Apple earnings refers to the amount of profit Apple made during a specified period of time. Usually earnings are reported quarterly after taxes and price of share is generally the main factor in the businesses earnings. For the first quarter of 2010, Apple reported a 50 percent increase in profit from the same quarter last year at $3.37 billion, which was $3.74 per share. Wall Street expected revenue on earnings between $11.21 billion and $12.6 billion or $2.07 per share. Apple exceeded those predictions when it reported revenue of $15.6 billion for the quarter.

The quarter was the best in company history. One of the reasons for the first quarter success was Apple's decision to adopt new accounting principles by the Financial Accounting Standards Board for the first quarter of 2010. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said it was "surprising" that Apple is now a $50 billion company, and said that a Apple is working on "major new product that we're really excited about." Speculation is that the new product will be a tablet computer.http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-10440777-260.html

In the first quarter of 2008, Apple reported earnings of $1.56 billion or $1.76 per share, which was up from $1 billion in revenue and $1.14 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2007. Revenue was also up from $7.1 billion in the first quarter of 2007 to $9.6 billion.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/23/technology/23apple.html Revenue for the second quarter was $7.51 billion and earnings of $1.05 billion or $1.16 per diluted share, both down from the first quarter.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/04/23results.html Third quarter numbers remained steady with a revenue of $7.46 and earnings at $1.07 billion or $1.19 per diluted share.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/07/21results.html The fiscal year ended with revenue slightly up to $7.9 billion and earnings up to $1.14 billion or $1.26 per diluted share.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/10/21results.html

Apple reported record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly earnings of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These numbers compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share for the first quarter of 2008.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/21results.html In the second quarter, revenue dropped to $8.16 billion and earnings also dropped to $1.21 billion, or $1.33 per diluted share. All of those numbers were still higher than the second quarter of 2008.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/04/22results.html For the third quarter, Apple reported revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly earnings of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share, which was a slight increase from the second quarter and a more significant increase from a year ago.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/07/21results.html Apple ended the 2009 fiscal year with a revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These numbers reflect an increase from the third quarter and from the last quarter of 2008.http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/10/19results.html