Credit: Brett Jordan
Apple beat analysts’ expectations for the first quarter, reporting record $20.9 billion in revenue from its services segment, which includes Apple Music.
Although analysts expected a troubled fiscal quarter, the tech giant beat Apple expectations in the March quarter of 2023 with sales of $94.8 billion. While that number was down 3 percent year-over-year, Apple’s services segment — which includes Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade, among others — reported revenue of $20.9 billion for the quarter, a new record.
“We are pleased to report an all-time record for services and a record March quarter for iPhone, despite the difficult macroeconomic environment, and that our installed base of active devices reached an all-time high,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We continue to invest for the long term and move forward with our values, including making major strides towards building carbon neutral products and supply chains by 2030.”
The company reported quarterly earnings per share, flat year over year, at $1.52, while expected earnings per share were $1.43. Apple’s reported net income was $24.16 billion, down from $25 billion a year earlier.
“Our business performance improved year-over-year compared to the December quarter and we generated strong operating cash flow of $28.6 billion and returned over $23 billion to shareholders during the quarter,” added Luca Maestri, CFO from Apple, added. “Given our confidence in Apple’s future and the value we see in our stock, our board has authorized an additional $90 billion in share repurchases. We are also increasing our quarterly dividend for the eleventh year in a row.”
iPhone sale Smartphone sales were expected to fall about 4% due to economic challenges that prompted consumers to cut back on spending, but smartphone sales rose 1.5% year over year to 51.3 billion US Dollar – an all-time high for a March quarter. Conversely, sales of Mac products fell 31% to $7.2 billion, while iPad sales fell 13% to $6.7 billion.
Apple made the results of its quarterly financial conference available via live streaming, the webcast of which is available available for playback then for about two weeks.