Apple 1st-quarter profit leaps 78% on iPod sales

Apple Inc. said first-quarter profit jumped 78 percent after holiday shoppers snapped up iPod music players in record numbers, as well as Macintosh computers.

Net income rose to $1 billion, or $1.14 a share, from $565 million, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier, the Cupertino, Calif., company said.

Sales rose 24 percent to $7.12 billion.

Analysts had anticipated profit of 78 cents a share, according to the average of 14 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Apple sold 21.1 million iPods, up from 14 million a year earlier, after CEO Steve Jobs stoked holiday demand by releasing smaller, less-expensive and higher-capacity models.

Updated Macs with faster chips from Intel Corp. helped drive shipments to 1.61 million machines.

Sales gained in the United States and abroad.