Apple posts record revenue from iPhone, Services, but iPad and Mac sales declined

Apple has published its earnings for the fourth quarter of Fiscal 2023. The company posted a record revenue of $89.5 Million for the previous quarter. But, Apple's net sales only summed up to $383.2 Million, which was lesser than last year's performance of $394.3 Million, i.e. it declined by 2.8% year-over-year.

iPhone impresses in sales, but Mac and iMac saw their numbers drop

So, which products contributed more to these numbers? Unsurprisingly, the most popular product was the iPhone with a net sales values of $43,805 for the quarter ending September, it also grew 2.8% over September 2022's numbers. This is likely a result of a boost in sales thanks to the recent iPhone 15 line-up's launch. But, the annual sales were actually down by 2.4% YoY. Apple had made $200.5 Million this year from iPhone sales, but the previous year's sales were higher at $205.4 Million.

Apple continues to see a slump in Mac sales which went down 33.8% compared to the previous September's numbers $11.5 Million, the Cupertino company only managed to make $7,614 from Mac in September 2023. The year-over-year decline was 26.9% ($29.3 Million v $40.1 Million).

(Data via Apple)

There are a couple of reasons why Mac sales could have declined in the quarter ending September. Apple had launched the M2 Mac in Q4 of the previous fiscal year. Macs are expensive, and unlike iPhone, users don't upgrade their Mac every year. Apple announced a new M3 iMac, and M3 MacBook Pro models last week, but these will only be taken into account for the current quarter, i.e., Q1, FY 2024.

The iPad did not fare any better either with a 10.2% decline in the September sales ($6.4 Million v $7.1 Million), but the YoY decline was only 3.4% ($28.3 Million v $29.2 Million). The Wearables, Home and Accessories declined by 3.4% despite posting $9.3 Million in September 2023, compared to $9.6 Million in September 2022. The YoY numbers declined by the same percentage, with $39.8 Million in FY 2033 v $41.2 Million in FY 2022. iPad has not exactly seen major improvements over the recent years, and the software experience is likely to be blamed. What good are iPadOS limitations, when it cannot take advantage of its powerful Apple Silicon chips? Apple has made some strides in gaming with the recent iPhone 15 Pro which supports ray tracing, and other improvements. Perhaps, this could make iPadOS a proper gaming tablet, but it will still need more than that to be an actually useful device like a Mac.

Apple Services sales were exceptionally good

Apple Services saw a 16.3% increase with $22,314 billion in September 2023, over last September's $19,188 Billion. It grew 9.1% YoY with a revenue of $85.2 Million in FY 2023 as opposed to $78.2 Million from 2022. Remarkably, Apple nearly earned more from its Services than it made from sales from Mac, iPad and Wearables put together.

For context, Apple Services include various products including the App Store, digital subscriptions such as iCloud, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, Apple Music, Apple News+. Apple Pay and Apple Card would also fall under the category. It is worth noting that these numbers, while impressive, are from before the recent price hike for the digital services, so the record for the current quarter may be even higher.

You can download the Consolidated Financial Statements for the fourth quarter results from Apple's website. Experts have predicted that the personal computer market will improve in this quarter, so Apple's Mac sales could finally be on the rise after seeing it drop in consecutive quarters over the past year.

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