Apple enjoyed its most profitable quarter ever, as the company set sales marks for both Mac and iPhone sales. The company announced earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Monday. For the quarter ending September 30, Apple reported a net profit of $1.67 billion, or $1.82 per share, on revenue of $7.9 billion. Those numbers blew away analysts’ earnings and revenue estimates of $1.42 a share and $9.2 billion in sales, respectively. Mac sales floated 17% over the year-ago quarter to 3.1 million units, setting a new quarterly record. While Apple sold 7.4 million iPhones this quarter, realizing a 7% unit growth over the same quarter last year.

“We are thrilled to have sold more Macs and iPhones than in any previous quarter,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve got a very strong lineup for the holiday season and some really great new products in the pipeline for 2010.”

Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer also promised, “We are continuing to focus on delivering state-of-the-art products at price points our competitors can’t match,” Oppenheimer said, “and will provide increasing value to our customers.”

iPhone sales are expected to experience even further growth, as the iconic smartphone launches into China on October 30. The initial 1,000 points of sale will be expanded further over the next several months. Apple executive Tim Cook lobbed a timely grenade at wannabe iPhone competitors by saying;

“Frankly I think people are trying to catch up with the first iPhone two years ago,” Cook said. “We’ve long since moved beyond that.” “I think it shows there is an intense appetite for Apple’s latest technology,” he said, “and we were very pleased with the result.”

In this recession that’s a real understatement if I’ve ever heard one. Meanwhile, news of Richard Heene’s retarded weather balloon hoax was like cold product tossed off into the discount bin where it belonged in the first place.