Apple announces record quarterly profit

Apple sold l37m iPhones in the last quarter

Apple sold more than 37m iPhones in its last financial quarter, 128 percent up on the same quarter last year.

The period, which covers the 14 weeks to December 31, 2011, earned Apple $46.33 billion in revenue and a net profit of $13.06 billion, a record for the company.

Almost 15.5m iPads, 5.2 million Macs and 15.4 million iPods were sold in the same quarter.

iPod sales were down 21 percent on the same quarter a year ago.

In a statement Apple confirmed gross margin was 44.7 percent compared to 38.5 percent in the year-ago quarter while international sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The company is expected to announce its third generation iPad in the next few months.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a statement.

“Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer added: “We are very happy to have generated over $17.5 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter.”

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