Apple reports record Mac and iPhone sales

Apple isn't hurting as it announces its most profitable quarter ever

Apple sure isn't suffering amid this recession.  The company on Monday announced fourth-quarter results. saying it's seen its, "most profitable quarter ever; record Mac and iPhone sales."

In the Mac area, the company said it sold 3.05 million computers this quarter which is up 17 percent from last year.  But the product is cheaper than it was last year, so the average selling price for the Mac is down, while sales outside the US are stronger than within the US.

As for our favorite little digital music playback device - 10.2 million iPods were sold this quarter which is actually down 8 percent from last year.  

But the new iPod touch is not suffering - sales were up 100 percent year over year.  

Everybody's favorite new phone, the iPhone sold 7.4 million units this quarter, which is up 7 percent from a year ago, which Apple said was a new reocrd.  

All in all, Apple posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share.  These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

And, Apple made several interesting and slightly controversial comments along with today's announcement.  One of the most notable coming from Apple's COO Tim Cook who showed no fear when asked about iPhone competitors, in particular the new Android phones coming out next month.  On a public conference call Cook boosted the iPhone saying, "I think they’re trying to catch up with the first iPhone that we released two years ago, and we’ve long since moved beyond that."

There weren't really any answers about the rumored Apple tablets soon to come out, but Apple's CEO Steve Jobs did shine a glimmer of hope sharing, "We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010."

Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2010, Apple announced, "we expect revenue in the range of about $11.3 billion to $11.6 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.70 to $1.78.”