Among the biggest issues Jobs confronted was the ongoing global financial climate. Jobs opened by saying, "Some remarkable things are happening at Apple, but everything is set against this remarkable economic slowdown." Later, he said, "We are not economists. Your next door neighbor can likely predict what's going to happen as well as we can."

But in general, Jobs was about as optimistic as he could be about Apple, given the global economic conditions. He said that Apple customers are the "smartest, most product-aware customers in the market." While they may postpone purchases, he said, they're unlikely to abandon Apple and would more likely just delay purchases rather than switch to a competitor.

More importantly, Apple's cash reserves--Jobs said the company has almost $25 billion dollars in the bank, and is free of debt--will help the company invest its way through the downturn and emerge with better products and a stronger position over its competitors, as it did during the last economic downturn.

Apple, always conservative when it comes to estimating future financial results, was especially conservative this time out. Jobs, again, had an explanation: "There's a lot of prudence in [our forecast]," he said. "And it's also October. October has always been a foggy month for us. Sales often don't often take off until November sometime.... We think we're doing the right things, and we think we know what the results may be, but there's a lot of prudence built in. We're not economists and we read the same newspapers you do."

One analyst suggested that Apple could use the cash to buy back its own stock, but Jobs intimated that the money would be better used for funding R&D and perhaps even acquiring other companies or talented employees. Or even better, much of it could remain as a safety cushion. "It [the cash] isn't burning a hole in our pocket," he said.