As Apple gains market share, the premium product could become an important addition to the rent-to-own industry's lineup, helping hold the line against rapid PC price declines.

Apple is becoming much more of a mainstream product, gaining share among PC owners. Apple shipped 2,164,000 Macintosh computers during the third quarter, representing 34 percent growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record for Mac shipments by 400,000. The Company sold 10,200,000 iPods during the quarter, representing 17 percent growth over the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhone sales were 1,119,000, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.

As Apple gains market share, the premium product could become an important addition to the rent-to-own industry's lineup, helping hold the line against rapid PC price declines.

"We are very pleased to have generated over $24 billion in revenue and $3.5 billion in net income in fiscal 2007," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're looking forward to a strong December quarter as we enter the holiday season with Apple's best products ever."

"Apple ended the fiscal year with $15.4 billion in cash and no debt," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the first quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $9.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.42."