Apple on the charge with record sales

Demand for iPhones helped Apple post record sales for the fourth quarter, ­surpassing Wall Street expectations.
The world’s most valuable public company, with a stock market worth of $3.5 trillion, reported overall sales of $94.9 billion in the three months to the end of September, beating analyst ­estimates of around $94.4 billion.
Sales generated by the iPhone, which typically amount to about half the ­company’s business, rose 5.5 per cent year-on-year to $46.2 billion.
Net income fell almost 36 per cent to $14.7 billion after Apple recorded a one-time income tax charge of $10.2 billion related to a European Union ruling over its tax affairs in Ireland.
Although Apple reported a strong quarter, investors showed their disappointment by marking the shares down 1.1 per cent to $223.48 in after-hours trading in New York. Big technology shares have been sold off heavily this week, leaving the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite index down 2.8 per cent on Thursday and 0.5 per cent lower over the month.
Apple’s iPad sales increased by 7.9 per cent to $6.95 billion while the MacBook generated sales of $7.7 billion, up 1.7 per cent. The services division, which ­includes the App store, Apple Music and Apple TV, grew 11.9 per cent to a record $24.97 billion.
Sales rose in every region except for China, where they were down 0.3 per cent, missing Wall Street expectations. Investors have been betting on the prospect that Apple’s AI developments will boost sales of its devices. This week the iPhone maker began introducing its AI features, known as Apple Intelligence, as part of software updates.
These include an improved Siri voice assistant and tools such as text proof-reading. Additional features will be introduced in the coming months.
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief ­executive, said that Apple Intelligence “supercharges our line-up heading into the holiday season”. During the last quarter, Apple introduced the iPhone 16 and an updated Apple Watch and ­Airpods, which Cook said include “remarkable features for hearing health and sleep apnoea detection”.
On Wednesday, Apple unveiled new MacBook Pro models that feature more powerful processors for tasks such as photo and video editing, aiming to bolster its appeal among creative professionals.
The tech stock sell-off came after Meta Platforms and Microsoft signalled on Wednesday that their spending spree on AI technology and infrastructure would continue. However, Microsoft forecast slower quarterly cloud revenue growth, which it put down to the challenges of launching data centres quickly enough to keep up with demand for AI services.
Apple was founded in a California garage in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Jobs was driven out of the business in the mid-1980s but returned a decade later and rescued it from near bankruptcy, with its share price below $1 and a stock market value of less than $2 billion.
Cook took over as chief executive in 2011, shortly before Jobs’s death. At the time of succession, Apple was valued at $300 billion.
Gil Luria, head of technology research at DA Davidson, an investment firm, said: “Apple will need to introduce the new AI features soon in order to drive holiday sales. If iPhone growth continues to accelerate, that will translate not only to higher margins but also to faster growth in related products such as wearables and services.”