Today Apple announces the results of their last quarter and offers up projections for the next quarter and second half of the year. We're listening in live and blogging the results right here, so make sure to tune in.

4:48 PM: setting up this post and getting ready to listen to the results.

4:53 PM: joining the conference call and listening to hold music.

5:00 PM: it's go time now, and the operator is saying the call wil start any second now, I'm making this post live to the front page.

5:03 PM: heh, this is like any other phone call I've had to make in the last few days, still on hold, and starting to twitch from hearing too much grainy low-quality classical music over very tinny phone speakers...
5:06 PM: we're about to begin. For opening remarks the senior director of investor relations is talking to us. Some of this information is forward looking, we're being warned. We will be hearing about the stock options investigation today though.

5:07 PM: Peter Oppenheimer. Please to report the second highest quarter's revenue yet in Apple's history. High margin being discussed.

Mac product revenue has been increasing. Very happy with progress in transition to Intel. All but Xserve and Powermac on Intel. Apple's universal products being rolled out, 2900 universal versions out.

5:09 PM: pleased with response to new intel based macs. Macbook has been well received, and the pro has increased to 12% laptop share.

5:10 PM: the mac campaign is great, and thinks a lot of new people have come over to mac as a result

5:10 PM: music products are great, iPod shipments are up. iPod acounts for over 75% of US market for mp3 players in the US, and dominates worldwide.

5:11 PM: 90% up other music sales, like accesories and iTunes music store.

85% share of legally downloaded/purchased music is iTunes, and it's being expanded all the time.

Investing in iPod and iTunes engineering. iPod ecosystem continuing to thrive. He's pimping the nike/iPod combo.

5:12 PM: 750 million, 29% year growth with Apple retail stores. Store traffic is strong, 17 million customers last quarter. Nearly 50% visitors to stores are new mac owners.

5:14 PM: Education sales are at a 10 year high

Quarterly earnings are up across the board.

5:15 PM: tax rate was just under 29%, due to a change in foreign jobs repatriation tax changes.

5:15 PM: cash balance up to 9.2 billion dollars.

5:15 PM: looking ahead, some forward looking info:

4.6 billion of expected revenue.

Tax rate 32%

5:17 PM: Opening call to questions:

Lot of concern about new iPods, how important is it to hit holiday season with new iPods? Apple says it won't talk about unannounced products. Don't imagine that creativity at Apple re: iPods will die off.

A question about gross margin guidance, there is a decrease, why is that? Apple expects a favorable commodity environment to continue. Gross margins are expected to decline as a result of Apple back to school, more macbooks, and foreign lowered prices.

5:20 PM: An analst is asking about economic environment of consumer vs education and what Apple sees in economy. Apple says both responded strongly to macbook, and in pro believed customers are waiting on a powermac with an intel chip. Best June quarter in edu market in 10 years repeated.

Higher ed market grew 31% year to year, great season. Think Apple is very well poised for the back to school season with the macbook reception, and with the nano/macbook combo.

Saying the US economy is holding up well in the face of higher interest rates and oil. Points out that Bernanke made some mentions this morning that may have some effect on things re: moderation.

5:23 PM: Analyst is asking what is holding non-iPod music related peripherals back. Apple says things are hard to tell.

5:24 PM: Apple is pointing out that mac units were very strong, half the macs sold are to new people. Units sold are up. Analyst wants to know if that was driven by new macbooks.

5:26 PM: Questions about revenue outlook. Apple says they've grown 22-25% since last September.

5:27 PM: Question about Leopard, and whether the new version of the OS will help push some money in the coffers. Apple just pointed out that we will find out more about that in August at WWDC.

5:29 PM: Revenue from stores is up overall, but individual average per store is down slightly.

5:30 PM: Apple is looking into expanding its outlet points for macs, with about 7000 in existence, but won't make any announcements about that just yet.

5:30 PM: Asking about philosophy of margin management on iPods in general. Apple says it doesn't release specific product margins, but iPod margins are up due to favorable commodity environment. Apple says its competitive and aggresive on margins on iPods and macs.

5:33 PM: Will the intel chip price changes create inventory management issues, will apple adjust its prices more frequently or only at the time of new product launches? Apple is pleased to be working with Intel, a great partner. Are pleased that Intel has lots of choices for them. Won't talk about how Apple might change pricing.

5:36 PM: Retail distribution question. Apple is saying that the main pilot with new retail points is with Best Buy, and they've been doing that for 2 months. Nothing else is currently underway.

Historical OS launches, what impact might the next OS release have for Apple? Apple says when Tiger was released a year ago revenue in that quarter were $100 million.

5:39 PM: Is divergence between desktops and laptops a function of pro community waiting for intel chips? Apple says the main thing effecting them are the awesome notebooks selling so well. There are very compelling reasons to get laptops now. However on desktops people are waiting for intel chips, pro community waiting on specific apps to go universal.

5:41 PM: Is there any way you can compare pro desktop sales sizes? Apple finds it hard to figure out how to quantify pro user desktop market size.

5:42 PM: Apple won't break out powermac sales, only desktop vs. laptop.

5:43 PM: Comments on progress in foreign iPod sales? Apple has put more energy and advertising outside the US, in particular Spain, UK, France, now that they have retail points to do so.

5:43 PM: Any data on switchers and bootcamp effecting that? Apple says downloads of bootcamp is big, and it obviously makes for a big attractive reason to try mac if wedded to windows.

5:44 PM: Question about music model, is France's legal threat causing issues? Apple believes that any legislation that requires the sharing of DRM causes state sponsored piracy which will lead to artists and their companies to withdraw support or allowing legal digital downloads.

5:47 PM: Any surprises at WWDC? Laughs all around. You'll have to tune in and see!

5:47 PM: Japan business is down on the quarter, but up year after year. Any comments? PC market is down, so this isn't surprising. Is below average, and Apple not happy, so looking for ways to improve. The resignation of head of Japan was mutual resignation. Phil Schiller (sp?) will lead marketing in Japan.

5:49 PM: International vs US question. Yes, Apple's US success hasn't spread as dramatically, but it takes a bit longer before new product releases ripple out to those markets.

How are South America sales? Growth rate, almost doubled in South America.

On iPod growth in Europe: Apple doesn't release geographical iPod sales.

Restating that Apple hopes governments will let markets decide what DRM or devices customers will use.

On Sony, how are Sony products (like walkman phone) impacting Apple. They're confident in their ability to compete, and are excited about what's in the pipeline. Don't think the phones today make the best media players, but that will change, they're not sitting around ignoring that.

5:53 PM: Have you done any studies on new iPod owners being existing iPod owners. Apple doesn't know of any, just offering the best product and great marketing is enough to worry about.

5:53 PM: Macbooks have a 7 day wait time, what's up? What about the R&D issues with going to intel? Apple feels there is no problem there. Backorders are being worked hard on.

5:55 PM: They're saying: thanks to everyone for listening in. That wraps it up. The audio of this should be up at www.apple.com/investor at 8pm.

Thanks for sticking with Bloggingstocks for this liveblog of the Apple earnings report.

[Disclosure: I own Apple stock at the date of this post]