“We had an fantastic quarter, with iPhone revenue up 59 percent over last year, strong sales of Mac, all-time record revenue from services, driven by the App Store, and a great start for Apple Watch”, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote in the release.
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While the Apple Watch is yet to be launched in many worldwide markets including India, it has now been reported that it dominated the global smartwatch market with capturing 75 percent market share in the second quarter of 2015. Software updates for OS X, Apple’s operating system for its personal computers, also were down during the period.
Cook claims that “the Apple Watch sell-through was higher than the comparable launch periods of the original iPhone or the original iPad“.
Apple shares slumped 4.6 percent to $124.80, a day after the iPhone maker’s revenue forecast for the fourth quarter fell below expectations, putting the stock on track for its biggest percentage drop since January 2014. Assuming they were equal to two-thirds of the quarterly number (almost certainly wrong, but OK as a benchmark), Apple would have had to sell more than 2.18 million watches to beat the first iPad.
Analysts had expected earnings of $1.81 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. The iPhone’s revenue has an impressive increase of nearly 60 percent year over year.
Apple was getting bruised Wednesday despite its earnings report showing soaring profits as investors appear spooked by its lukewarm outlook and uncertainty over sales of its smartwatch. On Wednesday, Cowen & Co. analyst Timothy Acuri downgraded Apple’s stock to a “market perform” in part because he said he saw lower-than-expected iPhone sales as a cause for concern due to mounting evidence of “a widespread demand reset from China”.
Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones in the quarter, with sales up 85 percent in Greater China where the company’s overall revenue more that doubled to $13 billion, accord to chief financial officer Luca Maestri.
If we’re being SUPER safe about estimates, we can guess between 2-million and 4-million units sold for the Apple Watch in its first quarter on the market.
But William Blair analyst Anile Doral said this position gave Apple an advantage.
This time, on Apple’s FQ3 2015 earnings call, he again stayed the course but suggested an upgrade cycle will spark higher sales.
After months of speculation, Apple finally released some vague numbers related to the Apple Watch.
The reason? According to Time, it’s all about expectations.
“Apple is famous for telling us what we need before we need them”, Clayton said.
Apple did not disclose the exact sales numbers for its smartwatch.
But he said that the firm’s “complete dependence” on iPhone sales and growth in China was concerning.
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And Apple said its gross margin – the difference between the amount it spends on making the products versus how much consumers pay – was 39.7%, up slightly on a year ago.
