Apple has reported a rare miss in quarterly results after sales of its flagship iPhone fell well short of Wall Street expectations, hammering its shares.Shares of the world’s most valuable technology Corp dived more than 5% to below $400 after it said it sold 17.07mn iPhones – well short of the roughly 20mn expected by analysts.Apple’s CFO said iPhone sales came in ahead of internal expectations but were hurt in September by customers waiting for a new version.The September quarterly report was Apple’s first under new chief executive Tim Cook, who took over in August after co-founder Steve Jobs resigned. The company lost its leading visionary and co-founder when he died on October 5.Cook takes over during a critical juncture for the company, which is battling a fast-rising Google Inc in the mobile arena while fending off consumer electronics giants such as Samsung and Amazon.com.Apple said its revenue rose to $28.27bn but that was also lower than the average analyst estimate of $29.69bn, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.The company reported a net profit of $6.62bn, or $7.05 a share. That fell shy of expectations for earnings of $7.39 per share.A large spike in sales of Mac computers during the September quarter failed to lift earnings. Apple sold 4.89mn Macs, up 27% from a year ago. And it moved 11.12mn iPads.Gross margin came to 40.3% - a tad higher than Wall Street’s forecast of 39.74%. International sales accounted for 63% of the quarter’s revenue.Some analysts had feared the lack of a new iPhone in more than 15 months would hurt the September quarter, while arguing the holiday quarter would prove strong after the introduction of the fifth version of its smartphone, the iPhone 4S.The company moved 4mn iPhone 4S units – more than double its predecessor – in its first three days, despite lukewarm reviews.Apple, which generally provides an ultra-conservative forecast, said it expected December quarter earnings of $9.30 a share on revenue of about $37bn.