By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 04:35 PM EST

Apple said Wednesday that second-quarter profits rose over 36 percent to $1.05 billion, or $1.16 per diluted share, on sales of $7.51 billion for the three-month period ended March 29, 2008.

These results compare to revenue of $5.26 billion and net quarterly profit of $770 million, or $.87 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 32.9 percent, down from 35.1 percent in the year-ago quarter, and international sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple shipped 2,289,000 Macintosh computers during the quarter, representing 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter. The company also sold 10,644,000 iPods during the quarter, representing one percent unit growth and eight percent revenue growth over the year-ago quarter.

Quarterly iPhone sales were 1,703,000.

"We're delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March quarter revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Apple chief executive Steve Jobs. "With over $17 billion in revenue for the first half of our fiscal year, we have strong momentum to launch some terrific new products in the coming quarters."

"We're thrilled to have generated $4 billion in cash flow from operations in the first half of fiscal 2008, yielding an ending cash balance of $19.4 billion," added Apple chief financial officer Peter Oppenheimer. "Looking ahead to the third quarter of fiscal 2008, we expect revenue of about $7.2 billion and earnings per diluted share of about $1.00."

Apple will conduct its Q2 2008 financial results conference call in about 30 minutes -- AppleInsider will provide full coverage.