Excitement for Apple's new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models drove sales of a record 39.3 million iPhones in the last quarter, boosting the company's earnings and revenue well above expectations.
All told, the company sold $23.7 billion worth of iPhones, beating the $21.5 billion in sales expected by analysts polled by FactSet. Apple's signature smartphones are the company's biggest source of revenue and profit.
"We had a really, really good quarter," Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri told The Associated Press. He also credited strong demand for the company's Mac computers and its online app store.
But the company didn't do as well with its iPad tablets. Apple said it sold 13 percent fewer iPad tablets than it did a year ago. That follows an industry-wide decline in tablet sales. Still, the company reported even lower iPad sales than analysts had expected.
Maestri said Apple is counting on interest in new models coming out this week and a partnership with IBM, which will create new tablet software for business users, to help shore up tablet sales in the coming months.
Apple's profit rose more than 12 percent for the three months that ended Sept. 27 to $8.47 billion. Total sales also climbed over 12 percent year-over-year, to $42.12 billion.
The Cupertino, California, company issued a strong forecast for the upcoming holiday shopping season as well. The company said it expects total revenue, from all products, of between $63.5 billion and $66.5 billion during the quarter that ends in December. That suggests the company will likely beat the expectations of analysts, who were forecasting $63.7 billion, according to FactSet.
Apple's shares have surged more than 35 percent this year, when adjusted for a seven-to-one stock split that occurred in June. The stock is off slightly since hitting an all-time adjusted high of $103.30 last month.
