Happy Birthday, Mac  Here's $1.6 Billion ProfitHappy Birthday, Mac  Here's $1.6 Billion Profit

As the Macintosh turns 25 years old this week, Apple Inc. announced its latest quarterly earnings  a whopping record profit of $1.61 billion.According to the company, Apple sold 2,524,000 Macintosh computers in the 4th quarter of 2008, an increase of 9% over the same quarter in 2007.

Not only that, of course, but the company sold 22,727,000 iPod music players, a 3% growth over 4Q 2007. iPhone? Apple sold 4,363,000 of those, representing an astounding 88% increase over the previous year.

When you look at the detailed data (click here to download a PDF), you can see that while iPhone shows huge growth, rumors of the Mac's diminished role at Apple (see this story from CBS News, "Mac Turns 25 With Uncertain Future Ahead") are unfounded.

Apple's strength is that it's multi-product company, and while the iPhone is coming on strong, the Mac still rules the roost when you look at revenue. For the fourth quarter of 2008, here's how things broke down across the company's reported $10.167 billion in total revenue (in millions):

Desktops/Servers $1,043 (10.3%) Portables/Notebooks $2,511 (24.7%) All Macs $3,554 (35.0%)

iPod $3,371 (33.2%) iPhone $1,247 (12.3%) Other Music-Related $1,011 (9.9%) Peripherals, Other Hardware $378 (3.7%) Software, Services, Other $606 (6.0%)

There's no doubt that music, thanks to the iPod and iTunes, is the biggest business that Apple is currently in, and that iPhone is ascending. However, I'm sure that Apple would prefer that you use your iPhone and iPod with a Mac, not with a Windows box.

I see no indication that Apple is moving away from its Macintosh products. You should feel assured that the Mac is here to stay.