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The stock hit $81.89 as Jobs revealed that the company sold 14 million iPods in the last three months and that iTunes's share of the music downloads market has grown to 83 per cent, despite ever increasing competition.

Jobs also noted that the company's retail stores contributed a record $1bn to Apple's record $5.7bn revenue in the quarter, an increase of $2bn on the same period in 2004. Approximately 1.25 million Macs were sold over the three months.

Apple will publish its full financial results on 18 January.

Broker UBS has now raised it target price for Apple shares to $100.

'While expectations ran high heading into this keynote in terms of product possibilities, we believe Apple's performance in the first quarter 2006 far outweighs any product announcements made (or not made) at the event and should drive momentum in shares,' it wrote in note to investors.