Apple Inc (AAPL)

[roni]

This from an AP story that a friend picked up at the NY Times site

The iPhone ''is a game-changing product,'' said Stephen Coleman, chief investment officer at Daedalus Capital LLC.

Based on income from the iPhone alone, he said, ''I expect Apple's earnings to continually grow materially at 50 percent a year, for the next three years.''

For its fiscal fourth quarter, Apple said it earned $904 million, or $1.01 per share, compared with $542 million, or 62 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

Apple easily beat the expectations of analysts polled by Thomson Financial, who predicted earnings per share of 86 cents on sales of $6.07 billion.

Revenue totaled $6.22 billion, compared with $4.84 billion in the same quarter last year.

Apple's stock price, which has more than doubled since January, rose $3.94, or 2.3 percent, to close Monday at $174.36. After the earnings report, shares climbed $11.99, or 6.9 percent, in extended trading.

Apple reiterated Monday its previous target of selling 10 million iPhones in 2008, helped by the launch of the iPhone in Europe next month, then in Asia next year.

For the current quarter, Apple said it expects earnings of about $1.42 per share on revenue of about $9.2 billion. Analysts on average had been expecting earnings of $1.39 per share on sales of $8.58 billion.

''We're looking forward to a strong December quarter as we enter the holiday season with Apple's best products ever,'' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.