Apple Q1 2012 Sales Point To Monster Future For iPhone, Death Of iPod

There's a lot to be said about the Q1 2012 sales report from Apple today, but one point stands out like a beacon: with 37,044,000 units and 24,417,000,000 (that's $24 billion) in revenue from iPhone and related products and services. This is compared to the units and revenue from the same category during Q4 of 2011 which ads up to 16,235,000 units and 10,468,000,000 in revenue – this means that Apple has more than DOUBLED their units and revenue in one quarter. Of course this includes the holiday season once Apple's Q1 started, so it's not that big a deal, right?

Compared to last year, the percentage change in units and revenue in the iPhone category was 128% and 133%, this meaning that the change is only slightly greater there than it was between this quarter and the last quarter of 2011. So the first quarter of 2011 and the last quarter of 2011 are fairly similar in their overall totals. The difference between Q4 2011 and Q1 2012 then, percentage-wise, is 117% in units and 122% in revenue. This of course means that we can guess that the last quarter of 2012 will be somewhat similar to this first quarter, the first quarter of 2013 then being the next big jump in sales.

Another point to pick out of all the statistics on this particular earnings call is that the only negative numbers anywhere in the whole report are seen when you compare iPod sales to last year at this time. Units sold when you compare Q1 of 2012 to Q1 of 2011 were down 21%, with revenue also falling 26%. Is this the end of the iPod age? Will we never see a rise in sales again? This all depends on if there's an equitable model popping up before the end of the year, of course – seeya then!