Apple on Thursday posted its fourth quarter earnings, posting revenue of $62.9 billion. Apple CFO, Luca Maestri, said it’s was Apple’s best September quarter ever.
“We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Over the past two months, we’ve delivered huge advancements for our customers through new versions of iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac as well as our four operating systems, and we enter the holiday season with our strongest lineup of products and services ever.”
International sales accounted for 61 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
According to the financial statements, Apple sold 46.8 million iPhones in the quarter, up from the 41.3 sold in the year ago quarter. Apple also sold 9.7 million iPads, down from the 11.5 sold a year ago, and 5.3 million Macs, up from the 3.7 million a year ago.
Services also increased 27 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, rising from 7.9 $billion in 2017 to $10 billion in this year’s fourth quarter.
Yeah. Doomed. If only they’d listen to the comments on internet blogs they might pull it out.
Gee willikers. Apple will stop reporting unit sales of hardware.
9.6 million iPads.
Sure, that’s less than half of their heyday.
But what other tablet makers would love to sell a measly 9.6million…
Wonderful news—for Apple, for Apple customers, and for the US economy, actually!
This week’s Brooklyn event was great, announcing Apple’s new products, and the fact that two of them use 100% recycled aluminum.
Apple really is set for a stellar Holidays season!
Because of this: “Services also increased 27 percent in the fourth quarter of 2018, rising from 7.9 $billion in 2017 to $10 billion in this year’s fourth quarter.”
Unit sales doesn’t capture that and if it’s even higher margin that hardware, it becomes increasingly important to them but if unit sales are flat and service increased, say, 50% in a quarter, the narrative is distorted – “APPLE IN TROUBLE” when they are likely doing fine.
The stock market is filled with idiots.
It is good really. Likely Warren Buffet took advantage.
It’s just as well. Though obviously still important internally to Apple, I actually think they’re misleading to us civilians. Too many diverse factors affecting them to know what a given stat represents. Too much fake news and gossip about them to distract people from what really matters.
What matters to me is that Apple keeps making the products and delivering the services I need and want on a daily basis. And when I need service or help or questions answered, that there is an Apple person in a store or at the other end of a phone call or chat who can help me.
For example, my Beats X started losing their Bluetooth connection a few days ago. A brief chat with an Apple person produced a prepaid Fedex box, into which I put my Beats. And now today, a replacement set will arrive by 3pm. Now that’s good service!
I’ve been a happy Apple customer for over 30 years, and I’m very pleased and reassured that Steve left the company in very good hands! That’s all I care about!
You know me Janak, the old design really didn’t work for me. I agree with you, I think new design will be reliable. I’ve ordered a new iPad and keyboard because I need a writing/drawing machine and I travel too much. I looked at alternatives but I love the software on Apple products.
$14.13 BILLION in profit for 3 months of work.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
– Channel NewsAsia
No doubt. He’s smart enough to profit off the rest of his colleagues’ boneheaded decisions.
I think they actively expect unit sales to go down in the future. The recent price increases for
all of theirthe high end of their products reflect this.I’d love to get a new iPad Pro, but I’m going to wait. It’s become really expensive to refresh regularly. Which makes me sad—I think the new iPad Pro likely will have a more reliable Smart
KeyboardFolio.incorrect, they haven’t all gone up in price. the top tiers have. if you can’t afford the new iPad Pro, get the regular new ipad. it went down in price to a paltry $329.
no other tech company reports unit sales. are they all going down too, at all times?
Thanks for pointing out the inaccuracies, edited. (Although my correction itself, and your comment, isn’t quite correct; various lower-end products also have a higher base price; see the new MacBook Air and Mac Mini.)
I am not in fact disagreeing with your broader argument. My point is not that this is good or bad, but rather Apple’s effort to refocus on the bottom line. Unit sales allow for narratives that Apple is doomed, when in fact they’re not.
On the other hand, it was a useful bit of data which we will no longer have, and I’m personally sad that these things are more expensive than they used to be. I spent a lot of money on my 12.9″ iPad Pro, and the new one is even more expensive.
12.9″ with 256. Keyboard and Pencil, Wifi only. Hardly used the LTE on my previous one and can tether if I need it.
I think the problems with the previous generation connector was because it was on the “hinge” for the keyboard. I’m pretty optimistic and I’ll post back my experience to you once I’ve had some time with it. Delivery by the 19th.
My current one is a 12.9″ with 512 and LTE.
I’d probably get what you specced out today. I want more than 64, but don’t really need more than 256 as I have lots of stuff in the cloud. I like LTE but only rely on it rarely (~once a month).
What I *may* do is to wait until this config hits Costco and then consider it. Costco gets a decent discount on the SKUs they carry. But we’ll see, I’m still resisting.
Looking forward to hearing about it!
Their guidance for 1st quarter was low. A correction will happen pretty quickly.
I agree, and I am tempted for the exact same reason.
I think my current Smart Keyboard (the third attempt, which has lasted 6+ months) might be starting to get more flaky, and then I’m in a bad place. Do I buy a Smart Keyboard for an EOL device, or spend $ (or even more, given the new Pencil and Keyboard are more expensive) for a new setup that is likely to be much more reliable? Oh, and with all the other niceties?
This kills me. The thought of spending even more money to fix an intrinsic problem for a device I love but that I should be angry at really, really frustrates.
My current plan is to wait as long as I can, and then go plead my case if this keyboard fails, and see what happens. I already bought a new Apple Watch for $926 after taxes, I don’t want to spend another $2K.
I know firsthand how Apple is raking in money, they build products I want and makes me spend more money than I’ve ever budgeted for. Mostly, I can’t blame them for that, except for the @#*(@ 12.9″ Smart Keyboard.
On a more positive note, which unit are you getting?
I love the 12.9″ screen and its ability to have two full-size-class iPad apps side-by-side. I think I’d still stick with that. However, I helped my mom get a 10.5″ Pro earlier this year and it is a really nice size.