Apple’s quarterly earnings report is out and in case you missed it, there are some interesting details available online to bring you up to date. For a quick summary, there is no better document to see than Apple’s own summary PDF. However, along with the earnings reports, there are other tiny pieces of information to note from yesterday. We take a look at the most important details.
1.2 Billion iPhones sold
During the earnings call, Tim Cook shared that Apple has sold 1.2 Billion iPhones since 2007. That is perhaps the most amount of units of a single product line sold to date. Android is too diversified between different OEMs for any single product to take that crown. While Tim Cook avoided the question regarding iPhone 8, obviously, their Q4 guidance points to the fact that the next iPhone Pro/8 will be available in September, along with iPhone 7s and iPhone 7s Plus. If that was not the case, Apple’s guidance figures would have been lower than expected.
iPad revenue in the green
Apple reported the best quarter for iPad, after a long time. Thanks to the new $329 iPad, sales grew 15% year-over-year and 28% compared to last quarter. iPad sales to US education market also went up by 32% year-over-year, with 1 million units sold.
After a constant decline in 13 quarters, iPad sales are finally looking up. A concern here is that the revenue did not go up by a large amount – only by 2%. This can be attributed to the fact that the increase in sales was due to a lower priced iPad which results in lower ASP and that iPad Pro is not selling as much as Apple would like. However, this could be attributed to the late launch of new iPad Pro models in June. Of course, lower prices should also result in more iPad Pro sales but I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
iPad also outsold the Mac by 3:1, 11.4M units vs 4.3M units. This is alarming news for me as a Mac user. The new MacBooks have obviously not been very well received and whatever steps Apple is taking to make professional users happy will take time. However, the sliver lining is that Mac sales were better than the PC market this quarter.
Tim Cook: Augmented Reality FTW
Tim Cook also re-emphasized his bullish attitude with regards to augmented reality. He believes in AR’s potential to become the main platform for everything, with iOS 11 becoming the largest AR platform ever at launch. Tim also pointed hinted towards developer interest and demos as well as the enterprise applications that he is seeing.
Apple Pay coming to UAE, Finland, Sweden and Denmark
CFO Luca Maestri shared that Apple Pay is coming to UAE, Finland, Sweden and Denmark before the end of this year. There is no other information on which banks and financial institutions will support Apple Pay in this countries or any specific date for the roll-out. But, any news is good news.
Removal of VPN app from Chinese App Store
Tim Cook was questioned over Apple’s removal of VPN apps from App Store in China. The Chinese government requires VPN services to get licensed to operate but of course, that defeats the purpose of VPN apps. However, to comply with China’s policy, Apple and Google have removed the apps from their respective stores.
Apple stands up for free speech and privacy, as was evident in the issue against FBI last year. Cook explained that they have to follow the law whereever they do business. They disagree with the removal but the step was taken to operate within the China’s laws.
Miscellaneous
- Services grew by 22% to $7.26 billion. If Apple’s services continue growing like this, they will outpace other companies who primarily are about services. With the new App Store changes in iOS 11, expect further growth next year.
- Apple Watch sales are up 50%. No surprises here since anybody who wears a smartwatch, wears an Apple Watch. And the number of people keeps on increasing. It’s the new iPod.
For a third quarter, Apple has posted really good numbers. Apple’s market cap, at the time of writing is $820 Billion, thanks to the shares price jumping almost 5%. They also have $261.5 Billion in cash. This morning, Apple’s shares opened at a high of $159.51. Things are looking up as new iPhones are expected next month and final versions of iOS 11, macOS High Sierra and watchOS 4 will also be available by then.
