By AppleInsider Staff

Published: 04:00 PM EST

Apple said Tuesday that third-quarter profits rose nearly 15 percent to $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share, on record non-holiday quarter sales of $8.34 billion for the three-month period ended June 27, 2009.

These results compare to revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.3 percent, up from 34.8 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44 percent of the quarter's revenue.

Apple sold 2.6 million Macs during the quarter, representing a four percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter and the best ever June quarter in its history for personal computer sales. The company also sold 10.2 million iPods during the quarter, representing a seven percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter. Quarterly iPhones sold were 5.2 million, representing 626 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

"We're making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year."

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by GAAP, Apple recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone and Apple TV over their estimated economic lives. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures for the quarter were $9.74 billion of "Adjusted Sales" and $1.94 billion of "Adjusted Net Income."

"We're extremely pleased to report record non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings and quarterly cash flow from operations of $2.3 billion," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. "Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.18 to $1.23."

Apple will provide live streaming of its Q3 2009 financial results conference call utilizing QuickTime. The live webcast will begin at 2:00 p.m. PST today. AppleInsider will provide full coverage.