Apple Profit Rises 27%; Stock Jumps - New York Times

Impressive by any measure.  It'll be interesting to see how things trend for Apple after Vista PCs go mainstream. 

Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, said: “This strong quarter caps an extraordinary year for Apple. Selling more than 39 million iPods and 5.3 million Macs while performing an incredibly complex architecture transition is something we are all very proud of.”

An analyst at Piper Jaffray, Eugene A. Munster, seemed to agree. “It’s an impressive quarter,” he said. “They blew away even the highest expectations on the Mac side.”

Mr. Munster said the strong sales of Macs proved the validity of the iPod’s “halo effect,” meaning that iPod customers are increasingly first-time Macintosh customers.

Source: Apple Profit Rises 27%; Stock Jumps - New York Times