Apple announced on Monday a strong increase in its fourth-quarter earnings as sales of iPhones and iPods jumped, helping to fuel record sales of the company's Mac computer line.

Apple said that it posted revenue of 6.22 billion dollars and net quarterly profits of 904 million dollars, or 1.01 dollars per diluted share. This compared to revenue in the year-ago quarter of 4.84 billion dollars and net quarterly profits of 542 million dollars, or 62 cents per diluted share.

The company said that international sales accounted for 40 per cent of the quarter's revenue.

In the last quarter, Apple said it has shipped 2,164,000 Macintosh computers, representing 34 per cent growth over the year-ago quarter and exceeding the previous quarterly record by 400,000. The company sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing 17 per cent growth over the year-ago quarter. Sales of the iPhone reached 1,119,000 in the quarter, bringing cumulative fiscal 2007 sales to 1,389,000.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said the Mac's performance was led by strong back-to-school and higher education sales, a revamped Mac design that was released in August and new customers who are buying Macs at the company's retail stores.

"Over 50% of the Macs that we've sold in our retail stores were to customers who never owned a Mac before," Cook said, on a conference call. "So we've been very successful at expanding our customer base."

"We are very pleased to have generated over 24 billion dollars in revenue and 3.5 billion dollars in net income in fiscal 2007," said Apple chief executive and co-founder Steve Jobs. "We're looking forward to a strong December quarter as we enter the holiday
season with Apple's best products ever."