Apple Inc.'s products generate hype and free publicity more than any others; its CEO, a creative genius, had the ability to inspire and create demand for pricey devices; and, as a result, Apple breaks all records quarter after quarter. But its visionary, Steve Jobs is gone, and replaced by the man credited for Apple's 40% margins, Tim Cook.

Apple broke tradition by not unveiling a new iPhone at its developers' conference in June. Anticipation for a sleek, beautifully designed fifth generation iPhone continued building up, and news or tech sites, using their own trusted sources or crystal balls, were free to report about an iPhone 5 coming in August, September, or October, or in early 2012.

The result: many delayed purchases in anticipation of a new iPhone. The new iPhone came in three months late, affecting fiscal fourth quarter results.

On Tuesday, Apple stunned Wall Street by reporting results that missed analyst expectations. In a rare miss, the Cupertino, California-based company was projected to sell more than 20 to 22 million smartphones in the quarter ended Sept. 24, 2011, but missed those estimates by a couple of million. Apple also missed analysts' projections of profit of $7.31 per share and record revenue of $29.6 billion.

Bloomberg News says that according to Piper Jaffray Cos., Apple had exceeded profit estimates by an average 28 percent. Apple had beaten analysts' estimates by at least 26 straight quarters. Not anymore.

Looking closely, Apple didn't do badly at all. Any tech company would love to have Apple's revenues, margins and profits.

Apple posted revenue of $28.27 billion for the fiscal fourth quarter ended Sept. 24, 2011, and quarterly net profit of

$6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion, or $4.64 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Gross margin was 40.3 percent compared to 36.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 63 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The Company sold 17.07 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 21 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

Apple sold 11.12 million iPads during the quarter, a 166 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. This is the first time iPad sales breached 10 million units since the product's launch in April 2010. This indicates that recent reports about Apple reducing orders for the iPad 2 because of low demand (or the appetite for a cheaper rival, the Amazon Kindle Fire) are false. Apple could be instead reducing iPad 2 orders because it's already setting its sights on an iPad 3 for early next year.

The Company sold 4.89 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. With the release of the Mac OS X Lion and new MacBook Airs and Mac Mini models, Apple was still able to post double digit growth, despite slumping sales felt by other PC makers like Hewlett-Packard and Acer.

Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The drop in sales of the device that houses music, video, podcasts has been losing popularity since the launching of the iPod that could make calls (the iPhone).

"We are thrilled with the very strong finish of an outstanding fiscal 2011, growing annual revenue to $108 billion and growing earnings to $26 billion," Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, said in a statement. "Customer response to iPhone 4S has been fantastic, we have strong momentum going into the holiday season, and we remain really enthusiastic about our product pipeline."

"We are extremely pleased with our record September quarter revenue and earnings and with cash generation of $5.4 billion during the quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2012, which will span 14 weeks rather than 13, we expect revenue of about $37 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $9.30."

Apple already had $76.17 billion in cash and marketable securities as of the quarter ended June 25, 2011.

Investors just can't expect Apple to report record quarters in perpetuity. And its too early to tell if Cook would be able to deliver Jobs' vision.

And after a three-month delay, Apple has been able to deliver a new iPhone that's seeing record demand.

"iPhone 4S is off to a great start with more than four million sold in its first weekend-the most ever for a phone and more than double the iPhone 4 launch during its first three days," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.

In June, when Jobs unveiled the iOS 5 mobile operating system upgrade and the iCloud service, people were talking about Apple potentially enhancing its market value to $500 billion, and leaving Exxon Mobil Corp. far behind.

But Cook could have had a better start -- delays of the new iPhone causing lower than expected sales; the iPhone 4S disappointing fans because of its recycled design; and now results are missing shareholders' expectations.

The record launch of the iPhone 4S pushed the stock price near an all-time high. But Just days later, Apple's stock fell 6.7 percent to $393.98 in after-hours trading following the release of the latest earnings results. That's, according to Reuters, $27 billion off the value of the world's largest technology company wiped out.

Apple doesn't issue dividends. But as growth slows, "Show me the money" pleas by investors could grow louder.