Apple Pockets $135 Million in Profit -- Apple Computer announced a $135 million profit on $1.53 billion in revenue for its second fiscal quarter of 1999, marking Apple's sixth consecutive profitable quarter. Apple also has $2.9 billion in cash and short term investments, up $300 million from last quarter. Apple's profits were buoyed by $50 million from continued sale of shares of ARM Ltd., but Macintosh sales numbers remained strong, with Apple showing a 27 percent growth in unit sales since the same quarter last year. Although inventory problems continue to nag iMac availability (partly because blueberry iMacs seem more popular than other colors), Apple spent $8 million improving manufacturing operations and ended the quarter with a mere one day of inventory. Roughly half of Apple's sales come from outside the United States, and Apple says it shipped 400,000 Power Macintosh G3s during the quarter, although PowerBook sales lagged, probably because customers are waiting for future models. [GD]

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