The main points of the release include:

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2015 first quarter ended December 27, 2014. The Company posted record quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion and record quarterly net profit of $18 billion, or $3.06 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $57.6 billion and net profit of $13.1 billion, or $2.07 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.9 percent compared to 37.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 65 percent of the quarter's revenue.

The results were fueled by all-time record revenue from iPhone and Mac sales as well as record performance of the App Store. iPhone unit sales of 74.5 million also set a new record.

"We'd like to thank our customers for an incredible quarter, which saw demand for Apple products soar to an all-time high," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO. "Our revenue grew 30 percent over last year to $74.6 billion, and the execution by our teams to achieve these results was simply phenomenal."

"Our exceptional results produced EPS growth of 48 percent over last year, and $33.7 billion in operating cash flow during the quarter, an all-time record," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO. "We spent over $8 billion on our capital return program, bringing total returns to investors to almost $103 billion, over $57 billion of which occurred in just the last 12 months."

[EPS - earnings per share]

With the iPhone sales at a higher than expected figure, some commentators are sure to be beside themselves, unable to explain just what happened. The worn out excuse that these sales are all to misguided fanboys is wearing a little thin. Consumers are know what they want. Either that or the fanboys are breeding like rabbits. Mac sales were also impressive at just over 5.5 million units.

And of course, many of those pundits wringing their hands while trying to explain why their messages of doom were wrong - again - will have to resort to the reliable, "What goes up, must come down".

See also:

• Apple press release: First Quarter Results

• 15 interesting points from Apple's Q1 2015 earnings call (Cody Hall, iDownload)

• Mac sales continue to kick the PC market's ass (Peter Cohen, iMore)

• Apple destroys earnings estimates: Revenue of $74.6 billion on the back of 74.5 million in iPhone sales (Yoni Hessler, TUAW)

• Apple announces Q1 2015 revenue of $74.6b: 74.4m iPhones, 21.4m iPads, 5.5 Macs (Zac Hall, 9to5 Mac)

• Apple Q1 2015 Results: $74.6 Billion Revenue, 74.5 Million iPhones, 21.4 Million iPads Sold (Federico Viticci, MacStories)

• Apple Sells A Super-Sized 74.5M iPhones In Q1 2015 Thanks To Super-Sized 6 And 6 Plus (Darrell Etherington, TechCrunch)

• Apple obliterates expectations, selling 74.5M iPhones & earning $18B in profit (AppleInsider)

There are, of course, many more. . . .

Graham K. Rogers teaches at the Faculty of Engineering, Mahidol University in Thailand where he is also Assistant Dean. He wrote in the Bangkok Post, Database supplement on IT subjects. For the last seven years of Database he wrote a column on Apple and Macs. He is now continuing that in the Bangkok Post supplement, Life.