Apple ended Q4 with a “very significant backlog”...

our ability to keep ramping” supplies, he said. The company rolled out the 5s and iPhone 5c, its other new smartphone, to 30 more countries Friday and will add another 16 countries this week, putting Apple on track for 100 countries by the end of 2013, he said. The company sold 33.8 million iPhones in Q4 ended Sept. 28, up from 26.9 million in Q4 the prior year, it said. The 26 percent sales increase was a new Q4 record for Apple, said Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer. IPhone sales were ahead of Apple’s expectations and stronger than Q4 the prior year in each geographic region, he said. Sales of iPhones “remain very robust” in the U.S., he said. Among North American customers polled by research company ChangeWave late last month who planned to buy a smartphone within 90 days, 63 percent indicated they planned to buy an iPhone, he said. ChangeWave measured a 96 percent customer satisfaction rate among iPhone users, while research company Kantar measured a 92 percent customer loyalty rate, he said. Users of iPhones also spend an average of 53 percent more time each day using their device than Android phone users, he said, citing Experian data. Apple sold 150 million iPhones in all of the fiscal year that ended Sept. 28, said Cook. The 5s is “outselling” the 5c by about 2.5:1, Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley estimated Tuesday. He predicted robust sales of the higher-priced 5s will continue through the December holiday selling season as Apple ramps up supplies to meet the “strong global demand.” Apple will sell 51.5 million iPhones in Q1 that started Sept. 29 at an average selling price of $620, he predicted. IPad sales grew to 14.1 million in Q4 from 14 million in Q4 the prior year. That “exceeded” Apple’s expectations due to planned introductions of the new iPad, said Oppenheimer. Consumers typically hold off on purchases of new devices when they expect new models will soon be introduced. The iTunes Store generated record billings of $4.4 billion in Q4 due to continued strong growth in app sales, said Oppenheimer. The quarter’s iTunes billings translated into revenue of $2.4 billion, up 15 percent from Q4 the prior year, he said. Cumulative app downloads hit 60 billion and Apple app developers have now earned $13 billion from sales through the App Store, half of which they earned in the past year, he said. IOS 7 launched last month and there were “hundreds of millions of downloads in the first few days alone, making it the fastest software upgrade ever,” he said. The number of unique listeners who have tried iTunes Radio is 20 million and growing, he said. Q4 revenue inched up to $37.5 billion from $36 billion in Q4 the prior year. But profit slipped to $7.5 billion, or $8.26 a share, from $8.2 billion, or $8.67 a share. Apple expects to report Q1 revenue of $55 billion-$58 billion, it said. Apple shares closed 2.5 percent lower Tuesday at $516.68.