Edible Apple

Apple last quarter had a slight misstep when its earnings fell short of analyst expectations for the first time in years. Of course, the delayed release of the iPhone 4S had something to do with revenue coming in below expectations. But during last quarter’s earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook boldly predicted that December quarter would likely set an all time iPhone sales record.

Earlier today, Apple released its earnings results from the quarter gone by and the results are astonishing.

Record breaking iPhone sales. Record breaking revenue. And last but not least, record breaking earnings. Hell, record breaking everything.

All told, Apple, during the last three months of 2012 posted revenue of $46.33 billion and a quarterly profit of $13.06 billion. Earnings came in at $13.87, well above Wall Street estimates. During the same quarter a year-ago, Apple reported revenue of $26.74 billion and a quarterly profit of $6 billion with an EPS of $6.43. The consensus on Wall Street came in at $10.08 per share on anticipated revenue of $38.85 billion;

That’s right folks, a company with the second largest market cap on the planet was able, in just a span of 12 months, to double, DOUBLE, it’s earnings. For a company as large as Apple, that’s absolutely unprecedented.

Leading the charge, as you might expect, was the iPhone. During the quarter gone by, Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones, completely obliterating even the most bullish of Wall St. projections while setting a new iPhone quarter sales record in the process. Year over year iPhone growth came in at 128%.

But the iPhone wasn’t the only device to see a huge uptick in sales. Apple last quarter sold 15.43 million iPads, a 111% increase from the same quarter a year-ago and yet another all-time sales record. The previous iPad sales record was 11.12 million.

What’s more, Mac sales did better than expected with Apple recording 5.2 million Macs sold, a 26% increase from the same quarter a year-ago. And guess what, folks, Mac sales during the December also set a quarterly sales record.

The only device that saw a decline in sales, as you might expect, was the iPod. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods during the quarter gone by, representing a 21% decline from the same quarter a year-ago. Apple sold 15.4 million iPods, a 21 percent unit decline from the year-ago quarter.

“We’re thrilled with our outstanding results and record-breaking sales of iPhones, iPads and Macs,” Tim Cook explained in Apple’s press release. “Apple’s momentum is incredibly strong, and we have some amazing new products in the pipeline.”

MacStories has put up some illustrative charts depicting Apple’s epic growth over the past few years. Check it out here.

Lastly, you don’t want to put too much weight into after-hours trading, but last we checked, shares of AAPL were trading at $454.

Wowsers.