The quarter was the first since the death of Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs.
The technology company more than doubled its profits to $13.06bn (£8.35bn), compared with $6bn for the same quarter in 2010.
Jobs’ handpicked successor Steve Cook said he was elated the firm sold a record 37.04m iPhones in the final quarter of 2011, a 128 per cent rise on a year ago. What made him even more thrilled was that new iPhone 4S proved the best seller in the quarter.
“We could not be happier,” Cook said.
“We could have sold more if we’d had more supply,” he said.
Apple sold a record 15.43m iPads during the quarter, more than double a year ago. It also sold 5.2m Macs during the quarter, a 26 per cent unit increase.
Only sales of iPods fell. The portable music device registered a drop of 21 per cent year on year to 15.4m.
Cook predicted that tablets such as the iPad would prove to be a huge market. Indeed, in the US they had already surpassed sales of desktop.
He was dismissive of Apple’s competition in the race for tablet domination, including Amazon’s far cheaper, but less powerful, Kindle Fire.
“I don’t think limited function tablets are in the same category,” he said. “Last year was supposed to the year of the tablet; and I think that most people will agree it was the year of the iPad, for the second year in a row,” Cook told analysts.
“I think it’s remarkable that we’ve shifted 55m iPads , and we’ve only been in the market since April 2010.”
