3.8m iPhone sales boost Apple's Q1 profit

Apple shipped 3.79m iPhones in Q1 to lift earnings 16%, well ahead of forecasts, the company announced  Wednesday.

Strong demand for the iPhone drove revenue up 7.9% to $8.16 billion as it posted a $1.21 billion profit.

By contrast, Macintosh sales were off 3% to 2.22 million, while iPod shipments grew 3% to 11.01 million. 

Apple\'s iPhone shipments were up 123% year-on-year, helping the company to what CFO Peter Oppenheimer called "the best non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings in our history."
 
He forecast revenue in the range of $7.7 billion to $7.9 billion in the next quarter.

Apple\'s results easily outperformed analysts\' estimates.

Apple shares on the Nasdaq rose 2.3% to $124.30 in after hours trading yesterday.

AT&T said  yesterday it had signed more than 1.6 million iPhone subscribers, of whom 40% were new to the company, in the first quarter.  Wireless data revenues rose 38% and now account for 27.2% of total wireless service revenues.