Current:Home > FinanceApple ends yearlong sales slump with slight revenue rise in holiday-season period but stock slips-InfoLens
Apple ends yearlong sales slump with slight revenue rise in holiday-season period but stock slips
View Date:2024-12-23 16:00:05
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple snapped out of a yearlong sales funk during its holiday-season quarter, propelled by solid demand for the latest model of its iPhone and still-robust growth in a services division facing legal threats that could undermine its prospects.
The modest revenue growth announced Thursday as part of Apple’s October-December results ended four consecutive quarters of year-over-year sales declines. But the performance still may not be enough to allay recent investor concerns about Apple’s ability to rebuild the momentum that established it as the most valuable U.S. publicly traded company.
After years of holding that mantle, Apple recently ceded the top spot to its long-time rival Microsoft, which has been elevated largely through its early leadership in artificial intelligence technology.
Apple is hoping to shift the narrative back in its favor with Friday’s release of its Vision Pro headset that transports users into a hybrid of physical and digital environments — a combination the company is promoting as “spatial computing.” But the first version of the Vision Pro will cost $3,500 — a lofty price tag analysts expect to constrain demand this year.
“We are committed as ever to the pursuit of groundbreaking innovation,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a Thursday statement accompanying the quarterly results.
Despite recurring worries that Apple may be entering a period of slower growth compared with its track record over the past 20 years, the Cupertino, California, is still thriving.
Apple’s revenue for its most recent quarter rose 2% from the same time in the previous year to $119.58 billion. The company earned $33.92 billion, or $2.18 per share, a 13% gain from the same time last year.
As usual, the iPhone accounted for the bulk of Apple’s revenue. Sales of the company’s marquee product totaled $69.7 billion in the past quarter, a 6% increase from the same time in the prior year. Those results include the latest iPhone that came out in late September, including a premium model that includes a special video recording feature designed for playing back on the Vision Pro.
Apple’s services division, which is tied largely to the iPhone, posted an 11% rise in revenue from the previous year to $23.12 billion.
Both the revenue and earnings for the quarter exceeded analysts’ projections, according to FactSet Research.
But investors appeared unimpressed with the showing as Apple’s stock price dropped 1% in extended trading after the numbers came out.
While it has been consistently generating double-digit revenue growth, Apple’s services division is under legal attack. The results of the legal challenges could siphon away a significant chunk of revenue flowing from a search deal with Google and commissions collected through the iPhone app store when consumers complete digital transactions on the device.
Apple’s agreement to make Google the default search engine on the iPhone and Safari browser — a deal that brings in an estimated $15 billion to $20 billion annually — is the focal point of antitrust case brought by the U.S. Justice Department that will shift into its final phase in May. Another antitrust case brought by video game maker Epic Games and new regulatory rules in Europe already have forced Apple to revise its commission system in the iPhone app store, although critics say the concessions are illusory and are pledging to push for even more dramatic changes.
The past quarter also pointed to faltering sales in China, a major market for Apple and an area that investors have been fretting about because of that country’s weakening economy and reports that the government there may prohibit its workers from buying iPhones. Apple’s revenue in China dropped 13% from the previous year to $20.82 billion.
veryGood! (4)
Related
- FSU football fires offensive, defensive coordinators, wide receivers coach
- 3 dead, more than a dozen others injured in large Brooklyn house fire, officials say
- No. 3 Duke basketball loses to Caleb Love, No. 11 Arizona in top-15 showdown
- The world is awash in plastic. Oil producers want a say in how it's cleaned up
- College Football Playoff bracket: Complete playoff picture after latest rankings
- Must-Have Items That Will Make It Look Like A Professional Organized Your Closet
- IKEA recalls more than 25,000 mirrors for possible falling, shattering risk
- US and South Korea sharpen deterrence plans over North Korean nuclear threat
- Congress returns to unfinished business and a new Trump era
- Former NFL cornerback D.J. Hayden among 6 dead after car accident in Houston
Ranking
- Michael Grimm, former House member convicted of tax fraud, is paralyzed in fall from horse
- Hezbollah says it is introducing new weapons in ongoing battles with Israeli troops
- The world is awash in plastic. Oil producers want a say in how it's cleaned up
- Russia ramps up attacks on key cities in eastern Ukraine
- Maine elections chief who drew Trump’s ire narrates House tabulations in livestream
- Taylor Swift Gives Travis Kelce a Shoutout By Changing the Lyrics of Karma During Argentina Show
- Pennsylvania man arrested in fire that killed more than two dozen horses at New York racetrack
- Horoscopes Today, November 12, 2023
Recommendation
-
Kate Hudson and Goldie Hawn’s SKIMS Holiday Pajamas Are Selling Out Fast—Here’s What’s Still Available
-
College football Week 11 grades: Michigan misses mark crying over Jim Harbaugh suspension
-
The APEC summit is happening this week in San Francisco. What is APEC, anyway?
-
Suspect released in murder of Detroit synagogue president Samantha Woll
-
Sister Wives’ Janelle Brown Alleges Ex Kody Made False Claims About Family’s Finances
-
NFL playoff picture: Which teams are looking good after Week 10?
-
Rescuers dig to reach more than 30 workers trapped in collapsed road tunnel in north India
-
Tea and nickel on the agenda as Biden hosts Indonesian president