Apple's Fiscal Q4 Results: Steve Jobs, Tons of Cash, and the iPhone is a Netbook

All right, it was a one-liner in Apple's earning results conference call, but it was still interesting. During Apple's Fiscal Q4 08 earnings call, when asked about netbooks, Steve Jobs,making an earings call guest-shot, snarkily said "one of our entrants in that category (netbooks) is the iPhone."

While Apple's stock was down $6.95 on Tuesday, after the earnings results were announced, the stock rose $11 in after-hours trading. Apple posted revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per share. A year ago, Apple had $6.22 billion in revenue and a $904 million profit ($1.01 per share). Nicely done, about a 26% uptick.

There were 6,892,000 iPhones sold (1,119,000 a year ago). Mac sales grew 21% in units and 17% in revenue year-over-year with 2,611,000 Macs shipped. And don't forget the 11,052,000 iPods sold during the quarter, representing eight% unit growth and 3% revenue growth from last year.

To be precise, that's more iPhones than every previous quarter combined (6.1 million), more Macs than ever in a quarter, and the most iPods ever in a non-holiday quarter.

Steve Jobs said:

"Apple just reported one of the best quarters in its history, with a spectacular performance by the iPhone—we sold more phones than RIM. We don’t yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple. But we’re armed with the strongest product line in our history, the most talented employees and the best customers in our industry. And $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt."

More phones than RIM ... 6.9 million vs. 6.7 million, according to Jobs. They were very cautious (understandably, with these tough times) with their forecast, giving a range: earnings anywhere between $1.06 to $1.35 per share; revenue between $9 and $10 billion.

From the call:

• Jobs thinks netbooks aren't selling that much --- yet. And he feels the iPhone already gives Apple an entrance into that category. He wants to see the category evolve, but he did say "we've got some pretty interesting ideas if it does evolve." In other words, too early to tell on that segment, but we've got something lined up just in case.

• Perhaps crushing people who expect to see a flip iPhone or an iPhone with a slideout keyboard, Jobs said "From everything I've heard, Babe Ruth only had one home run, he just kept hitting it over and over again." He indicated that software is the differentiator.

• On that note, he also indicated that the 200 millionth iPhone app will be downloaded from the App Store, sometime tomorrow.

In the consumer electronics segment that Apple plays in, it's clear that if they aren't at least wary, they should be. This economic downturn will make people put off purchases.

However, by getting on the call, Jobs proved one thing: he's still healthy, and so is Apple.