Computer giant Apple was today celebrating its best quarterly results performance after sales of iPod music players increased six-fold.
The California-based group posted profits of $320 million in the three months to June 25th, compared with $61 million for the same period a year earlier. Sales surged to $3.52 billion from $2.01 billion in the third quarter of 2004.
Apple said it shipped $6.15 million in iPods during the quarter, representing a rise of 616 per cent on a year ago and reflecting the continued popularity of the product, which can store thousands of songs and has been praised for kick-starting the market for digital music distribution.
The company also shipped 1.18 million Macintosh computers, up 35 per cent on a year earlier, while it described the launch of its Mac OS X Tiger operating system as a "tremendous success".
Apple has now sold more than 20 million iPods, with the popularity of the music player leading customers to other products in the group's range.
Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, Apple said it expected to achieve revenues of about $3.5 billion, slightly below analysts' expectations on Wall Street.