Apple's 14.1m iPhone 4 sales push revenue to $20bn

Apple made a massive $20 billion in revenue in the last quarter, with the company selling 14.1 million iPhone 4s and just under 4.2 million iPads to smash expectations.

Apple's position as one of the biggest companies in the world was underlined in their quarterly earnings announcements, with Steve Jobs confirming some stellar numbers.

Although the headline for the financial centres will be the $20 billion (£12.4bn) in revenue, for gadget numbers it will be the rise and rise of the iPhone, Mac and iPad that resonates.

Sold out

Steve Jobs explained that his company had sold as many iPhone 4s as it could manufacture, a 91 per cent unit growth and beyond RIM's 12.1 million BlackBerrys.

"We are blown away to report over $20 billion in revenue and over $4 billion in after-tax earnings-both all-time records for Apple," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

"iPhone sales of 14.1 million were up 91 percent year-over-year, handily beating the 12.1 million phones RIM sold in their most recent quarter. We still have a few surprises left for the remainder of this calendar year."

Thrilled

CFO Peter Oppenheimer added: "We're thrilled with the performance and strength of our business, generating almost $5.7 billion in cash flow from operations during the quarter.

"Looking ahead to the first fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $23 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.80."

Jobs also took the opportunity to cast some barbs at Google for characterising Android ("our biggest rival) as open and iOS as closed, describing the assertion as "disingenuous".

Jobs also spoke about his feeling that the spate of 7 inch tablets arriving as iPad rivals would be dead in the water, because they were too small and revealed that a quarter of a million Apple TVs had been sold.