Apple reported today that they finished 2008 strong with a profit of $1.61 billion.  This was mainly due to iPods reporting an all-time high despite economic conditions being their worst in the last 4 decades.  Revenue was $10.17 billion in the three months ending on December 27, 2008.

“Even in these economically challenging times, we are incredibly pleased to report our best quarterly revenue and earnings in Apple history — surpassing 10 billion dollars in quarterly revenue for the first time ever,” stated Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a release.   Apple sold 2.52 million Macintosh computers during Q1 2009 and 22.73 million iPods.

Apple sold over 4.36 million iPhones this quarter.  This is almost double what they sold in the fiscal first quarter of last year.  However the Apple sold 6.9 million iPhones last quarter.  Even though there was a slowdown iPhones sold, this has not caused a slowdown in applications sold in the App Store.  Over 500 million applications have been sold within the last few months, also contributing to Apple’s profits.

During the earnings call, Apple COO Tim Cook made an interesting statement.  When asked about upcoming competition like the Pre, BlackBerry, and Android, Cook stated “We approach this business as a software platform business. We are watching the landscape. We like competition as long as they don’t rip off our IP. And if they do, we will go after anyone who does.”  The Palm Pre has a multi-touch user interface and Apple holds a patent on this.

Cook was also asked about whether he was talking about Palm in regards to that statement, he replied “I don’t want to talk about any specific company. We are ready to suit up and go against anyone. However, we will not stand for having our IP ripped off.”

Interestingly, Palm’s chairman is former Apple product chief Jon Rubinstein.  Rubinstein was put in charge of Palm by Elevation Partners.  Elevation Partners is Palm’s biggest investor, who made a recent $100 million investment for the Pre.  Elevation invested $325 million into Palm last year too.

[via TechCrunch and Apple PR]