Technology giant, Apple has posted a lower than expected growth in revenues during its third quarter till June 2012 mainly due to a lull in the European economy and a slowdown in the sales of the iPhone ahead of a new version.

The company said its revenues rose 23 percent during the recent quarter to $35 billion. However, the revenue is reported is about $2 billion below Wall Street's average forecast. The net income of the company increased 21 percent to $8.8 billion compared to the same quarter in the previous year. The net income reported was also about 10 per cent below market expectations.

The sales of the company fell 22 percent in Asia-Pacific compared to a drop of 3 percent to 6 percent in the American and European regions. Apple said that the main reason or the fall in sale is low demand from customers in Western Europe and a slowdown in demand as customers waited for the new version of the device.

Apple sold 26 million iPhones, which is well below the 28 to 29 million expected by the market for the quarter. The company had sold a total of 35.1 million units of its smartphone during the quarter till March 2012.