Apple fights back with strong iPhone sales

Apple has reported a "strong finish to an amazing year", including sales of almost 34 million iPhones.

In line with Wall Street expectations, Cupertino's fourth quarter results come ahead of a "strong holiday season" forecast, revealed by CEO Tim Cook this morning.

“We’re pleased to report a strong finish to an amazing year with record fourth quarter revenue, including sales of almost 34 million iPhones,” Cook said.

"We’re excited to go into the holidays with our new iPhone 5c and iPhone 5s, iOS 7, the new iPad mini with Retina Display and the incredibly thin and light iPad Air, new MacBook Pros, the radical new Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks and the next generation iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS.”

Banishing press speculation of declining smartphone sales, the tech giant sold 33.8 million iPhones, a record for the September quarter, compared to 26.9 million in the year-ago quarter, while also shifting 14.1 million iPads, compared to 14 million in the year-ago quarter.

Cook also revealed that Cupertino sold 4.6 million Macs, compared to 4.9 million in the year-ago quarter, reporting quarterly revenue of US$37.5 billion, beating Wall Street's average forecast of $36.8 billion.

Ending September 28, 2013, the company reported a net profit of $7.5 billion, compared to $8.2 billion the year previous - with earnings per share ahead of analyst's average estimate of $7.94 at $8.26.

Looking ahead to the busy holiday period, Apple provided the following guidance for its fiscal 2014 first quarter:

• Revenue between $55 billion and $58 billion• Gross margin between 36.5 percent and 37.5 percent• Operating expenses between $4.4 billion and $4.5 billion• Other income/(expense) of $200 million• Tax rate of 26.25 percent