This week Apple announced financial results for its fiscal 2007 third quarter ended June 30th. Apple posted revenue of $5.41 billion (up from $4.37 billion in the year-ago quarter) and a net quarterly profit of $818 million (up from $472 million last year). Apple shipped 1,764,000 Macintosh computers (33% growth over the year-ago quarter), and 9,815,000 iPods (you remember them, don’t you?), representing 21% growth over the year-ago quarter. It was Apple’s best June quarter ever, both in revenue/profit and in number of Mac computers shipped (beating the old record by some 150,000 units).

So how did the PWDNSO (if you don’t know what that means, make sure to read the article next door) contribute to the bottom line? Apple reported sales of 270,000 units of the PWDNSO and related accessories and services in the June quarter. Since the PWDNSO was only on sale for 30 hours of the June quarter, they sold at a fairly frenzied pace – about 150 per minute. Apple also announced they anticipate selling over a million PWDNSOs by the end of the September quarter.

Obviously the company is stronger than ever, and more and more people are becoming “MacHeads”. As has been the case in previous quarters, Apple reported that over 50% of computer sales in its retail stores are to customers new to the Mac platform. Whether it’s the “iPod halo effect” (soon to become the “PWDNSO halo effect”), the lackluster response to Microsoft’s Windows Vista release, the ability to still run Windows on new Macs as a “security blanket”, or just being fed up with dealing with Windows, people are moving to the Mac in record numbers.

You may ask, “what do earnings and other financial data have to do with which computer I use?” Research and development (R&D) budgets fuel innovation, and a healthy Apple can certainly afford to spend serious money on R&D. Plus, as the installed base of Mac users grows, the number of software developers looking to make good money making great software grows.

During one segment of the earnings conference call, Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, when discussing diminished future earnings expectations, referred to a “product transition I can’t get into”. Does this mean Apple is going to introduce new products in the September quarter? Perhaps new iPods, as we discussed last week? Fresh versions of the hot-selling MacBook notebook computers? New iMacs? Only time will tell.