New and Noteworthy: Transcript from Apple Q1 earnings conference call; iPod index replaces Big Mac index; more

Transcript from Apple Q1 earnings conference call Seeking Alpha has posted a full transcript of Apple's Q1 earnings conference call. In the quarter, Apple posted record revenue and profits of $7 billion and $1 billion respectively. The company also tripled the average industry growth rate in Mac sales. Among the call highlights:

• "Sales from our Apple retail stores were over $1.1 billion, the highest level in the store's history. The stores generated $89 million of segment margin, not including $232 million of associated manufacturing profit. "
• "Gross margin was 31.2%, almost 300 basis points higher than our guidance..."
• "(For Q2) We are targeting revenue of between $4.8 billion and $4.9 billion"
• "The retail store revenue [...] grew 6% year over year as total Mac sales increased by 60%. This was partially offset by lower iPod revenue, which resulted from the price reductions that we took in September, and also our expanded and well-supplied distribution channel that we had this year."
• "We continue to plan to ship Leopard in the spring as we had announced at the developer?s conference. We have a lot of people working on it." More.

iPod index replaces Big Mac index The Daily Telegraph reports that iPods have become the latest measuring stick in an economic index used to compare worldwide currencies. "The US-created Big Mac index in the 1980s has been replaced with the iPod index, and Australia is sitting pretty in the ranks. CommSec yesterday said it was time to replace the old index based on the price of a McDonald's Restaurant burger, which was invented more than 20 years ago by The Economist magazine. The index assesses whether a currency was under or over-valued against others. 'The Big Mac index has some limitations, one being that hamburgers cannot be traded across countries,' CommSec chief equities economist Craig James said." More.

Apple options investigation update BusinessWeek reports that Kevin Ryan stepped down today as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, and that the news could potentially be relevant to Apple, because Ryan has led the government's effort to prosecute Silicon Valley companies on options-related transgressions, such as backdating. "Last July, Ryan brought the first backdating indictment, against two former Brocade Communications executives. Just around that time, he also created a backdating task force . And sources say it is his office that is scrutinizing Apple's books, as well." More.

Previously on MacFixIt

• Apple posts record results for Q1 2007: $7 billion in revenue, $1 billion profit
• Netflix's new online movie service won't work with Macs

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