22.49 Oppenheimer: "Average sales price (ASP) decline for iPhone was due to higher mix of lower-priced models and stronger dollar. ASP for iPad was down more year-on-year. More lower-priced models and expanded distribution so more sales indirectly."
22.47 Cook: "Apple TVs still at level we would call a hobby. Sold 4m so far, up 170pc year-on-year."
22.46 Apple's product contribution to revenues:
22.42 Cook: "A lot of tablets have come to market but they have failed to gain any kind of traction at all. More than 84m iPads have been sold so far. It took twice as long to sell that many iPods."
22.39 Cook: "China is an enormous opportunity for us. People in emerging markets want great products. We are going to stick to our knitting. We are happy we could grow iPhone sales more than 100pc in that market."
22.37 Oppenheimer: "Rumours of new iPhone has caused a pausing in customers buying [current iPhone]."
22.34 Tim Cook: "Our role is to make the very best smartphone in the world. We are maniacally focused on this. Churn rates [customers switching phones] for iPhones are much lower than other phones."
Apple CEO Tim Cook
22.30 CFO Peter Oppenheimer: "I can't be more confident about the new product pipeline."
22.26 CEO Tim Cook: "Europe results flat, hampered overall results. Growth in Greece, France and Italy particularly poor. Seeing a slowdown in eurozone. UK had 30pc growth."
22.25 $399 iPad2 is affecting average sales prices and will continue to do so due to its popularity.
iOS6 ships with new set of improvements and services for users in China, such as improved text input and built-in support for Baidu.
22.22 Revenue guidance up 20pc year-on-year. Expect year-on-year increases in iPhone, iPad and Mac sales in Q4. Not expecting economies to improve from what they saw in June quarter (that means you, eurozone).
22.20 CEO Tim Cook "incredibly pleased" with sales in China. "Sales did not benefit from iPad sales in June quarter" due to delays. "Very excited" about opportunities in China.
22.16 Board announces $10bn stock repurchase programme. Oppenheimer "pleased" with results says there are "amazing new products in the pipeline". Now going to a Q&A.
22.14 CFO Peter Oppenheimer says he can't wait to get iOS6 to customers. Thinks it will enhance experience of owning an iOS device. Stores sold 197,000 Macs, half to customers who had never owned a Mac before. 372 stores, $11.m revenue per store, up from last year. 83m visitors in stores, up 12pc from 2011. Tax rate more than 25pc.
22.12 The number of iPads in Fortune 500 companies has tripled in past year, Apple says in conference call. Number of iPhones doubles. British Airways using iPads for check-in abd customer service on board planes.
App Store now has 655,000 apps, with $5.5bn-worth of sales since launch.
22.06 What do the analysts think of these results? Shannon Cross, analyst at Cross Research:
Given the economic uncertainty they're probably being cautious about their outlook. They're still a very strong company This is still not an expensive stock.
Tero Kuittinen, analyst at Alekstra:
John Jackson, analyst at CCS Insight
The broad consumer market is sufficiently tuned in at this point to expect something in the fall, so the shortfall is really consistent with what you would expect.
As expected, Apple continues to defend and extend its leadership in the tablet space - a space it essentially invented and continues to own.
21.54 Apple's shares have now fallen 6pc in extended trading. Interesting fact: Apple made more from iTunes sales than iPod sales in the quarter. More from Richard Blackden:
Something very rare is happening. Apple shares are falling - by about 6pc - after the release of its results. Revenue, profit and iPhone sales figures all missed forecasts. And the news of the $2.65 a share that is coming investors way next month was not enough to make up for the bad news.
Worth noting that this is definitely NOT a plunge in Apple's shares and they are already up close to 50pc this year. However, it does increase the pressure on the iPhone 5, which is expected to be released sometime in the autumn, to return Apple to the sort of quarter in which it sold 35m iPhones.
21.51 More from Apple's third-quarter results now. Chief executive Tim Cook said:
Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said:
21.49 Richard Blackden, our US Business Editor has commented on today's results:
So expectations that customers are waiting for the iPhone 5 appears to have proved accurate. Apple sold 26m iPhones in the quarter, down from the 35m it sold in the first three months of the year. The company managed to shift 17m iPads, which is up 84pc from the same quarter in 2011.
That translates to $8.8bn of profits and $35bn of revenues for March, April and June. The sort of figures a human company would clamour for, but short of Wall Street's expectations.
Having promised earlier this year that it would pay a dividend, we get the details today. Shareholders will get $2.65 a share on August 16. The call with Apple management is due to begin shortly so there will be more.
21.44 Those results compare with the following second-quarter figures: Revenues of $39.2bn and quarterly net profit of $11.6bn, or $12.30 per diluted share. Gross margin was 47.4pc.
In Q2 Apple sold 35.1m iPhones, 11.8m iPads, 4m Macs and 7.7m iPods.
21.33 Apple sold 26m iPhones in the quarter, representing 28pc unit growth over the year-ago quarter. The company sold 17m iPads during the quarter, an 84pc unit increase over the year-ago quarter. It also sold 4m Macs during the quarter, a 2pc unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.8m iPods, a 10pc unit decline from the year-ago quarter.
Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, expected Apple to say it has sold about 25.4m iPhones, compared with 35.1m in the previous quarter.
Gross margin was 42.8pc compared with 41.7pc in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62pc of the quarter`s revenue.
21.30 Apple announces quarterly dividend of $2.65 per common share. Company posts revenues of $35bn and quarterly net profits of $8.8bn, or $9.32 per diluted share. That's a huge miss from Thomson Reuters predictions that third-quarter earnings will be $10.36 a share on revenue of $37.2bn.
The results compare with revenues of $28.6bn and net profit of $7.3bn, or $7.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
21.29 Not long now until the results are released. This past quarter has been a great one in terms of products. Last month, Apple announced major software updates for iOS and OS X, iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion. In addition, the company released major updates to both the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebook families.
Apple has been selling its new Retina display third-generation iPad, 1080P-capable Apple TV, and iPhone 4S for many months now, so it will be interesting to see the continuous sales numbers for those products.
21.18 The iPhone is obviously big business for Apple. The gadget netted 58pc of smartphone sales from the two largest US carriers - AT&T and Verizon.
21.05 We are expecting Apple's third-quarter results at 9.30pm UK time, followed by a conference call. We'll have the latest here. In the meantime, here is a bit of news that is sure to disappoint Apple fans.
Reuters has reported that the next iPhone will drop the wide dock connector (seen above) used in the company's gadgets for the best part of a decade in favour of a smaller one. This means that if you get the new iPhone, you're going to need to by a new stereo to fit it in, as well as a new replacement charger.
The move is reportedly to make room for the earphone socket moving to the bottom of the device.
21.00 Investors seem a bit concerned about the results. Apple shares are currently trading at $602.72, down from an opening price of $609.68.
20.47 Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters anticipate Apple’s third-quarter earnings will be $10.36 a share on revenue of $37.2bn. That’s more than the $8.68 a share on revenue of $34bn Apple forecast when it reported second-quarter earnings in April, but it’s still a bit low.
Andy Zaky, of Bullish Cross Asset Management:
20.34 Apple claims it is entitled to $2.525bn (£1.628bn) of damages in its high-stakes battle against Samsung over patents for technology used in smartphones and tablets, such as the iPhone and iPad.
The estimate was revealed in a court filing earlier today, six days before the world's largest consumer electronics companies are scheduled on July 30 to begin a jury trial before US District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California.
20.30 Quick fact: Apple's results have beaten analyst estimates 95pc of the time since 2007.
20.21 It hasn't been a good week for Apple so far. On Monday, the US government blasted Apple’s objections to a legal settlement that could reshape electronic book publishing as “self-serving” and against the public interest.
The accusations are the latest skirmish in a battle between the government and the iPad maker that began in April when Apple was accused of conspiring with five major book publishers to fix the price of e-books in an effort to take share from Amazon, the market leader.
20.15 Analysts estimate that sales of the iPhone - Apple's biggest source of revenue - could have fallen in the third quarter as customers hold fire on buying a new phone ahead of a next-generation iPhone launching later this year. A similar slowdown occurred ahead of last year's iPhone 4S release in October last year.
Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities, is expecting Apple to say it has sold about 25.4m iPhones, compared with 35.1m in the previous quarter:
20.12 Technology giant Apple is expected to post its slowest sales and profit growth in more than two years as buyers await the release of the new iPhone.
20.00 Hello and welcome to live coverage of Apple's third-quarter results.
