10 things you need to know about Apple

Apple's record-breaking fiscal 2011 third quarter is chock full of surprises -- in the results and from the earnings conference call. I learned 10 things, many of which surprised me, that you might want to know, too.

1. Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion" ships tomorrow. Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer announced the release in passing, with surprisingly little fanfare. The software will be available for direct download to Mac users running Snow Leopard with Mac App Store installed. Cost is $29.99.

2. Apple is changing its accounting because of Lion. By delivering Lion and other Apple software via Mac App Store with ongoing updates, subscription accounting rules kick in. Starting June 6th, Apple now defers $22 per Mac, with the revenue realized over three years. The company also is deferring $16 per iPad and $11 per iPhone over two years.

3. Apple ended fiscal third quarter with $76.2 billion in cash, up from $65.8 billion three months earlier.

4. iPad outsold Macs to K-12 schools during the quarter. Can you say Mac cannibalization?

5. Apple sold 33 millon iOS devices during the quarter, or 367,000 per day. By comparison, Android activations were in the 450,000 range for the same time period (that's an estimate).

6. Apple sold 4.119 million iPod touches during fiscal Q3, or 54 percent of all iPod sales.

7. iOS devices accounted for 70 percent of total revenues for the quarter, up from about 65 percent in fiscal Q2.

8. Apple has shipped 220 million iOS devices cumulatively. Android is 135 million. But there is something fuzzy about Apple's figures. On June 6, the company said 200 million devices and on July 7 200 million users. Was "users" a misstatement? Regardless, there is the question of when the 220 million, which affects sales-per-day calculations. Betanews commenter with handle "mrrtmrrt" uses the 46 days from June 6 to July 19 and 20 more million devices to figure 465,000 sold per day. But the number would be substantially greater if 220 million is June 25 -- the quarter's end -- or just 21 days later.

9. Apple currently has 327 retail stores globally, with another 30 scheduled to open by the end of September. By comparison, Microsoft plans to open 75 more stores over the next 2 to 3 years.

10. Apple revenue grew by an astonishing 247 percent in Asia-Pacific, to $6.332 billion from $1.825 billion.