New Delhi, Jan. 31 -- Apple's iPhone sales soared to a new quarterly record during the holiday season, despite artificial intelligence blunders that prompted the technology trendsetter to get a helping hand from Google.

The October-December results announced Thursday reflect the allegiance of Apple's fans, who eagerly snapped up the latest iPhone 17 models even though the company still hasn't delivered on its 2024 promise to smarten up the device's Siri assistance with AI.

Apple tried to offset its AI miscues with a new "liquid glass" design for the iPhone 17 and older models installed by way of a free software upgrade released last September. That formula helped produce iPhone sales of $85.3 billion, a 23% increase from the same time i...