There's just no stopping this company.

Apple on Wednesday reported a record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share, on revenue of $10.17 billion for its first fiscal quarter ended December 27, 2008.

Revenue grew six percent over the $9.6 billion in revenue from the fourth quarter of 2007, but was flat over the net revenue of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the 2007 quarter. International sales accounted for 46 percent of the quarter's revenue and did wonders to boost sales.

For instance, iPod sales in the U.S. actually contracted three percent over the fourth quarter of 2007, according to Apple Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer, who hosted a conference call with financial analysts. Yet for the quarter, Apple sold 22.7 million iPods, a three percent growth over last year.

All of that came from international sales, said Oppenheimer. Apple has 70 percent of the MP3 player market in the U.S., England and Australia, 60 percent of Japan and 50 percent of Canada.

Apple sold 2.5 million Macintosh computers during the quarter for a nine percent unit growth over the 2007 quarter. It was the MacBook, which got a major refresh last October, that carried the day, rising 34 percent over 2007 sales to 1.8 million units sold, or 72 percent of all of Apple's computer sales.

Desktop unit sales were down 25 percent year over year, but Oppenheimer noted that 2007 growth was up a notable 53 percent from the prior year thanks to the introduction of new models.

Oppenheimer said the iTunes Store had its biggest music quarter and highest sales ever for Christmas day and week but did not give figures. He also said there are 15,000 apps on the iPhone App Store, and downloads have surpassed 500 million.

iPhone Exceeds Expectations
In the quarter, Apple sold 4.4 million iPhones for a total of 13.7 million units, putting it well past the 10 million unit goal in 2008 that Apple had set for it.

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