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Apple’s fourth quarter profit soared past expectations, but revenue was a little light and the company left itself a lot of wiggle room heading into what it called a “challenging” environment.

For the company’s fourth fiscal quarter, or the period ended September 27, Apple reported revenue of $7.9 billion, compared to revenue of $6.2 billion in the same quarter last year. Net income was $1.14 billion, or earnings per share of $1.26. Analysts had been expecting revenue of $8 billion and earnings per share of $1.11.

But the most eagerly awaited number was Apple’s guidance for its first fiscal quarter, which coincides with the all-important holiday shopping season. Apple said it expects to record revenue between $9 billion and $10 billion and earnings per share between $1.06 and $1.35.

Analysts had been expecting more, of course, as Apple seems to always provide guidance under what the analysts had sought. The Wall Street group had expected revenue of $10.6 billion and earnings per share of $1.65.

CEO Steve Jobs provided Apple’s strongest statement yet this year on the health of the economy in the press release accompanying the results. “We don’t yet know how this economic downturn will affect Apple. But we’re armed with the strongest product line in our history, the most talented employees and the best customers in our industry. And $25 billion of cash safely in the bank with zero debt.”

UPDATE: Apple’s iPhone shipments during its fourth quarter were through the roof: 6.8 million iPhones were sold during the quarter, which is more than the entire amount of first-generation iPhones sold. However, Mac shipments came in at 2.6 million units for the quarter, which was a little below the consensus estimates of 2.7 million units. iPod units were about as expected at 11 million units during the quarter.

It’s going to be a little tricky to evaluate some parts of this quarter because during the period Apple began recognizing sizable amounts of revenue from the sales of the iPhone and Apple TV, which are being treated with subscription-based accounting methods. Apple is using a non-GAAP (generally accepted accounting princples) reporting method to outline the deferred revenue amounts, and its going to take some time for the financial wizards to evaluate just what those numbers mean.

Here they are, however: Apple recorded $3.5 billion in current deferred revenue related to the iPhone and Apple TV during the quarter, compared to $1.4 billion in deferred revenue during the third quarter of this year. It recorded $2.3 billion in non-current deferred revenue related to those two products. Those numbers pushed Apple’s non-GAAP revenue for the quarter to $11.7 billion and its net income to $2.4 billion, although again, it’s not exactly clear how those numbers should be interpreted.

Stay tuned for more details following Apple’s conference call, which is just about to begin.