Sculley Takes the Polish Off of Apple’s Net Income News

Apple Computer Inc. said Wednesday that its profit rose 24.7% in its most recent quarter, but Apple Chairman John A. Sculley tempered the news with a pessimistic forecast for the current quarter.

Sculley said slowing short-term demand for Apple’s computers will make it hard for the company to earn as much in the current quarter as it did in the 1989 period.

Cupertino-based Apple said profit in its fiscal third quarter, which ended June 30, rose to $119.8 million from $96.1 million a year earlier. Apple’s fiscal year ends Sept. 30.

“We experienced good demand for our products around the world as well as significant improvement in our gross margins,” Sculley said in a statement about the third-quarter results.

He said Apple’s moves to lower prices on some of its Macintosh personal computers helped stimulate demand.

But sounding a gloomier note on the future, he said: “We continue to be optimistic about our new product plans, which remain on schedule, but we maintain our cautious outlook in the short term about the level of demand in our U.S. market.”

Sculley said it would be difficult for Apple’s fourth-quarter operating earnings to match what the company earned a year ago.

In the fourth quarter of fiscal 1989, Apple earned $161.1 million, which included a non-recurring gain of $48 million from the sale of its stake in Adobe Systems Inc.

Stephen Smith of Paine Webber said he remains worried about the negative effect Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 3.0 software will have on Apple computer sales. The software offers computer users features similar to those provided by Apple products.

Apple’s revenue in the quarter that just ended was $1.36 billion, compared to $1.25 billion a year earlier.