The iPod has helped revitalise Apple's fortunes

Chief executive Steve Jobs said this was the California-based firm's best-ever quarterly performance.

For the three months to 25 June, its profit rose to $320m (�262.6m), up from $61m in the same quarter a year ago.

Sales surged 75% to $3.52bn, fuelled by a six-fold increase in sales of iPods since the third quarter of 2004.

The company also shipped 1.2 million Macintosh computers during the last quarter.

"We are delighted to report Apple's best quarter ever in both revenue and earnings," Mr Jobs said.

And he said the launch of Mac OS X Tiger had been a "tremendous success".