Software giant Apple Inc. has over the years, overcome nearly every obstacle thrown its way, and this is reflected in the 15.68 billion dollars revenue it earned and a net quarterly profit of 3.38 billion dollars, or 3.67 dollars per diluted share in financial results for fiscal 2010 - the first quarter - that ended December 26, 2009.

Compared to financial results of fiscal 2009 for the same period, the gross margin has gone up to 40.9 percent from 37.9 percent. Last year, revenue earned was pegged at 11.88 billion dollars and net quarterly profit of 2.26 billion dollars, or 2.50 dollars per diluted share.

The fiscal 2010 (first quarter) statistics represent an average domestic growth of between 30 to 45 percent for its range of items. International sales accounted for 58 percent of the quarter's revenue.

During the fiscal 2010 first quarter, Apple Inc. sold 3.36 million Macintosh computers, which represents a 33 percent unit increase over the same period a year ago. The company also sold 8.7 million iPhones, representing 100 percent unit growth over the previous year. Twenty one million iPods were also sold, which was a drop of eight percent unit decline over the previous year's same quarter.

Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, said: "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."

Apple Inc. CFO Peter Oppenheimer said: "We are very pleased to have generated 5.8 billion dollars in cash during the quarter."

"We are extremely proud of this result and believe our Mac hardware and software are providing outstanding innovation and value that our customers really love. Response to the new iMacs introduced in October was very strong, contributing to a 70 percent year over year growth in desktop sales. Customers are thrilled with the iMac's tremendous new features including enhanced performance, wide screen LED display, wireless keyboard and new Magic Mouse," he added.

On Apple Inc. music products, Oppenheimer said: "Our share of the US market for MP3 players remains at over 70 percent based on the latest monthly data published by MPD. And, IPod was the top selling MP3 player and continued to gain share internationally year over year in most countries we tracked based on the latest data published by GFK."

On Iphone sales, he said: "We now have iPhone distribution in 86 countries and we are very pleased with the international growth we achieved as we have added both countries and carriers. We experienced very strong year-over-year growth in a number of major markets, including Japan, Australia, the UK, France and Germany."

Oppenheimer said he expected revenue in the second fiscal quarter of 2010 to be between 11 billion dollars and 11.4 billion dollars, and added that Apple Inc. would continue to focus on short dated high quality investments.

Apple Inc., he said, remains comfortable with its investment portfolio.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, it is a leader in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications.

Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone. (ANI)