Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) in its last earnings report declared that 2007 was going to be an exciting year for the company. It may be exciting in all the wrong ways, however, as legal battles are already shaping up over its next major product and with a continuing investigation into stock options irregularities. It will be both a great year for products, and an interesting year to watch how this company makes it through some upcoming challenges. How Apple starts the year with announcements about its earnings over the holidays could have an important impact on the stock.

In Apple's last meeting in October, Peter Oppenheimer said to expect $6 to $6.2 billion of revenue and $0.70 to $0.73 earnings per share.

Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (NYSE:GS) calls for better-than-expected results, somewhere in the vicinity of $0.79 per share and $6.38 billion. Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster also expects earnings to come out a few pennies higher, and Munster often seems to read Apple retail better than other analysts.

With analysts betting on above-expected earnings, and such signs as iPods flying off the shelves and high traffic to Apple retail and websites, the money looks to be on Apple to beat earnings. But what's your vote?

Also check out some other earnings reports that we're following, and let us know your thoughts on earnings expectations.

Will Apple beat expectations at the upcoming earnings call? originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Tue, 16 Jan 2007 10:35:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.