Rob Cihra, an analyst at Evercore Partners, said the iPhone was increasingly evolving into a business that has two quarters of gigantic sales, followed by two weaker ones, in which customers wait patiently for a new model. But Mr. Cihra said it would be far more worrisome if customers did not show so much enthusiasm about Apple’s next move.

“That’s the price of having an incredibly popular consumer product,” he said.

Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said there was not much Apple could do about the phenomenon beyond trying to keep its plans secret. “I’m glad people want the next thing,” he said. “I’m not going to put any energy into trying to get people to stop speculating.”

The newest pillar of Apple’s business, the iPad, has started to take some of the pressure off the iPhone to dazzle investors every quarter. For the fiscal third quarter ended June 30, Apple said it sold 17 million iPads, bringing in revenue of $9.17 billion, compared with nine million iPads and $6.05 billion in revenue a year ago.

Those sales got a lift from a new version of the iPad with a higher-resolution display that Apple introduced in March. The iPad now accounts for 26 percent of Apple’s total revenue.

Mr. Cook added that Apple would release the latest version of its Mac operating system, Mountain Lion, on Wednesday.

Apple reported net income of $8.82 billion, or $9.32 a share, up from $7.31 billion, or $7.79 a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue was $35.02 billion compared with $28.57 billion a year earlier.

The figures were above the $8.68 a share in profit and $34 billion in revenue that Apple had previously forecast for the quarter. But they fell well short of the estimates of Wall Street analysts, who typically take Apple’s own forecasts with a grain of salt because of the company’s long history of underpromising and overdelivering on its financial performance.