Apple's Future Looks Bright

With its iPhone scheduled for release toward the end of June and the Leopard operating system pushed out until October, Apple'sAAPL fiscal second-quarter earnings report on Wednesday could be relatively quiet.

But it will be the lull before another consumer-assault storm.

Apple's most talked-about release in the last three months has been Apple TV, a wireless box that can stream movies, TV shows and music from a computer to a television.

Apple TV was released in February -- too late to have much of an impact on the second quarter.

However, Apple also announced earlier this month that it has now sold 100 million iPods, leading analysts to believe that iPod sales could be better than expected and boost second-quarter results.

"I think they will report a slight upside to the consensus revenue and EPS," says Romeo Dator, co-manager of the U.S. Global Investors All American Equity Fund, which has Apple among its top 10 holdings.

Dator expects a "slight beat" to expectations of iPod sales of 10.7 million, while Mac sales are likely to be in line with the consensus of 1.45 million sold.

For the quarter, the analysts polled by Thomson First Call estimate a profit of 64 cents a share and revenue of $5.17 billion.

For Jim Cramer's take on the company discussed in this article, please click here for his Wall St. Confidential video.