NEW YORK -- Apple has a new iPhone, two new iPads and three new computers as it heads into the holiday quarter, the biggest selling season of the year. But, paradoxically, it expects these new gadgets to bring down its profits compared to last year.
The reason: the new gadgets are expensive to make, according to Apple's chief financial officer.
In part, this is a normal consequence of having so many new products, said CFO Peter Oppenheimer. When a production line is new it costs more to run and the components are more expensive.
"The difference this time is the sheer number of products we're introducing at a short time," Oppenheimer told analysts on a call Thursday.
But Oppenheimer also singled out the iPad Mini, the new, smaller version of the iPad the company unveiled Tuesday. It starts at $329, well above the $199 competitors charge for similar products. Apple's price is "aggressive," with a margin well below other products, Oppenheimer said.
"When we set out to build the iPad Mini, we didn't set out to build a cheap tablet," Oppenheimer said.
Apple said it expects earnings of $11.75 per share in the holiday quarter, below the $13.87 per share it earned in the same period last year. Apple routinely lowballs its estimates, but this time the forecast was further from the analyst estimate than usual. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $15.59, on average.
Apple expects sales of $52 billion, roughly in line with the analyst expectation of $56 billion, considering the company's conservatism.
Apple shares fell $6.33, or 1 per cent, to $603.47, extending a downward trend for the stock, which hit an all-time high of $705.07 a month ago, on the day the iPhone 5 went on sale in the U.S. and eight countries.
For the just-ended quarter, Apple missed Wall Street earnings expectations for the second straight quarter, as iPad sales fell short of analyst forecasts.
The slowdown in the growth of iPad sales was not completely unexpected, as the rumour mill correctly predicted that Apple would launch the iPad Mini.
Sales were also hurt by slowing growth in China. Apple's sales in China more than doubled in fiscal 2010 and in 2011. Growth in the July- September quarter was also slow in economically troubled Europe.
Net income in the fiscal fourth quarter was $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per share. That was up 24 per cent from $6.6 billion, or $7.05 per share, a year ago.
Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of $8.84 per share.
Revenue was $36 billion, up 27 per cent from a year ago. Analysts were expecting $35.8 billion.
The Cupertino, Calif., company sold 26.9 million iPhones in the quarter, at the high end of expectations, and 14 million iPads.
