Apple's quarterly revenue hits €3.5bn

APPLE Computer yesterday posted a higher quarterly profit, helped by sales of its market-leading iPod digital music players that topped 8.5 million units.

Apple, also the maker of Macintosh computers, said net income for its second fiscal quarter ended April 1 rose to $410m (€331m), or 47 cents per share, from $290m (€234m), or 34c per share, in the year ago period. Revenue rose 34% to $4.36 billion (€3.52bn) from $3.24bn (€2.62bn).

Analysts had expected a profit of 43c (€0.35) per share before items, on average, within a wide range of 38c to 49c (€0.31-0.40), on revenue ranging between $4.27bn (€3.45bn) and $4.88bn (€3.94bn), with an average of $4.5bn (€3.63bn), according to Reuters Estimates.