IPhone, Mac boost Apple profit 47 pct.

SEATTLE - Apple Inc. said yesterday that its net income rose 47 percent in its most recent quarter as more people bought Mac computers and gave in to the iPhone craze.

The fiscal fourth-quarter results sent Apple shares surging more than 6 percent in extended trading to an all-time high.

Apple rolled out a faster iPhone in June and cut the price of the previous generation of the phone to $99. That boosted iPhone sales from July through September to 7.4 million devices, half a million more than in the same quarter a year earlier.

"Apple is the undisputed growth name in tech," said Brian Marshall, an analyst with Broadpoint AmTech Inc. in San Francisco. "Apple continues to gain [market] share across its major product lines."

Apple weathered the economic meltdown better than other computer firms, giving it a running start when PC sales grew in the quarter. Apple had also updated its Mac operating system and refreshed its MacBook Pro line. Apple sold 3.1 million Macs, a 19 percent increase from a year earlier.

As Apple's iPhone, which has iPod features built in, has grown in popularity, Apple's regular iPod music player business has suffered. The firm sold 10.2 million iPods in the quarter, 8 percent fewer than a year earlier, even though Apple debuted a new iPod Nano with a video camera in September.

The iPod Touch was the bright spot in the media-player lineup. Sales for the gadget, which is like an iPhone without the phone, doubled from a year earlier, Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer said in an interview.

Apple said it earned $1.82 per share in the quarter ended Sept. 26. Sales rose 25 percent to $9.9 billion.

Apple said its outlook for the current quarter would be well below what analysts were expecting, but the firm traditionally gives extremely conservative guidance. Revenue will be between $11.3 billion and $11.6 billion, and profit will be $1.70 to $1.78 a share in the period, which is typically one of Apple's biggest quarters for sales.

Wall Street shrugged off the estimate and sent the company's shares up, closing at $189.86, up $1.81, or 0.96 percent, on the day.