Apple has announced the financial results for its fiscal 2011 first quarter that ended Dec. 25, 2010. The company posted record revenue of US$26.74 billion and record net quarterly profit of $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share.

These results compare to revenue of $15.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.38 billion, or $3.67 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 38.5% compared to 40.9 % in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 62% of the quarter’s revenue.

Apple sold 4.13 million Macs during the quarter, a 23% unit increase over the year-ago quarter. The company sold 16.24 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 86%t unit growth over the year-ago quarter. Apple sold 19.45 million iPods during the quarter, representing a 7% unit decline from the year-ago quarter. The company also sold 7.33 million iPads during the quarter.

“We had a phenomenal holiday quarter with record Mac, iPhone and iPad sales,” CEO Steve Jobs, now on medical leave, said in a press release. “We are firing on all cylinders and we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline for this year including iPhone 4 on Verizon which customers can’t wait to get their hands on.”

“We couldn’t be happier with the performance of our business, generating $9.8 billion in cash flow from operations during the December quarter,” added Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer. “Looking ahead to the second fiscal quarter of 2011, we expect revenue of about $22 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $4.90.”