Its shares rose more than 7 percent in after-hours trading.
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The company sold 40.4 million iPhones in Q3, down 15% from a year ago, but this was just ahead of analyst expectations of 40.02 million. Asia is the most important market for Apple in the future, yet revenue went down by 20%. Apple faces competition from brands including Samsung and Huawei.
According to the Cupertino-based tech giant, 40.4 million iPhones were sold in the quarter, compared with 47.5 million in the same period of 2015.
Interestingly, although iPad sales have been declining over the previous year, Apple actually beat analyst expectations for its tablet sales. Previously, China was Apple’s second-biggest market in terms of revenue.
“We are pleased to report third quarter results that reflect stronger customer demand and business performance than we anticipated at the start of the quarter”, chief executive Tim Cook said in a statement.
The company’s total revenue dropped 14.6 per cent in the third-quarter ended June 25, also declining for the second quarter in a row. Maestri projected the gadget’s average selling price to rise in the September quarter.
Services is such a huge chunk of sales, CEO Tim Cook said he expected the division to “be the size of a Fortune 100 company next year”, in a call with analysts. He said: “We see a number of encouraging signs”.
Deals in Greater China, once touted as Apple’s next development motor, diminished 33.1%, compared with a 112.4% growth in the year and a close to 26% fall in the second quarter. Maestri added. “The economy has slowed down and the foreign exchange rate has weakened”. In April, the company said that Apple Pay picks up a million new users each week and accounts for more than five times the transaction volume from a year ago, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.
“It’s not a revenue-related issue”, he said. “This is a service we want to provide our customers”. But quietly, services has nabbed second place, rising 19% to almost $6 billion in sales, followed by Mac computers at $5.2 billion, the iPad at $4.9 billion and “other” (which includes Apple TV and the Apple Watch) at $2.2 billion.
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Fortunately, the company does have a saving grace in the form of Apple Music and it’s other “services” such as iCloud storage.
