I wasn’t impressed with the iPhone 7. In fact, we as a collective unit at SoyaCincau weren’t impressed with it either. When it came to breaking ground in the development of tech — something Apple was so good at — I honestly felt the iPhone 7 broke nothing.
But on the sales front, things were a little different. Apple just posted their financial report for last quarter (Q1 2017) and it turns out that they’ve sold more iPhones and generated more revenue than ever before, breaking multiple records along the way.
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Apple’s last fiscal quarter (Q1 2017), which ended on the 31st of December 2016, was a strong one. The company posted an all-time record quarterly revenue of USD78.4 billion (around RM350 billion), up 67% from Q4 2016 and up 3% from Q1 2016. Apple’s fiscal year 2017 runs from September 25, 2016 through September 30, 2017.
This revenue was spearheaded by iPhone sales which make up the bulk of Apple’s sales. Cupertino sold just over 78 million iPhones that contributed to a revenue of USD54.4 billion. Apple said its earnings per share were boosted by the high demand for larger iPhones that come with higher margins.
Apple CEO Tim Cook also said that they’ve sold more iPhones than they ever have before and that they also set revenue records for Apple Services (like the App Store, Apple Music, etc.), Mac and Apple Watch. The biggest letdown. however, was the iPad that dropped 22% in revenue from Q1 2016, only selling just over 5.5 million devices.
That’s honestly not surprising considering the state of the tablet market. With the advent of large-screened smartphones that are big enough and offer a similar experience, to ultra-portable laptops, the tablet’s niche is getting smaller and smaller.
With over a billion Apple devices worldwide, Apple’s biggest year over year growth from Q1 2016 is Apple Services. It grew 18%, pulling in over USD7 billion in revenue, overtaking revenue generated from the iPad and encroaching on Mac’s second place.
Tim Cook expects to double Service’s revenue over the next four years, with Apple CFO Luca Maestri stating that the App Store had already doubled the revenue of Google’s Play Store in 2016.
Looking at Apple’s revenue by region, the company saw a year over year increase in revenue the Americas (+9%), Europe (+3%), Japan (+20%) and the Rest of Asia-Pacific (+8%). However, revenue in Greater China fell dramatically, dropping 12% to just over USD16 billion in Q1 2017.
A market that once looked like Apple’s biggest potential growth back in 2015 has now become Apple’s biggest loser. We believe that this is in part due to the rising popularity and competition from local Chinese premium smartphone brands like Huawei and OPPO.
