A day after Jobs announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence for medical reasons, Apple reported its record net profit as revenue soared to an unprecedented $26.74 billion in the quarter ending December 31.
The Cupertino, California-based company said it sold 7.33 million iPad tablet computers and 16.24 million iPhones.
"We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales," Jobs said in a statement accompanying the earnings report.
"We are firing on all cylinders and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon, which customers can't wait to get their hands on."
He chose Monday, a US holiday on which stock markets were closed, to announce that he was turning the Apple helm over to chief operating officer Timothy Cook.
Jobs will keep his chief executive title and participate in "major strategic decisions" at Apple.
Apple shares fell Tuesday as concerns for Jobs health raised questions about the company's future.
Record high quarterly earnings figures and assurances by Cook that the company saw boom times ahead with its coveted gadgets helped the stock recover some ground.
Apple shares rose slightly more than a percent to $344.90 a share in trading that followed the earnings release but remained down in price for the day, after closing at a record high of $348.48 in New York on Friday.
The company is "working around the clock" to increase the supply of its hot-selling iPhones, and has already seen more than 80 percent of major companies begin letting workers use iPad tablet computers for business, Cook said.
I must applaud Steve Jobs for the perfect timing for his departure.
Firstly, he chose to leave on the day where US is having their holiday and when the stock market is closed. This prevents any speculations from going around and damaging Apple's reputation. Usually, such repercussions are hard to save. But Steve Jobs probably had already predicted what's going to happen so that's probably why he chose to leave on a holiday.
Right after that, the earnings for the 4th quarter last year was released and once again, it reached an unprecedented record, thus boosting the investors' confidence once again.
But the question is, how long can this confidence be sustained? Not for long I would say.
Perhaps for 1 quarter?
Typically, the sales for the first quarter is usually not the highest as compared to the 4th quarter. So naturally, the earnings for this quarter would for sure be lower.
So how would the public perceive it? Most probably, they will accuse Apple of bad management and that without Steve Jobs, they can't earn them money. But the truth is, its just a bad quarter in the first place. There's simple no basis of comparison.
But the public, being, well the public. They would not tolerate the drop in earnings and would end up selling Apple's shares because they feel that they magic is lost without Jobs' presence.
At the end of the day, the public are now so mesmerized with Jobs that without him, there would be no Apple. Hence, unless the management and executives can create another revolutionary product without the help of Steve Jobs, Apple is probably going downslope after Steve Jobs inevitable departure in the future.
Now, what Apple has to do is to take the risk and go for a product that will astonish the world. While it is important to maintain and sustain their current achievements, I believe it is more important to take the precarious move and show the world, prove to them that Apple is not nothing without Steve Jobs. That's probably the most important thing on hand now, at least if we look at the long run.
