Apple doubles its earnings on hovering iPhone gross sales.

Apple said Wednesday that its earnings more than doubled to $ 23.6 billion in its most recent quarter as people adopted its latest iPhones and bought more of its other products. This is an impressive result for what is already the world’s most valuable company.

According to Apple, sales rose 54 percent to $ 89.6 billion. That was a record for the March quarter, with Apple selling an average of more than $ 1 billion a day. The rapid growth is partly due to slower sales in the same three-month period last year when the pandemic first started. However, the quarter on its own was still strong and far exceeded analysts’ expectations. Apple’s sales grew sharply in each of its product categories and in each of its regions around the world.

As always, the main driver of Apple’s success was the iPhone. According to Apple, iPhone sales rose 66 percent to $ 47.9 billion. This is the biggest increase in years. The company’s flagship accounted for more than half of its total sales for years. More recently, however, Apple has been trying to expand into other businesses, causing the share of iPhone sales to drop to 41 percent for the quarter ending September 30th, Apple unveiled the iPhone 12 in October, and sales have increased . In the last quarter, iPhones made up 54 percent of Apple’s sales.

IPad sales increased 79 percent and Mac sales increased 70 percent, according to Apple. Part of its success was due to more people working on computers and learning from home. Sales of Apple wearable devices, including the Apple Watch and AirPods, rose 25 percent, and the Services division, which includes app sales and subscriptions to iCloud and other Apple services, rose 26 percent.

Apple said Wednesday that it would buy back an additional $ 90 billion of its own shares as part of its ongoing program to return much of its profits to shareholders.

The huge profits are further evidence of the growing dominance of the largest tech companies. Also announced this week: Microsoft’s profit rose 44 percent to $ 15.5 billion. Facebook’s bottom line nearly doubled to $ 9.5 billion. and profits at Alphabet, the parent company of Google, more than doubled to nearly $ 18 billion. Amazon reports its profits on Thursday.

Apple’s continued growth is based on an increasing scrutiny of its power. The company is facing antitrust investigations from regulators around the world. On Monday, Apple will stand trial against Epic Games, one of the world’s largest game manufacturers, to gain control of the App Store.

Apple shares, valued at roughly $ 2.25 trillion, rose nearly 2 percent in after-hours trading.