By comparison, Apple posted revenue of $74.6 billion and net income of $18 billion during the same quarter previous year. But scratch beneath the surface of those big numbers, and things start to look a bit different. The company sold 74.8 million iPhone units in the three month period topping last year’s sales of 74.5 million iPhones.
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But suggesting there is still room for growth, 60 percent of people who had an iPhone prior to the launch of the iPhone 6 have yet to upgrade to an iPhone 6 or 6S, Cook said. Sales of the iPad have been declining for two years. Marquette Asset Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Apple during the fourth quarter worth $269,000.
On the company’s earnings call today, its CEO, Tim Cook, acknowledged that Apple expects iPhone sales to actually fall next quarter.
The company reported revenue of $18.37 billion from Greater China, accounting for 24.2 percent of total revenue. The Mac’s sales revenue is down 2% with unit sales down 7% compared to last quarter.
For the three months to the end of March, Apple (Swiss: AAPL.SW – news) expects to report sales of between $50bn and $53bn (£35-37bn), which will mark a decline on the $58bn of the same period past year.
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.
Executives blamed a strong dollar for reducing revenue from overseas sales in the December quarter.
The news was preceded by weeks of dark predictions, with media reports claiming Apple had cut manufacturing orders from the companies that build the iPhone because inventory of the smartphone was backing up in retail channels. According to CNET, this would be Apple’s first year-over-year quarterly decline in a decade.
But more important is the company’s forecast for the current quarter. Analysts say the latest iPhone models aren’t providing the boost Apple needs to match the massive sales growth it enjoyed past year. The amount of profit Apple generated during this quarter is particularly staggering: it’s the largest ever by a single publicly-traded company.
In other news, SVP Daniel J. Riccio sold 13,588 shares of Apple stock in a transaction on Monday, November 2nd.
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Cook said Apple has been facing “a challenging macroeconomic environment”, which includes signs of softness in China in general and Hong Kong in particular. If the company’s own forecasts are accurate, it will be the first revenue decline since the first quarter of 2003, just over a year after the first iPod was released.
