Apple’s Revenue Increases 4 Percent Despite Slowing iPhone Sales
The tech giant’s sales of apps and services helped profit grow 7 percent from a year ago, even as the company contended with slumping sales in China.
The tech giant’s sales of apps and services helped profit grow 7 percent from a year ago, even as the company contended with slumping sales in China.
After Apple unveiled artificial intelligence features for iPhones last year, the company’s stock soared in anticipation that the new abilities would provide a jolt to a stale business. But a boom in sales hasn’t materialized.
On Thursday, the tech giant said it sold $69.14 billion worth of iPhones in its most recent quarter, a 0.8 percent decrease from a year earlier and 3.5 percent below the quarterly sales record it reported in early 2022. The company’s sales of apps and services, like Apple Music and Apple TV+, were up, helping to offset the modest performance of its iPhone business.
Apple’s quarterly revenue increased 4 percent to $124.3 billion during the three months that ended in December. Its profit rose 7 percent to $36.33 billion, rebounding from the previous quarter when it paid a multibillion-dollar fine to European regulators.
The results fell just short of Wall Street analysts’ expectations for $124.38 billion in sales but exceeded projections of $35.62 billion in profit. The company said it expected revenue to rise in the current quarter, which ends in March. Shares rose 3.5 percent in after-hours trading because of the company’s encouraging sales outlook.
Despite heavily promoting its new A.I. technology, Apple released an iPhone in September without its signature selling point: an A.I. system called Apple Intelligence. The A.I. features became available about a month later in the United States and eventually expanded to other English-speaking countries.
Apple hasn’t yet released Apple Intelligence in China, its second-most important market, weakening the iPhone’s appeal there. The company’s share of smartphone sales in China fell 2.4 percentage points last year to 15.5 percent, according to Counterpoint Research, a market research firm. Apple, which plans to make its A.I. offering available in additional languages in April, said sales in China fell 11 percent to $18.51 billion.
