With this forecast, Apple starts its most important financial quarter

On Friday evening, Apple presented its latest quarterly results and revealed how iPhone, iPad, Mac and Co. sold.

There was also a forecast for the next three months: the Christmas activities after the launch of new iPhones are traditionally the most important time for the company.

Here you will find everything you need to know.

What are the prospects for Christmas activities?

Apple doesn’t expect any big jumps in its upcoming Christmas activities. The iPhone group forecast sales for the current financial quarter at the same level as the previous year – disappointing the growth expectations of some investors. At the same time, the group expects further growth of the iPhone, its most important product.

How were iPhone sales in the last fiscal quarter?

In the fiscal quarter that ended in late September, Apple made a profit of nearly $23 billion thanks to iPhone demand. The new iPhone 15 went on sale in September, which will mainly play a role in the Christmas business.

Its iPhone business grew 2.8 percent year-on-year to $43.8 billion, Apple announced after the U.S. stock market closed on Thursday. This was within investor expectations.

How much do iCloud and Co. contributed to sales?

Not only did the iPhone bring in nearly half of the company’s revenue, it later gave Apple the ability to sell subscriptions for more storage or music streaming. In the services sector, which also includes subscription revenue and App Store revenue, revenue rose by more than 16 percent to $22.3 billion.

How did the Macs sell?

Sales of Mac computers fell by more than a third to $7.6 billion. Apple pointed out that pent-up demand due to previous production bottlenecks boosted sales in the same quarter last year.

In addition, a new generation of the popular Macbook Air came onto the market at the time. Apple is now relying on new Macbook Pro models with more powerful M3 chips to boost sales.

How did Apple do in China?

Apple did not exceed analyst expectations with sales in the Chinese segment, where the group also includes operations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Sales there fell 2.5 percent to about $15.1 billion.

Recently, competitor Huawei, which was hit hard by American sanctions, had success again with a new smartphone. There is also the question of how tensions between Beijing and Washington could affect the company’s operations. The stock fell by more than three percent in after-hours US trading.

What can be said about the quarterly turnover?

Overall, quarterly revenue fell about one percent to $89.5 billion. At the same time, Apple increased its profit to $22.96 billion from $20.7 billion in the same quarter of the previous year.

The fiscal quarter lasted a week longer than a year ago. The current financial quarter will be one week shorter than the comparable period in 2022. CFO Luca Maestri calls this one of the reasons why turnover will remain at last year’s levels.

On the other hand, a repeat of the results from that time would also fill Apple’s coffers well: the company made almost $30 billion in profit on a turnover of more than $117 billion.

(dsc/sda/awp/dpa)