That’s more than twice the number of iPhones sold in the first year after the product’s introduction in 2007. However, about its performance in India, CEO Tim Cook had some good things to mention.
Advertisement
While sales for Apple in China, its second-largest market after the United States, fell 11 per cent, in India iPhone sales were up 56 per cent from a year ago.
“Our team executed extremely well in the face of strong macroeconomic headwinds”, said Cook. “As we discussed on this call in January, those 1 billion-plus active devices are a source of recurring revenue that is growing independent of the unit shipments we report every three months”.
The smartphone market is becoming increasingly competitive, with Gartner forecasting that, for the first time, global smartphone sales are set to post single digit yearly growth this year.
Sales of iPads continued their decline in the quarter to 10.3 million units sold versus 10.6 million a year ago. Cook suggested India in the future, where right now the market is entirely dominated by low-end, non-4G smartphones, which it does not really compete in.
“We’re very optimistic…this, too, shall pass and…[and] we’ll grow again”, said Cook on a call with Wall Street analysts.
Whether this drop is temporary or just the beginning, the revenue report had a predictable result on the company’s shares. Apple CFO Luca Maestri hints that most of that growth is attributable to the Apple Watch.
The company has issued guidance for their next financial quarter, they are expecting revenue of between $41 and $43 billion.
Apple also said it was raising its capital return program by $50 billion through a $35 billion increase in its share buyback authorization and a 10 percent rise in the quarterly dividend. The Company’s unfortunate decline lead to a loss of $46 billion of its market capitalization, crossing the total value of companies like Netflix.
Regional revenues declined in almost every region, with the Americas dropping 10 per cent, Europe down 5 per cent, greater China down 26 per cent and the rest of Asia Pacific down 25 per cent. The only regional gain was in Japan, where revenues were up 24 per cent. “Cook said, “[it] was not the strong wind at your back of a year ago or even 18 months ago”.
Advertisement
The company did not comment on prospects for its iBooks Stores and iTunes Movie service, which were shut down last week in China.
