No longer will we have to guess how many iPod touches Apple has sold—the company has revealed the device's sales figures for the first time in evidence submitted for its ongoing Apple v. Samsung trial (hat tip to All Things D for the full chart). Apple has sold 46.5 million iPod touch units in the US between the device's introduction in 2007 and the second quarter of 2012. (That's in addition to the nearly 86 million iPhones and 34 million iPads sold during that time.)
While Apple has always been happy to brag about its iPhone and iPad sales numbers, it has been coy about the iPod touch. Apple has said that more than 50 percent of overall iPod sales are from the iPod touch, but it has not previously broken the numbers down. The iPod touch's sales numbers are of particular interest because the overall iPod brand has been seeing sales declines every quarter since mid-2009. Sure, "old" style iPods are certainly on the way out, but the iPod touch is more like an iPhone lite, leading to a lot of curiosity about how well the device sells.
Samsung, by comparison, revealed that it has sold 21.25 million smartphones in the US between June 2010 and June 2012, along with 1.4 million tablets. (Keep in mind that the smartphone number only included devices at issue in the trial, not Samsung's full lineup.) But even when you only look at Apple's data from those same quarters, the differences are stark—the company sold almost 63 million iPhones, 34 million iPads, and 25.3 million iPod touches during the same period. Even the weakest link of the iOS family—the iPod touch—is selling faster than a large chunk of Samsung's portfolio.
Samsung has a stronger position over Apple when it comes to global sales of its devices, but it's clear the company has a ways to go if it wants to catch up on phone and tablet sales here in the US. Earlier this week, Samsung submitted evidence to the court that showed 9 percent of Galaxy Tab buyers were returning their devices in exchange for an iPad, with another 10 percent returning their tablets because they didn't like the usability of the OS (Honeycomb).
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