Apple Inc. reported record quarterly sales and profit, as holiday purchases of the new iPhone helped the company steer clear of the consumer spending slump that has hurt rival technology companies.

Fiscal first-quarter profit more than doubled to $13.1 billion, or $13.87 a share, compared with $6 billion, or $6.43 a share, a year earlier, Apple said today in a statement. Sales rose 73 percent to $46.3 billion.Analysts surveyed by Bloomberg on average estimated profit of $10.14 a share on sales of $39 billion.

Apple sold 37 million iPhones, up from the previous record of 20.34 million. Customers snapped up the 4S model that went on sale in October, a week after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs. The results mark the first time the company's quarterly revenue topped Hewlett-Packard Co.'s, underscoring how its focus on sleek touch-screen mobile devices has reshuffled leadership in the industry.

"It's a milestone," Brian White, an analyst at Ticonderoga Securities LLC, said of Apple surpassing Hewlett-Packard in sales. "There are so many growth drivers around this company."

Cupertino, California-based Apple, in looking ahead to results for the second quarter, forecast revenue of about $32.5 billion and profit of $8.50 a share. That compares with average analysts'predictions for sales of $31.9 billion and profit of $7.96 a share.

Apple shares, up 25 percent in the past 12 months, had closed at $420.41 in New York. They were halted before the report.

David Fuller's view These results are obviously impressive and should help market sentiment tomorrow.

While Apple remains one of the best performing Autonomies (weekly & daily) it is temporarily overstretched relative to the 200-day moving average. Consequently we may see some mean reversion towards the rising MA in coming weeks.