[R]5:00PM New York – Apple Inc reported third quarter earnings soared 73% on revenue rise of 24%.[/R]

Apple Inc reported third quarter sales growth of 24%, earnings gain of 73%, earnings per share rise of 70.3%

The company reported sales in the quarter of $5.4 billion, net income of $818 million, and earnings per share of 92 cents per share. The company in the previous reported revenue of $4.37 billion, earnings of $472 million, and earnings per share of 54 cents.

Revenue in the North and South America jumped 21% on unit shipment rise of 28%. In Europe revenue gained 29% on 31% rise in unit shipments. In Japan units shipped rose 3% on flat revenue.

The gross margin in the quarter jumped to 36.9% from 30.3% on higher than expected shipments of Apple Macintosh computers. The international sales accounted 40% of total sales.

Apple Macintosh jumped 33% to 1.76 million, 9.81 million iPods, and 270,000 iPhones and accessories. Late launch of iPhone in the last quarter did not give enough data to analysts to predict early sales of iPhone. AT&T reported that in the last two days company had signed only 146,000 subscribers using iPhone, substantially lower than anticipated.

The company guided fourth quarter sales for the current fiscal year of $5.7 billion and earnings of 65 cents per share.