Apple will be hosting its 2012 first quarter earnings report on Tuesday, January 24 at 5PM eastern time. Just as with previous earnings reports, the Mac, iPhone and iPad maker will offer a live audio stream of the call, and The Mac Observer will be covering the event.

Apple has been on a steady upward climb for years, and routinely reports record breaking numbers during its earnings conference calls.

Apple Q1 earnings report this afternoon

J.P. Morgan analyst Mark Moskowitz expects Q1 iPhone sales will come in at 28 million, but that iPad sales will be a little softer than expected. “The thrust of our call is that we are increasing iPhone estimates but slightly trimming our iPad estimates,” he said.

Sterne Agee’s Shaw Wu expects lower iPad numbers for the quarter, too. In his case, however, he sees Amazon’s new Kindle Fire and the Apple’s own MacBook Air as the driving factors in lower iPad sales.

Like Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Wu is predicting Apple will report 28 million iPhones sold.

“iPhone momentum is being driven by the company’s new flagship 4S as well as lower price points on its iPhone 4 and 3GS,” the analyst wrote,” Mr. Wu said.

Mr. Wu is expecting Apple’s Q1 revenue to come in at $37.7 billion.

Apple is currently trading in the pre-market at $425.10, down 2.31 (-0.54%).