Apple has posted impressive quarterly earnings for the 14-week period ending on December 31, 2011. According to a press release, the company reported a quarterly revenue of $46.33 billion, as well as a quarterly net profit of $13.06 billion, or $13.87 per diluted share, the company’s best quarterly results yet. Apple’s 116 percent profit growth helped push its total cash to $97.6 billion — enough to cover Greece’s debt payments due in the next two years, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Apple sold 37.04 million iPhones, 15.43 million iPads and 5.3 million Macs during the quarter.

What’s interesting is the continued growth of iPad sales.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around iPad, iPod and iPhone online.

iPhone vs. iPod vs. iPad buzz

iPad mentions topped iPhone mentions for the first time in December 2011.

Apple buzz

Overall Apple mentions have been in slight decline since 2008. Although Apple passed Exxon as the most valuable company based on market cap.

Flipboard, the popular social newsreading app for the iPad, launched its long-awaited iPhone app Wednesday. The app displays feeds from both formal news sources and social networks in a magazine-like format.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around Flipboard online.

Flipboard buzz

Flipboard mentions increased 577% Wednesday following the iPhone app launch.

Flipboard sentiment

Conversations around Flipboard are currently 91% positive. The term ‘iPhone’ is currently appearing in 56% of all Flipboard conversations.

Tuesday Google unveiled video and screengrabs of the new Gmail look, which will be rolling out soon. Users have the option to click on the “switch to the new look” link to check out the changes now. News of the updated Gmail interface first hit the Web on October 20. The new Gmail interface is all about ease of use, with improved search, intuitive navigation and more streamlined conversations. You can also change the display density, and try out new themes.

We used Social Radar to analyze conversations around Google and Gmail online.

Gmail conversation topics

Overall conversations around Gmail are currently 83% positive. The word ‘design’ is appearing in 15% of all Gmail conversations and is 90% positive.

Google and Gmail buzz

Conversations around both Google and Gmail spiked to their highest point this month on October 20, the day news about new Gmail leaked.

Overall buzz around Gmail is up 944% and buzz around Google is up 150% this month.

Google sentiment

Conversations around Google are currently 80% positive.

Google released a new iPad and iPhone app for Gmail today. Have you tried the new Gmail? What are your thoughts?

When Apple announced the iPhone 4S, the company touted the phone’s faster processor, improved camera, messages, newsstand, notifications and the many new features of iOS 5. But what Apple concentrated on most was Siri, the iPhone’s virtual assistant. Built on the foundation of artificial intelligence technology, Siri takes natural language and turns it into action. Weather reports, calendar appointments, text messages, among other things, are all accessible just by talking to Siri.

Apple co-founder Steven Wozniak, who was first in line to get an iPhone 4S in Los Gatos, California, said Siri will change the way we use smart phones.

Which of the new features are being talked about most within iPhone conversations? How does iPhone buzz compare to Android? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

Features mentioned within iPhone conversations

Siri quickly became the most discussed feature upon the iPhone 4S release on Friday. Users are already discovering fun Easter eggs.

iPhone vs. Andoid buzz

iPhone widened the gap in conversation buzz against rival Android, although Android has greater  market share.

Siri vs. Android buzz

Siri officially surpassed Android in overall buzz.

Is Siri the future of search? Will Siri change the way we interact with mobile devices?

R.I.M. said Wednesday that after three days it was still trying to restore service for BlackBerry customers spanning five continents. Service interruptions began on Monday and initially effected BlackBerry owners in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. By Tuesday, the problem migrated to Brazil, India, Chile and Argentina. On Wednesday, problems were reported in North America. The failures left subscribers regions without access to BlackBerry’s instant messaging service, e-mail and the Web.

BlackBerry users took to Twitter to complain about outages, with many noting the irony in the BlackBerry interruptions coming the same day as Apple’s highly anticipated iPhone iOS5 launch. The iPhone 4S, which will be available on Friday, obliterated pre-order sales records.

Just how bad was it for BlackBerry? We used Social Radar to analyze conversations online.

BlackBerry buzz

Conversations around BlackBerry spiked to their highest point this month by far.

BlackBerry sentiment

Conversations around BlackBerry were an average of 75% positive throughout the month, but spiked to 83% negative today.

Nearly every major topic of conversation around BlackBerry was negative today. The word iPhone appeared in 11% of all BlackBerry conversations.

The interruptions could not have come at a worse time. The company has had a bad year. In its most recent quarter its revenues were 10% lower than a year before, at $4.2 billion. Its profit was down by more than half.

Can BlackBerry recover?

Apple announced the new iPhone 4S, but no iPhone 5 today. Apple executives insist that the 4S packs a lot of punch and unveiled a host of new features for the phone on Tuesday at Apple headquarters. The new iPhone 4S has a faster processor than the iPhone 4. Its camera’s resolution and sharpness have been nearly doubled. Web pages and videos load more quickly. And it will be available to Sprint customers in the U.S. for the first time.

The most anticipated feature is a talking personal assistant named Siri, which combines voice activation and artificial intelligence. Apple purchased Siri nearly a year and a half ago.

Are the new features enough to satisfy Apple customers, who have come to expect mind-blowing, amazing product announcements? Or is the public disappointed that Apple did not announce the iPhone 5? We used Social Radar to find out.

iPhone & Apple buzz

iPhone buzz increased 400% today, and was mentioned in nearly 1% of all Internet chatter.

Apple sentiment September 4 – October 3

Conversations around Apple were an average of 82% positive leading up to the announcements.

Apple sentiment October 4

Apple sentiment dropped to only 66% positive after Tuesday’s announcements.

iPhone sentiment September 4 – October 3

Conversations around iPhone were an average of 85% positive leading up to the announcements.

iPhone sentiment October 4

iPhone sentiment dropped 20% to only 65% positive after Tuesday’s announcements. The word “same” appeared in 4% of all iPhone conversations and was 46% negative. Are users afraid that the 4S is not different enough to warrant an upgrade?

Typically anytime a watershed event happens, my Twitter stream is full of people chiming in with opinions. Amy Winehouse, Grammy Awards, Super Bowl…you can’t really miss a major event and expect to login to Twitter without a spoiler alert. So today when President Obama asked all Americans to “call, email and tweet their GOP lawmakers if you want to see #compromise,” I expected an overload of tweets on the subject. Surprisingly, I saw very few. Then the @BarackObama account proceeded to post the Twitter handles of the GOP lawmakers in each state, so that Twitter users may voice their opinions to the people in charge. Still not much activity in my stream.

In other news, Apple now has more cash than the U.S. Government.

We used Social Radar to analyze which was generating more chatter online.

Apple vs. The U.S. Government

Wow. iPhone and Apple are generating significantly more chatter than Obama and the compromise he asked Americans to tweet about.

Tweet mentions within Obama chatter

Despite the President’s plea and his staff’s diligent work to provide contact info for all 50 states, the word “tweet” only appeared in around 3% of all Obama mentions today.

Will the American public step up and make their voices heard on this important topic?

News broke today that Apple will start its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with several important software releases: iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud service, as well as the next iteration of its desktop and mobile platform, Mac OS X Lion and iOS 5.

The really big announcement at this year’s June 6 WWDC will be iCloud, which is rumored to be Apple’s cloud service for music. Recent reports said that Apple has signed a licensing deal with EMI and was close to signing similar deals with Sony and Universal, which would pave the way for iCloud.

WWDC buzz

Chatter around Apple’s WWDC is already up 426%, still a week away from the conference.

WWDC sentiment

Conversations around WWDC are currently 83% positive. Steve Jobs is currently being mentioned in 11% of WWDC posts after speculation that he would participate in the keynote.

We will report back next week following the conference to break down the buzz.

Nokia announed this week plans to reclaim its competitiveness in North America, beginning with a big-blast ad push set to launch this week promoting new handsets. According to an Ad Age article, the ads target value-conscoius 18-34 year olds, attempting to undercut price on market leaders iPhone and Droid.

We used Social Radar to measure chatter around Nokia, iPhone, Android and Motorola.

Nokia vs. iPhone vs. Android vs. Motorola buzz (past year)

Nokia has a long way to go to catch iPhone or even Android in buzz. Will the new campaign help Nokia capture online conversation share in a big way?

Twitter updated its official iPhone and iPad apps Thursday, offering enhanced photo options, auto-link shortening and the ability to follow friends via the contacts in your address book. Twitter for iPhone also added a new feature called the Quick Bar, a way to quickly browse through trending topics at the top of the timeline.

We used Social Radar to run analysis around conversations online mentioning both Twitter and iPhone.

Twitter for iPhone buzz

Conversations around Twitter for iPhone were up 300% following Thursday’s app update.

Twitter for iPhone sentiment

Conversations around Twitter for iPhone had been around 80% positive for the month of February, but spiked above 50% negative following yesterday’s update.

Twitter for iPhone conversation topic cloud

The new Quick Bar trending topic bar was the major source of negative conversation, with words like ‘annoying’ being mentioned frequently. The word ‘trending’ appeared in 21% of conversations around Twitter for iPhone, and the conversations were 85% negative.

As of now, there does not appear to be a way to disable the Quick Bar. Will Twitter give frustrated users the option to remove the Quick Bar before users begin abandoning the app?