On a day where Apple (AAPL) shares traded well above average volume of 23,392,238 at 30,459,055. Shares were trading much higher during market hours up about $2.10 per share, or 2.26 percent. After hours trading sent shares skyrocketing over 8 percent on amazing earnings news.

Shortly after the closing bell on Wall Street, Apple’s entire board of directors released a note about Steve Jobs on options backdating. They said that they continued to have complete confidence in Steve’s integrity and ability to lead Apple. The recent news release was in response to Ex-CFO Fred Anderson telling the street that Steve Jobs was warned about options backdating and how dangerous it would be. Anderson also said that Jobs was fully aware of what was to come.

Earnings were well above estimates of $0.64 and came in at $0.87. CNBC was immediately commenting on the idea that the earnings were “blowing past” estimates and “blockbuster” numbers. Gross margin was at 35.1 percent, unheard of in a company like Apple. 1.517 million Macs were sold. Revenue for the 2nd quarter were expected to come in at $5.17 billion, but Apple crushed the numbers, coming in at $5.26 billion.

Disclosure: Long Apple Inc. (AAPL)

Earnings for Apple Inc. (AAPL) are do in after the bell today. Estimates are coming in at around $0.64 per share. Nervousness around this 2nd quarter has been because of some speculation that this quarter could be significantly worse than expected due to the delay of Leopard. Fortunately for investors, this most recent quarter isn’t the be all and end all.

• 1 million + people on waiting list for iPhone
• An estimate of up to $30 billion added to market cap related to iPhone
  and
• The future release of Leopard greatly increasing hardware sales

On a side note, AT&T (T) has been projected to get up to 60%+ new customers because of Cingular (The New AT&T) being the sole wireless provider.

Disclosure: Long Apple Inc. (AAPL) and AT&T (T)

On a brief note, Apple Inc. (AAPL) released news today that the company would need to delay the release of its new operating system, Mac OS X Leopard. The release has long been planned for Spring, but now, the release should be in October.

“…iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team…”

While the iPhone has been making great progress, it seems as though Apple’s number one priority will not be the Leopard release. Unfortunately, Apple stock could see a number of negative days before the release of the new OS. In after hours trading on Thursday, AAPL was down -1.77 a share. The coming weeks could continue to be bumpy, and rumors have been brought up about a possible slow down in Apple system sales leading up to the release. Fortunately, I don’t see too much downside if the iPhone release goes smoothly, and many competitors also know this.

Another notable drop in stock prices was Research in Motion (RIMM). Down -8.16% on news of a formal suit on patent infringement. Smartphone makers should continue to see slides in stock prices Pre-iPhone release, and further outlook on the phone makers will quickly be determined by early iPhone sales numbers.

Conflicts: Long Apple Inc. (AAPL)