Apple profits jump 90 percent

Apple has announced a 90 percent jump in profits for the three months to March this year, more than surpassing the expectations of Wall Street analysts.  Total profit for the quarter surged to $3.07 billionÔÇönearly double its profit of $1.62 billion for the same quarter a year ago. Revenue was $13.5 billionÔÇöup 48 percent. The Cupertino, California-based technology giant said it doubled sales of the iPhone from the same quarter a year ago, having sold 8.75 million of the handsets since December 27 last year, an increase of 131 percent. This was even an improvement on its record sales of 8.7 million iPhones during the peak holiday buying seasonÔÇödespite the fact that in general, consumer electronics decline in sales during the quarter after the holidays. Apple said the growth in iPhone sales had been partly driven by deals with eight new mobile network providers in key countries, including China. A new version of the iPhone is expected in the summer, though Apple has already unveiled its updated operating system for the new phone. Though the strong results were predominantly driven by iPhone sales, the company said it also saw strong sales of its other consumer electronics, selling nearly 11 million iPods and nearly three million Mac computersÔÇöa 33 percent increase over last year. Sales of AppleÔÇÖs new iPad tablet computer were not included in its earnings since it only went on sale after the end of the March quarter; however, the company has said it sold more than 450,000 of the devices in the first week it went on sale early this month. Prices for the iPad start at $499. Commenting on the results, Steve Jobs, AppleÔÇÖs CEO, said: ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre thrilled to report our best non-holiday quarter ever, with revenues up 49 percent and profits up 90 percent. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve launched our revolutionary new iPad and users are loving it, and we have several more extraordinary products in the pipeline for this year.ÔÇØ This month, the company announced a new advertising strategy that will compete with rival Google. The new product, called iAd, will be built into the next version of Apple's iPhone software and allow it to embed advertisements into many of the apps that run on its mobile devices. The quarterly results sent AppleÔÇÖs share price up six percent to $254ÔÇöan all-time high.