Meanwhile, the company made nearly $8 billion in Australia but only paid $85 million in tax in 2015, according to accounts filed with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
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This would mark Apple’s first fall in revenues since it launched the iPhone. Slowing revenue growth in Q1 and guidance for a 11% year-over-year decline in revenue for the company’s current quarter has some investors concerned about Apple’s growth potential.
Apple said on Tuesday (US time) it sold 74.8 million iPhones in its fiscal first quarter, ended December 26, the first full quarter of sales of the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus.
Yet the lure of Apple products and its sterling brand name remains irresistible to many.
“Our record sales and strong margins drove all-time records for net income and EPS in spite of a very hard macroeconomic environment”, said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO.
Apple reported that both iPad and Mac sales were down year-over-year, while iPad sales were up significantly compared to last quarter. The Asian behemoth is one of Apple’s biggest markets. New products, such as the Apple Watch, have been slow to take off, and established products such as the iPad have been in decline for the last two years. That’s the amount of Apple devices that were regularly engaged with by customers during the quarter.
Apple is leveraging that loyalty, with premium pricing, “to be dominate in profit share rather than market share”, says David Rogers, who teaches digital strategy at Columbia Business School.
Earnings for the just-completed quarter were $3.28 per share, compared with $3.06 a year ago.
However chief executive Tim Cook said sales of the Apple Watch hit a new quarterly record in the first quarter.
The company’s revenue follows the same pattern.
Today’s quarterly earnings call from Apple kept up a recent trend by Apple to continue growing, but not quite as fast as Wall Street keeps thinking it will. Earnings were up from past year, but missed expectations.
Management had guided for between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion in revenue.
Despite first-quarter iPhone sales being below the 75 million expected by analysts, it was still a record quarter for the company.
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Skeptics, however, note that Apple hasn’t come up with a blockbuster product to replace the iPhone.
