Apple announces record results

Quarterly revenue of $46.33bn buoyed by 37 million iPhone sales

Sales of Apple's iPhone in its first quarter 2012 (to 31 December) were more than double that for the same period last year, helping the company exceed both analyst and its own expectations with a record revenue for the quarter of £46.33bn and net profit of $13.06bn.

The results are a significant increase on the $26.74bn revenue and $6bn profit the firm achieved 12 months earlier.

Apple said that the company's gross margin was 44.7 per cent compared with 38.5 per cent in the same quarter a year ago. While 58 per cent of the quarter's revenue was accounted for from international sales.

The December quarter saw the company sell 37.04 million iPhones in comparison to the 16.24 million sold in the same quarter a year ago.

There was a 26 per cent unit increase in the number of Macs sold in the quarter (5.2 million). The only product suffering a decline was the iPod, with a 21 per cent unit decline.

The results are the first since the death of Apple's co-founder Steve Jobs, with Tim Cook taking charge as CEO last August.