Apple today announced record fiscal fourth quarter results, the company’s first earnings announcement after its iconic co-founder Steve Jobs died earlier this month.

For the three months ended September 24, 2011, Apple reported a profit of $6.62 billion (7.05 cents per share) on revenues of $28.27 billion.

During the same period last year, Apple’s net profit was $4.31 billion ($4.64 per share) on revenues of $20.34 billion.

Bloomberg reports that Apple has exceeded analysts’ profit expectation for 32 straight quarters.

Such results as Apple declared today are the dream and envy of every business in the world.

Apple Juggernaut

Apple is on a roll, and like a juggernaut crushing its digital media rivals, particularly on the tablets front.

Here are highlights on the performance of some of Apple’s key product lines during the fourth quarter:

* The Company sold 17.07 million iPhones, a 21% unit growth over the year-ago quarter.

* Apple sold 11.12 million iPads tablets , a 166% unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

* The Company sold 4.89 million Macs, a 26% unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

* Apple sold 6.62 million iPods, a 27% unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

iPhone Sales Lower than Expected

Sales of iPhones were lower than analyst expectations.

That was likely because prospective customers were sitting on the sidelines waiting for the release of the new iPhone (4S).

The iPhone 4S became available on August 14 and in just three days Apple sold four million units.

For the full fiscal 2011, Apple reported a profit of $25.92 billion on revenues of $108.25 billion. This compares with a profit of $14.01 billion on revenues of $65.23 billion in fiscal 2010.

For the first fiscal quarter of 2012, Apple expects revenue of about $37 billion and diluted earnings per share of about $9.30.

  Apple