Apple on Tuesday reported a 15% jump in quarterly profit and said  it was unable to supply enough iPhones and Mac (Macintosh) computers to meet demand.

Apple reported sales of 5.2 million iPhones in its fiscal third quarter, more than seven times what it sold a year earlier, as it launched a new version and halved the price on an older model to $99. Revenue from the iPhone business tripled to $1.69 billion, overtaking Apple's iPod revenue.

Mac shipments rose 4% to 2.6 million but revenue fell 8% to $3.33 billion, following price cuts on some models.

Chief operating officer Tim Cook said iPhone and Mac shortages were due to spikes in demand. "We will get beyond this," he said about the Mac shortage, saying that it should be addressed within weeks. He also said Apple was working hard to fill demand for iPhones.

Apple said it shipped 10.2 million iPod digital music players in the quarter, or 7% fewer than it did a year earlier.

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's chief financial officer, said the company expects sales of"traditional MP3 players to decline over time as we cannibalize ourselves with the iPod Touch and the iPhone."

The company posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $7.46 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.07 billion, or $1.19 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 36.3%, up from 34.8% in the year-ago quarter. International sales accounted for 44% of the quarter’s revenue.

In accordance with the subscription accounting treatment required by the GAAP standard, Apple recognizes revenue and cost of goods sold for iPhone and Apple TV over their estimated economic lives - - 24 months. Adjusting GAAP sales and product costs to eliminate the impact of subscription accounting, the corresponding non-GAAP measures for the quarter are $9.74 billion of “Adjusted Sales” and $1.94 billion of “Adjusted Net Income.”

“We’re making our most innovative products ever and our customers are responding,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’re thrilled to have sold over 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.”

“We’re extremely pleased to report record non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings and quarterly cash flow from operations of $2.3 billion,” said Peter Oppenheimer. “Looking ahead to the fourth fiscal quarter of 2009, we expect revenue in the range of about $8.7 billion to $8.9 billion and we expect diluted earnings per share in the range of about $1.18 to $1.23.”

Results detail