by , 4:35 PM EDT, July 21st, 2008

Apple announced Monday that it had a record June quarter in 2008, with US$7.46 billion in revenue, and a profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per share. That beats last year's $5.41 billion in revenue with profits of $818 million, or $0.92 per share. Analysts had been expecting $1.07 per share in earnings, with revenue of $7.36 billion.

The company reported gross margins of 34.8%, down from 36.9% in the year ago quarter. Analysts had been expecting gross margins in the 33%-33.5% range. Apple itself had guided for 33%.

Apple shipped a record number of Macintosh computers during the quarter, reporting sales of 2.496 million units. The company also sold more than 11 million iPods, 12% more than during the year-ago quarter, a number that should further quell fears that the iPhone will cannibalize iPod sales.

Apple also announced it had sold 717,000 iPhones during the quarter, up from 270,000 in the June quarter of 2007, when the iPhone was on sale for only a couple of days at the end of the quarter. Apple released iPhone 3G earlier in July, and announced it had sold more than one million units on the opening weekend, but those numbers will not be reflected until Q4 numbers are reported in October.

"We're proud to report the best June quarter for both revenue and earnings in Apple's history," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We set a new record for Mac sales, we think we have a real winner with our new iPhone 3G, and we're busy finishing several more wonderful new products to launch in the coming months."

Lastly, Apple reported that it had added more than $5.4 billion in cash during the first three quarters of the year. Officially, Apple is offering guidance of $7.8 billion for the September quarter and earnings of "about $1.00 per share." Analysts are currently predicting results in excess of $8 billion.

Stay tuned to The Mac Observer for detailed coverage of the Apple's conference call with analysts, which begins at 5:00 PM EDT.

*In the interest of full disclosure, the author holds a small share in AAPL stock that was not an influence in the creation of this article.