Apple To Announce Earnings: Will iPhones Overshadow Macs & iPods?

When Apple Inc. (AAPL) reports third quarter results on Wednesday, many will be keying in on how many iPhones were sold during the last two days of June and any hint of new developments. RBC Capital markets forecasts Apple will report 450,000 to 500,000 units sold in the quarter, while Goldman Sachs estimates that number was close to 550,000.

With the iPhone contributing so little to Apple’s roughly US$5-billion in quarterly revenue – for now – the focus should turn to Mac sales, which continue to be the company’s primary driver of revenue growth. RBC analyst Mike Abramsky thinks revenue from Macs will climb 31% year-over-year on 1.6 million units.

As for iPods, RBC’s checks suggest 9.4 million portable music players were shipped in the third quarter, representing a 16% increase, and revenue of US$1.5-billion. Both Goldman and RBC expect Apple will handily beat its overall own revenue guidance of US$5.1-billion, with RBC in line with consensus at US$5.3-billion and Goldman slightly more optimistic.

As far as the smartphone that has every blogger buzzing, Mr. Abramsky hopes he can get some iPhone answers during the company’s 5 p.m. ET conference call. He wants to know what iPhone assumptions are included in Apple’s fourth quarter guidance, and how initial demand has impacted the company’s view of the phone market and its 10 million 1.5 year sales goal. It will also be interesting to hear whether Apple thinks iPhones will cannibalize iPod sales.