The good news

The good news continues, with Apple reporting late last week that they posted record revenues and unit shipments for the fourth fiscal quarter. Apple’s revenue for the quarter was $2.14 billion, a 21 percent increase from the same quarter last year. Of course, revenues don’t mean much if expenses were equally high, and although not impressive, Apple turned back to profitable ways, with a net income of $2.7 million, somewhat less than the $97.6 million the company made the same quarter last year. Needless to say, earning $2.7 million is better than losing hundreds of millions, as had happened earlier this year (although the net income for the year was $86 million). Apple attributes the decline in net income to the fact that gross margins declined from 42.7 percent of sales to 25.7 percent of sales.