SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple may have a hit product in iPhone 5, but it indirectly led to the company missing its earnings Thursday.

And with the overhaul of its product line, featuring the iPad Mini - which can be preordered starting today - and new desktop computers, some analysts wonder if it might be a lingering issue.

Apple blamed the higher production costs of new products - including its popular iPhone 5 launched Sept. 12 - for posting earnings that fell short of Wall Street estimates.

After the stock market closed Thursday, Apple said it earned $8.2 billion, or $8.67 per share, on sales of $36 billion in the fiscal fourth quarter. The earnings-per-share missed Wall Street's expectations, which had forecast $8.75 per share on sales of $35.8 billion.

Apple earned $7.05 per share on $28.3 billion in revenue in the same period a year ago.

Forecast-cautious Apple said it had expected earnings of $7.65 per share and revenue of $34 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet, on average, expected earnings of $8.82 per share on revenue of $35.8 billion.

Apple shares which closed down $7.29 Thursday to $609.54 ahead of the earnings announcement, tumbled as much as $5.05 to $604.49 in after-hours trading.

Several analysts had expected boffo sales of iPhone 5 to propel Apple shares back to all-time highs, set last month with that product's launch. Despite a recent dip in its stock price, Apple remains the world's most valuable public company, at about $575 billion.

A record 5 million iPhone 5's were sold in the first week, prompting analysts to pull out their calculators to determine how that might affect Apple's revenue in the recently completed quarter. Their task has been complicated by reports that Apple slowed production to fix problems with tools scratching the smartphone.

"I'm not projecting whether (iPhone) supply and demand will balance in the current quarter," Apple CEO Tim Cook said during a conference call.

A burst in sales was likely offset by a slowdown in the prior two months as consumers waited for the new smartphone,says IDC analyst Karsten Weide. Analysts, on average, are expecting iPhone shipments of about 26 million for the September quarter - roughly flat, compared with June.

The same might hold true for iPad. Analysts expect about 16.5 million iPad sales, down slightly from 17 million units shipped in the period before, because consumers waited for Tuesday's announcement of the iPad Mini.

IPhone 5 is the crown jewel of a rejiggered Apple product lineup designed to cash in on the holiday shopping season - from smartphones and tablets to desktop computers.

In addition to the iPad Mini - a smaller, 7.9-inch version of its hugely popular tablet - Apple on Tuesday trotted out a full-size iPad, a 13-inch version of a MacBook Pro laptop with sharper display, and an iMac without a DVD drive.

While iPad mini starts at $329, other tablets, such as Amazon.com's Kindle Fire, are $199, making it hard for Apple to compete on price, analyst Weide says.

The brand new lineup of computers covers the spectrum of price points and functions as it heads into the holidays, says Noah Elkin, an analyst at eMarketer.

Apple is "certainly positioned to have the strongest holiday season yet," says Carolina Milanesi, consumer technologies and markets analyst at Gartner. She expects Apple's quarter to help it challenge Samsung for the No. 1 spot in the smartphone market.

Apple's results come in the midst of a high-tech tidal wave of high-profile product announcements and earnings reports this week as Apple and its rivals vie for a slice of the consumer market.

Apple started the week with iPad Mini, followed by a Windows 8 event today in New York. On Monday, Google is expected to unfurl new Android phones in New York.

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