earnings

In Apple’s first-quarter earnings, the Mac leads the way in sales growth

Apple, china, earnings, ipad, IPhone, Mac, Q1, Tech, tim cook / Mike M. / January 31, 2025

Apple fell slightly short of investor expectations when it reported its first-quarter earnings today. While sales were up 4 percent overall, the iPhone showed signs of weakness, and sales in the Chinese market slipped by just over 11 percent.

CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that the iPhone performed better in countries where Apple Intelligence was available, like the US—seemingly suggesting that the slip was partially because Chinese consumers do not see enough reason to buy new phones without Apple Intelligence. (He also said, “Half of the decline is due to a change in channel inventory.”) iPhone sales also slipped in China during this same quarter last year; this was the first full quarter during which the iPhone 16 was available.

In any case, Cook said the company plans to roll out Apple Intelligence in additional languages, including Mandarin, this spring.

Apple’s wearables category also declined slightly, but only by 2 percent.

Despite the trends that worried investors, Apple reported $36.33 billion in net revenue for the first quarter. That’s 7.1 percent more than last year’s Q1. This was driven by the Mac, the iPad, and Services (which includes everything from Apple Music to iCloud)—all of which saw slight upticks in sales. Services was up 14 percent, continuing a strong streak for that business, while the Mac and the iPad both jumped up 15 percent.

The uptick in Mac and iPad sales was likely helped by several new Mac models and a new iPad mini starting shipments last October.

Cook shared some other interesting numbers in the earnings call with investors and the press: The company has an active base of 2.35 billion devices, and it has more than 1 billion active subscriptions.

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Microsoft reports big profits amid massive AI investments

Activision, AI, azure, earnings, microsoft, Tech / DJ Henderson / October 30, 2024

Microsoft reported quarterly earnings that impressed investors and showed how resilient the company is even as it spends heavily on AI.

Some investors have been uneasy about the company’s aggressive spending on AI, while others have demanded it. During this quarter, Microsoft reported that it spent $20 billion on capital expenditures, nearly double what it had spent during the same quarter last year.

However, the company satisfied both groups of investors, as it revealed it has still been doing well in the short term amid those long-term investments. The fiscal quarter, which covered July through September, saw overall sales rise 16 percent year over year to $65.6 billion. Despite all that AI spending, profits were up 11 percent, too.

The growth was largely driven by Azure and cloud services, which saw a 33 percent increase in revenue. The company attributed 12 percent of that to AI-related products and services.

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s gaming division continued to challenge long-standing assumptions that hardware is king, with Xbox content and services posting 61 percent increased year-over-year revenue despite a 29 percent drop in hardware sales.

Microsoft has famously been inching away from the classic strategy of keeping software and services exclusive to its hardware, launching first-party games like Sea of Thieves not just on PC but on the competing PlayStation 5 console from Sony. Compared to the Xbox, the PlayStation is dominant in sales and install base for this generation.

But don’t make the mistake of assuming that a 61 percent jump in content and services revenue is solely because Microsoft’s Game Pass subscription service is taking off. The company attributed 53 points of that to the recent $69 billion Activision acquisition.

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Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings reveal a drop in iPhone, iPad sales

Apple, earnings, ipad, IPhone, Q2 2024, Tech / Shannon Garcia / May 3, 2024

Q2 2024 —

Services growth looked rosy as Apple’s hardware revenue in China slowed.

Samuel Axon – May 2, 2024 10: 32 pm UTC

Enlarge / The Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California.

Apple’s earnings report for the second quarter of the company’s 2024 fiscal year showed a slide in hardware sales, especially for the iPhone. Nonetheless, Apple beat analysts’ estimates for the quarter thanks to the company’s rapidly growing services revenue.

iPhone revenue dropped from $51.33 billion in the same quarter last year to $45.96 billion, a fall of about 10 percent. This was the second consecutive quarter with declining iPhone revenues. That said, investors feared a sharp drop before the earnings call.

Notably, Apple’s revenue in the region it dubs Greater China (which includes China, Taiwan, Singapore, and Hong Kong) fell 8 percent overall. The company fared a little better in other regions. China’s economy is slowing even as China-based Huawei is taking bigger slices of the pie in the region.

Globally, Mac revenue was $7.5 billion compared to last year’s $7.12 billion. Other products—which include the Watch, AirPods, Apple TV 4K, HomePod, and the new Vision Pro headset—were down to $7.9 billion from last year’s $8.76 billion, despite the fact this quarter included the launch of the Vision Pro.

iPad revenue was also down, at $5.6 billion from $6.67 billion. Apple is expected to launch new iPads next week, which suggests that those updates are needed to achieve the company’s business goals.

The rosiest revenue category was services, which includes everything from Apple Music to iCloud. Its revenue was $23.9 billion, up from Q2 2023’s $20.91 billion.

The company also announced authorization of $110 billion for share purchases.

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