Apple’s Last Quarter Revenue Surpasses Estimates, but Sales in China Took a Hit

• Apple recently published its earnings report from last quarter, and its total revenue went up by 6.1% compared to last year.
• Earnings from iPhones Saw a massive increase of 5.5% year-over-year, and surpassed estimates by $0.7 billion.
• Sadly, the results weren't so great in China. Both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter growth has slowed down, hinting at market saturation.

Apple published its last quarter revenue on October 31, and it has beaten analyst estimates.

The total revenue is $94.9 billion (up by 6.1% from last year), whereas analysts had expected it to be around $94.6 billion. Earnings per share, which was earlier $1.64, is also more than 10% of the estimate, which was $1.49.

What Contributed to Apple's Improved Revenue?

In the last quarter, Apple launched a number of products, including fresh lineups of iPhone, Mac, iPad, AirPod Pro, etc.However, the iPhone is the star performer when compared to last year.

iPhone 16 was launched on September 20 and the quarter ended on September 28. So, in just 8 days, the total revenue from iPhones went up to $46.2 billion - that's a 5.5% increase from last year, surpassing the estimates by an impressive $0.7 billion.

Revenue for other products:

• Mac: $7.7 billion (2% growth)
• iPad: $7 billion (8% growth)
• Apple wearables and accessories: $9 billion (3% decline)

Another huge contribution came from the service segment whose revenue crossed the $25 billion mark last quarter, up by 12% year-over-year.

The company also recently launched Apple Intelligence with the iOS 18.1 update. It had a lot of hype pre-launch, but it didn't live up to the expectations. The features fared far below our expectations and the worst part is that only people with top iPhone 15s or iPhone 16 can access it. Hence, it didn't make any significant contribution to Apple's revenue this quarter.

It's also worth mentioning that even towards the end of this quarter, when the iOS 18.2 update adds more features to Apple Intelligence, the earnings are only expected to grow low to mid-single digits year over year," as per the company's financial chief, Luca Maestri.

Apple's Sales in China

China has always been an important market for Apple, especially owing to its large population size. However, the company has recently been facing stiff competition from local smartphone makers, resulting in lower sales.

In the last quarter, both year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter sales had slowed down, hinting at market saturation. The total annual revenue for this quarter stood at $66.9 billion, which was 7.7% less than the previous quarter's revenue of $72.5 billion.

As for the last quarter alone, revenue slipped to $15.07 billion - from $15.08 billion in the previous year. Although this small difference of 50 million might not seem huge, it's certainly a stark indication that Apple might be losing its hold on the Chinese market.

However, on the brighter side, the company hit record sales in India in the last quarter. Total revenue is estimated at $3.75-4.00 billion.

We continue to be excited by the enthusiasm we are seeing in India, where we set an all-time revenue record," Cook said excitedly.

For now, Apple only has two stores in India: one in Delhi and another in Mumbai. However, after the success in the last quarter, the company has decided to open up more outlets.

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