Apple’s posts explosive 4Q results

Apple continued to go against the tide of recession and beat analyst's expectations by posting a 47 per cent profit in the fourth quarter, riding on exceptionally strong sales from its iPhone and Macintosh notebook computers.

The Cupertino, California-based iPhone maker posted revenue of $9.87 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.9 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.14 billion, or $1.26 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. (See: Apple bucks trend, posts healthy Q4 figures)

In the last quarter, Apple had posted a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion on revenues of $8.34 billion and against the net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion on revenues of $7.46 billion in the same quarter last year. (See: Mac, iPhone sales drive Apple's $1.23-billion Q3 profits)

Wall Street and analysts had expected Apple to post high earnings in the quarter, but were taken aback with the superlative performance that even exceeded high optimistic expectations.

International sales accounted for 46 per cent of the quarter's revenue, a 2 per cent jump from last quarter.

One of the very few companies in the world to not feel  th iact of the recession, Apple managed to sell 3.05 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a 17-per cent increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones, a 7 seven per cent growth over the year-ago quarter.