In a first, Apple quarterly revenue passes $100 bn
Riding on the stellar performance of iPhones, wearables and services in the festive December quarter, Apple has posted an all-time record revenue of $111.4 billion in its history, up 21 per cent year over year, and quarterly earnings up 35 per cent.
The iPhone business performed extraordinarily well, registering over $65 billion in revenue.
The previous all-time record for iPhone revenue in a quarter was $61.58 billion, which Apple recorded in the first quarter of fiscal 2018.
International sales accounted for 64 per cent of the December quarter’s revenue for Apple, the company said.
“This quarter for Apple wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless and innovative work of every Apple team member worldwide,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
During an earnings call with investors, Cook said Apple crossed 1.65 billion active devices worldwide during the quarter and iPhones account for over 1 billion of those devices.
“We’re gratified by the enthusiastic customer response to the unmatched line of cutting-edge products that we delivered across a historic holiday season,” Cook noted in a statement.
Apple iPad sales were up an impressive 41 per cent and Mac sales were up 21 per cent year over year.
India biz doubled in Dec qtr, feel good about trajectory: Cook
Apple has doubled its business i\n India in the December quarter on the back of strong performance of its online store, and the tech giant sees a good growth trajectory going ahead, its CEO said.
“... If you take India as an example, we doubled our business last quarter compared to the year-ago quarter. But our absolute level of business there is still quite low relative to the size of the opportunity,” Cook said during an analyst call.
The company, which competes with players like Samsung and OnePlus in the premium smartphone segment, has been aggressively ramping up its presence in the Indian market.
“India is one of those, where our share is quite low. It did improve from the year-ago quarter. Our business roughly doubled over that period of time. And so, we feel very good about the trajectory. We are doing a number of things in the area. We put the online store there, for example, and last quarter was the first full quarter of the online store,” Cook said.
Apple launched the Apple Store online in India on September 23, offering its full range of products and support directly to customers across the country for the first time.
He added the online store has received great reaction and has helped the company achieve the strong set of results last quarter. “We’re also going in there with retail stores in the future. And so, we look for that to be another great initiative and we continue to develop the channel as well.” Apple plans to set up brick-andmortar outlets in India in addition to the online store.