Do we even need to link to a source? The news is all over the web like a bad rash: As revealed by Steve "I'm Dramatic!" Jobs at the end of his Expo keynote, Apple expects to post a $45 million profit for the last calendar quarter of 1997. Key factors in the turnaround were spectacular sales of the G3 Powermacs (133,000 sold since November 10th, vs. Apple's projected 80,000) and, surprisingly, increased sales of Macs in CompUSA following their "salon store" commitment (Mac sales rose from 3% of CompUSA's total sales to 7% in stores still awaiting their new Apple section, and to an incredible 14% in CompUSAs outfitted with the new "store within a store" sections). For those of you who really, really need a source for this info, we humbly suggest our buddies at MacCentral, who've posted a wonderful Expo Keynote Report, which covers the whole Jobs keynote-- not just the great news at the end.

From what early analysis we've seen, it seems that this profit is real profit, and not just the result of some creative figure-juggling to qualify for a Christmas bonus, á là Gilbert Amelio. Now all that remains to be seen is if Apple can sustain this new-found profitibility through the next quarter-- typically Apple's toughest of the year. We at AtAT are pretty confident that can happen.

There's a bittersweet side to this victory, though... Steve's announcement effectively "steved" our quarterly "Beat the Analysts" contest, in which viewers register their guesses as to the final numbers to be posted by Apple for the past quarter in order to compete for fabulous prizes from our Baffling Vault of Antiquity.™ Guess we'll have to wait for next quarter. Way to step on our buzz, Steve. :-/