By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 04:00 PM EST (01:00 PM PST)

Apple said Wednesday it just completed the most profitable March quarter in the company's history, where earnings rose 88 percent, helped by sales of nearly 1.52 million Macs and 10.5 million iPods.

For the fiscal second quarter ended March 31, 2007, Apple earned a net profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, on sales of $5.26 billion. Those results compare to a net quarterly profit of $410 million, or $.47 per diluted share, on sales of $4.36 billion in the year-ago quarter.

During the quarter, Apple shipped 1,517,000 Macintosh computers and 10,549,000 iPods, representing 36 percent growth in Macs and 24 percent growth in iPods over the year-ago quarter.

"The Mac is clearly gaining market share, with sales growing 36 percent -- more than three times the industry growth rate," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're very excited about the upcoming launch of iPhone in late June, and are also hard at work on some other amazing new products in our pipeline."

Gross margin for the quarter came in at 35.1 percent, up from 29.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 43 percent of revenue.

Looking ahead to the third fiscal quarter of 2007, the Cupertino-based company said it expect revenue of about $5.1 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $0.66.

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q2 2007 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PDT on Wednesday. AppleInsider will provide its usual in-depth coverage.