Apple Earnings Up As Jobs Confirms Tablet For Wednesday

Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced record earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009 today, while confirming that the fabled Apple Tablet will be shown for the first time Wednesday.

Apple (AAPL) booked income of $15.68 billion for the quarter ending December 26, with a net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share. This was up from $11.88 billion and a profit of $2.26 billion ($2.50 per diluted share) for the same quarter of 2008. Analysts were predicting $12.1 billion on a profit of $2.07 a share.

Notable in the Apple earnings results was surging Mac sales, with the company shipping 3.36 million Macs, up 33% over Q4 08. iPhone sales continue to surge, with 8.7 million shipped in the quarter, a 100% increase of Q4 08. The iPhone though continues to eat into iPod sales, with an 8% decrease in iPod sales quarter on quarter to 21 million units.

“Apple is now a $50+ billion company,” Steve Jobs said in a statement, before confirming that the tablet is coming this week: “The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we’re really excited about.”

AAPL shared traded up $5.12 (2.59%) following a share halt earlier in the day to close at $202.87. In after hours trading, AAPL stock was up a further $2.03 (1%) to $204.90.