Strong demand for Apple's Macintosh PCs, iPhones and iPods led to a record financial performance for the company in the last three months of 2007.
Its profits soared to $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per share, an increase of 50% on a year earlier. Total revenue was a record $9.6 billion, with sales outside the US accounting for 45% of that figure.
Apple shipped 2.32 million Macintosh computers, a 44% increase from a year earlier, while sales of iPod MP3 players rose 17% to top 22 million. IPhone sales for the quarter were 2.32 million.
Chief executive Steve Jobs said last week that Apple had now sold more than four million iPhones, touch-screen mobile devices that combine telephone, video, music and Internet access.
But Apple's shares dropped after chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said the company expected lower earnings per share of 94 cents on revenues of $6.8 billion in the current quarter.
Analysts pointed out, however, that sales of consumer electronics gadgets usually slow in the months after the US holiday shopping season, and this year an economic slump in the US could exacerbate that pattern.
