When we think about gaming, we tend to focus on gaming devices – our PCs, PlayStation 3s, Xbox 360s, Wiis and of course, the beloved portables – Nintedo’s 3DS and Sony’s PSP (soon to be Vita).

When someone mentions Apple or iOS, gamers tend to sneer, laugh, and completely dismiss it as a legitimate gaming platform. But that may be a huge mistake.

Yesterday (24 January 2012) Apple released its Q1 2012 earnings reports and sales figures for the quarter ending December 2011.

In the report, the company announced that is has racked in a staggering $46.33 billion in revenue – 62% more than it earned over the same period in 2010.

Just think about that one for a second – $46 billion in 3 months.

In that time, Apple saw a huge jump in the sales of iPads and iPhones – having sold 37 million iPhones and over 15 million iPads over the period.

If you add up the reported sales of the iPhone alone – you’ll find Apple have sold over 164 million of the mobile devices since they launched in late 2007. And that’s not including the iPad sales – which amount up to just over 55 million units.

As a gaming device, it may be unfair to draw conclusions from these sales figures in a gaming light; people don’t necessarily buy an iDevice for gaming – with phone/e-reader capabilities and thousands of apps available to cater for whichever need.

But the fact remains – iDevices (iPhone 4 and the iPad 2 in particular) running iOS are a bona fide gaming platform, and while some of you may struggle to adapt to the concept – it’s an undeniably powerful gaming platform at that.

With a massive library of games – from simple, low-brow, on-the-go games, to full titles with shiny graphics – the iOS platform caters for all, and is in fact currently the best-selling portable gaming device out there.

• As of October 2011, Nintendo’s current-gen portable, the 3DS, has only sold 6.68 million units.
• Sony’s latest offering – yet to be released in the US, Europe or SA – is slowly creeping towards the million mark.
• In three months alone, Apple’s devices sold a combined total over 50 million units, surpassing both.
• Even the “best selling” portable gaming device of all time, the Nintedo DS, which has accumulated over 149 million sales (including the DS Lite, DSi and DSi XL) – falls short.
• Sony’s PSP, with all its versions and redesigns, sold a respectable 71.4 million – but doesn’t even reach half of the iPhone’s sales.

If you add the iPad’s sales to the mix, Apple’s figure jumps considerably – reaching over 200 million.

If it’s not hitting home, simply look at this graph:

In their report, Apple predicts about $32.5 billion in revenue over the next quarter – which means a boat-load of iDevices sold, and nice boost to their figures.

Source: Latest Apple results, PSP sales, Nintendo sales, Apple sales