Apple Reports Best Quarter Ever

Cupertino, Calif. Apple announced its best earnings ever on Tuesday. The company reported $9.6 billion in revenue for its first fiscal quarter ended in December. Net income was $1.6 billion, up 57% from the year before.

Leading the charge: robust sales of Macintosh computers. The company sold 2.3 million Macs, up from 1.6 million the year before.

However, sales for the iPod aren't climbing with the same speed as before. Apple said it sold 22 million iPods in the first quarter, compared with 21 million the year before.

Apple's sales results got a big boost from the iPhone. Apple said it sold 2.3 million iPhones (at $399 apiece) in the quarter. All told, some 4 million iPhones have been sold since their late June launch.