Personally, I continue to look at Apple through the prism of a bear.
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The expansion in the availability of Apple Watch and all time records for Mac sales and revenue from services had a lot of contribution.
The fourth quarter sales of iPhone had fueled the growth.
Analysts polled by Fortune were expecting Apple to sell 48.7 million iPhones in the quarter.
During the call, Apple was asked about growth rates that trial rivals such as Google. The company handily beat all of those expectations. Mac purchases rose to 5.71 million, compared with an average projection of 5.6 million.
In fiscal Q2, sales in Greater China were up 71% year/year, compared with 27% for the company as a whole.
However, Apple continued its longstanding trend of disappointing tablet sales.
“These include the rising middle class and stronger purchasing power in the emerging markets, especially China and India, combined with the company facing little or no competition in the high end of the market”, Doradla wrote in a note.
Investors, however, were preoccupied by Apple’s propsects for the key Christmas period.
Apple shares fell less than 1 percent to close Tuesday at $114.55 in New York.
Apple’s other two segments – services and other products – experienced a fair amount of growth. Net income grew 35 percent to $53.4 billion for the year. He also said Apple is seeing record numbers of people switching from phones made by rivals.
Shares of Apple rose slightly after hours.
Apple aims to have 40 stores in China by next year.
While smartphone sales are slowing globally, Apple has strengthened the iPhone’s appeal to upscale buyers by offering premium features like better cameras and faster processors, said Gartner analyst Brian Blau. Japanese sales rose 9% on an annual basis, while the Americas grew 10%.
Piper Jaffray is anticipating that 75 percent of USA consumers of iPhones will become annual upgraders before 2018 comes to a close, said Gene Munster, managing director and senior research analyst at Piper Jaffray.
In fiscal 2016, Apple is projecting revenue of a few $77.5 billion, with expenses of $6.4 billion and a gross margin of around 39 percent.
Revenue came in slightly ahead of a few analyst estimates despite these misses only because the company’s “Other Income” line expanded.
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That quarter, including the crucial holiday shopping season, will likely be more significant. If you factored in the early China launch it could mean that Apple’s next quarter figures will be much lower.
