Apple Sold More iOS Devices in 2011 Than Macs in 28 Years

You can debate whether Apple's iPad is a PC or not and you can even argue whether the tablet computer is a necessary tool, but one thing that cannot be debated is how big of a success the mobile device has been for the Cupertino company.

Apple CEO Tim Cook delivered a keynote address Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference in San Francisco.

Steve Jobs' successor talked about the success of the iPad and gave some numbers to put it into historical context.

He said the company has sold 55 million iPads since they were first introduced to the world in April 2010.

That's a lot of iPads but just how many is that in comparison to other Apple products?

"This 55 is something no one would have guessed. Including us," he said. "To put it in context, it took us 22 years to sell 55 million Macs. It took us about five years to sell 22 million iPods, and it took us about three years to sell that many iPhones. And so, this thing is, as you said, it’s on a trajectory that’s off the charts."

Just how dramatic of a trajectory that is was put into visual context by Asymco, who made a graph showing how quickly the sales have shot off the chart in comparison to Apple's other products.

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