iPhone demand boosts Apple profit

It made a net profit of $3.1bn (£2bn) while revenue rose 49 percent to $13.5bn in the three months to 27 March.Apple said it sold about nine million of its popular smart phone - more than double the figure from a year earlier. And it shipped almost three million Macs and about ten million iPods. The period did not include the iPad launch.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the results were "our best non-holiday quarter ever". The profits were well ahead of market expectations, and sent its shares about 6 percent higher.