Apple Inc on Thursday reported its revenue hit US$124.3 billion in the year-end holiday quarter, but sales growth fell shy of market expectations as the iPhone faces stiff competition, particularly in China.
Apple logged US$36.3 billion in profit — a 7 percent increase from the previous year — in what chief executive Tim Cook called its “best quarter ever.”
Revenue growth of 4 percent from the previous year was powered by Apple’s service and digital content unit, with iPhone sales slipping in markets like China.
Photo: AFP
Overall iPhone sales in the quarter were US$69.1 billion, about a half-billion less than it took in for handsets in the same period a year earlier, according to an earnings release.
“Our record revenue and strong operating margins drove [earnings per share] to a new all-time record with double-digit growth,” Apple chief financial officer Kevan Parekh said. “We are also pleased that our installed base of active devices has reached a new all-time high across all products and geographic segments.”
In the quarter, Apple’s services segment — which includes Apple Music, iCloud, the App Store and Apple TV+ — reported revenue of US$26.3 billion, compared with US$23.1 billion in the same period a year earlier.
The Americas remained Apple’s largest market with US$56.2 billion in revenue, while Europe showed strong growth at US$33.9 billion. In China, Apple’s revenue registered US$18.5 billion, an 11 percent decrease from the previous year.
“On the Apple intelligence side, we have not rolled out in China,” Cook said on an earnings call. “We did see better results in the markets that we had rolled Apple Intelligence out in than markets we hadn’t; and, of course, it’s the most competitive market in the world.”
Cook said a software upgrade enabling the AI features in more European markets, as well as Japan and South Korea, will be rolling out in April.
Investors are eyeing demand for new iPhones with artificial intelligence (AI) features, especially after Apple stumbled with the technology.
Apple Intelligence is a new suite of software features for all devices that was announced at the company’s annual developers conference, where it also announced a partnership with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
In the short-term, the new powers include AI-infused image editing, translation and small, creative touches in messaging, but not more ambitious breakthroughs promised by other AI players, such as OpenAI or Google.
Unlike tech peers such as Microsoft Corp, Google corporate parent Alphabet Inc and Facebook corporate parent Meta Platforms Inc, Apple has not been investing as heavily in AI, but that restraint could work to its advantage if Chinese start-up DeepSeek’s (深度求索) early breakthroughs in driving down AI costs gains momentum.
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