Apple has reported a second consecutive drop in quarterly profits despite a significant increase in iPhone sales.

The company posted revenue of $35.3 billion (£23b) and net profit of $6.9 billion (£4.5b) for the three months ended June 29, 2013, compared to revenue of $35 billion (£22.8b) and net profit of $8.8 billion (£5.7b) for the same period a year ago.

Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones, a record for its third quarter, compared to 26 million a year ago. However, IPad sales declined from 17 million to 14.6 million, while Mac sales dipped from four million to 3.8 million.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "We are especially proud of our record June quarter iPhone sales of over 31 million and the strong growth in revenue from iTunes, software and services.

"We are really excited about the upcoming releases of iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks, and we are laser-focused and working hard on some amazing new products that we will introduce in the fall and across 2014."

In April, Apple posted its first quarterly drop in profits in ten years, shortly before announcing that iOS App Store downloads had topped 50 billion. In early July, Apple revealed the all-time best selling iPhone and iPad apps.