Apple reported record revenue for its fiscal third quarter of 2010, on the back of its newly-launched iPad and record Macintosh sales.

and record Macintosh sales.

Apple reported a net profit of $3.25 billion on revenue of $15.7 billion, both of which shot up dramatically from a year ago, when Apple reported profits of $1.83 billion on revenue of $9.73 billion.

Analysts only expected Apple to report $14.62 million in revenue, which means that Apple could be in good shape to when Microsoft reports later this week. Microsoft is expected to report revenue of $15.25 billion, according to the Thomson Reuters poll.

Apple sold a record 3.47 million Macintosh computers for the quarter, up by 33 percent a year ago, and iPhone sales increased by 61 percent compared to a year ago to 8.4 million units. Apple sold 1.147 million desktops and 1.796 notebook Macs, for a total of $1.53 billion and $2.23 billion in revenue, respectively.

iPod sales dropped by 8 percent to 9.41 million. As for the iPad, Apple said that the tablet sold 3.27 million units.

"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 chief executive, in a statement. "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."

Apple plans to hold a conference call with analysts later on Tuesday to discuss its results. The company said that it expects record revenue of $18 billion for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2010.

Editor's Note: Since the audio on Apple's Webcast dropped out and stopped working on numerous occasions, the author was unable to provide a followup following the conference call.