More on Apple's earnings

There were a lot of interesting nuggets on Apple's conference call, but little to address a key question on Wall Street's mind -- why was Apple's forecast weak for a period that includes the traditionally strong back-to-school season.

Given that Mac sales have been going gangbusters, analysts were concerned that the Mac maker might be anticipating a hit in response to its plans to move its products over time to Intel-based chips. In response to repeated questions, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer merely repeated his one statement on the matter -- that Apple had seen no direct signs of an Intel-related slowdown last quarter but that it was being "prudent." (The exchange was somewhat reminiscent of White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan's response this week to a flurry of questions about Karl Rove's involvement in the Valerie Plame affair.)

In any case, there were some noteworthy statements on other topics.

• Apple saw its strongest education sales in nine years. Sales to colleges and college students continued to lead the growth, but even K-12 sales, which have been struggling, were up 8 percent from a year earlier.

• After broadening its iPod lineup to include iPod Minis, Shuffles and color-screen models, Hewlett-Packard now accounts for a more significant chunk of iPod sales. HP made up somewhere shy of 8 percent of iPod unit sales for the quarter, up from 2 or 3 percent of iPod shipments in the prior quarter.

• Despite rumors that Apple might be planning to offer a subscription music plan similar to Yahoo or Napster, CFO Peter Oppenheimer repeated the company's belief that a sales-only approach is working. "We don't think many customers are interested in renting their music."

• Tiger sales definitely roared last quarter. Oppenheimer said that the company got roughly $100 million in revenue from the OS "making it the best selling release in our company's history." Although sales are likely to drop this quarter, Oppenheimer noted that with the last release, the second quarter sales dropped by 60 percent, meaning Apple could still see significant Tiger sales this quarter.

• Apple is not pleased with its sales in Japan, where revenue was down 20 percent from the prior quarter. "I'm unhappy with our performance in Japan," executive VP Tim Cook told the analysts. "We're continuing to make changes in our direct and indirect channels to improve our performance."

• The company is expanding its experiment selling iPods at Wal-Mart, with the Shuffle now in 95 percent of U.S. stores. About a quarter of the stores now carry either the iPod Mini or the standard white iPods. "We're continuing to watch this," Cook said, adding that expansion to international Wal-Mart locations is a possibility.