Apple riding high on Mac and iPod sales

Apple has posted a quarterly profit of $770m on sales of $5.26bn

Apple has posted $5.26bn in quarterly revenues, riding a surge in Macintosh and iPod sales.

The company recorded $770m profit during the quarter, an 88 per cent increase over the same period last year.

Mac sales were up 36 per cent from the same time a year ago when Apple began shipping Macs with Intel chips.  

IPod sales showed no sign of letting up, logging 24 per cent growth over last year with more than 10.5 million units sold.

News of the report sent Apple's stock up 6.6 per cent in after-hours trading.

"We are very pleased to report the most profitable March quarter in Apple's history," said chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer.

"Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2007, we expect revenue of about $5.1bn."

The report was a welcome piece of good news for Apple. Yesterday the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed charges against two former executives for their alleged roles in back-dating stock options.  

One of those charged, ex-CFO Fred Anderson, released a statement claiming that chief executive Steve Jobs was fully aware of the practice.

The SEC said that it would not be filing charges against Apple owing to the swiftness and transparency with which the company dealt with the issue. 

But the SEC did not rule out filing further charges against current or former employees.

Apple's board of directors issued a statement yesterday in support of chief executive and co-founder Steve Jobs, denying allegations by Anderson that Jobs approved illegal stock option back-dating.