Just a few days following its introduction of the iPad mini and a collection of new Macs, Apple Inc. announced its Q4 2012 financial results for the period ended September 29.

For the quarter, Apple posted revenue of US$36 billion, up from the US$28.3 billion that the company reported this time last year. Meanwhile, Q4 net profit was US$8.2 billion, an increase of US$1.6 billion year-over-year. Gross margin was 40%, which is 0.3% less than what was achieved last year.

"We're pleased to have generated over us$41 billion in net income and over US$50 billion in operating cash flow in fiscal 2012," says Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2013, we expect revenue of about $52 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $11.75."

In terms of products, the iPhone category experienced 58% unit growth year-over-year, as 26.9 million devices were sold. Of course, this number had to have been helped a little bit by the September release of the iPhone 5 and its big sales out of the gate.

Meanwhile, 14 million iPads and 4.9 million Macs were sold during the quarter, good for a 26% and a one per cent unit increase year-over-year, respectively. iPod popularity continues to wane, as Apple moved just 5.3 million of the portable audio product, a 19% unit decline compared to Q4 2011.

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