Apple Posts Record Mac Shipments, Quarterly Profit

Apple posted another strong quarter of revenues, with record profits that nearly doubled over the year ago quarter, as well as setting a new record for quarterly Mac shipments.

1,764,000 Macs were shipped during the company's fiscal third quarter, up a third over the year ago quarter and 150,000 more than its previous record. iPods were also up 21 percent to 9,815,000 units sold during the quarter.

Apple additionally said 270,000 iPhones were sold during the device's first two days on the market, about twice as many as had been activated by AT&T, although still well short of the initial analyst estimates of 500,000 sold during the period.

Apple's profits were $818 million on revenues of $5.41 billion, compared to a $472 million profit on $4.37 billion in the year ago quarter. Those numbers were slightly higher than the $5.28 billion in revenue predicted by Thomson Financial.

"We're thrilled to report the highest June quarter revenue and profit in Apple's history, along with the highest quarterly Mac sales ever," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "iPhone is off to a great start - we hope to sell our one-millionth iPhone by the end of its first full quarter of sales - and our new product pipeline is very strong."

In the next quarter, Apple said it expects revenue of $5.7 billion.