Apple has posted its best quarter ever, announcing a recordprofit of US$7.31 billion on the back of US$28.57 billion in revenue.

This eclipses analysts’ predictions of $24-25 billion inrevenue.

The results are driven by huge increases in sales ofiPhones, up 142% to 20.34 million units, and iPads, up 183% to 9.25 million.

Announcing the results, Apple also revealed its newoperating system, Mac OS X Lion, will be made available tomorrow, followingweeks of anticipation.

Mac sales also rose, up 14% to 3.95 million. In a conferencecall announcing the results, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer revealed half of these were sold to peoplewho had never owned a Mac before.

Looking forward, Oppenheimer remainsconservative, predicting revenue of about $25 billion for the next quarter.

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, says in a statement that the companywill be focusing on delivering its iCloud and iOS 5 in coming months.