AP – Apple snapped out of a recent iPhone sales slump during its summer quarter, an early sign that its recent efforts to revive demand for its marquee product with an infusion of artificial intelligence (AI) are paying off.
Sales of the iPhone totalled USD46.22 billion for the July-September period, a six-per-cent increase from the same time last year, according to Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter report released on Thursday.
That improvement reversed two consecutive year-over-year declines in the iPhone’s quarterly sales.
The iPhone boost helped Apple deliver total quarterly revenue and profit that exceeded the analyst projections that sway investors, excluding a one-time charge of USD10.2 billion to account for a recent European Union court decision that lumped the Cupertino, California, company with a huge bill for back taxes.
Apple earned USD14.74 billion, or 97 cents per share, a 36-per-cent decrease from the same time last year. If not for the one-time tax hit, Apple said it would have earned USD1.64 per share – topping the USD1.60 per share predicted by analysts, according to FactSet Research. Revenue rose six per cent from last year to USD94.93 billion, about USD400 million more than analysts forecast.
But investors evidently were hoping for an even better quarter and appeared disappointed by an Apple forecast that implied its revenue for the October-December quarter covering the holiday shopping season might not grow as robustly as analysts envisioned.
Apple’s stock price shed about two per cent in Thursday’s extended trading, leaving the shares hovering around USD221 – well below their peak of about USD237 reached in mid-October. The latest quarterly results captured the first few days that consumers were able to buy a new iPhone 16 line-up that included four different models designed to handle a variety of AI wizardry that the company is marketing as “Apple Intelligence”. The branding is part of Apple’s effort to distinguish its approach to AI from rivals such as Samsung and Google that got a head start on bringing the technology to smartphones.
Even though the iPhone 16 was specifically built with AI in mind, the technology didn’t become available until Apple released a free software update earlier this week that activated its first batch of technological tricks, including a feature designed to make its virtual assistant Siri smarter, more versatile and more colourful. And those improvements are only available in the US for now.
“This is just the beginning of what we believe generative AI can do,” Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook told analysts.
