The final quarter of 2015 provided another financial record for Apple, but only just. Meanwhile, Apple’s quarterly profits checked in at $18.4 billion while EPS for the quarter checked in at $3.28, easily besting the consensus on Wall Street.
Advertisement
Apple reported its “best quarter by far” for Apple TV sales during its fiscal first quarter, as the company posted record quarterly profit of US$18.4 billion.
Cook called Apple’s services business “an unbelievable asset” for the company, and noted that Apple now has 1 billion “active” devices in use that can drive services sales. Every $100 of Apple’s non-U.S. dollar revenue earned in Q4 2014 translates into only $85 USA dollars today.
It didn’t hurt that the company that Steve Jobs built sold a record 74.8 million iPhones during the fourth quarter, not to mention 16.1 million iPads, and 5.3 million Macs. Apple once again neglected to provide specific sales figures for the Apple Watch however.
No one expects Apple to match those results in the current, January-March quarter, as sales traditionally drop after the holiday shopping season and the introduction of new models. Apple also predicted revenue for the second quarter of 2016, which is expected to be between $50 and $53 billion, down from $58 billion in revenue from the same period in 2015.
“Apple has been in this position before, although pressure is building for Cook to show success outside its core iPhone DNA to give investors confidence”, says FBR Capital Markets analyst Daniel Ives.
The “other products” segment, which includes the Apple Watch and Apple TV, had revenues of $4.4 billion.
Mr Doku said Chinese technology firms Huawei and Oppo were “nipping at the heels” of Apple and other popular smartphone makers in the global market.
The iPhone 7 is expected to sport a new look with features such as waterproofing and wireless headphones, according to media reports.
Advertisement
Apple has still not revealed individual sales data for the Watch, but it does not appear to be having much of an impact on the company’s bottom line based on the size of the revenues from the category in which it is included.
