Apple Posts Record 4Q Revenue

Apple once again beat Wall Street expectations in announcing record quarterly results — fueled by the highest revenue from iPhone sales in its history, although it sold nearly 1 million fewer smartphones than in the year-earlier period, reports Variety.

For the company’s fiscal first quarter of 2018 ended Dec. 30, Apple reported revenue of $88.3 billion, up 13% year over year. Net income was $20 billion, with earnings per diluted share of $3.89, up 16% and also an all-time record.

The iPhone X “surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in announcing the results.

The iPhone X is the company’s most expensive smartphone ever, priced starting at $999 with 64 gigabytes of storage, with a new facial-recognition ID feature, an edge-to-edge display and a souped-up camera.

For the December quarter, Apple shipped 77.3 million iPhone smartphones worldwide, representing $61.6 billion in sales. Unit sales of iPhones were down 1% compared with 78.3 million in the year-earlier quarter, while revenue rose 13%. CFO Luca Maestri noted on a call with analysts that Apple’s fiscal Q1 2018 was one week shorter than the 2016 holiday quarter.

Apple’s services revenue also saw a healthy uptick in the most recent quarter, rising 18% to $8.5 billion. That segment includes iTunes and App Store digital content and services, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing and other services. On the earnings call, Cook said Apple Music hit all-time highs for revenue and subscribers in the December quarter but didn’t provide specifics.

Cook also called out Apple’s launch next week of the HomePod wireless speaker. “We’re very happy with the initial response from reviewers,” he said.