Strong iPhone sales power Apple back to revenue growth

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Finally! Strong holiday sales propel Apple back to growth.
Photo: Redd F/Unsplash License/Cult of Mac

Apple returned to revenue growth during its most recent critical holiday quarter. The total it took in during the December period went up 2% — that’s after the company experienced declining revenue in each of the four previous quarters.

“Today Apple is reporting revenue growth for the December quarter fueled by iPhone sales, and an all-time revenue record in Services,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook in a press release Thursday announcing Apple’s fiscal first-quarter results.

Apple beats Wall Street — again

The Mac-maker exceeded analysts’ expectations. The consensus prediction for revenue in the December quarter was about $118 billion, but the actual total was $119.6 billion.

And the analyst consensus for Apple earnings was $2.10 per share, while the company actually raked in $2.18, up 16% year over year.

As Cook noted, much of the revenue growth in the December 2023 quarter came iPhone. Money from this product category went up 6% over the same quarter of 2022. And revenue from services like the App Store and Apple Music grew 11% year over year. The Mac brought in 1% more revenue thanks to new models powered by the M3 processor. However, iPad sales tanked after a year without any fresh tablet releases.

While total revenue was good, money coming from China fell 13%. That’s a closely watched segment of Apple’s business, and the drop seems to have pushed Apple’s share price down more than 3% in after-hours trading.

Both iPhone and services revenue grew in the company’s Q1 2024 financial quarter.
Chart: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac

More to crow about

“We are pleased to announce that our installed base of active devices has now surpassed 2.2 billion, reaching an all-time high across all products and geographic segments,” Cook said.

Source: Apple