Mac And iPod Sales Lead Apple Earnings

Apple's third-quarter profit jumped more than 73 percent based largely on sales of its Macintosh computers and iPods, not the much-hyped iPhone. The earnings report came a day after AT&T announced that the number of iPhone service subscribers was much lower than expected. AT&T said about 146,000 phones were activated over the one-and-a-half days that the iPhone was on sale before the quarter ended. Apple said it actually sold 270,000 iPhones in that time period. Reasons for the discrepancy between the companies' numbers were unclear. Apple's profit rose to $818 million in the third quarter, up from $472 million in the same period last year. Sales grew to $5.41 billion from $4.37 billion last year.