Despite taking a beating on the stock market yesterday, Apple still has reason to celebrate.  On the heels of its Macworld announcement of the slick MacBook Air, Apple released its fiscal Q1 2008 results.

The quarter, which ended December 29, 2007, followed closely to and even surpassed Apple's record setting fourth quarter of the previous fiscal year.  Apple's revenue increased to $9.6 billion USD from $7.1 billion USD in the same quarter a year ago, up 35%.  More significantly, its net profit increased from $1 billion USD to $1.58 billion USD; a 58% increase.

One key factor was strong iPhone sales, growing a significant new business market for Apple.  Apple sold 2.31 million iPhones in the quarter, bringing the total iPhone user base up to 4 million, and raising its market share in the smart phone industry to nearly 20%.  The iPhone saw strong growth in the business sector due to the stylish design that made it the TIME magazine invention of 2007. 

An aggressive Apple has also made gains in the OS and home computer market segments.  Apple sold 2,319,000 Mac computers during the quarter, continuing its ascent to join Dell and HP in the elite tier of top PC sellers.  Much of these sales were driven by the continued strong sales of OS X Leopard.

The iPod lineup, which was refreshed last fall, continued to see energetic sales.  Apple sold 22,121,000 units, a modest 5% unit growth from a year ago in a market that is largely saturated.  While not earth-shaking, Apple has to feel good about this increase in sales for its line which is facing tough competition from Microsoft's refreshed Zune lineup, which also sports new flash-based players.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs was quick to pat himself and fellow Apple employees on the back, and promised good things to come stating, "We’re thrilled to report our best quarter ever, with the highest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history.  We have an incredibly strong new product pipeline for 2008, starting with MacBook Air, Mac Pro and iTunes Movie Rentals in the first two weeks."

Despite it fiscal first quarter gains, an NBC treaty impending over iTunes, and its new notebook computer rolling out, Apple will have still have to soldier through a traditionally slow first quarter (Apple's fiscal second quarter).