Apple posts 425% profit increase

Continued strong iPod sales have enabled Apple to post a 425% increase in net profits for the third-quarter.

For the three months ending June, Apple made a $320m (£182m) net profit on sales of $3.52bn. For the same period last year, Apple made a profit of $61m on sales of $2.08bn. Sales were up 75%.

Apple sold 1.18m Macintosh computers and 6.16m iPods in the quarter.

Mac sales were up 35% from the third quarter last year, and iPod sales were up six-fold.

The launch of Apple’s new Tiger operating system in April delivered a 64% increase in software sales.

During the quarter, Apple announced it planned to use microprocessors from Intel instead of IBM in its Macs.