Apple flies on £67bn iPhone X sales hope
APPLE shares roared in after-hours trading last night after bosses predicted the new iPhone would trigger a £67bn sales bonanza.
The world’s most valuable company soared 3.4pc on the back of fourth-quarter results – pushing its market capitalisation beyond the $ 900bn mark (£689bn).
In figures that smashed Wall Street expectations, Apple revealed sales of £40.3bn for the three months to September 30. This was 12pc up on the same period last year.
It sold 46.7m iPhones – more than 500,000 a day – and also made more money per phone than previously. And business in China looked to have finally turned around, with sales up 12pc after six quarters of decline.
Most significantly, it said the new iPhone X was set to propel it to record quarterly earnings. From October to January, Apple said it expected to rake in between £64.3bn and £66.7bn overall.
Tim Cook, the tech giant’s chief executive, said: ‘We’re happy to report a very strong finish to a great fiscal 2017, with record fourth- quarter revenue, yearover-year growth for all our product categories, and our best quarter ever for services.
‘With fantastic new products joining our line-up, we’re looking forward to a great holiday season, and with the launch of iPhone X getting under way right now, we couldn’t be more excited as we begin to deliver our vision for the future.’ future ’ Apple’s forward guidance was being watched more closely than ever because of the unusual release of its latest handsets. Products usually debut in September and are released soon after, giving analysts a chance to gauge sales from the first weeks.
This time, Apple announced the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X together, but only the iPhone 8 was available within weeks. The X( pictured), set to cost £999, is due for release today.
Analysts predicted many gadget-lovers would hold out for the iPhone X because of its superior features, with mobile opera- tors in the US and Canada report- report ing slow uptake of the iPhone 8.
Whereas the iPhone 8 includes only incremental improvements, such as a faster chip, wireless charging and more storage, the X version has upgrades such as an improved screen and camera, and facial recognition.
Demand is likely to outstrip supply, with Apple saying some deliveries would take five or six weeks. It has also launched other new products, including a new Apple Watch which can be used to make phone calls, a thinner and lighter MacBook and the Apple TV 4K, which it hopes can compete with Google’s Chrome- Chrome cast and Amazon’s Fire TV.
It came as the US firm faced a fresh salvo in its long-running series of legal disputes with chipmaker Qualcomm.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, Qualcomm alleged Apple used its commercial leverage to demand unprecedented access to the chipmaker’s confidential software, including source code.
Apple started using Intel’s broadband modem chips in the iPhone 7. It was reported this week that Apple could drop Qualcomm’s chips from its iPhones and iPads next year.