Pedestrians walk past an Apple Store in San Francisco. Apple Inc's shining holiday-quarter results diverted Wall Street's attention, at least temporarily, from news that CEO Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence.
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Pedestrians walk past an Apple Store in San Francisco. Apple Inc's shining holiday-quarter results diverted Wall Street's attention, at least temporarily, from news that CEO Steve Jobs is taking another medical leave of absence. |
Investors focused on Apple's success in boosting production of iPads, which happened faster than analysts predicted. Shoppers also bought iPhones as fast as Apple could make them, helping drive the company's fiscal first-quarter net income up 78 percent from the prior year.
Jobs had surgery in 2004 that he said cured him of a rare form of pancreatic cancer. In 2009, Jobs announced a half-year leave during which time he had a liver transplant. This time, Apple did not say whether Jobs is acutely ill again or when it expects him to return.
While some analysts question how long Apple can prolong its run of smash-hit products without Jobs' day-to-day oversight, most agree the gadget maker can keep going apace for the next few years with updates to the iPad, iPhone and other devices already in the pipeline.
"The quarter was remarkable," said Shaw Wu, a Kaufman Bros analyst.
In an interview, Wu said he thinks investors will give Apple more credit for the quarter in the coming days or weeks. As for Jobs' health, he said investors are "not as fixated on it."
Apple's newest product, the iPad tablet computer, went on sale in April and was one of the hottest gifts over the holidays. Apple sold 7.3 million of the touch-screen, keyboard-less gadgets, which people use to surf the Internet, watch movies, play games and, increasingly, get real work done.