Apple sold more iPhone units than ever before last quarter, a spasm of sales that finally returned the company to growth, as revealed today in Cupertino’s first earnings report of 2017.
With total revenues of $78.4 billion bringing in a profit of $17.9 billion, Apple CEO Tim Cook said he is “thrilled” with the results. Wall Street is happy, too: AAPL shares are trading up significantly in after-hours trading.
“We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way. We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch,” said Cook in a press release. “Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”
Apple growth is back
Looking at the numbers, it’s not hard to see why Cook is so stoked after four straight quarters of declines. Apple only expected to sell between 76 million and 78 million iPhones in the quarter, but it managed to move 78.3 million.
That’s a significant jump over the 74.8 million iPhones sold in Q1 2016 and the 74.5 million sold in Q1 2015. Revenue was expected to be below $78 billion, too, so Apple just scored a yuuuuge beat for the Street.
Other products also did fairly well. The Mac line sold 5.4 million units, thanks to the new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar that was the most pre-ordered MacBook ever.
The iPad lineup sold 13.1 million units, down 19 percent from the year-ago quarter. Apple’s earnings per share came in at $3.36, which was also above Wall Street’s expectations. During the quarter, Apple set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch.
Apple is providing the following guidance for its fiscal 2017 second quarter:
- revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion
- gross margin between 38 percent and 39 percent
- operating expenses between $6.5 billion and $6.6 billion
- other income/(expense) of $400 million
- tax rate of 26 percent
