Apple reported a 78 percent jump in quarterly profit to a record above one billion dollars as its iPod music players flew off the shelves in the year-end holiday season.

With sales of over 21 million iPods, Apple posted revenue of 7.1 billion dollars and a profit of 1.14 dollars per share in its fiscal first quarter, which ended December 30.

The results far exceeded analysts' expectations of 78 cents per share on sales of 6.42 billion dollars.

In the same quarter a year earlier, Apple reported a profit of 565 million dollars, or 65 cents per share.

Apple shipped 1,606,000 Macintosh computers and 21,066,000 iPods during the recently ended quarter, representing 28 percent growth in Macintosh sales and 50 percent growth in iPod sales from the same quarter a year ago.

"We are incredibly pleased to report record quarterly revenue of over seven billion dollars and record earnings of one billion dollars," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

"We've just kicked off what is going to be a very strong new product year for Apple by launching Apple TV and the revolutionary iPhone."

Jobs dramatically introduced Apple's iPhone last week at a MacWorld Conference in San Francisco and the company promised they would be in US stores in June. Apple expects to make it available in Asia by 2008.

The sleek new mobile telephone offers Internet access, a music player and a digital camera.

Jobs heralded it as a "revolutionary product" that was "like having your life in your pocket."

Two versions of the iPhone will be released, a four gigabyte version priced at 499 dollars and an eight gigabyte version priced at 599 dollars. The devices will be shipped to US retail stores in June, Jobs said.

A day after the iPhone announcement, Cisco laid claim to the name and filed a civil lawsuit charging Apple with violating its registered trademark. Apple executives did not expect the suit to drag on the company or its finances.

"We think the Cisco trademark lawsuit is silly," Apple chief operating officer Tim Cook said in a telephone conference with analysts. "If Cisco wants to challenge us, we are confident we will prevail."

Apple has crushed competitors in the music player market since the release of the iPod. Apple has sold more than two billion songs on iTunes, its online music service.

The set-top unit known as Apple TV enables viewers to stream digitally downloaded video from a desktop or laptop computer to a television, complementing Apple's online film service which is available through its iTunes store.

Apple said online orders have been brisk for its Apple TV, which is priced at 299 dollars, and that it will begin shipping the devices to buyers in February.

"Fiscal year 2007 is off to a tremendous start," said Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer. "We are incredibly proud."