NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — Apple Inc. rose as much as nine percent in Nasdaq trading after soaring iPhone sales lifted profit and chief executive officer Steve Jobs said customers will stay loyal in a recession.

"We may get buffeted around by the waves a little bit, but we'll be fine and stronger than ever when the waters calm," Jobs said during his first appearance on an Apple earnings conference call in eight years. Consumers are more likely to delay purchases rather than switch to competitors' products, he said.

Apple reached a goal of selling 10 million iPhones three months ahead of schedule after customers snapped up 6.89 million last quarter, topping analysts' predictions. Rising demand for the iPhone and Macintosh computers came at a time when customers are curbing spending, and Jobs's comments helped investors look past a forecast for the holidays that missed analysts' estimates.

The iPhone and Mac contributed to a 26-percent gain in fourth-quarter profit to $1.14 billion, or $1.26 a share, beating the $1.11 estimated by analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Sales rose 27 percent to $7.9 billion in the three months ended September 27.

Profit this quarter will be $1.06 to $1.35 a share and sales will be as much as $10 billion, Cupertino, California-based Apple said. Analysts had predicted earnings of $1.66 a share and revenue of $10.6 billion. Apple typically delivers a forecast that misses estimates and then tops those predictions.

"Steve Jobs being on the call helped," said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray & Co. "Expectations were low, but people started to get a sense it wasn't really that bad."

Jobs said there's a "lot of prudence" in the forecast. Munster said Apple was being "hyperconservative."

Deutsche Bank analyst Chris Whitmore in San Francisco raised the stock's price target after the report to $150 from $140. The shares slid 32 percent last quarter, their worst performance since 2001, on concern US consumers will spend less as jobs become scarcer and house prices drop. The holiday season is one of Apple's two biggest sales periods, along with the back-to-school quarter that ended in September.

Jobs, 53, said iPhone shipments surpassed the 6.1 million BlackBerry devices sold last quarter. "This is a milestone for us," he said. "Apple beat RIM."

The iPhone is now available in more than 50 countries and Apple plans to reach more than 70 markets before year-end. To help win users away from the BlackBerry, the top-selling smart-phone in the US, Jobs added software that links the iPhone to corporate e-mail systems and opened an online application store.

Apple said fourth-quarter sales were $11.7 billion after setting aside a subscription accounting standard in which revenue from the iPhone and the Apple TV set-top box is spread out over two years. On that basis, iPhone sales in the quarter were about $4.6 billion, or 39 percent of Apple's total business.

Back-to-school promotions for the Mac, which accounts for about half of Apple's revenue, lifted shipments to a record 2.61 million units. Apple said yesterday it has already seen a rebound in Mac orders after the debut of new models last week.

The slowdown presents opportunities for companies with cash to invest, Jobs said, adding that the company established its retail stores during the last economic slump. The company has almost $25 billion in cash and no debt, Jobs said.

"This provides us tremendous stability and the ability to invest our way through this downturn," he said.