iPhone Sales Approach 9 Million Over Holiday as Apple's Profit Soars

Apple has reported its fiscal results for the holiday quarter ended December 26, 2009. The company's profits grew nearly 50% to $3.38 billion while net revenues increased 32% to $15.68 billion. Needless to say, those are hugely impressive results, easily exceeding all analyst expectations. The iPhone was a very big contributor, as Apple sold 8.74 million units during the quarter. That's more than double the number of iPhones sold during the holiday period a year earlier and it represents a new record for the popular mobile device.

Interestingly, while the iPhone did phenomenally well, sales of iPods came to 21 million units, which was down 8%, perhaps suggesting that the growth of iPhone is starting to cannibalize the iPod a bit. Apple also sold 3.4 million Macs, which represented a 33% jump.

"If you annualize our quarterly revenue, it's surprising that Apple is now a $50+ billion company," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "The new products we are planning to release this year are very strong, starting this week with a major new product that we're really excited about."

There's no doubt that the rise of the iPhone is benefiting game developers. In fact, Bolt Creative's Pocket God recently became the first paid app to surpass 2 million in sales. The "major new product" that Jobs refers to above is likely to be the much talked about tablet device, which will probably provide another great opportunity for the games industry.