Apple has bucked the trend for declining year on year profits, posting a fourth quarter rise of 47%. The company made a net profit of $1.67bn, up from $1.14bn a year earlier, and saw sales rise by 25% to $9.87bn. While a number of technology companies have recently reported improved results, these are generally quarter on quarter comparisons, rather than year on year. The recession busting results were put down to a 500,000 unit jump in iPhone sales to 7.4 million during the final quarter, and a 17% leap in Mac sales, to 3.1 million units. Apple did however see an 8% drop in iPod sales. Full year results saw revenue rise 12% and net income up 18% on 2008 figures to $5.7bn.