Apple Q3 report: iPhone sales down, but profit still strong

Apple has just posted its report for the third quarter of the year and things are looking healthy for the Cupertino-based company. The revenue was $36 billion and the net profit stood at $8.2 billion, both of those comparing very favorably to the numbers from the same period of last year ($28.3 billion and $6.6 billion).

Somewhat surprisingly Apple didn’t manage to better its achievement from the second quarter of this year, when the company made $8.8 billion in profit from just $35 billion revenue, despite the launch of the iPhone 5. The supply shortages are probably a part of the explanation as Apple is still struggling to cope with the demand for its new smartphone.

The iPhone sales were somewhat disappointing at 26.9 million units, compared to 35.1 million in Q2. The iPad shipments stood at 14 million units, compared to 17 million in the previous quarter, while Mac sales grew from 4 million to 4.9 million. Despite the refresh of the lineup, the iPod sales slid to 5.3 million units from 6.8 million in Q2.

The lowered profits, despite the higher revenue can also be explained with the fact that the iPhone accounted for a smaller percentage of the Apple revenue this quarter (the smartphone is the Apple product with the highest profit margin).

The financial markets didn’t respond very well to the posted results and the Apple Inc. shares slid to 1.43% in after hours trading (they were 1% up before the results were posted) and are close to falling below $600 after reaching . Still, the drop is pretty minor and a strong holiday quarter, fuelled by the launch of the iPad mini, the 4th generation iPad and the extended availability of the iPhone 5 will probably bring the company back to the right track.

Update: The stock has bounced back and to levels close to the ones from market close. We'll see how things pan out tomorrow when trading restarts.