The record sales figure is up a third year-on-year compared with $757.3m in Q4 2009 and above the high end of its $950m to $1bn guidance.

This helped the software giant post record full-year revenues of $3.8bn – a 29% year-on-year growth – for the year ending 3 December, driven by strong sales of the company's core Creative Suite product.

Pretax profit for the quarter was $286.9m compared to $153.6m the year prior.

The record results and announcement that its first-quarter sales would exceed analyst estimates pushed shares in the company up 6% on the news.

President and chief executive Shantanu Narayen said: "We posted out first billion-dollar quarter and record annual revenue in 2010, driven by outstanding performance across all of our major businesses. We are one of the most diversified software companies in the world and are entering 2011 with strong momentum."