Tuesday 31 January 2017 9:45 pm

Apple of my iPhone: Records tumble as quarterly revenue sets all-time high

Apple has smashed investor expectations to post its best ever quarterly revenue on the back of record-breaking sales of its iPhone.

The Cupertino-based company saw revenue for the quarter increase to $78.4bn, a rise of $2.5bn from the previous year.

Apple's share price rose by over three per cent in after-hours trading.

Net income fell to $17.9bn in the quarter from $18.36bn the previous year.

Sales of the flagship iPhone rose to 78.3m, above analyst expectations, while the new Macbook computer helped sales rise to 5.4m units.

Tim Cook, chief executive of Apple, said: "We're thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple's highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way. We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch."

However, revenue forecasts for the current quarter missed the analyst consensus, with revenue expected between $51.5bn and $53.5bn.

Apple's services business continued to reach new heights as App Store sales were boosted by games such as Super Mario and Pokemon Go. Services revenues hit $7.2bn, an 18 per cent rise compared with the same period last year.

Services revenue has become increasingly important for the company as the growth in sales of its flagship iPhone slows, with higher margins pushing it to be the second biggest source of revenue.

Meanwhile, sales of "other products", which includes the Watch, iPods, and Beats headphones, fell eight per cent year-on-year.

Apple's earnings per share also reached an all-time high, at $3.36.

"Our outstanding business performance resulted in a new all-time record for earnings per share, and over $27 billion in operating cash flow," said Luca Maestri, Apple's chief financial officer. "We returned nearly $15 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, bringing cumulative payments through our capital return programme to over $200 billion."