The iPhone is one of the most popular smart phones on the market today. It has expanded from a cult icon used by the in-crowd to a commonplace item that is used by a significant portion of the populace. Use of the iPhone has continued to expand with each new phone that is brought into the market. It is expected that the newest version of the phone will continue making waves through the holiday season. In the most recent quarter, Apple sold more iPhones than ever before. To keep investors happy, Apple also reported that the sale of iPads was also up. It is widely believed that as the holiday season is fast approaching, those sales numbers will only continue to rise.

The Numbers

Apple investors can sometimes be a big of a tough crowd. Apple reported that for the fourth quarter of 2013, both earnings and revenue were better than expected. Apple brought in $37.5 billion in revenue, beating the estimate of $36.8 billion. Likewise, investor’s earning per share ended up at $8.26 per share, beating the estimate of $7.93 per share. In the same quarter, Apple sold nearly 34 million iPhones and over 14 million iPads. To cap things off for the California based technology company, iMac sales were also better than expected.

Despite all of these things looking up for Apple, the stock prices failed to reflect the good news. While the stock price initially fell, it did regain crowd later on as customer confidence grew in the company. Investors must ask some of the tough questions to Apple. These are mostly if the numbers will hold up through the holiday season. Apple has every reason to believe that it will and must convince investors that these numbers are here to stay. So much of the confidence with the company surrounds the idea that Apple must continue to create new and innovative products. To appeal to the needs of investors, Apple has given back over 7 billion dollars through dividends and other means.

Moving Forward

Apple has also announced that they are not considering any big moves with their products until after the New Year. They are happy with the current state of the products and the growth that they have seen in recent times. Apple believes, with good reason that the growth they are seeing will continue through the holidays. After that time, they can work on introducing new products and updates to their already very successful line.

It is also likely that the stock price of Apple will continue to rise at this time and in the New Year when they do begin to make announcements regarding new innovative features. These are the kinds of things that investors look for and the stock prices will reflect it. Investors will want to take a look at the new Apple products such as the iPhone 5S and the iPad Air to see how well the products perform in the holiday season going into the New Year. There is certainly much to look forward to in terms of Apple innovation in the near future.