Apple Shares Plummet Despite Record iPhone and iPad Sales

Apple has just posted its largest ever quarterly iPhone and iPad sales along with record revenue - however this was still not enough to appease investors with shares in the company dropping more than 8% in after-hours trading.

Apple recorded revenue of $57.6 billion (£34.7bn, €42.1bn) which was up 6% compared to the same period in 2012. Despite this record revenue, Apple's net profit was slightly down to $13.072bn compared to $13.078bn in the final three months of 2012.

This was likely the main reason that Apple's shares dropped over 8% in after hours trading, with the shares $504, down from $550 at close.

iPhone sales

Apple sold 51 million iPhones, which was a record for a quarter but was still some way below both Wall Street and Apple predictions. It had been expected that the launch of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c just before the beginning of the quarter would have given sales a bigger boost to around 55 million.

Samsung is the only other manufacturer to break the 50 million mobile phone sales barrier in a single quarter.

Apple failed to break out figures for specific models of iPhone with many people interested to see how well or otherwise the iPhone 5c sold, as analysts suggest the model is not selling as well as Apple would have expected.

While iPhone sales missed, Apple's record sales of 26 million iPads was better than expected and were even more impressive considering it had supply constraints for both the iPad Air and updated iPad mini throughout the quarter.

Mac and iPod

Having celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Mac on Friday, Apple announced one of its best quarters ever for sales of the company's computers with 4.8 million units sold in the three months to the end of December.

Apple's iPod business has been in trouble for some time and it sold just slightly over 6 million units in the final three months of 2013, traditionally the largest quarter for Apple's media player.

This represented a huge drop of 55% year-on-year though considering Apple hasn't updated its iPod line up in over a year, it is not a big surprise.

Apple CEO Tim Cook admitted in a conference call with analysts: "All of us have known for some time that iPod is a declining business."

Looking forward, Apple is predicting revenues of between $42bn and $44bn for the current quarter which could indicate that Apple is on course for its first year-on-year revenue decline in a long time.

Cook also confirmed that 2014 would see new product categories from Apple, with investment and resources coming to fruition during the next 12 months - though he obviously didn't give specifics.

Apple is said to be working on an iWatch, larger-screened iPhones and a television set.