Will Apple Redefine the Meaning of “Earnings Blowout”?

After a rare earnings disappointment last quarter, Apple is poised to return to form when it reports its first-quarter numbers today.

In other words, it’s going to be a blowout.

And for a number of reasons. Foremost, this is the first quarter to include the new iPhone 4S, which went on sale last October. Apple sold one million of them in the device’s first day at market, and some analysts estimate that, together with the iPhone 4 and 3GS, the company sold upward of 30 million iPhones during the quarter.

Another thing: When Apple last reported earnings, CEO Tim Cook said he was “confident we will set an all-time record for iPhones this quarter.”

So there’s that, too.

Add to it a particularly strong holiday quarter product lineup — iPhone 4S, iPad 2, MacBook Air — and it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which Apple doesn’t trounce expectations. Certainly, the company would seem to have all the makings of a beat — a big one, too.

So expect some big numbers from Apple after market close today, and perhaps even another one of those ebullient “best quarter ever” pronouncements.

Wall Street currently expects Apple to report first-quarter earnings of $10.08 a share on revenue of about $38.8 billion. And analysts, on average, are calling for iPhone shipments of nearly 30 million, iPad shipments of about 14 million and Mac shipments of around five million.