By May Wong
The Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Apple Computer Inc.'s fourth-quarter earnings soared on strong sales of laptop computers and its popular iPod music players, helping the company notch its highest revenue for the quarter in nine years.
The results easily topped Wall Street's expectations.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company attributed the successful quarter to robust sales across its product line, namely its iBook and PowerBook computers and its iPod music players.
For the three months ended Sept. 25, Apple said it earned $106 million, or 26 cents per share. In the same period last year, the company earned $44 million, or 12 cents a share.
Revenue for the quarter was $2.35 billion, up 37 percent from $1.7 billion in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call had projected earnings of 18 cents a share on revenue of $2.15 billion.
The company said it sold more than 2 million iPods during the quarter - a record - bringing the product's total to 5.7 million. The music player accounted for 23 percent of the company's quarterly revenue, compared to 7 percent a year ago.
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