iPhone
The iPhone maker saw total revenue of $78.4bn (£62bn) with a profit of nearly $18bn. Reuters

Better than expected sales of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus have helped Apple achieve its highest quarterly revenue. The company also reclaimed the throne as the world's top smartphone seller for the first time in five years leaving rival Samsung behind in terms of number units shipped for the last quarter.

"The iPhone 7 is our most popular model," Chief Executive Officer, Tim Cook said in the earnings call. "We especially saw strong demand for iPhone 7 Plus, which was a higher portion of the new product mix than we've ever seen with Plus models in the past."

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The iPhone maker saw total revenue of $78.4bn (£62bn) with a profit of nearly $18bn. Of the total revenue, $54.4bn was generated by the sales of iPhone alone which sold 78.3 million units. Tim Cook said Apple Watch saw a record quarter, however, as usual the company declined to comment on its exact sales for the smartwatch unit.

Apple also seems to have benefited from Samsung's much publicised recall of the Galaxy Note 7 as the iPhone maker beat Samsung Electronics' 77.5 million smartphone sales in the holiday quarter, according to tech data firm Strategy Analytics. This is for the first time Apple has taken over Samsung since the fourth quarter of 2011.

Shedding light on the latest earnings Patrick Moorhead, President and Principal Analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy, told IBTimes UK,"Apple crushed it in almost every sector of their business seeing improvements to iPhones, services, Mac and Watch.Even the App Store did well, driving a 40% increase. iPad was however, off again, and I do think Windows convertibles could be impacting the numbers here."

The gains were, however, tempered by Apple's cautious outlook for the next quarter where Apple will be hurt due to the strong dollar as majority of their products overseas will see a price rise. With Samsung planning to launch the Galaxy S8 in March, smartphone enthusiasts may switch to the flagship Android or other cheaper options.