Apple is sold an unprecedented 75 million iPhones and iPads in the last three months of 2012, earning the tech giant $54.4 billion (£34.4 billion) in revenue - but rises in lower-cost device sales and the cost of producing the iPhone 5 saw profits flatline to $13.1 billion (£8.3 billion).
What do publishers need to know? That - partly due to high demand for the cheaper iPad mini which Apple could not meet and the continuing sale of older iPhone models - Apple products are filtering down to more people on middling incomes.
While thought of as a less premium range of gadgets, we're now seeing Android devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S3 compete directly with higher-priced iOS gadgets as Apple saturates the top end of the market. In any case, smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly everyday household items.
The markets reacted badly to the results, which missed analyst expectations, sending the firm's stock plummeting more than 10 percent.
Key stats are:
-- Financials: Total revenues for the quarter were $54.5 billion (£34.4 billion), up from $46.3 billion (£29.2 billion) a year ago. Profits were $13.1 billion (£8.3 billion), broadly the same as the same quarter a year ago. (However, the reporting period was 13 weeks compared to 14 weeks in the same quarter a year previously).
-- Devices: Apple sold 47.8 million iPhones in the quarter, up from 37 million a year ago, and 22.9 million iPads. In total, Apple has sold 500 million iOS devices. As Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer put it, Apple "established new all-time quarterly records for iPhone and iPad sales" and "signficantly broadened our ecosystem".
-- Margin: Gross margin was 38.6 percent in the quarter, down from 44.7 percent a year ago. Falling margins are attributed to the lower cost (and thus margins) of the iPad mini and the high production costs of the iPhone 5. iPhone average selling price remains roughly the same as a year ago, but the fact more people have started buying older models has been an issue for some time.
-- International: Sales outside the US accounted for 61 percent of revenues, roughly the same as in the previous quarter and up from the same quarter a year ago. However, while sales in Europe were up 11 percent, that was down from 55 percent of the total last year.
While the markets were unhappy Apple's growth is slowing, for publishers who have invested in producing titles for Apple's Newstand, making iOS apps or iOS optimised websites, the record device should will be welcome. (There was no update on the Newsstand platform, unfortunately).
The fact Apple sold a record number of iPads will also come as good news to those hoping tablets will help publishers sell content rather than giving it away for free.
The downside could be that as Apple sells devices at less premium prices, the average spending power of consumers on the iOS platform will decline.
