Apple earnings are today and here's what to look for: iPhone sales, first hint at Apple Watch results

                                                                         

You could almost hear the jaws drop on Wall Street in January after Apple reported selling a staggering 74.5 million iPhones and earning a record $18 billion in profit during the holiday quarter.

Now that it's April, it won't be easy to meet those high expectations. Apple will almost certainly fall short of those unfathomable figures when it reports earnings Monday at 4:30 pm ET.

That said, analysts are optimistic for the introduction last year of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. They're also scrutinizing the first hint of traction for the Apple Watch, Apple's first new major hardware product category in five years.

The Cupertino company is expected to report selling roughly 58 million iPhones for the quarter, according to analysts surveyed by Fortune. That would represent a 33% increase from the 43.7 million iPhones it sold in the same quarter a year earlier.

Those iPhone sales are projected to lead to a strong surge in revenue and profits as well. The consensus estimate among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for Apple to post earnings of $2.16 per share on $56 billion in revenue, up from $1.66 per share (on a split-adjusted basis) and revenue of $45.7 billion in the year ago quarter.

This quarter, like the three months before it, serve as reminders that Apple is first and foremost a smartphone company. Its revenue and profits rise and fall based on iPhone sales.

On this earnings call, however, expect Apple executives to begin talking up the initial traction for the newest hardware category, smartwatches.

The Apple Watch went on sale in stores Friday after having previously been made available for pre-orders online earlier this month. Apple has yet to reveal any initial sales figures, forcing media outlets to rely on third party data and analyst estimates, which vary widely.

Analysts at Cantor Fitzgerald previously wrote that they think the watch had "gotten off to a strong start." On the opposite end of the spectrum, one analyst with Raymond James expressed concern that "relatively muted reviews so far could place added fear in investors’ minds about the company’s ability to launch successful new product categories."

Apple is unlikely to break out hard numbers on the call, but analysts will be listening for any comments that shed light on whether supply constraints are impacting watch sales and Apple's broader rollout strategy for the new devices.