It was last night that Apple held its traditional conference to publish its first quarter results. This takes place in a context that has become delicate with a halt in the growth of smartphone sales, particularly in Asia. We remember that this had generated a warning before the publication of the accounts andweighed down iPhone sales in the last quarter of 2018. It is therefore with great interest that the figures for the start of the year were awaited.
Suffice it to say right away that these results, although down slightly, are nevertheless surprising. Thus, the quarter's income reached$58 billion, down 5% from last year. But this figure hides very positive elements in the field ofiPad and Apple Watch salesin particular, while services are progressing strongly.
Here are the details of the most important information shared by Apple, notably during the investor conference which follows the publication of the results as well as graphs showing the evolution of revenues, profits, overall but also by product line:
Here is Apple's revenue breakdown by category:
And their evolution in recent quarters:
Here is the evolution of profits, everything is going pretty well:
iPhone sales
Despite ongoing efforts to diversify, particularly into intangible products such as music or upcoming video subscriptions, Apple still depends heavily on its sales of iPhone, its flagship product. The decline at the end of last year may have been cause for concern, but it could be that the worst is now over. Even ifsales details are no longer shared, Tim Cook indicated that the performance of theend of quartershows progress compared to the end of last year.
The reasons given by the manager for this hoped-for return to better days are linked to price adjustments, an improvement in sales in China (reduction of VAT locally) and efforts on recovery and credit, for purchases in Apple Store notably.
However, if the quarters of crazy growth of past years should no longer be relevant, Apple's management believes in growth, albeit modest, for the second part of the year. This optimism is particularly linked to sales in China, a market which has a major influence on overall iPhone sales figures.
Here are historical iPhone sales and their variation:
iPad sales
This is the very pleasant surprise of these results. We remember that iPad sales were not good in recent years, but it seems that this tablet market is regaining color at Apple. Tim Cook, without again sharing details on the figures, indicated that this quarter shows the strongest growth in iPad sales in 6 years.
Thus, iPad revenues increased by 22% compared to the previous quarter ($4.9 billion). This makes it the best first quarter in Apple's history for its tablet sales. Sales in China and Japan are particularly responsible for these positive results, but all countries show double-digit growth while it is the iPad Pro which would carry sales.
En graphs :
Apple Watch and AirPods sales
Sales of AirPods and Apple Watch, the so-called “wearables” segment, is the second very good performer in Apple's range. Last quarter was the best in Apple's wearable history, aside from the Christmas quarters. The turnover displayed is5.1 billion dollars, compared to 3.9last year over the same period.
The Apple Watch remains the best-selling smartwatch in the world, with 3/4 of buyers who had never had a smartwatch before, while on the AirPods side, Tim Cook is delighted with an unprecedented success, even saying a “cultural phenomenon”.
To give an idea of the importance of this product segment: if Apple separated the revenues of this division, this would place it in the Top 200 companies in the famous Fortune magazine ranking.
The evolution:
Mac sales
Apple shows a drop in Mac sales of 5% for this quarter compared to the same last year. But this would not be linked to a lower consumer appetite. Tim Cook indicated that production was affected by an unavailability of Intel processors.
Tim Cook clarified that without this availability problem, sales would have been comparable between the two years.
But also
The number of users of Apple products worldwide continued to grow to reach 1.4 billion active machines, with a record reached in the area of revenues linked to “services” (iCloud, Apple Music, iTunes).
These results, which followed a disappointing quarter, were taken in a rather positive way by investors, with the stock price for Apple shares increasing by 5% after the conference.
i-nfo.fr - Official iPhon.fr app
By : Keleops AG
founder of the site. Computer engineer and Internet specialist where he has held various positions of responsibility, Laurent has been passionate about mobility since the arrival of "PDAs" in the 90s. Journalist for 4 years for the magazine Team Palmtops (Posse Presse) and author of several books on the iPad published by Pearson.
