Apple has announced its fiscal 2010 fourth quarter results ending September 25, marking the company's best period yet with revenue up 67% on-year. The company posted revenue of $20.34 billion on profit of $4.31 billion or $4.64 per diluted share, higher than investors' forecasted $17.87 to $19.86 billion revenue.
Cupertino shipped 3.89 million Macs during the fourth quarter, up 27% from last year, but still less than the 4.19 million iPads sold. Meanwhile, the company moved 9.05 million iPods, down 11%, and 14.1 million iPhones, a 91% unit growth year-over-year.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs compared the iPhone's results with BlackBerry-maker RIM, who shipped a lesser 12.1 million handsets in the latest quarter. "Android is our biggest competitor. They outshipped us as we were transitioning to iPhone 4. So we're waiting to find out what happened to this quarter," he said in a conference call that you can listen to here.
The CEO briefly discussed the iPad's upcoming competition and dismissed 7-inch tablets as a valid form factor. "This size is useless unless you include sandpaper so users can sand their fingers down to a quarter of their size," adding further that 7-inch competitors to the nearly 10-inch iPad are effectively DOA. Guess that squashes rumors of a 7-inch iPad.