Apple has posted figures from its earnings report for first fiscal quarter, 2016 which all hit record margins again in the most hectic part of the year, but largely missed expectations of investors by slight margins.
The company earned profit of $18.4 billion over revenues of $75.9 billion for earnings of $3.28 per share. This is slightly lower than what was expected ($76.67 billion), though, higher than same time last year, i.e. $74.6 billion.
But there are other, graver things to worry about for the giant right now. For one, the iPhone experienced its slowest growth rate since its introduction, a record 74.78 million units compared to 74.5 million at around the same time last year, but lesser than the expected 76.5 million. Don’t forget that the iPhone is by-and-large Apple’s biggest revenue generator right now, bringing 68 percent of revenue.
iPhone, iPad and Mac growths have all slowed down, concerning investors
The iPads, long considered to be in the red, were sold in the figure amounting to 16.1 million, but that’s a large 25 percent decrease over the same time last year. This despite Apple’s introducing a new iPad Pro at around the same time, meaning the company missed the 18 million expected mark.
Macs were also on a slight decline, with sales of 5.3 million compared to 5.5 a year ago. That could be due to anticipation for the new Macs, said to arrive in March however. Overall, international sales brought 66 percent of all revenue.
Finally, the Apple Watch and Apple TV category did grow to $4.35 billion, an impressive 62 percent increase from last year.
Next quarter for Apple is not going to see improvement with $50-$53 billion in expected revenue
The next quarter is said to bring $50-53 billion in revenue. In the earnings call, Tim Cook talked about “extreme conditions unlike anything we’ve experienced before just about anywhere we look”, which shows things that are hardly perfect at Cupertino.
With sales for hardware down, it will inevitably be the services division which will come to the rescue, if anything. With services Apple Music and Apple Pay already raking in $6.1 billion in revenues already, this is the category which should keep investors optimistic about Apple.
