It’s been another boffo quarter for Apple. On Wednesday, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company announced revenue of $7.51 billion for its second quarter, compared to $5.26 billion a year ago.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs said the company was “delighted to report 43 percent revenue growth and the strongest March-quarter revenue and earnings in Apple’s history.” Looking ahead to the third quarter, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the company expects revenue of about $7.2 billion.

51 Percent Growth for Macs

The quarter’s net profit was $1.05 billion, versus $770 million in the same quarter last year. The gross margin, however, was down from last year’s 35.1 percent, to 32.9 percent.
Some financial analysts have noted that the gross-profit margin came in below expectations, while net income was higher.

Macintosh computers showed a 51 percent unit growth and 54 percent revenue growth compared with the year-ago quarter, and iPods had a one percent unit growth and an eight percent revenue growth.

Actual sales were nearly 2.3 million Macs and about 10.6 million iPods.

Globally, the company sold 7.8 million desktop and notebook computers. Its growth rate worldwide for computers was 38 percent, more than twice that of the industry average. In the U.S., the NPD Group reported last month that Apple’s share of the market was 14 percent, up from nine percent at the same duration last year

The tiny increase sales growth for the iPod stems from the fact that it has been so successful, with the market saturated. Apple has lowered prices on some units, but it has plus been replacing the growth in iPod hardware sales with its still-growing online music sales.

iTunes, iPhones

Apple sold about $880 million worth of music and accessories in the quarter from its iTunes Store, 35 percent higher than a year ago. And the iTunes Store was recently named by…

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