SAN FRANCISCO: Apple reported Tuesday its best quarter ever as profits soared to 1.58 billion dollars in the last three months of 2007 on demand for its Macintosh computers, iPhones and iPods.

"We're thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

Apple's profits of 1.76 dollars per share topped those from the same quarter in 2006 by more than 50 percent.

Apple posted revenue of 9.6 billion dollars, with sales outside the United States accounting for 45 percent of that figure.

Apple reported shipping 2.32 million Macintosh computers, a 44 percent increase from the number of machines shipped in the last three months of 2006.

Sales of iPod MP3 players rose 17 percent to top 22 million, while iPhone sales for the quarter were 2.32 million.

Jobs said last week that Apple has sold more than four million iPhones, touch-screen mobile devices that combine telephone, video, music and Internet access.

Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer says the California company expects per-share earnings of 94 cents on revenues of 6.8 billion dollars in the current quarter.

The price of Apple's stock dropped more than 10 percent to below 140 dollars per share in the wake of the report as investors seized on what they saw as a lackluster forecast.

"I guess you can't win for losing sometimes with Wall Street," said Gartner technology analyst Mike McGuire.

"It would seem Apple is simply being relatively conservative in what they are putting out there, which to me makes sense. Apparently, that is not what Wall Street wants to hear."

Historically, sales of consumer electronics gadgets slow in the months after the year-end holiday shopping season, and this year an economic slump in the United States could exacerbate that pattern, McGuire said.

"The short term, given the economy, is anything but extremely clear," McGuire said. "I expect most companies, unless they sell heating oil or winter overcoats, to be relatively conservative going forward."

Apple's stock is being punished, in part, due to expectations set by a long string of quarters in which it has been "knocking the cover off the ball" with its hip products, McGuire said.

Macintosh computers that benefited from a "halo effect" cause by Apple's hot iPods and iPhones are "proving themselves in the marketplace," McGuire said.

Jobs pulled off a coup by uniting major film studios behind an iTunes online movie rental service he announced last week at Apple's annual Macworld Expo in San Francisco, according to analysts.

Investors may have locked onto the fact that unit sales of iPods were flat in the United States while Apple took in more money in the category because people bought more costly models, such as the new iPod Touch.

"People are wondering if the iPod market is saturated," said Gartner analyst Van Baker. "I don't think it is. I do think that the bigger you get the harder is to achieve huge growth numbers."

Challenges ahead for Apple include plans for a February release of an Android developers' kit expected to clear the way for a mobile phone with service supported by Google advertising.

"Apple has strong growth and a lot of cash in the bank," Baker said. "It is hard to argue with what they are doing. Still, Apple has to keep working and innovating so as not to ride the curve down."

- AFP/ir