Apple continued to rake in revenue, reporting a 32 percent increase in revenue for the fourth quarter compared to a year ago, while confirming a "major" new product launch later this week.
Apple reported a whopping $3.38 billion in profits on $15.58 billion in revenue for the fourth quarter, versus a profit of $2.26 billion on revenue of $11.88 billion for the same period a year ago.
The results were Apple's best quarterly results ever, executives said, although they were boosted by a revised accounting procedure that allows Apple to record most revenue from the iPhone and the Apple TV immediately, instead of deferring it across several quarters.
"We're thrilled to report Apple's best quarter ever," Peter Oppenheimer, Apple';s chief financial officer, said during a conference call Monday afternoon. "We posted Apple's highest quarterly revenue, and earnings, and set new records for sales of Macs and iPhones. We're shipping the best products in our history, and customers love them."
"If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, in a statement. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."
However, Apple executives also declined to discuss Wednesday's launch event. "I wouldn't want to take your joy of surprise on Wednesday when you view our latest creations," Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer, told an analyst who asked about the launch.
Apple sold a record 3.36 million Macs for the quarter, a 33 percent increase and about 300,000 more than the company shipped in the September quarter. Half the Macs sold were to customers who had never owned a Mac before, Oppenheimer said.
iMac sales grew by 70 percent, year over year. Apple also sold 8.7 million iPhones, a 100 percent growth rate. Apple also recognized $25 per each of the 8.7 million iPhones sold as revenue, less $110 million in amortization costs, Oppenheimer said.
Generic iPods, however, were the weak point, as sales slipped by 8 percent to 21 million units; however, sales of iPod touch devices grew by 55 percent. Apple's iTunes store also delivered a record-breaking quarter, Oppenheimer said, even though it continues to run a bit over break-even.
According to Cook, Apple approves over 90 percent of all applications to the App Store. "Most of the rejections are [due to] bugs in the code itself," Cook said. "They don't want customers that are unhappy with the app."
Reports of unhappy developers may be overblown, Cook said. "The noise of it may be higher than the reality," he said.
Apple generated $5.8 billion in cash for the quarter alone, and now has $39.8 billion in the bank - slightly more than the gross national product of Guatemala, according to the World Bank.
For the first calendar quarter, Apple expects revenue in the range of about $11.0 billion to $11.4 billion, the company said. Component issues could affect Apple's production; Cook warned: two areas of concern are DRAM and 3.5-inch hard drives for desktop products. Other components whose supply exceeded demand have now entered into a state of balance, he said.
Editor's Note: This story was updated at 3:37 PM PT with additional comments from the conference call.
Apple Inc. has announced that, in the fiscal quarter that ended on December 31, its profits increased by 50% from a year earlier, the highest ever recorded for the company.

The profits were equal to US$3.4 billion, or $3.67 per share. Analysts polled by the Thomson Reuters, however, forecast earnings of $2.08 a share.

Apple sales, meanwhile, increased by 32% to a record $15.7 billion from $11.9 billion the year before, above the $12.1 billion predicted by economists. This is the second consecutive quarter in which Apple has made record revenue. According to PC Magazine, of the revenue, $5.8 billion was in cash.

For this quarter, Apple has forecast its revenue to be somewhere between $11 billion and $11.4 billion, or earnings of $2.06 to $2.18 per share.

Before the results were announced, Apple shares rose $5.33, or 2.7%, to close at $203.08 at the New York stock market, whilst in extended trading the shares went up an additional $1.28, reaching $204.36. 

Steve Jobs, the Apple CEO, commented in a statement that "if you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company. The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."

Daniel Ernst, with Hudson Square Research, remarked that "it was a very good quarter, as expected. It's a continued sign that Apple has great products that consumers want despite this recession. Mac sales were phenomenal as well ... Macs continue to gain share and what's interesting is that it only has 3.6% share globally so there's a lot of headroom."