In the land of Apple where the sun always shines, second quarter profits were, of course, up.

Net quarterly profit rose to $1.23bn, compared to just over $1bn in the same period last year, while revenue topped $8.34bn, compared to $7.46bn in the year ago quarter.

And that’s just in accordance with recognised accounting standards. Because Apple recognises revenue and cost of goods for the iPhone “over its estimated economic life,” it reckons $1.94bn would be closer to its “adjusted net income.”

The number of iPhones sold during the quarter were 5.2 million, representing 626 per cent unit growth over the year ago quarter and users have downloaded more than 1.5 billion applications from our App Store in its first year.

In June 2009, Apple began selling the iPhone 3GS, its third generation iPhone.