October 14, 1998: Apple Releases Results Early

Apple generally waits until after the market closes to announce results, but there have been a few exceptions. The most notable came right before Mac OS 8.5 was to be released.

In the middle of the day, Apple announced that demand was extraordinarily high for Macs (specifically the iMac), that 300 Best Buy stores would be carrying Macs and that Apple had turned a profit of $106 million for the quarter.

The announcement meant that the company had four consecutive profitable quarters and its first profitable year since 1995. The good news came on October 14, 1998.