Apple revenues have fallen for a second straight quarter driven down by a steep 31% decline in Mac notebooks and iPad sales, iPhone sales grew.
Total revenues fell 2.5 per cent year-on-year to US$94.8bn, net profits were down 3.4 per cent to $24.2bn, shares in Apple rose on the news.
Analysts had predicted $93bn in revenue and $22.6bn in net profits, according to Refinitiv.
Asia-Pacific emerged as a bright spot in the quarter, logging a 15.3% year-over-year sales jump.
Apple’s home market suffered the sharpest revenue decline of all regions in the quarter with a 7.6% year-on-year drop in the Americas to $37.8 billion. Europe, meanwhile, reported moderate yearly sales growth of 2.8% to $24.1 billion.
Greater China, which covers the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, registered a 2.9% yearly sales decline to $17.8 billion during the quarter.
This region used to be the main growth engine for the company.
Revenue in Japan fell 7.1 % to $7.1 billion.
The rest of the Asia-Pacific region, however, logged a 15.3% jump in revenue to $8.1 billion, the brightest growth spot this quarter.
One bright point for Apple was that iPhone sales performed better than expected in the quarter, helping offset weakness in much of the company’s line-up.
It’s a particular relief for investors after Qualcomm Inc., a key Apple supplier, raised fresh concerns about phone demand earlier this week.
As we tipped yesterday, Apple also announced plans for $90 billion in stock repurchases, the same as last year’s plan.
The company also raised its quarterly dividend 4% to 24 cents a share.
“The macro environment is tougher than it was, and that affected the PC and tablet industry,” finance chief Luca Maestri told the Financial Times.
Maestri said the foreign exchange headwinds hit revenue by 5.4 percentage points. In constant currency, he said, revenues would have grown 3 per cent.
Sales of the iPhone, which accounted for 54 per cent of total revenue, rose 2 per cent to $51.3bn, ahead of estimates at $48.9bn.
Credit: 9to5Mac
The results suggest that some customers who were unable to purchase a new phone in the holiday quarter, when Apple was battling supply chain disruptions in China related to Covid-19, may have postponed their purchase.
Services, a division that includes App Store sales and recurring digital subscriptions, rose 5.5 per cent to $20.1bn, in line with forecasts.
The fast-growing and high-margin unit now has 975mn paying customers — up 150mn in the past 12 months — and accounts for 22 per cent of all revenues.
Mac sales fell 31 per cent, worse than the 25 per cent decline that analyst had expected amid broader weakness in the PC market. iPad sales were also down 13 per cent, as expected, while the wearables division, which includes AirPods and the Apple Watch, were 1 per cent lower.
Chief executive Tim Cook said in a press release: “We are pleased to report an all-time record in services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high.”
