Apple has posted quarterly revenue of US $61.1 billion in the last quarter of financial year 2018 (Q4FY18), an increase of 16% from the year-ago quarter, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $2.73, up 30%. International sales accounted for 65% of the quarter’s revenue, Apple said.
Of these, iPhone revenue were up by 14%, services up 31% and wearables up almost 50%. iPhone specifically performed well, $100 billion in revenues in the fiscal half, an increase of $12 billion over last year. According to CEO Tim Cook, customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter. He added that this is the first cycle in which the top of the line iPhone model has also been the most popular, since Apple split the line with the launch of iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014.
Geography-wise, Greater China and Japan performed well, with revenue up by more than 20%. On being asked about the Indian market, Cook said that as it is the third largest smartphone market in the world, there’s huge opportunities, and that Apple has an extremely low share in that market overall. He added that the company is putting a lot of energy there and working with the carriers, who are investing in LTE networks. Apple’s objective for the Indian market is to go in with all of its initiatives.
“Our Board has approved a new $100 billion share repurchase authorization and a 16 percent increase in our quarterly dividend,” Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO said. The company will complete the execution of the previous $210 billion share repurchase authorization during the third fiscal quarter.
Services
Cook said that Q2FY18 was Apple’s best quarter ever for services, and added that the momentum has continued. Revenue from services crossed $9 billion for the first time, up by more than $2 billion year-on-year. Apple had all-time record revenue from the App Store, from Apple Music, from iCloud, from Apple Pay and more, which Cook said, was a powerful illustration of the importance of Apple’s huge active installed base of devices and the loyalty and engagement of its customers.
Across all services, paid subscriptions surpassed 270 million, up over 100 million from a year ago and up $30 million in the last 90 days alone, contributing to the overall increase in services revenue, Apple reported. Apple Pay continues its strong growth with active users more than doubling and transactions tripling year-over-year.
