Investors waited patiently for Apple to report their 4th quarter earnings a little after 4:30 this afternoon. The company ended up blowing out their earnings estimates, however that was not enough to keep the stock price from falling a bit after hours.

The earnings for Steve Job’s company were quite impressive, leaps and bounds better than Apple’s quarter four numbers last year. They reported $20.3 billion in revenue for the quarter and $4.64 per share in earnings. Compare that to just $12.2 billion in revenue last year at this time, and there is no doubt that Apple has seen tremendous growth over the last 12 months. Despite these rather impressive numbers, the stock is currently down about 5.7% in after hours trading. The profit margins for the company were not as great as many investors had hoped, falling to 36.9 percent from 41.8 percent.

So, is this little pull back in the stock price a time to buy for those who have been looking for a solid entry point? More than likely, yes, if you are a long term investor. The facts are that the PE ratio of Apple’s stock is fairly low, and with all the cash on the company’s balance sheet, the stock looks even more impressive.

After the earnings report, Steve Jobs spoke out about the iPhone, and smart phone market in general. He criticized Google’s Android operating system, saying “open is not always better”. Jobs went on to outline why the unfragmented iPhone market was a better business model than the very fragmented Android Model. Despite all the bickering, we feel that both Google and Apple have bright futures ahead, both in the smart phone industry, as well as their own respected niches.