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Revenues for the three months to 31 December 2004 totalled $5,749mn an increase of 64 per cent on the same period last year and the first time the company has passed even $4bn for a quarter. Net profit was a record $565mn.

iPod sales of 14,034,000 represented 207 per cent year-on-year growth and helped to compensate for relatively disappointing computer sales.

Although 1,254,000 Macs were sold, the highest figure since 2000, this was only marginally higher than the previous quarter and lower than might have been expected had Apple not revealed plans to switch to a new Intel-based hardware platform this year. Given this, CFO Peter Oppenheimer said that company is pleased with the figures, which showed an increase in desktop sales over laptops.

'We're very pleased to report year-over-year revenue growth of 65 percent

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and net income that was nearly twice the year-ago level,' Oppenheimer said.

'We are thrilled to report the best quarter in Apple's history,' added Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'Two highlights of an incredible quarter were selling 14 million iPods and getting ready to launch our new Macs with Intel processors five to six months ahead of expectations.'

Apple will doubtless also have been pleased by an 177 per cent annual increase, to $491mn, in revenues from 'other music related products and services', which sounds very much like the iTunes Music Store. Steve Jobs said last week that the iTunes has 83 per cent of the US downloads market. Software sales also rose sharply, up by more than 50 per cent.

However Oppenheimer warned that results for current quarter would be below Wall Street forecasts, resulting in a 3.3 per cent fall in its share price. Apple predicts revenues of around $4.3bn, some $500mn below analysts previous expectations. Oppenheimer said that the shortfall is due to what he described as the 'pause' in Mac sales as the Intel transition takes place, but noted that this quarter will still be the company's second-best ever.

'We remain very enthusiastic about our product pipeline,' he said. 'We are confident about our strategy.'

COO Timothy Cook added that when Apple begins shipping the new Intel-based MacBook Pro in February it may not be able to meet initial demand.