Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2010 third quarter which ended June 26, 2010. The Company posted revenue of $15.7 billion and net quarterly profit of $3.25 billion, or $3.51 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.73 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.83 billion, or $2.01 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 39.1 percent compared to 40.9 percent in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 52 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

During the quarter Apple also sold 3.47 million Macs representing a 33 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter. Apple also sold 8.4 million iPhones in the quarter, representing 61 percent unit growth over the year-ago quarter as well as 9.41 million iPods during the quarter, representing an 8 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

For the first time ever Apple also reported iPad unit sales of 3.27 million

“It was a phenomenal quarter that exceeded our expectations all around, including the most successful product launch in Apple’s history with iPhone 4,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “iPad is off to a terrific start, more people are buying Macs than ever before, and we have amazing new products still to come this year.”

“We’re really pleased to have generated over $4 billion of cash during the quarter,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010, we expect revenue of about $18 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share of about $3.44″