Apple misses expectations, still delivers 166 percent increase in sales in Q3 2011

Apple announced it sold 17.07 million iPhone units along with 11.12 million iPad tablet in the third quarter of 2011. However, Apple missed its financial expectations for the first time in four years.

It was a mix of good news and bad news for Apple today when it announced its latest quarterly results.

The company revealed today that for the three months that ended on September 30 it sold 17.07 million iPhones, up 27 percent from the same period a year ago. It also announced it sold 11.12 million iPads, a whopping 166 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

Mac sales for Apple came in at 4.89 million units, up 26 percent from the same period a year ago. As expected, iPod sales are on the decline but Apple still sold 6.62 million units of the media player for the quarter.

Apple recorded net revenues of $28.27 billion, up from $20.34 billion for the same period a year ago. Apple recorded a net profit of $6.62 billion, up from $4.31 billion for the same period a year ago.

Despite all the impressive numbers, the results were lower than what was expected by analysts and as a result Apple's stock price was down several percentage points in after hours trading. It's the first time that Apple has missed financial expectations since 2004. Analysts also expected that Apple would sell 20 million iPhones for the quarter.

Many investors may be wondering whether or not it might be finally time to sell Apple stock after a huge rise up in the past few years thanks to the sales success of the iPod, iPhone and iPad. With its founder and former CEO Steve Jobs's death earlier this month, some stock holders might be thinking that Apple won't be able to innovate as well without Jobs at the helm.

In related news, The Wall Street Journal reports that some Apple retail stores will close briefly on Wednesday afternoon as part of Apple's employee event to remember Steve Jobs.