One little detail that slipped through the net for many in amongst news of soaring sales and rising revenue during Apple's earnings call: iPod sales are falling.

In the last quarter, Apple managed to sell 19.45 million iPods - that's down 7 percent year on year.

But while such news might initially seem to back up claims that MP3 players are likely to suffer following the rise of the smartphone, the diversification the likes of iPod touch offer should give the market hope.

Touchtastic

That's because, though iPod sales have slipped, iPod touch sales are on the rise.

The device some people like to dub the 'iPhone-without-the-phone' now makes up more than half of all iPod sales, up 27 percent year on year.

A quick calculation means Apple sold around 10 million iPod touches in the last quarter – iOS sales in total topping more than 33 million in the same period, with Apple's portable hardware lifetime userbase now sitting at more than 160 million.

In comparison, Apple sold 16.2 million iPhones and 7.3 million iPads during the quarter.

It's no surprise, therefore, that Android's biggest backers are looking to mirror iPod touch's success on Google's OS, with the Android 2.1 powered Galaxy Player from Samsung expected to launch in late 2011.

[source: Mashable]