<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"Every Apple earnings report is a big event, but today's earnings report is especially significant.\nApple's September quarter earnings report disappointed investors. Though the company beat expectations for iPhone sales by a decent margin, it fell short on iPad sales and perhaps more importantly, Apple projected that it would report a significantly lower profit margin in the following quarter than analysts had expected. Apple's stock fell below $600 the next day for the first time in three months and has continued to decline, falling to as low as $483 a share in intraday trading last week.\nIn recent days, Apple's stock has hovered right around the $500 mark, as investors appear unsure whether the stock is set to skyrocket back towards its high of $705 just after the iPhone 5 was released or plummet lower into the 400s. That, in a nutshell, is what hinges on the December earnings report. Investors are waiting to see how well Apple's new products have sold and how much they have started to cut into the company's profit margin.\n\nAAPL data by YCharts\nMuch of the focus will be on the iPhone 5 in particular. Ever since the device was released in mid-September, there have been reports that Apple's suppliers were struggling to manufacture enough phones to meet demand. More recently, there have been multiple reports that Apple has cut its supply orders for iPhone 5 parts in half for the March quarter, suggesting to some that demand is lower than expected. Even so, analysts are expecting a record quarter for iPhone sales, but the range of estimates varies from as low as 43 million to more than 60 million, with a median estimate of about 50 million. \nApple is also expected to have strong iPad sales of 23 million, according to Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster, 9 million more than were sold in the previous quarter thanks largely to the release of the iPad Mini in October. \nBased on the strength of iPhone and iPad sales, Apple is expected to report record revenue of $54.73 billion, according to analysts' estimates compiled by compiled by Thomson Reuters. While that's an impressive figure, it would represent the slowest growth in Apple sales since 2009. To make matters worse, Apple's net income is expected to decline for the first time in a decade due to higher costs associated with producing new products like the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini and lower price tags for older iPhone models and the iPad Mini. Right now, the consensus estimate is that Apple will report earnings-per-share of $13.44 for the quarter, down from $13.87 per share in the same quarter a year ago \u2014 a decline of about 3%. \nApple's stock was up by about 1% in early trading Wednesday.\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, EdStock"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/01/23/apple-q4-earnings-preview/>