Apple revealed its June quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, reporting US$5.41 billion in revenue and $818 million in profit. The Mac and iPod maker also managed to pull off a 36.9 gross margin, up from 30.3 percent for the same quarter last year, and announced that 270,000 iPhones shipped in the first two days the smart phone was available.

Compared year over year, Appleis earnings are up significantly. For the same quarter last year, the company reported $4.37 billion in revenue and $472 million in profit.

Apple shipped 1.764 million Macs this last quarter, up 33 percent from last year -- and also the highest number of Macs shipped in any quarter. Mac sales accounted for about 60 percent of the companyis quarterly revenue, and about 64 percent of the Macs sold were laptops.

The Mac growth rate for the quarter came in at about 4 times the rest of the U.S. market, according to the latest statistics from IDC. Compared to the rest of the world, Appleis computer sales growth was more than 2.5 times the rest of the industry.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs commented "Weire thrilled to report the highest June quarter revenue and profit in Appleis history, along with the highest quarterly Mac sales ever."

The company reported 9.815 million iPods sold, up 21 percent year over year. Appleis portable media players account for 71.5 percent of the market based on numbers from NPD.

Appleis music business grew 33 percent year over year thanks to strong sales at the iTunes Store, and is now considered the third largest music retailer in the United States -- above both Amazon and Target.

iPhone sales estimates for June 29 and June 30 were all over the board leading up to the Wednesday afternoon financial report. Although the 270,000 figure comes in below the 500,000 estimates some analysts projected, the total is well above the 146,000 activations AT&T reported for the first 30 hours or so the iPhone was available.

So far, consumer response to the iPhone has been positive. "90 percent of iPhone owners surveyed said they were extremely or very satisfied with of iPhone owners surf fade said they were extremely or very satisfied with their phone," Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said. "85 percent said they are extremely or very likely to recommend the device to others."

He added "Customers are clearly loving their iPhones."

Looking forward to the companyis fourth fiscal quarter for 2007, Apple is expecting revenue of about $5.7 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $0.65.

Apple is currently trading in the after hours market at $136.10, down 1.16 (0.85) after closing for the day at $137.26.

[This article has been updated with additional information about Appleis Q3 earnings report.]

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