At the same time, as if to cushion the blow, Apple said its new Mountain Lion OS will ship on Wednesday and that the next version of its mobile operating system, iOS 6, will arrive in the fall.

Apple sold 17.0 million iPads in the quarter ended June 30, up 84 percent from the same period last year, the Tuesday. IPhone sales also increased, by 28 percent to 26.0 million.

That wasn't enough to match the sales forecasts of financial analysts, however. Apple's revenue for the quarter, the third of its fiscal year, was US$35 billion, up from $28.6 billion a year earlier, but less than the consensus analyst forecast of $37.2 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Reuters.

Net profit for the quarter was $8.8 billion, up from $7.3 billion last year, Apple said.