Apple shares climb on bumper earnings

Apple shares are up 10% in after hours trading after the company issued a bumper earnings update in their first quarter (of the financial year) results today.

The quarter - which covered the three months until the end of December - marked the company's highest quarterly revenue and earnings ever as sales of gadgets in the lead up to Christmas served the company particularly well.

In the quarter they sold a whopping 37 million iPhones and a rundown of their revenues by product shows just how they have become an iPhone company with 53% of sales coming from the smartphones:All of the metrics exceeded general analyst expectations in the lead up to the end of the calendar year, with quarterly revenues hitting a whopping USD$46.33 billion, and new chief executive Tom Cook was understandably bullish on the back of them:

"We're thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs.

Apple's momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline."

The press release of the results can be found here on the Apple website.