Earlier today, Apple updated its Investor Relations webpage to include a placeholder for the company’s next earnings call, scheduled for July 24. As usual with Apple’s conference calls, the event will be provided as an audio webcast for investors and listeners.

Apple plans to conduct a conference call to discuss financial results of its third fiscal quarter on Tuesday, July 24, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. PT.

Ended on June 30, Apple’s third fiscal quarter will provide insight into the company’s recent performances with the new iPad (launched on March 16 in 10 initial countries), iPhone 4S (which is entering its late-stage product cycle), and revamped Mac line. In the previous quarter, Apple set guidance for Q3 at $34 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $8.68. Currently, consensus by Wall Street analysts averages $37.34 billion in revenues for the third-quarter.

The new iPad has been Apple’s fastest product rollout to date, and Q3 will be the first full quarter for device sales in all the countries where it’s been released. Apple added 56 launch countries in 42 days, and recently expanded to the Middle East and Latin America through official distribution channels and retailers.

With 12 million units sold in Q2 2012, Apple said the new iPad was “off to a great start”, and Q3 2012 will provide the first real opportunity to measure to device’s impact on a wider level. During the past earnings call, CEO Tim Cook noted how he was confident the company would be able to “supply a significant number of iPads during the quarter”.

The iPhone 4S, on the other hand, was released eight months ago, and amidst speculation of a new model coming this Fall – perhaps as soon as October – Q3 2012 will be key to understand the device’s sales over the past four months and, more importantly, its performances in China.

The iPhone 4S launched on its second Chinese carrier – China Telecom – on March 9th, and Q3 2012 will be the first “full quarter” to measure sales in the region. With 35.1 million iPhones sold in the past quarter, Apple reported a 5x growth year-over-year in Greater China, noting how “the incredible quarter” was the result of efforts to understand the market – where more people are moving to the middle class – “as good as we can”.

In Q2 2012 – the company’s biggest non-holiday quarter to date – Apple posted revenue of $39.2 billion, with 11.8 million iPads,  35.1 million iPhones and 4 million Macs sold. Apple sold 7.7 million iPods, a 15 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The company posted quarterly net profit of $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per diluted share.

In the year-ago quarter, Apple posted revenue of $28.57 billion, with 9.25 million iPads, 20.34 million iPhones and 3.95 million Macs sold. Apple reported record quarterly net profit of $7.31 billion, or $7.79 per diluted share.

In his own estimates for the upcoming Q3 results, Asymco’s Horace Dediu forecasted the following numbers:

• iPhone units: 28.5 million (40%)
• Macs: 4.5 million (15%)
• iPads: 24 million (160%)
• iPods: 6 million (-20%)
• Music (incl. app) rev. growth: 35%
• Peripherals rev. growth: 20%
• Software rev. growth: 15%
• Total revenues: $41.9 billion (46%)
• GM: 44.8%
• EPS: $11.54 (48%)

In their initial projections for Q3 2012, Seeking Alpha estimated higher Mac sales due to the new models released during the quarter (Apple also dedicated a new commercial to the Retina MacBook Pro) and quarterly revenues around $39 billion. As noted by Philip Elmer-DeWitt at Fortune, “as usual the indies are more bullish than the pros”, with independent analysts projecting earnings on average $5 billion higher than the Street’s consensus.

To put these possible numbers in better context, here’s a graphical representation of how Apple performed in the past quarters.

Apple’s quarterly dividend won’t begin until the fourth fiscal quarter of 2012. We will provide live updates from the call on our site’s homepage on July 24 starting at 2 PM PT. For a recap of news and events that may have affected Apple’s results in the quarter, check out our Month In Review roundups here.

Apple refreshed their Investor Relations page last night, updating with a placeholder that will direct investors (and listeners like us) to the upcoming conference call. For the first fiscal quarter in 2012, Apple has announced that that they will announce results on January 24.

Apple’s conference call webcast discussing Q1 - 2012 financial results will begin at 2:00pm PT/5:00pm ET on Tuesday, January 24, 2012.

In Q4 2011, Apple posted $28.27 billion in revenue with 17.07 million iPhones, 11.12 million iPads, and 4.89 million Macs sold. The company posted quarterly record-breaking revenue of  $28.27 billion and record quarterly net profit of $6.62 billion, or $7.05 per diluted share. Apple had their best iPad quarter to date, selling over 11 million units at a 166% increase over the year-ago quarter. The iPhone grew 21% over the year-ago quarter, while iPod sales were down 27 percent from the year-ago quarter. Apple also saw considerable progress in China, posting $4.5 billion in revenue for the September quarter. As of the fourth quarter, Apple has $81.6 billion in cash available.

During the Q4 2011 conference call, Tim Cook was confident that Apple would have a large supply of the iPhone 4S in the holiday quarter and expected to set an all-time record for the iPhone in the first quarter of 2012. Apple estimates they’ll post $37 billion in revenue and diluted earnings per share of around $9.30 for this quarter.

Asymco’s Horace Diedu estimates that Apple will report earnings of $12.3 on revenues of $44.6 billion, with the street price aiming at $9.75 EPS on $37.99 billion. Diedu expects a 120% year over year growth in iPhone sales, with predicted units sold at 35.7 million. Without a new iPod lineup, iPods sales expected to fall thirty percent from the year-ago quarter, with expected sales at 13.6 million units. iPads and Mac sales will continue to do well, exceeding the year-ago quarter with 100% (14.7 million units sold) and 27% (5.2 million units sold) growth respectively.

Reuters reported that Susquehanna has raised its price target on Apple’s stock and raised their iPhone shipment estimate to 30.3 million iPhones in the first quarter from it’s earlier forecast of 27.1 million units.

On October 17th, Apple announced that it had sold 4 million iPhones on its opening weekend, with 25 million users already using iOS 5. Phil Schiller said it was Apple’s most successful launch yet, doubling the sales of the iPhone 4 sold in three days last year. AT&T broke their record for first-day iPhone sales with 200,000 pre-orders, with Verizon Wireless and Sprint also seeing incredible demand.

We will provide live updates from the call on our site’s homepage on January 24 starting at 2 PM PST.

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Japanese mobile carrier Softbank (the third largest carrier in the country by number of subscribers) has announced record operating profit for the January - March quarter with net profit surging to Y47.41 billion from the Y1.85 billion posted last year. Thanks to high demand for iPhones and iPads, the carrier managed to move away from last year’s “unusual” profit loss, due to the adoption of 3G mobile services, and the discontinuation of 2G. Softbank is the only carrier that sells the iPhone in Japan, and the high demand for the device in a market otherwise saturated by alternative smartphones helped the company achieving record profit during the quarter.

The expansion of the smartphone market led by the iPhone and iPad was a huge factor that contributed to the growth,” said Softbank President and Chief Executive Masayoshi Son.

Softbank’s earnings also reported average revenue per user – also known as ARPU – rose to Y4,210 (from Y4,070) thanks to the iPhone’s growth in Japan. The iPhone became Japan’s best selling cellphone last October, and Softbank later announced a new promotion to give users an iPad for free upon subscribing to the carrier’s two-year data plan.