Apple’s eyes on new iPhone
Sales, earnings beat expectations,
Consumers apparently aren’t waiting until the fall to buy shiny, new iPhones.
Apple had a good fiscal thirdquarter on Tuesday with sales and earnings that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations.
Apple announced revenue of $45.4 billion and earnings of $1.67 per share, compared to the yearago quarter of $42.4 billion and $1.42, respectively.
Analysts had expected revenue of $44.9 billion and earnings of $1.57 for the quarter.
The results sent Apple shares up more than 6% to a record $159.16 in after-hours trading Tuesday.
The June quarter is historically Apple’s slowest. As in most years, sales of the iPhone taper off in the spring and summer as folks await a model that debuts each fall.
The next iPhone, reportedly sporting a major redesign and packed with new features such as facial recognition, is expected to be introduced in September.
Still, during its third quarter, Apple sold 41 million iPhones and 11.4 million iPads, compared to 40 million iPhones and 9.9 million iPads in the year ago quarter.
The bump is impressive for the iPad, which had been seeing declining sales for the past two years.
Apple also racked up $7.3 billion in its Services division that includes iTunes, Apple Music and the App Store, up 22%. In the year-ago quarter, Apple generated $5.9 billion in Services, so that’s a huge jump for movie rent- als, music subscriptions and app downloads.
The Cupertino, Calif., company is now sitting on a pile of $261 billion in cash.
While the sale in this quarter of 41 million iPhones pales compared to the fall quarter’s 78 million, it’s all a sense of perception. For chief rival Samsung, a “really good quarter” is when it sells 10 million of its Galaxy phones,” notes Gene Munster, an investor and analyst with Minneapolisbased Loup Ventures.
“Nobody else comes near Apple’s numbers,” he says. “But Apple is held to a different standard.”
On a conference call with investors, Apple CEO Tim Cook called the quarterly results “very strong ” and noted that some 1.2 billion iPhones have now been sold since first being released in 2007.
Cook punted on a question about President Trump’s recent statement that Apple would build three new manufacturing plants in the United States.
He noted Apple added 2 million jobs to the economy, mainly through freelance app developers, and invests in manufacturing parts such as glass for the iPhone and iPad from U.S. suppliers.
“There are some things we’ll say about that later in the year,” Cook said.
Munster predicts Apple will sell 236 million iPhones in its next fiscal year because of pentup demand in the upgrade cycle, and excitement over the iPhone 8.
Additionally, Apple was asked for guidance on iPhone sales in the fall quarter as a clue to see whether the company expects to ship the new smartphones on time. But the company declined to offer anything beyond the total revenue guidance of $49 billion to $51 billion.
“Nobody else comes near Apple’s numbers. But Apple is held to a different standard.” Gene Munster, an investor and analyst with Minneapolis-based Loup Ventures