The company has, however, forecast a sales decline in the next quarter, the first year-on-year decline since 2003.
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Apple set records for both its net profit and revenue in the first quarter.
Luca Maestri, chief financial officer, said in the call that Apple has increased the price of its products in some worldwide markets to cope with the volatility, but recognized higher prices will eventually hurt demand. Just 5.3 million computers sold during the quarter, and revenue declined by 3 percent.
Revenues were $75.87 billion – slightly below the $76.59 billion analysts surveyed by Yahoo Finance had been expecting, and up a modest 1.8 percent from $74.60 billion a year ago. “The growth of our services business accelerated during the quarter to produce record results, and our installed base recently crossed a major milestone of 1 billion active devices”.
However, sales of Apple TV, Apple Watch and Beats sound equipment contributed to a 62% increase among other Apple-branded products.
Apple posted a staggering profit of $18.4 billion – some £12.8 billion – for the quarter ending December 26, having sold 74.8 million iPhones during the three-month period.
In Canada, for example, some models of the iPhone now cost over thousand dollars due to currency exchange fluctuation, compared to about $700 for the same model in the USA, said Ben Bajarin, an analyst at Creative Strategies, in an interview with EE Times.
The tech giant on Tuesday reported that fiscal first quarter sales of the iPhone grew by less than one percent, the lowest growth rate for the device since it was first introduced in 2007. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $55.4 billion. With as much cash stashed in tax havens as Apple has, there’s really very little to worry about regarding Apple’s continued existence, but stock traders see this differently – they’re not interested in past results, they’re only interested in growth.
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Apple has reportedly cut back on iPhone production, and its Asian suppliers, like chip company TMSC and phone camera lens maker Largan Precision, have downgraded expectations for Q2 revenues.
