Apple beats Wall Street

Apple beat Wall Street predictions in its fourth quarter results but warned that next quarter's figures will fall short of estimates.

The computer maker posted revenues of $1.45bn for the three months, a fall of 22 per cent on the same period last year. The company's profits were also down on Q4 2000, falling from $170m to $66m, or 19 cents a share.

The company said its revenues had been boosted by strong educational sales, in particular it cited a strong demand for its recently revamped iBook laptop computer.

However, Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that sales for the next quarter were likely to be affected by the ongoing market turbulence.

He predicted revenues of around $1.4bn for the next three months. Previously, analysts had predicted revenues of $1.6bn for the period.

Apple CFO Fred Anderson said that the fallout from 11 September has also had a detrimental effect on sales at the company's new retail outlets.

He said the recently opened stores had made a slight loss for the quarter. The company had predicted the stores would break-even for the period.