Apple set an all-time record for iPad sales in Q1 2012 by selling 15.43 million units, a 111% increase over the Q1 2011 total. Overall, the Mac maker brought in $46.33 billion in revenue and beat analyst estimates of approximately $39 billion.
Apple sold 11 million iPads in Q4 2011, and managed to surpass that total this last quarter despite competition from the low-priced Amazon Kindle Fire. The most recent iPad sales numbers include the holiday shopping season, beginning September 24, 2011 and ending December 31.
Including the latest numbers, Apple has sold approximately 55.5 million iPads and iPad 2s combined worldwide since the device launched in April 2010. That number indicates actual units sold to consumers, and not tablets shipped to retailers, as many other manufacturers often report.
Apple iPhone sales were also up big from last year, with Apple selling 37.04 million handsets during the quarter, an increase of 128%.
Apple will be holding an earnings call at 2:00pm PDT and we will update this story with any relevant news from CEO Tim Cook and CFO Peter Oppenheimer.
Update:
During a Q and A session with analysts, Cook dismissed the competition low-priced Android tablets like the Amazon Kindle Fire pose for the iPad. Cook said the iPad ecosystem of apps and services is “in a class by itself” and claimed the iPad has more than 170,000 apps compared to a “few hundred for the competition.” Cook also claimed he didn’t see “these limited function tablets and eReaders in the same category” as the iPad. He went on to call 2011 “the year of the iPad.”
