One of the high points of Apple's earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter of 2011 was Mac sales, which came in well above expectations at a record 4.89 million units. On the earnings conference call, Apple CEO Tim Cook noted that the strong sales were "almost unbelievable" considering continued growth in the iPad market.

Cook noted that some customers are undoubtedly electing to purchase iPads instead of Macs, eating somewhat into potential Mac sales. But as Apple has noted several times since the introduction of the iPad, Apple still holds only a small part of the PC market and that cannibalization of Windows PCs by the iPad opens up a tremendous opportunity for the company.

Apple's previous record for quarterly Mac sales came in the first fiscal quarter of this year with 4.13 million units shipped, making this quarter's performance 18% higher than that record. Given the Apple's Mac sales typically increase sequentially for the holiday quarter each year, Apple should also be well-positioned for another strong performance on the Mac side to close out the calendar year.