iPod Touch has a chance to become the first mainstream mobile Wi-Fi platform

During Apple's conference call yesterday, Apple executives described the iPod touch as a potentially the "first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications".

Apple's first quarter hit on all cylinders, as the company continued its financial run on the strength of its Mac business.

Mac sales were up 44 percent compared with last year. But the Apple's iPod sales of 22.1 million iPods was well below Wall Street expectations of 24.7 million. That's just 5 percent unit growth compared with last year, but iPod revenue was up 17 percent, so perhaps Apple sold more high-end iPod Touches than iPod Nanos or Shuffles as a percentage of its mix during the quarter.

Apple gained iPod share internationally, but iPod units sales in the U.S. were flat, said Tim Cook, Apple's chief operating officer.

While not specifically addressing the missed Wall Street target for iPod unit sales, Cook did say that iPod unit sales met the company's own expectations. And the iPod Touch is off to a good start, he said, which accounted for overall iPod revenue growth that matched last year's first-quarter revenue growth.

"This was the most expensive iPod we've introduced in some time," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO. The company thinks the iPod Touch really belongs in a different category than the broader music player market, saying the iPod Touch has a chance to "become the first mainstream mobile Wi-Fi platform." Nintendo and Sony might have minor quibbles with that statement, but Oppenheimer's point was that you can't necessarily use years of iPod sales to chart the progress of the iPod Touch.

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