Apple reports record US$4 billion profit

Apple has reported Q4 results for the quarter ending September 25th, 2010, with record revenue of $20.34 billion and net quarterly profit of $4.31 billion.

The results compare very favourable to revenue of $12.21 billion and net quarterly profit of $2.53 billion for the same period last year.

According to Apple, it sold 3.89 million Macs during the quarter (27% up on last year’s quarter) and 14.1 million iPhones (91% growth over the year-ago quarter).

iPod sales declines 11% to 9.05 million for the quarter and sales of iPad were 4.19 million.

International sales accounted for 57% of the quarter’s revenue.

“We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings—both all-time records for Apple,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91% year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year.”

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO, added, "We’re thrilled with the performance and strength of our business, generating almost $5.7 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter.

"Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80.”

Update: Apple CEO Steve Jobs lays into RIM, Google, 7” tablets and Android as he unexpectedly drops in on the firm’s first $20 billion quarter earnings call. Read our transcript here.