Apple posts big gains in iPad, iPhone & Mac divisions; iPod sinks

Apple revealed in an earnings report this week that three of its four hardware divisions boomed during the holiday shopping season, helping the tech giant turn in record numbers for the first fiscal quarter of 2012.

The iPad and iPhone lines both saw triple-digit, the company announced in a press statement. Consumers snatched up more than 15 million iPad tablets last fall, while the release of the new iPhone 4S contributed to an additional 37.04 million in sales for the popular smartphone brand. The latter earned 1 million pre-orders just a day after it was announced. Apple also sold 5.2 million Macs – a 26 percent increase over the same quarter last year.

The Cupertino company saw quarterly net profit and revenue soar to $13.06 billion and $46.33 billion, respectively.

“Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline,” said Tim Cook, Apple CEO.

Cook, who took over the chief executive position months before the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, is likely referring to the company’s highly-anticipated stab at reinventing television later this year. For now, Cook said he was happy with Apple’s current product, the Apple TV set-top media player. A third iteration of the iPad is also expected to launch soon.

One product that saw sales shrink was the iPod Touch. The legacy MP3 and video player dropped 21 percent from last year’s opening quarter, selling 15.4 million units.

Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the company was “very happy” with the holiday quarter results, predicting net revenue would fall to $32.5 billion for Q2 2012. (via Apple)