Apple surprised with record sales and record iPhone sales in the December quarter, the company’s first of its 2016-17 financial year.
iPhone sales rebounded strongly in the North America, Western Europe and Japan, but worrying for some analysts they remained weak in China. Apple shares were around 3% higher in after hours trading.
And despite forecasting revenues to grow as much as 6% in the current quarter, that forecast was under Wall Street’s estimates thanks to those continuing sales declines in China and foreign currency headwinds.
Apple said it sold 78.3 million iPhones in the quarter ending in December, up 5% year-on-year and above most analysts forecasts. That brought in revenue of $US54.378 billion.
Total revenues were up 3% to $US78.4 billion, a new all-time high and topping both its own and Wall Street’s forecasts. Earnings grew 2.4% to $US3.36 per share, while net income dipped by 2.6% to $US17.9 billion.
“We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, in a statement. “Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”
For the quarter ending in March, Apple said revenues would be between $US51.5-$US53.5 billion against market estimates of $US54 billion.
Apple’s gross profit margin was in-line with analysts’ forecasts at just over 38%.
The tech heavyweight’s shares jumped about 3 per cent in after-hours trading.
According to the FT, Apple’s finance chief, Luca Maestri, said that the iPhone saw “double digit unit growth” in the US, Canada, all of Western Europe, Japan and Australia.
While overall sales in Greater China, which includes Hong Kong, fell by 12%. Mr Maestri said Apple was “happy with the result” given the rate of decline has moderated from the second half of last year. In mainland China, revenue was flat year-on-year and up in constant currency terms, he added.
The popularity of the iPhone 7 Plus model boosted the smartphone’s average selling price to $US694 in the last quarter, even though supplies were outstripped by demand until this month.
The results reflected the first full quarter of iPhone 7 sales.
Apple’s services business, which includes the App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud, saw 18.4% growth in revenue to $US7.17 billion, helped by the popularity of games such as Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run and higher revenue from subscriptions.
iPad sales were weak, barely topping 13 million units, while expectations were for 15 million. But Apple sold more than 5 million Macs for revenue of $US7.24 billion, which actually eclipsed software and services to be the second biggest category for the company. Expectations were for $US6.5 billion in revenue from Mac sales.
