Apple has confirmed its profits for the first three months of 2008 or, in simpler words, its Q2 2008 financial results. Apple topped $1 billion thanks, in part, to a 50 percent increase in Macintosh computer sales. Apple said it earned 1.05 billion dollars, or 1.16 dollars per share. Total revenues for Q2 were of $7.51 billion. 2007 saw Apple announcing 770 million dollars in revenues (meaning 87 cents per share).

The gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue, Apple says. The results trounced analysts' predictions that Apple's quarterly profits would be 94 cents per share.

The Cupertino-based electronics and software maker shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh computers during the first three months of 2008, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. Lastly, Apple sold 10,644,000 iPods and 1,703,000 iPhones during Q2 2008.

"We're delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters."

"We're thrilled to have generated $4 billion in cash flow from operations in the first half of fiscal 2008, yielding an ending cash balance of $19.4 billion," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00."

Apple is making a live streaming of its Q2 2008 financial results conference call available through its standards-based technology for live and on-demand audio and video streaming, QuickTime.

The company also plans to open more Apple Retail Stores worldwide starting with Australia, China and Switzerland. "We remain very confident in our business and our strategy and will continue to invest in things that will delight our customers," said Chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer.