This holiday quarter Apple scored record revenue and net profit

Apple had its best quarter ever - again. iPhones, iPads and Macs sold in record numbers, thanks to an amazing holiday season. The results beat analysts' predictions as well as Apple's own predictions for the first quarter of 2011 (Apple's quarters don't quite line up with other companies' quarters).

Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones or 86% more than what it pushed the same quarter an year ago. The iPad did exceptionally well too - 7.33 million went of the shelves for these three months. AT the conference call, Apple's COO and acting CEO, Tim Cook, duly noted that the iPad hardly has a viable competitor even now - an year after its announcement.

Sales of Mac computers were up too, reaching over 4 million for the first time. The MacBook Air and Pro were responsible for most of that growth. Overall sales of the iPods were down, but about half of all sales were the top-of-the-line model, the iPod touch.

Here's what those sales look like in terms on money - $26.74 billion in revenue, $6 billion in quarterly profits (both record numbers) and $6.43 earnings per share. The gross margin fell to 38.5% (compared to 40.9% for last year) but that was still higher than expected. Another important percentage marks 62% of sales coming from outside the US.

For the next quarter Apple is expecting another $22 billion in revenue.

Source