Stock price chart courtesy of Yahoo Finance

This news from Reuters might be somewhat unexpected if you (like me) have been reading about iPod market saturation (no one left to sell to) as well as the general awful state of the worldwide economy...

Apple profit beats expectations on iPhones, iPods

Earnings for Q1 2009 were $1.33/share vs. $1.16/share in the the 1st quarter of 2008. Analysts had projected $1.09/share. And, how many iPod were sold during the quarter? Analysts had projected 10 million units sold. Apple sold 11.01 million. Not bad.

I took a look at Apple year-to-date stock price and compared it to Google (GOOG), IBM (IBM), Microsoft (MSFT) and the broader NASDAQ index (many tech stocks are in this index). As of yesterday (April 22), you can see Apple (AAPL) has been firing on all cylinders this calendar year after plummeting in 2008. Its stock share price has risen more than 40%. Google and IBM aren't doing too badly either with 20+% share price increases. Microsoft, on the other hand, is in negative territory this year. And, the NASDAQ index has gained but only in the single digit percentage range.