PM: Question: "How do you think about the market for tablet and PC devices going forward? ... Is it realistic to think there's a sub-two pound device that we can all carry around and open as a notebook or close up as a tablet?" Tim: products are tradeoffs. "You can converge a toaster and fridge, but those things are probably not gonna be pleasing to the user. Our review is that the tablet market is huge — we've said that since day one. We were using them here [at HQ] and it was already clear there was so much you could do... that's precisely what we've seen." iPad has taken off in consumer, education, and enterprise. "It's sort of everywhere you look now. The applications are so easy to make meaningful for someone. There's such an abundance of those. As the ecosystem gets better adn better and we continue to double down on great products, I think the limit here is nowhere in sight."

67 million iPads have been sold. Took 24 years to sell as many Macs, 5 years for iPods, and 3 years for iPhones. "Even the more formal predictors are beginning to see these lines crossed..." Tim changes too. "Having said that..." Great market for MacBook Air. "I do think it appeals to someone with a little different environments." Combining both would compromise both and make no one happy, says Tim. "We're not going to that party. Others might from a defensive point, particularly, but we're going to play in both."

2:29PM: So that was a doozy. Let's talk iPhones now? Question: do you think there are factors that could pressure subsidies? Answer: Apple should continue to make great products. "From the carrier's perspective, I think it's important to remember the subsidy is not large relative to sum of monthly payment across 24-month period. Any delta between iPhone and another phone is an even smaller level of difference." iPhone has advantages for carrier, including the lowest churn rate. Engineer teams work hard to be efficient with data, which Apple believes makes it more efficient (and less taxing on carrier) than other smartphones. Tim says the "largest opportunity" is first-time smartphone buyers, where he feels Apple is at an advantage.

2:32PM: How many people are paying for additional iCloud storage? Pickup on storage is "growing" but was just launched in October. 125 million users in all. "I think storage growth will come over time," says Oppenheimer, which is a not-so-subtle hint that concrete numbers won't be given.

2:36PM: Thrilled with rate of adding content into iTunes. Has to be done country-to-country. Largest catalog of songs and movies. Almost $1.9 billion in revenue for quarter.

2:38PM: Cook won't comment on future products, so far as how things such as Qualcomm's shortage might affect them, but hey, thanks for trying!

2:43PM: Any more thoughts on China? "Not supply-and-demand imbalanced" on iPhone. For new iPad, there's still supply constraint worldwide. "In China, I believe on a macro basis... China has an enormous number of people moving into higher income levels." Tremendous opportunity for companies that understand China. "We're doing everything we can to understand it."

2:45PM: How did recent events in Spain affect sales? Spain grew materially less than worldwide. Cook sees it as an "unusual case." To explain: the carriers still have subsidies for existing customers and pulled subsidies from new customers — and not all carriers did that. That all said, Cook doesn't want to blame the sales difference in Spain on the subsidy situation.

2:48PM: Hey, patents. Wake up! Question: why not just settle? Cook, who beings by lamenting how much he hates lawsuits. "We just want people to invent their own stuff. If we could get to some kind of arrangement where we could be assured that was the case. A fair settlement o the stuff that's occurred. I'd highly prefer to settle than to battle. The key thing is, it's important that Apple not become the developer of the world. We need people to invent their own stuff.

2:50PM: What about R&D? "We view this as a good thing. We're investing in engineering to continue to bring out the most innovative products," said Oppenheimer. There are "fabulous" new products in the pipeline. Peter then revealed what they were, but we all pinky-swore to secrecy.

2:51PM: Okay, not really.

2:53PM: After a brief respite, back to R&D and spending discussions. More hires, more stores, more infrastructure to support growth. Stock-based comp for employees. "We're thinking about the long term" and confident for returns on these investments. Cook: NAND continued to exceed demand, so pricing was favorable. Hard drive market has moved to supply-demand balance — will decline but remain higher than pre-flood level.

2:55PM: Enterprise-y, but... 95 percent Fortune 500 and 75 percent of Global 500 are testing or using iPhone or iPad.

2:59PM: When do you expect to meet demand for the iPad? Cook: "We'll be able provide significant iPads for the quarter... very confident with improve supply." Won't say for sure if supply and demand will balance, as Apple loves to say. And that is the end of the call!