Apple sees record growth in latest quarter despite iPhone revenue decline

Record Mac and Services growth alongside strong tablet and wearables gains offsets handset decline

Apple saw its fourth quarter revenues up by just one per cent from the year before, as it saw declines in iPhone sales ahead of the launch of the iPhone 12.

However, the company said this was still enough for the quarter to set a new revenue record, driven by all-time highs in its Services and Mac categories.

The US tech giant’s revenue for its fiscal fourth quarter was $64.7 billion, up one per cent from the year before, and an increase on $59.7 billion in the previous quarter.

iPhone decline

For the entire fiscal year, Apple’s revenue stood at $274 billion, an increase on $260 billion the previous year. This was driven by sales growth in all of its categories except the iPhone category.

iPhone revenue for the quarter was $26.4 billion, down 20.7 per cent from $33.4 billion year-on-year. For the entire year, iPhone revenue was $137.8 billion, a decrease on the previous year’s $142.4 billion.

Apple CEO Tim Cook said that early responses to the iPhone 12 had been “tremendously positive”.

Elsewhere, Mac and iPad sales were up 29 per cent and 46 per cent to $9.0 billion and $6.8 billion respectively, while wearable and home products revenue was up by 20.8 per cent $7.9 billion.

“Our outstanding September quarter performance concludes a remarkable fiscal year, where we established new all-time records for revenue, earnings per share, and free cash flow, in spite of an extremely volatile and challenging macro environment,” added Apple CFO Luca Maestri.

Regional breakdown

Regionally, Apple saw annual growth for the quarter in every region except for Greater China, where revenues declined from $11.1 billion to $7.96 billion.

Sales were up in every other region, with European revenues growing from $15.0 billion to $16.9 billion, and sales in the Americas increasing slightly from $29.3 billion to $30.7 billion.