iPhone 7 hit all-time record revenue

Riding on the success of iPhone 7 and Apple Watch, the Cupertino-based company on Wednesday announced an all-time record revenue of $78.4 billion -- with a record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36 -- for the first quarter of 2017 that ended on December 31.

The results compare to revenue of $75.9 billion and earnings per diluted share of $3.28 in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the quarter's revenue, the company said in a statement.

Apple shares rose three per cent in after-hours trading following the results. "We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

"Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline," he said.

Apple faced falling revenue for three consecutive quarters as Chinese competition hit sales of its flagship iPhone series. But iPhone7 changed Apple's fortune in 2017 first quarter. The company sold 78.3 million iPhones, up from 74.8 million a year before.

"It reported revenue of $54.3 billion from iPhone sales, along with $7.2 billion from the Mac, $5.5 billion from the iPad and $4 billion from other products, including the Apple Watch," BBC reported.

"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 CFO.

"We returned nearly $15 billion to investors through share repurchases and dividends during the quarter, bringing cumulative payments through our capital return program to over $200 billion," Maestri added. Revenues from its services division -- including the App Store, Apple Music and iCloud -- were $7.1 billion.