• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, February 1, 2017

Righting its ship, Apple reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter earnings, on Tuesday. Along with record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion -- up from $75.9 billion during the same period last year -- the tech giant reported earnings per diluted share of $3.36.

Tim Cook credited strong iPhone sales over the holidays for boosting Apple's bottom line. “We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch,” Cook stated. “Revenue from services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store.”

Looking ahead, Cook said he and his team are “very excited” about products in the company’s pipeline. For the second quarter, Apple is projecting revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion, as well as gross margin between 38% and 39%.

International sales accounted for 64% of the company's quarterly revenue during its fiscal first quarter. Also of note, Apple’s board declared a cash dividend of $0.57 per share of the company’s common stock, on Tuesday.

Although not mentioned on Tuesday, Apple is reportedly planning a big push into original content.

With the help of experienced producers, the tech giant wants to start making movies and TV shows, according to multiple press reports. Similar to the business models of Spotify, Amazon and Netflix, Apple is expected to offer its original fare to Apple Music subscribers.

Despite its name, the $10-a-month service already carries some video, including artist documentaries.

Sources recently told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, that Apple hopes to begin offering scripted content before the end of the year.

Less than two years after its launch, Apple Music has officially surpassed 20 million paid subscribers. As of last fall, however, Spotify had already surpassed 40 million paid subscribers.

On the hardware front, Apple continues to dominate global smartphone sales. Worldwide, smartphone profits reached $9.4 billion during the third quarter of the year — 91% of which went to Apple — according to recent findings from Strategy Analytics.