Ever since the original iPhone was unveiled to the world back in 2007, almost a decade later, Apple can comfortably say it has sold a billion iPhones. Mac sales were down 11 percent. It made the announcement at an employee meeting on Wednesday, a day after it handed down quarterly results showing demand for its key product is waning.
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With the company bringing Apple Pay to Safari, which will allow users to apply the service to online purchases, this fall, that revenue is only likely to grow, he said. But even Apple critics should realize this is a big deal. A second generation Apple Watch is rumoured to be coming out later this year. Mac sales have slid by half a million units, and while the introduction of the higher-priced iPad Pro has led to a spike in revenue growth, sales of Apple’s tablets are still down by nearly one million, although channel inventory has been reduced by 500,000 units.
Apple is still doing just fine financially-it generated $8 billion in profit and is arguably one of the most important companies in the world, tech or otherwise. Smartphone makers will need to focus on increasing revenue by offering more options on the software side, such as music streaming and App Store downloads.
In fact, three-quarters of contactless payments in the US are now made using Apple Pay, Cook said.
Even Apple’s critics admit the company’s cash position is a monstrous sign of corporate gold.
“Last week we passed another major milestone when we sold the billionth iPhone”, Cook said in a prepared statement.
“They are running behind, and they are trying to catch up both in perception, but also in fact”, said Oren Etzioni, chief executive of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence and a professor at the University of Washington.
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Cook (pictured) said that channel inventory was reduced by $3.6bn, “significantly more” than the $2bn the company had expected. Investors are still skeptical about near-term iPhone performance with uninviting changes rumored for iPhone 7 leaving a question in the air about upgrade rates.
