Apple Inc blew past Wall Street expectations for its fiscal second quarter, fueled by solid demand for iPhones, sending its shares up 3 percent after hours.

The following are immediate comments from investors and analysts:

SCOTT SUTHERLAND, ANALYST, WEDBUSH SECURITIES

The iPhones were really solid, iPads a little light. There's a lot of questions about the iPad 2.

I don't think Japan's going to be nearly that much. If you look at Japan being 6 percent of total revenue, there was not a 6 percent shortfall on tablets, it's bigger than that, so I think there's going to be a lot of questions about the timing of when they recognize the iPad 2 sales.

TRIP CHOWDHRY, ANALYST, GLOBAL EQUITIES RESEARCH

I think the numbers that came up are very good. They beat on the top line, they beat on the bottom line. It all depends upon what we hear from the company on the conference call if there is anything anecdotal we can hear.

The gross margins are still up. Apple is having very good operational control. I would say considering the data points we were getting that we may be getting some margin pressure (but) the results don't show that.

I think on the positive side the Mac sales came across pretty strong which is a little surprising considering the fact that PC sales should have been somewhat lackluster.

COLIN GILLIS, ANALYST, BGC PARTNERS

It's Apple. It's the best growth company in technology right now. The valuation is very reasonable -- 15 times earnings.

You've got a company, it's best capturing the profits going on in the mobile space. The iPhone continues to set records.

The iPad numbers were light though not really surprised. We don't even have full year data on it. Also in the quarter the product got refreshed. I was looking for 6 million in sales. (Apple sold 4.69 million iPads in the quarter)

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba and Noel Randewich)

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