Apple posts record revenue and profits for Q4

Apple posted record revenue and profits yesterday, a day after the company made an announcement that chief executive Steve Jobs would be on medical leave of absence for health problems it did not specify.

The company itself though is in the best of health having grossed record revenue of $26.74 billion in the fourth quarter, which included the crucial holiday season. This was against $15.68 billion in revenue a year earlier. Profits shot from $3.38 billion to $6 billion the company said.

Apple sold 16.24 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 86 per cent unit growth over the year-ago quarter. It sold 19.45 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 7 per cent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

Apple also sold 7.33 million iPads during the quarter while its iMacs sales stood at 4.13 million units in the quarter, a 23 per cent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

"We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales," said Jobs in a statement. "We are firing on all cylinders and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can't wait to get their hands on."

"We couldn't be happier with the performance of our business, generating $9.8 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $22 billion.''