Strong iPhone sales aren't enough to offset a big downturn in Mac shipments
iPhone and Services were both big winners, but that wasn't enough to keep revenue from shrinking slightly.
Apple had its second "bad" quarter in a row. Bad, of course, is a relative term — the company's revenues declined again, but Apple is still making a positively massive amount of money. Specifically, the iPhone and Services categories, both of which have been Apple's biggest money-makers for years now, saw revenue gains year-over-year. But this wasn't enough to offset declines everywhere else: the Mac, iPad, and Wearables / Home / Accessories divisions all shrank compared to this time a year ago. As such, Apple's overall revenue dropped a modest three percent year-over-year to $94.8 billion, while net income of $24.2 billion was down less than one percentage point. Like I said, not exactly a bad quarter, but given that the company's sales and profits almost always are up, it's worth noting when they aren't.
The strong iPhone sales (up two percent to $51.3 billion) marked a record the March-ending quarter, despite the fact that the iPhone 14 and 14 Pro arrived last September. And Apple's services business, which has been growing steadily over the past five years to surpass all other products the company offers (besides the iPhone, of course) hit another record with $20.9 billion in revenue (up five percent year-over-year).
Mac sales plummeted from $10.4 billion a year ago to only $7.2 billion this quarter past, down 31 percent overall. That's less than IDC predicted a month ago when it said Mac sales dropped by 40 percent, but the general forecast of hugely diminished interest still rings true. iPad sales weren't hit as hard but still dropped 13 percent to $6.7 billion for the quarter despite major updates to the product lineup last fall. On a call with investors, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that both the iPad and Mac categories faced difficult comparisons with their quarters a year ago because sales were so strong then thanks to product refreshes — specifically the M1 iPad Air and the redesigned, M2-powered MacBook Air.
Finally, the wearables / home category, which encompasses products like AirPods, the Apple Watch and the HomePod lineup, dipped less than one percent, so there aren't any significant red flags around that.
