Apple Inc. reported on Monday a net profit of $3.38 billion for the quarter ended on Dec. 26, or $3.67 a share, from $2.26 billion in the first quarter of 2009, or $2.50 a share and its sales rose to $15.7 billion.

Apple is scheduled to hold an event on Jan. 27 in San Francisco where it may launch a tablet device.

The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about, said Apple CEO Steve Jobs in a statement.

Apple said it shipped 8.7 million iPhones in the quarter, a growth of 100 percent over the first quarter a year ago. It also shipped 3.36 million Macintosh computers during the quarter, a 33 percent increase over the year-ago quarter.

Apple estimated revenue for the second quarter of 2010 to be in the range of $11 billion to $11.4 billion, and earnings per share of $2.06 to $2.18, while analysts are estimating second-quarter revenue to be around $10.37 billion.

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