The iPad Continues to Struggle, and a New iPhone Could Make It Worse

(Bloomberg) – Apple’s (AAPL) profit machine, the iPhone, has apparently been chugging away just fine for the last three months. Apple reported on Tuesday that it had sold 35.2 million iPhones, about what Wall Street expected, and turned a $7.7 billion net profit in the process. This counts as ho-hum for Apple, and the numbers really didn’t come as much of a surprise. We’re in the slow period of Apple’s calendar—before the new iPhones are released and after the excitement about the last generation has died down.

As a result, today’s earnings report is largely an exercise in looking for clues about whatever Apple is planning for this fall. The company doesn’t come out and say anything direct about its plans for new products (although executives did say they were excited!). What it does do is issue a forecast for next quarter, which goes through the end of September: revenue between $37 billion and $40 billion, slightly lower than analyst expectations compiled by Bloomberg. That seems to point away from an iPhone launch in September, since the new launches are always accompanied by spikes in sales.

Apple doesn’t seem to be pushing anything too far off, though. There are signs that it’s planning a pretty big party before the end of the year. On Tuesday morning theWall Street Journal reported that Apple is asking suppliers to prepare between 70 million and 80 million large-screen iPhones, a significantly bigger order than last’s year’s runup to the release of the iPhone 5S and 5C.