Apple smashed past Wall Street’s estimates in its fiscal fourth quarter with $102.47 billion in revenue, marking an 8% jump from the same period last year. The company also delivered $1.85 in earnings per share, beating the expected $1.77.
But the China region didn’t play along. Sales from Greater China, which includes mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, fell by 4% year-over-year, coming in at $14.49 billion.
Despite all the headline numbers, Apple shares didn’t move much in after-hours trading. Flat. Probably because the iPhone didn’t hit the mark analysts were hoping for, even though the overall haul looked good on paper.
The iPhone brought in $49.03 billion, which sounds massive until you realize analysts expected $50.19 billion. That said, it was still up 6% from last year’s iPhone revenue, with the new iPhone 17 lineup only having a little over a week of sales in this quarter. But CEO Tim Cook blamed supply issues for the shortfall.
“Currently, we’re supply constrained on several models of the iPhone 17,” Tim said.
Mac and services grow, while iPad and other products lag
Looking at the other business lines, the Mac division had a solid run, pulling in $8.73 billion, slightly ahead of the $8.59 billion estimate and showing 13% growth year-over-year.
Tim linked that jump to strong demand for the MacBook Air, which got a refresh back in March and a $100 price cut, bringing the entry point down to $999.
The iPad segment, however, was almost frozen. Apple made $6.95 billion, falling just short of the $6.98 billion target. And that’s not surprising, considering no new iPads dropped during the quarter. The new iPad Pro with the M5 chip didn’t arrive until October, which means those sales won’t show up until Q1 of fiscal 2026.
Other Products, the bucket that includes AirPods, Apple Watch, and Vision Pro, reached $9.01 billion, slightly better than the $8.49 billion forecast but down slightly from previous levels. Nothing explosive there.
But the big winner? Services. Apple’s fastest-growing segment hit $28.75 billion, cruising past the $28.17 billion expectation. That includes App Store revenue, Apple Music, iCloud, AppleCare, payment fees, Google search licensing, and more. Services revenue grew 15%, and Tim didn’t hold back on how confident he felt about it.
“It was a run of the table,” he said.
He also noted that growth across the components inside the Services unit is picking up speed.
Cook projects record-breaking December quarter
Tim isn’t worried about the China dip, either. He thinks things will bounce back.
“We expect China to return to growth this quarter because of the reception of the iPhone there, or the iPhone 17 family,” he said.
Apple’s forecast for the December quarter is where things get even louder. Analysts were looking for $132.31 billion in revenue and $2.53 earnings per share. Apple expects to beat both. The company guided for 10–12% revenue growth, which would bring December quarter sales to around $137.97 billion—the highest ever.
“We expect total company revenue to grow by 10 to 12% year over year, we expect iPhone revenue to grow double digits, year over year, and we expect that that would make the December quarter the best ever in the history of the company,” Tim said.
He pointed to early signs of strong performance from the iPhone 17, noting store traffic is “up significantly year on year.” Apple’s got momentum going into the holidays, and Tim said global consumer enthusiasm is high.
Tim also confirmed that Siri will get a major update next year, and more AI integrations are coming. That includes OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which will be built into Apple Intelligence.
“Our intention is to integrate with more people over time,” Tim added.
And when asked if the Trump-era tariffs forced Apple to change prices, Tim said no.
“We held the pricing that we would have done without any tariffs, and we’re just absorbing the tariffs in gross margin.”
Apple’s gross margin came in at 47.2%, better than the expected 46.4%.
Net income jumped too, hitting $27.46 billion, compared to $14.29 billion a year earlier. That difference? Mostly due to a one-time tax charge that hit last year’s bottom line.
For fiscal 2025 overall, Apple booked $416 billion in revenue, a 6% gain over 2024. Not record-shattering, but definitely climbing. The September quarter alone accounted for that 8% year-over-year lift.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/apples-q4-revenue-beats-at-102-5-billion/