iPhone 13 increases Apple’s sales and profits despite supply issues

Apple on Thursday reported record sales in the year-end quarter, beating estimates as it benefited from strong demand for the iPhone in China and was able to overcome supply chain restrictions and disruptions through the appearance of the Omicron variant.

The CEO, Tim Cookwarned in October that the skip slides affected the manufacture of most of Apple’s products and that could result in a loss of sales of more than $ 6,000 million.

CFO Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview that the effect was more than $ 6 billion, but that the restrictions will ease in the current quarter, which ends in March.

“The level of restriction will depend a lot on other companies, which will be the demand for chips from other companies and other industries. It’s hard for us to predict, so we try to focus on the short term,” he said. .

With few competitive phones debuting in the holiday season, the iPhone 13 Apple brought in global sales revenue of $ 71.6 billion, an increase of 9% from the same period in 2020, which far exceeded the targets Wall streetaccording to Refinitiv data.

Apple’s smartphone market share in China reached a record 23% in the Christmas quarter, during which it was the biggest seller for the first time in six years, the research firm Counterpoint Research reported on Wednesday.

The company’s total fiscal first-quarter revenue was $ 123.9 billion, 11% higher than last year and above analysts’ average estimate of $ 118.7 billion.

Earnings were $ 34.6 billion, or $ 2.10 per share, compared to analysts’ expectations of $ 31 billion, or $ 1.89 per share.

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of digital tools for communication, learning and entertainment, which fueled extraordinary sales for Apple in each of the company’s businesses, including computers, accessories and tablets.

Apple’s services business, which includes payment applications such as Apple TV +, Apple Music Y Apple fitnessalso experienced a major setback.

Services revenue rose 24% to $ 19.5 billion, beating analysts’ estimates of $ 18.6 billion.

The company has 785 million paying subscribers over its offering, compared to 620 million a year ago and 745 million last quarter.

Investors believe the growing services business is helping to mitigate production challenges.