Record sales of Mac, iPhone and iPad drive Apple's highest revenues

Apple has reported record revenue of $26.74bn and net quarterly profit of $6bn in financial results for its 2011 first quarter ended December 25, 2010.

These results compare to revenue of $15.68bn and net quarterly profit of $3.38bn in the same period the year before.

Gross margin was 38.5% compared with 40.9% in the year-ago quarter, with international sales accounting for 62% of the quarter's revenue.

Apple sold 4.13m Macs during the quarter, a 23% unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 16.24m iPhones, an 86% growth, 7.33m iPads, and 19.45m iPods, a decline of 7%.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said he could not be happier with the performance of the business, which generated $9.8bn in cash flow from operations during the December quarter.

"Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $22bn," he said.

"We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We are firing on all cylinders and we've got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year," he said.

Steve Jobs made no mention of his health problems after Monday's announcement that he is taking medical leave.

When markets opened on Tuesday, Apple shares fell by up to 6%, but closed down only 2.2% in official trading in reaction.

On Monday, the company said Jobs is continuing as chief executive and will be involved in any major decisions, but day-to-day running has passed to chief operating officer Tim Cook.

Jobs returned to work in June 2009 after being on six months' medical leave, when he had liver transplant surgery.

Jobs had surgery in 2004 for pancreatic cancer, which medical experts have said explains the liver transplant.