(New York) Apple reported stronger-than-expected results on Thursday, with demand for its iPhones remaining robust despite economic fears and logistical challenges ultimately being less than feared.
Posted yesterday at 5:08 p.m.
The computer giant certainly saw its net profit fall by 11% to $19.4 billion.
But the latter came out above analysts’ expectations, as did turnover (83 billion, up 2%).
The title of Apple rose in the wake of more than 3% in electronic trading on Wall Street.
The company sold $40.7 billion worth of smartphones in the third quarter of its lagged fiscal year (April to June), which is slightly more than the same period last year.
Some analysts feared that the ambient economic slowdown would affect demand for Apple brand products, which are generally quite expensive.
But the effects were “contrasting,” said Apple boss Tim Cook during a conference call.
On iPhone sales, there was no “clear evidence” of an impact from the economic difficulties. On Mac and iPad computers, production was too slowed down by logistical constraints for the group to be able to “test demand”. In contrast, revenue from advertising was “clearly affected”, he said.
Apple’s services business, which notably includes the App Store and iCloud, as a whole maintained solid growth (12%).
Sales of Mac computers fell by 10%, as did those of iPad tablets (-2%) and connected objects and clothing (-8%).
The group had warned in April that the disruption caused by the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in China and the shortage of silicone necessary for the manufacture of chips could deprive it of 4 to 8 billion dollars in turnover.
Eventually, the disruption “was less severe than expected,” Cook said.
Revenue growth, also impacted by currency effects and the suspension of sales in Russia, still slowed to its lowest pace since the quarter ended in September 2020.
By geography, Apple saw its revenue grow in North America and Europe but decline in Greater China (which includes Hong Kong and Taiwan) and Japan.
For the current quarter, the group expects its turnover to regain momentum, despite a negative impact of currency effects of around 6%, said CFO Luca Maestri, during the conference call.
Logistical constraints on the production of smartphones, computers and tablets should be less severe than in the previous quarter. Demand for the group’s services, on the other hand, should slow down a little “due to macroeconomic factors and exchange rate effects”, underlined the manager.