Apple has bucked the trend for gloomy mobile handset financial results, by revealing revenues of $8.16 billion for its fiscal Q2, which ended on 28th March. That's up 8.7 per cent year-on-year.

Net profits for the quarter were $1.21 billion, up 15.2 per cent compared to the corresponding quarter last year. The company's gross margin rose from 32.9 per cent to 36.4 per cent in the same period.

Apple sold 3.79 million iPhones during the quarter, and 11.01 million iPods – a figure that includes iPod touch devices, although also iPod Shuffles. Apple's revenues for the quarter from iPhone handset sales, accessory sales and carrier payments topped $1.52 billion.

“One of the keys behind the growth of the iPod this quarter despite the economic environment was that the iPod touch more than doubled year-over-year,” said COO Tim Cook in the subsequent analyst call.

“The sum of iPhone plus iPod touch is now about 37 million units... The iPod touch is the runaway hit and it's clearly being driven by the App Store.”

Meanwhile, Cook played a straight bat to rumours that Apple is working on its own netbook laptop, cheekily suggesting that anyone in the market for a small computer that does browsing or email should consider an iPhone or iPod touch instead.

Apple is on track to sell its billionth application through the App Store later today, according to its online countdown.