Like a superstar athlete people are used to seeing have stellar performance all the time, a solid second calendar quarter for Apple was not enough and left people wanting more.

Apple has just reported its performance for the fiscal third quarter of 2012 but even though the numbers from the iPhone-maker are solid, the company still declined in the market after it missed estimates on Wall Street.

At the crux of the matter is a cool down of demand for the iPhone. Peter Oppenheimer, chief financial officer of the company, said in Apple’s earnings call that the company “sold 26 million iPhones compared to 20.3 million” iPhone units sold in the May to June quarter in 2011.

That is a 28 percent year-over-year (YoY) growth for iPhone sales, Oppenheimer said, which was partly buoyed by the Apple smartphone being available on 250 mobile carriers in over 100 countries the world over. Recent smaller carriers which have begun to sell the iPhone include Cricket and Virgin Mobile

Oppenheimer said that Apple posted a new June quarter record for iPhone and Mac unit sales. “Recognized revenue from iPhone handset and accessory sales was $16.2 billion during the quarter compared to $13.3 billion in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 22 percent,” the senior Apple executive revealed.

What’s more, if you look at enterprise adoption of the iPhone, the company is growing in the sector as Oppenheimer says that they now estimate that the company more than doubled the number of Fortune 500 companies which have deployed iPhones for their employees.

However, if you look at quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) performance of iPhone sales, the Apple smartphone declined. Apple’s just-reported iPhone sales performance is 26 percent lower when compared to the calendar first quarter of 2012 when the company sold 35.1 million iPhones.

This contributed to a 5 percent tumble of Apple’s share price in after-hours trading after it reported its performance for the fiscal third quarter of 2012, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The company has performed exceptionally well in the past, and as the publication reports, “it was only the second time in 39 quarters the company reported results that missed analysts’ profit and revenue expectations.”

Apple reported total revenue of $35 billion for the just-ended quarter which is a growth of 23 percent YoY and is $6.5 billion over the company’s June quarter 2011 performance. Oppenheimer said that this is due to primarily to strong iPad and iPhone sales.

On the other hand, it is still lower than the expectations of Wall Street which stood at $37 billion or $38 billion depending on pooled analysts’ estimates.

Furthermore, that’s a decrease from $39.2 billion total revenue for the first calendar quarter of 2012.

The senior Apple executive said that net profit was $8.82 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share, which is a 20.7 percent increase YoY. “These results compare to revenue of $28.6 billion and net profit of $7.3 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter,” Apple said.

Nonetheless, net profit is down from the $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share, net income Apple posted in the first quarter of the year.

That performance was enough, however, to be Apple’s highest June quarter revenue and earnings ever, Oppenheimer said.

Meanwhile, Apple posted an all-time quarterly record for iPad unit sales during the June quarter. The device is the clear winner for the Cupertino, California-based tech giant for the fiscal third quarter.

“Turning to iPads, we were thrilled with sales of over 17 million iPads during the June quarter compared to 9.2 million in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 84 percent,” Oppenheimer said. The iPad is now available in 9 countries.

“Recognized revenue from sales of iPad and iPad accessories during the quarter was $9.2 billion compared to $6.0 billion during the year-ago quarter, an increase of 52 percent,” he added.

“The iPad continues to be a great success in the U.S. education market with sales setting a new quarterly record and nearly doubling Year-over-year at just under 1 million iPads,” he continued.

“We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter,” said Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook. “We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this Fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”

Meanwhile, Mac sales performance has been good for Apple too.

“While we’re seeing tremendous momentum for the iPad in education…we also experienced our best quarter ever for U.S. education institution Mac sales with portables representing nearly three-quarters of total Mac sales,” Oppenheimer noted.

“We sold 4 million Macs, establishing a new June quarter record. This represents 2 percent growth Year-over-Year compared to IDC’s latest published estimate of a 1 percent contraction of the global personal computer market in the June quarter,” the executive explained saying “customer response has been excellent” to updates they made in the

As for iPods, the company reported a decline in sales. “We sold 6.8 million iPods compared to 7.5 million in the year ago quarter,” CFO Oppenheimer said. He did stress, nonetheless, that the performance of the company in sales of the portable media player which partly made its name was ahead of expectations.

The iPod Touch still reigns in Apple’s iPod stable with it being the best-selling iPod for the quarter. Furthermore, Oppenheimer said that the Apple iPod has over 70 percent share of U.S. portable media player.

The Apple iTunes Store contributed 1.8 billion in revenue for Apple in the just-ended quarter, Apple said. It was released in 12 new markets just recently.

Apple expects its third calendar quarter and fourth fiscal quarter, the July to September quarter which is already underway, to be lower though than the May to June quarter.

However, Apple is in stable ground as the company had $117.2 billion in cash, an increase from $110.2 billion after its fiscal second quarter (first calendar quarter of 2012), with its performance for the June quarter.

Images 1, 2 & 3 from chrisscott, timlewisnm & dan taylor on Flickr (CC)

About Solon Harmony Dolor

A passion for technology and journalism makes this upcoming writer very interested in social media and technology news. Fresh from finishing an English and Journalism degree from the University of the Philippines Diliman, he aims to bring interesting news to our readers .