I'll tell you why that can be described as disappointing. Apple is extremely profitable. Sales are climbing at a great rate. Shares of ownership (and by proxy, a share in that profit) are priced according to this wild growth and profitability. The market buys stock based on this expected growth and return. When the expected return is less than the actual return, this is disappointing EVEN IF THE RETURN IS 150%.
This like buying an expensive sports car and having it ONLY go 150MPH when similarly priced cars can reach 200MPH. 150MPH is great compared to a stock Honda Civic, but you will be disappointed when your friends best you with their supercars, because you paid so much. Apple stock is a supercar stock, so when it doesn't perform at supercar standards, the market is disappointed.
First: the market is actually not disappointed. If that were the case, the stock would not be up substantially by real people spending money to buy the stock on the basis of this news. The market likes this news, the (clueless) writers at media outlets were disappointed.
Your analogy also misses on a number of levels. But to make it crystal clear, I'll correct it. Today's results are like buying an economy car in a price band where similarly priced cars can reach 60 MPH and finding out that yours goes 800 MPH and being disappointed. For a share of AAPL is priced more like a Kia than a Ferrari relative to its growth.
To clarify: the stock is not expensive by any classical valuation metric. The stock is trading at a multiple of < 16, which is lower than companies in much slower-growing businesses. For example: McDonald's (18), Procter & Gamble (20), Coke (20). In fact, the Dow Jones index of utility stocks trades at a higher earnings multiple. And now there's a dividend in case 100% EPS growth isn't enough for an investor. So unless your idea of an expensive high-flying stock is a stodgy utility, AAPL is absolutely not priced for wild growth and profitability.
I suppose I should have clarified. I didn't pay attention to any of the AAPL news or reportings. I was trying to describe how something objectively 'good' by normal standards could be construed as 'disappointing' to the market. I didn't mean to imply this was the case with AAPL, but I suppose the context of my post makes my intention ambiguous.
This like buying an expensive sports car and having it ONLY go 150MPH when similarly priced cars can reach 200MPH. 150MPH is great compared to a stock Honda Civic, but you will be disappointed when your friends best you with their supercars, because you paid so much. Apple stock is a supercar stock, so when it doesn't perform at supercar standards, the market is disappointed.