By Graham K. Rogers

Overnight, Apple announced its latest financial results which it headlines with "Apple Reports Record Results" adding, "47.8 Million iPhones Sold; 22.9 Million iPads Sold" While the information from the press release is below, having pushed the share prices down considerably over the last few months, there are doubtless many analysts who will find something wrong. Or maybe not: the springback could be highly profitable for some. Apple, on the other hand, is in it for the long term.

The Press release reads:

Apple today announced financial results for its 13-week fiscal 2013 first quarter ended December 29, 2012. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $54.5 billion and record quarterly net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.81 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $46.3 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, in the 14-week year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.6 percent compared to 44.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Average weekly revenue was $4.2 billion in the quarter compared to $3.3 billion in the year-ago quarter.

The Company sold a record 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, compared to 37 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold a record 22.9 million iPads during the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.1 million Macs, compared to 5.2 million in the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 12.7 million iPods in the quarter, compared to 15.4 million in the year-ago quarter.

Apple's Board of Directors has declared a cash dividend of $2.65 per share of the Company's common stock. The dividend is payable on February 14, 2013, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on February 11, 2013.

So, let's see: revenue up $9 billion for the quarter, profit unchanged, with an average weekly revenue up $0.9 billion. In terms of devices sold, iPhone sales increased by 10.8 million units and iPads increased by 7.5 million, while sales of Macs dropped by 1.1 million (offset - and more - by iPads) in a period when sales of all PCs were lower. As iPhone and iPad sales increase, so it was also expected that fewer iPods would be sold (down 2.7 million).

A comment from Peter Oppenheimer tells us that the quarter generated "$23 billion in cash flow from operations" also tells us that Apple's cash reserves have increased somewhat.

For the next quarter, Apple expects -

• revenue between $41 billion and $43 billion
• gross margin between 37.5 percent and 38.5 percent
• operating expenses between $3.8 billion and $3.9 billion
• other income/(expense) of $350 million
• tax rate of 26%

With a cash dividend of $2.65 per share, AAPL should be on a lot of shopping lists this morning.

And what will also be interesting will be the comments coming from the Q & A session after the report.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs.