San Francisco, Aug 2 (IANS): Better than expected iPhone sales led to Apple posting a quarterly revenue of $45.4 billion -- up seven per cent YoY (year-over-year) -- for the third quarter of 2017.

These results compare to revenue of $42.4 billion and earnings per diluted share of $1.42 in the year-ago second quarter, the company said in a statement late on Tuesday.

"With revenue up seven per cent YoY, we're happy to report our third consecutive quarter of accelerating growth and an all-time quarterly record for Services revenue," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

The net income was up to $8.72 billion ($1.67 per share) from $7.80 billion ($1.42 per share) a year earlier.

"We hosted an incredibly successful 'Worldwide Developers Conference' in June, and we're very excited about the advances in iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS coming this fall," Cook added.

iPhone sales were up 1.6 per cent to 41.03 million in the third quarter that ended on July 1.

The Cupertino-based tech giant sold 40.4 million iPhones a year earlier.

"We reported unit and revenue growth in all our product categories in the June quarter, driving 17 per cent growth in earnings per share," said Luca Maestri, Apple's CFO.

Apple saw 21.6 per cent jump in the services business - the App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud - to $7.27 billion.

"We also returned $11.7 billion to investors during the quarter, bringing cumulative capital returns under our program to almost $223 billion," Maestri added.

According to The Verge, leading the way was Apple's iPad sales, which were up 15 per cent from 2016.

Hardware like the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Beats headphones where the highlights in the 'Other Products' category.

"China -- the region driving Apple growth for the past few years -- saw revenue drop from last year as competition from local phone makers increased," the report said.