By Graham K. Rogers

A number of sites are reporting this morning about the announcement from Apple concerning its Q4 earnings report for 2013. The release on the Apple Investor pages tells us,

Apple plans to conduct a conference call to discuss financial results of its fourth fiscal quarter on Monday, October 28, 2013 at 2:00 p.m. PT / 5:00 p.m. ET.

As usual the Conference Call link is up already, so those interested will be able to follow the audio of the event live. If I have this right, the time of the announcement will be at 04:00 in this region, starting not long after Wall Street has closed. Unusually, the event is to be on a Monday: it is normally mid-week (Q3 was a Tuesday).

Although Apple guidance, issued at the Q3 2013 results event suggested for Q4 that revenue was expected to be between $34 billion and $37 billion and gross margin between 36% and 37%, the release of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c has made some changes.

Analysts had expected some 5 million iPhones to be sold in the opening weekend, but Apple reported around 9 million, and has issued a revised guidance. It is now to be at the "high end of the previously provided range of $34 billion to $37 billion, and [Apple] expects gross margin to be near the high end of the previously provided range of 36% to 37%" (StreetInsider).

Along with the adjusted guidance, several new products are expected soon. It was reported that supplies of the current Mac Pro are drying up and there is anticipation that the new Mac Pro with the cylindrical design is imminent. Certain Pro software may also be updated to coincide with this.

Also expected soon is the next release of OS X, 10.9, Mavericks. The "Gold Master" was released last Friday to developers. Pricing and exact date of a release are yet to be confirmed.

Other hardware is expected with strong rumours concerning a revised MacBook Pro range, as well as new iPads.

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. 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.