Apple's Q3 hardware sales by the numbers: 17 million iPads, 26 million iPhones, 4 million Macs
Apple's out with its third quarter financials today and, as is customary, it's provided some sales figures for all of its big hardware categories. Those are headlined by record sales of the iPad, which jumped a whopping 84 percent year-over-year and 44 percent from the previous quarter to 17 million units sold during Q3 (no word on a breakdown by iPad model, though). iPhone sales were also up year-over-year to 26 million units, although that represents a more modest year-over-year growth of "just" 28 percent (and a drop from 30 million in Q2), no doubt due in part to folks holding off on a purchase until the next model comes out.
A bit more surprising are the company's Mac sales numbers which, despite a new slate of MacBooks, saw year-over-year growth of only two percent for sales of an even four million in the quarter -- compared to growth of seven percent in Q2. That seems to be explained at least in part by a dip in desktop sales, which were down 13 percent year-over-year while laptops were up 8 percent, resulting in some fairly flat growth overall. Lastly, as has been the trend for some time now, the company's venerable iPod line is the one area that continues to see a consistent decline as phones and tablets take over, with it dropping ten percent year-over-year to sales of 6.8 million for the quarter. As Apple noted on its earnings call, though, those iPod numbers were actually better than it expected, and the iPod touch continues to be the most popular device in the category far, accounting for more than half of all iPod sales.
Update: Apple didn't divulge any Apple TV sales figures in its earnings report, but Tim Cook was happy to provide them on the earnings call. The company sold 1.3 million Apple TV units during Q3, up an impressive 170 percent year-over-year. Still officially a "hobby," apparently, but not one that Tim Cook says he'd be pursuing if the company didn't believe in it.
