US tech giant Apple created history in the quarter ended December. The company has posted a profit of USD 18 billion. This is the highest quarterly profit of all time beating ExxonMobil's USD 15.9 billion posted in the second quarter of 2012.

Also, Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones over those 3 months, which means it sold 34,000 iPhones every hour.

Apple Inc posted a far better-than-expected 29.5 percent jump in quarterly revenue, driven by record sales of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus smartphones in the holiday shopping season.

The company sold 74.5 million iPhones in its first quarter ended December 27. Revenue rose to USD 74.6 billion from USD 57.6 billion a year earlier.

Analysts on average had expected revenue of USD 67.69 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Additional inputs from Reuters)