Apple’s sales have weathered the economic storm well this summer, but the Californian giant is anticipating a holiday season somewhat marred by the strong dollar.
The company exceeded market expectations on Thursday with 90 billion dollars in turnover (+8% over one year) and 20.7 billion in net profit made from July to September.
The Californian group also saw sales of the iPhone, its flagship product, increase by 9.7%, to 42.6 billion dollars, in the fourth quarter of its staggered fiscal year, but analysts expected 43 billion.
Its services activity, which notably includes the App Store and iCloud, also disappointed slightly with 19 billion in turnover instead of 20.
The company’s share declined very slightly during electronic trading after the close of trading, before stabilizing around +1%.
“We have reached a new record for our base of devices in service,” said Tim Cook, the company’s boss, during the conference call with analysts.
He highlighted a “record” number of customers who traded in their smartphone or tablet to acquire a more recent model.
“I am also happy to inform you that the problems with the supply of electronic components have not been significant,” he added.
The Apple brand, however, is not completely immune to the global economic crisis.
The negative impact of the strong dollar should thus be accentuated during the festive season: “we expect that the effects of exchange rates will have a negative impact of almost 10 percentage points over one year”, warned the chief financial officer of ‘Apple, Luca Maestri.
– “Prestigious” –
The international group is suffering from the strong dollar for its sales outside the United States because the conversion into dollars of income generated abroad in other currencies depends on the exchange rate, which has depreciated for almost all currencies against the greenback.
“Mac revenue will decline substantially in the current quarter compared to last year,” when the company released a new laptop, the manager said.
CFRA analyst Angelo Zino still expects a “solid” year-end for the brand. “His presence allows him to increase his prices for consumers on all his devices and services”, he detailed.
Mobile phone sales have gone through their worst summer since 2014 and demand is unlikely to improve in the coming months due to inflation, according to Canalys.
For the period from July to September, Apple was the only brand to substantially increase its market share, to 18% of the global cake, behind the South Korean giant Samsung (22%).
The only downside, the new range presented in September would be less in demand than expected: according to the specialized information site The Information, Apple had to reduce the production of iPhone 14+.
“Orders for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14+ were poor, but those for the pro models exceeded our expectations,” commented Angelo Zino. “We believe Apple’s smartphones will hold up better than the competition,” he added.
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