Apple?s first-quarter, record-breaking iPhone and iPad sales are indicative of the important role the company will continue to play in the space in 2012 and beyond. 

Apple reported record-breaking sales of iPhones and iPads for its fiscal first quarter ended Dec. 31, 2011. The company said it sold 128 percent more iPhones during its fiscal first quarter for a total of 37.04 million units and 111 percent more iPads for a total of 15.43 million units.

?We were thrilled with the 37 million iPhones we sold in the quarter,? said Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA. ?This is substantially above the 20 million unit previous record.

?We made a bold bet and we were short of supply throughout the quarter,? he said. ?As it turns out, we did not bet high enough - our customers are loving the iPhone.?

IPhone 4S a hit
Apple attributes the success of the iPhone in the quarter to the strong reception to the new iPhone 4s as well as to the pent up demand that there was in the market from the previous quarter, when consumers waited until the new iPhone was available to make a purchase.

In addition to the introduction of the iPhone 4s, Apple also made iPhones available across a range of prices for the first time with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 4.

?We made the right decision going with a broad range of iPhones - it turned out to be a benefit,? Mr. Cook said.

?The iPhone 4s was the most popular iPhone during the quarter,? he said.

Apple?s revenue in the first quarter totaled $46.33 billion up from $26.74 billion during the same period a year ago.

Apple?s first quarter net profit totaled $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, up from $6 billion, or $6.43 per diluted share, during the same period a year ago.

The company also had a good quarter for its desktop computers, selling 5.2 million Macs during the quarter, a 26 percent unit increase over the year-ago quarter.

One piece of negative news was a 21 percent decline in iPod sales compared with a year ago. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods during the first quarter. 

Tablet competition
While the tablet market is seeing a growing number of lower-priced devices enter, Apple was confident it will continue to lead the market. Many of the new devices have more limited functionality compared with the iPad and are focused on consuming media, such as the Kindle Fire from Amazon and the Nook Tablet from Barnes & Noble.

?We were really happy with the 15.4 million iPads we were able to sell,? Mr. Cook said. ?This is consistent with our long term belief that we have had since before we launched the product that this is a huge opportunity for Apple.

?People want to do multiple things with their tablets,? he said. ?Therefore, we do not see these limited function tablets being in the same category.

?We will continue to innovate this year and we think that we can compete with anyone that is currently shipping tablets.?

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, New York