Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2012 third quarter ended June 30, 2012. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion, or $9.32 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $28.6 billion and net profit of $7.3 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 42.8 percent compared to 41.7 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 26.0 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 28 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 17.0 million iPads during the quarter, an 84 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The Company sold 4.0 million Macs during the quarter, a two percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 6.8 million iPods, a 10 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today the OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express/Mercury Aura Envoy as the industry's first high-performance Solid State Drive upgrade and bus-powered enclosure bundle for 2010-2011 MacBook Air computers. Representing a 'Dream Team' of performance and convenience, the Mercury Aura Bundle includes a Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD that offers nearly 8x the factory maximum storage capacity along with extreme data rate speeds up to or exceeding 500 MB/s - representing up to 68 percent faster real-world speed than the factory Flash SSD. After installing the Aura Pro Express in the MacBook Air, the factory SSD is easily converted into an external storage solution inside the Mercury Aura Envoy to complete the two-in-one storage upgrade.

Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. continues to expand its line of USB-powered computer speakers with the introduction of the S-MM251. The new model offers a built-in audio DAC and a cool bass-reflex enclosure designed to enhance lower bass frequencies. The S-MM251 is designed to connect quickly to virtually any laptop computer, delivering significantly increased audio output and better sound quality.

"With more consumers watching movies and listening to music on their laptop computers, we think the sound level from the laptop should match the demands of these sources," said Chris Walker, director AV marketing and product planning for the Home Electronics Division of Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc. "The new S-MM251 not only improves audio output, but it's also very convenient to use with a simple plug-in through a USB port, without the need for AC power or batteries."

Akitio, a leading manufacturer of storage solutions, announced today the release of the Neutrino U3+ laptop hard drive enclosure to the company's ever-expanding product line. With the news of Apple's integration of USB 3.0 to the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro, the Neutrino U3+ is ideal for Mac users, as well as audio and video professionals, looking for a portable, speedy storage solution.

Akitio's Neutrino U3+ is encased in a portable aluminum enclosure and was created for ease of use and the latest 2.5" SATA hard drives. By combining USB 3.0 SuperSpeed technology with FireWire 800, Neutrino U3+ provides two of the fastest transfer speed combinations available.

Apple today updated MacBook Air with the latest Intel Core processors, faster graphics and flash storage that is up to twice as fast as the previous generation.* MacBook Air is the ultimate everyday notebook, and with new lower prices it is more affordable than ever. The current generation 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro have also been updated with the latest Intel Core processors and powerful discrete graphics from NVIDIA. Apple's popular AirPort Express has been redesigned to include features previously available only in AirPort Extreme.

"Today we've updated the entire MacBook line with faster processors, graphics, memory, flash storage and USB 3 connectivity," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "We've made the world's best portable family even better and we think users are going to love the performance advances in both the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro."

RunCore, the leading manufacturer of high-performance and rugged solid state drives (SSDs), today introduced their latest consumer-grade SSD for ultrabooks and MacBook Air, the Rocket Air SSD.

As moderns laptops are designed ever thinner and lighter to be more energy-saving and easier to carry, demand for improved storage performance is also increasing at the same time. In order to deliver both these advantages, the RunCore Rocket Air SSD is ultra-thin in size, yet provides superb performance. With its internal MLC flash and consumer-grade operating temperature, the RunCore Rocket Air SSD is particularly targeting thin laptops like ultrabooks as well as MacBook Air.

Owing to an overhaul of the MacBook Pro to the "wedge-shaped" design in use by its MacBook Air family, Apple is reportedly seeing labour shortages by its suppliers, due to strong demand by Apple. It is even reported that some of these suppliers are outsourcing portions of their processes to meet shipment schedules. It is unusual for suppliers (ODMs and OEMs) to see labour shortages this time of the year (May-June), due to a traditionally slow season, however, Apple strong orders from Apple's new MacBook are leaving many upstream makers unable to satisfy demand. According to sources, it is likely that Apple launches its new MacBook line in July.

In a bid to turn up the heat in the crucial $500-$1000 market segment, Apple is on the verge of launching a new $799 MacBook Air variant. The new variant's introduction is strategically timed to dampen Intel's Ultrabook platform launch. Despite high material costs, Intel is aggressively pushing for its Ultrabook ecosystem partners to come up with products as low as $799-$699. OEM majors believe that Ultrabook's success could be limited till the launch of Windows 8 operating system. Intel set aside close to $400 million to construct the Ultrabook ecosystem, including $100 million in setting up an application store. With MacBook Air being an already established brand, Apple is looking to capture the $799 price-point.

ORICO is working on a new line of slimline docks for Intel Ultrabook and Apple MacBook Air, which expand USB connectivity and provide an additional display output. Available in carbon black and white, the docks include a USB 3.0 hub with as many as five downstream USB 3.0 ports, a DisplayLink video adapter with DVI and HDMI output, and a gigabit Ethernet interface. The dock probably includes NAS functionality with mass storage devices attached to its USB ports. On top of all these, the dock includes fans to let it perform its primary function of cooling the Ultrabook or MacBook Air.

Apple wants to hold patents to the wedge-shaped design of its MacBook Air, and an interesting technique to adjust OLED display brightness. The application for this patent passed through USPTO, on Thursday. The application describes claims over "wedge shaped top case", with a lid hinged to a base. The wedge-shape contributes to the user's impression of a device, its lightness, and its durability. Apple's MacBook Air bears this design, and reports indicate that so will the upcoming MacBook Pro series. Wired.com opines that the move is to block out partners of Intel's Ultrabook ecosystem from imitating the design.

Another more interesting patent application for a technique to adjust brightness of OLED displays. None of Apple's products, not even the iPod Nano, feature an OLED screen, yet Apple is frantically applying for the patent. While conventional LCD panels use an augmented illumination source (such as LED or CCFL), in OLED displays, there is no external illumination, and hence adjusting brightness is very tricky from a technical standpoint. The method Apple described in its patent claim consists of converting an image (frame) on a logarithmic scale along the palette, dimming it, and then displaying that dimmed frame. This patent could prove valuable for Apple, as the industry is beginning to transition from TFT-LCD to OLED flat-panel displays.

Cooler Master, an industry leading chassis, thermal solution, peripheral, and accessory manufacturer today announces a visually alluring new piece of functional art, the ARC MacBook Pro and iPad stand. Draw attention to your beautiful pieces of technology with this new multipurpose stand.

With significant growth in demand for NAND flash memory, with the advent of Intel's Ultrabook form-factor, and the transition of Apple's MacBook range to slimmer form-factors that could raise demand of solid-state storage, memory makers are stepping up production of NAND flash memory. Samsung recently announced the setting up of a 12-inch NAND flash wafer production facility in China. In response to this, the other major Korean memory-maker, Hynix, indicated that its plant located in Wuxi, China, will switch from producing DRAM to NAND flash. This switch seems short-term and Hynix plans to expand the plant later, to accommodate NAND flash production. Hynix is currently a much smaller player in the NAND flash industry than Samsung.

ASUS Zenbook is perhaps the closest the Ultrabook has gone to Apple's MacBook Air in terms of features and aesthetics. Its makers are saving its successor for the Computex spotlight. It is reported that the second-generation Zenbook will be driven by Intel "Ivy Bridge" Core processor, its compatible 7-series platform, and NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M discrete graphics. It will feature NVIDIA Optimus technology that marshals graphics loads between the discrete GPU and Intel HD 4000 graphics, to minimize power draw when on light graphics loads.

Mach Xtreme Technology Inc., a worldwide leader in top performance, high reliability and user-friendly designed PC components, today unveiled Kapsling Series External Enclosure offering MacBook Air 2010/2011 users unmatched convenience.

Mach Xtreme Technology MX-KAPSLING external enclosure is compatible with stock MacBook Air 2010/2011 low-profile SATA SSDs offering users flexibility, reliability and fast data transfer speed thanks to USB 3.0 connectivity. MX-KAPSLING is perfect for adding more storage space to your notebook and freeing-up space on your internal SSD. The USB 3.0 interface supports quick and reliable data transfer to and from any desktop or notebook. The solid aluminum body design is effective against any external shock and offers excellent heat dissipation.

Apple is reportedly toying with the idea of a slightly bigger MacBook Air. This report comes in the wake of several others, pointing that the MacBook Pro of the future will look increasingly like the MacBook Air. Apple is considering this new, big MacBook Air to fully enter the Asia PC market, sources told DigiTimes. 14-inch notebooks are preferred more in the Asian markets, while European buyers, for instance, prefer 15-inch (or bigger) ones. The screen resolution of the new 14-inch MacBook Air is not known. The current biggest model in the series, the 13.3-inch one, packs 1440x900 pixels.

Later this year, Apple will refresh its MacBook Pro line with a new generation, and it is reported that these new products will look increasingly similar to the MacBook Air, as they will get a lot more slimmer. MacBook Pro is Apple's main line of portable Mac computers, and arguably its most popular Mac. Apple has mastered ultra-compact notebook design with the MacBook Air, which its PC rivals are struggling to get even close to. It is now going all out on the ultaslim form-factor by designing ever more powerful MacBook Pros based on it.

The ultra-slim form-factor will also see hardware such as optical drives and hard disk drives leave. Primary storage will be handled by SSDs, there will be an increasing relevance of iCloud for additional storage. "They're all going to look like MacBook Airs," a source familiar with the designs of the upcoming MacBook Pros told AppleInsider. We will get to see MacBook Pros that are as slim as the MacBook Air, but as big as 15-inch and 17-inch, while being backed by powerful hardware, even as PC makers struggle with big Ultrabooks since they're government by specifications laid down by Intel, a move that could limit their success in Europe, creating a great market opportunity for Apple. AppleInsider provided mock-ups of what the new MacBook Pros could look like.

Launched yesterday as a developer-preview, Apple's OS X "Mountain Lion" will support fewer Macs than its predecessor, probably because of increases in hardware requirements for smooth operation that older Macs can't quite guarantee. The support list for Mountain Lion looks like this:

• iMac (mid 2007 or later)
• MacBook (13-inch Aluminum, 2008), (13-inch, plastic, Early 2009 or later)
• MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid-2009 or later), (15-inch, 2.4/2.2 GHz), (17-inch, Late 2007 or later)
• MacBook Air (Late 2008 or later)
• Mac Mini (Early 2009 or later)
• Mac Pro (Early 2008 or later)
• Xserve (Early 2009)

As you can see, some x86 Mac models are out of the support list, including importantly, the pre-Unibody plastic Macbook Pros. Perhaps Apple will support Mac OS X "Lion" with security updates for a lot longer.

A little earlier this month, Apple discontinued supplies of its 13-inch white MacBook (base) to educational institutions, which it stopped selling to consumers much earlier, last year. Apple has replaced this education variant of white MacBook with a new education variant of MacBook Air. The new variant will be offered to educational institutions at US $999 a piece, when purchased in packs of 5 (costing US $4,995), making it a viable replacement to the white MacBook.

The new MacBook Air variant is also a 13-incher, driven by Intel Core i5 ULV processor clocked at 1.60 GHz, with 2 GB of DDR3 memory, 64 GB solid-state storage (carried on from the 11-inch consumer base model of MacBook Air), but features the larger 13-inch display. Unfortunately, this model is only available to educational institutions that purchase in bulk (those packs of 5), and so the cheapest MacBook individual students can buy is the 11-inch MacBook Air.

Apple closed the chapter on the white MacBook (base), after it ended its distribution to educational institutions (schools, universities, students). The company had discontinued its sale to consumers back in July, 2011, but it continued shipping it to educational customers to honor its supply commitments, which has just been met. The relatively affordable white MacBook ran out of shelf space on Apple, as it got replaced by the MacBook Air, the products in the new series cater to both affordable price-points and more premium ones.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, confirmed at Macworld today its OWC Mercury Aura Pro Express 6G SSD is now available in a 480GB model size for the latest Apple MacBook Air 11.1" and 13.3" models which incorporate 6G (6Gb/s) data rate capabilities. The new Mercury Aura Pro Express 480GB model combines award-winning SandForce technologies and Tier 1/Grade A Toggle Synchronous NAND to deliver data rates up to 3x faster than factory 3G (3Gb/s) options and up to 8x the storage capacity of the factory's base 64GB SSD model. The new, built-in-the-USA Mercury Aura Pro Express SSD and other OWC Mercury SSDs will be shown in Other World Computing's booth #513, Moscone Centerl, at Macworld held in San Francisco this week.

Apple reportedly started ground-work on developing a design with which future Macbooks can be powered by fuel-cells, pushing the battery life envelope further up. Apple has applied for two key patents with USPTO, titled "Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device", and "Fuel Cell System Coupled to a Portable Computing Device."

The filing states "Our country's continuing reliance on fossil fuels has forced our government to maintain complicated political and military relationships with unstable governments in the Middle East, and has also exposed our coastlines and our citizens to the associated hazards of offshore drilling." It continues "These problems have led to an increasing awareness and desire on the part of consumers to promote and use renewable energy sources."

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced of 8GB and 16GB DDR3 memory upgrade kits for Apple Mac desktop and laptop systems.

Mac systems with two memory slots have traditionally been limited to only 8GB of memory. By increasing the individual module capacity to 8GB, Corsair's latest memory upgrade kits allow Mac owners to upgrade to 10GB, 12GB, or even 16GB of memory.

Western Digital today introduced its newest generation of My Passport portable hard drives specifically designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine, featuring compact, elegant Mac-inspired designs with high capacity storage options and exceptional security for today's active lifestyles.

My Passport Studio boasts the all-metal design and performance needed for today's discerning Mac user, serving as an ideal companion for the on-the-go photographer, videographer, graphic artist, or creative professional that produces, shares and consumes massive amounts of digital content daily. Offering up to 1 TB capacity, the My Passport Studio also provides multiple connectivity options with two FireWire 800 ports and a USB 2.0 interface.

Corsair, a worldwide designer and supplier of high-performance components to the PC gaming hardware market, today announced worldwide retail availability of 4GB DDR3 memory for Apple Mac desktop and laptop PCs.

Corsair's Mac memory kits are tested at Apple Developer Compatibility Labs and are guaranteed to work with any Mac desktop or notebook PC that supports 4GB DDR3 SODIMMs, including iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro, MacBook, and MacBook Pro models. This includes virtually all models offered by Apple since 2010.

Kanex, maker of audio-visual solutions for Apple computers, is excited to announce the C24DL, a full resolution dual-link digital video inverter (DVI) to 27 inch Apple LED Cinema Display (ACD). The C24DL is a simple dual-link DVI with USB to Mini DisplayPort converter designed for users with legacy Macs (2006-early 2008 MacBook Pro, 2005-mid 2007 Mac Mini) or PCs with high-end graphics cards to connect specifically to a 27 inch ACD.

The Kanex C247DL supports the native HD resolution (2560x1440) of the ACD not available with other standard DVI adapters. The innovative converter actively converts the video signal from the dual-link DVI delivering pixel perfect resolution. The included USB cable powers the C247DL, allows for audio transfer to the ACD speakers, and supports all USB 2.0 functions including use of the iSight camera.