Apple has announced its best ever iPhone sales figures and a sharp increase in Mac sales as the firm revealed "staggering growth rates" for the last quarter. The company saw a 90 per cent leap in profit in its second quarter, reporting earnings of $3.07 billion (£1.99 billion) compared with year-ago profits of $1.62 billion (£1.05 billion) for the same quarter.
Its success was down to massive iPhone sales, the IT firm said. Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones in the last quarter, a 131 per cent rise on last year's equivalent period and the company sold 2.4 million Macs, a 33 per cent hike on last year.
Market analysts said the results exceeded expectations.
"I had to sit down," Charles Wolf, analyst for Needham said of the results. "It's an iPhone quarter. That's the bottom line."
Apple's chief operating officer Tim Cook said: "We had some staggering growth rates. It was widespread."
Analysts believe as much as 75 per cent of iPhone sales are now overseas and sales soared in particular in the Asia Pacific region. In China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, Apple recorded iPhone sales of $1.3 billion (£84 million), up 200 per cent.
"We're thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 per cent and profits up 90 per cent," said Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, adding that the company has "several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year" to follow the iPad.
Another chapter in Apple's success story this year is the iPad tablet that went on sale in the US earlier this month. Apple has had to delay putting the tablet on sale in nine other countries due to high demand in the US where it has already sold more than half a million units, the firm said.
Mr Cook confirmed that the iPad had already surpassed expectations. He said: "It's early, but we really like what we see now. We thought we had high hopes and it has exceeded those."
There was a drop in iPod sales by one per cent on last year's figure. While Apple has long expected the iPhone to cannibalize sales of their iPod music player, analysts have said it's too early to say whether the iPad tablet will cut into the sale of Mac.