Apple posts profit of $1 billion, sells 21 million iPods

The results compare to revenue of $5.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $565 million, or $.65 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 31.2 percent, up from 27.2 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 42 percent of the quarter's revenue.

"We are incredibly pleased to report record quarterly revenue of over $7 billion and record earnings of $1 billion," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. "We've just kicked off what is going to be a very strong new product year for Apple by launching Apple TV and the revolutionary iPhone."

During the quarter, Apple shipped 1,606,000 Macintosh computers and 21,066,000 iPods, representing 28 percent growth in Macs and 50 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

"We generated over $1.75 billion in cash during the quarter to end with $11.9 billion," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2007, we expect revenue of $4.8 to $4.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $.54 to $.56."

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q1 2007 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime, its standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming.

Update: Please see our running list of notes from the conference call.