Cupertino, Calif. - Shares of Apple began to level off on Friday, one day after plummeting 6% after the company released second-quarter estimates that fell below analysts' expectations.

On Thursday, the company said that it expects to see earnings of $0.54-$0.56 a share on revenue of $4.8-$4.9 billion. On average, however, Wall Street analysts had predicted earnings of $0.60 and revenue of $5.22 billion.

The sell-off came just a week after CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the long-anticipated iPhone, a combination of a cell phone, Internet access device and wide-screen video iPod.

Some analysts now believe that many potential iPod buyers may now hold off on their purchase until the release of the iPhone in June. To investors, those concerns outweighed the company's solid performance in its fiscal first quarter, when its profit rose 78% to $1 billion.

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