Customers buy Apple Watch in an Apple retail store in Hangzhou city, East China's Zhejiang province, April 24, 2015.  [Photo/IC]

Apple's profit rose 31 percent to $11.1 billion in the final financial quarter of the year driven by booming iPhone sales, especially in China.

Apple Inc announced that revenue in the three months ending Sept 26 rose 22 percent to $51.50 billion from $42.12 billion in the same period a year earlier.

The company reported net income of $11.12 billion, compared to $8.47 billion a year ago.

It sold 48.04 million iPhones during the quarter, surpassing of the 39.27 million units of a year earlier, although falling short of analysts' expectations of 48.72 million.

Chief executive Tim Cook said he expects the growth of iPhone sales to continue in the current quarter.

Year-on-year revenue growth in China, which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan, rose 99 percent to $12.5 billion, with smartphone sales rising 87 percent in the Chinese market.

China is now Apple's second largest market behind the Americas. The company has 24 retail outlets in China and plans to have 40 stores open by the middle of next year.

Apple saw a record 5.7 million sales of Mac computers in the quarter, but only 9.9 million iPads were sold compared to 10.9 million in the third quarter.

Shipment of a new iPad Pro will begin next month.

It didn't report sales of Apple Watch, which was included in the "other products" category.