Record profit for Apple despite disappointing sales

Apple broke its turnover and profit records in the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ended on 30 December 2017. Nevertheless, there are unfavourable signals, because iPhone sales were below expectations.

One percent fewer iPhones

The American technology company generated an 88.3 billion dollar quarterly turnover (71 billion euro) and a 20.1 billion dollar (16 billion euro) net profit. Those were both beyond analysts’ expectations and are record-setting results.

However, the company ‘only’ sold 77.3 million iPhones, which is a 1 % drop compared to the year before and also well below what analysts had expected at 80.2 million. Considering that the average price was beyond expectations, that suggests that the new iPhone X performed well and that it were in fact the cheaper models that did not sell as well. “We are thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November”, CEO Tim Cook said.

For its current quarter, Apple forecasts a 60 to 62 billion dollar (48 to 50 billion euro) turnover and a 38 to 38.5 % gross margin. Analysts target a 66 billion dollar (53 billion euro) turnover, which means that the company will most likely not be able to meet expectations, even though they are quite high.