US technology giant Apple has reported the biggest quarterly profit ever made by a public company.Apple reported a net profit of $18bn (£11.8bn) in its fiscal first quarter, which tops the $15.9bn made by ExxonMobil in the second quarter of 2012, according to Standard and Poor's. Record sales of iPhones were behind the surge in profits. Apple sold 74.5 million iPhones in the three months to 27 December - well ahead of most analysts' expectations. They have also become the biggest smartphone seller in China which is a market they have been looking to break for a long time. They were selling 34,000 phones an hour, 24/7 for the entire quarter which has led to Apples cash pile being larger than what the UK spends on NHS.
