Recently released reports demonstrated another strong showing from Apple as revenue exceeded Wall Street’s projections. The profit growth was largely stimulated by iPhone sales. Estimates for future growth aren’t particularly optimistic according to Katie Benner from the New York Times. Analysts are expressing doubt at the tech behemoth’s capability of maintaining this growth.
A lot of this speculation is spurred by the unwillingness of Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, to discuss how the company plans to increase sales in future months and years.
Apple earned a profit of upwards 11 billion in final fiscal quarter, a 31% increase from 2014. Revenue surpassed $50 billion which marked a 22% increase from this time last year. Apple has stated that they sold about 48 million iPhones in the quarter, up nearly 10 million from 2014. Projections from apple for the upcoming holiday season were relatively bleak. They are project their revenue to stand between $75.5 billion and $77.5 billion in the year-end quarter. In an absolute sense these numbers are gigantic, but they represent just a four percent increase from this time last year.
CEO Tim Cook did not reveal much when he was asked about the company’s expectations for 2016 and beyond. He simply stated that Apple didn’t project past the quarter. Apple stock jumped temporarily after the release, but ultimately flattened out.
The report also showed that sales of Apple’s iPad have been declining as of late. Additionally, it did not reveal the exact sales of the Apple Watch as they chose to place it in the “other products” category. Wall Street analyst, Ben Bajarin suggests that these numbers align with expectations and believes that the tech giant sold between 3.5 million and 4 million watches over the final quarter.
China continues to serve as one of apple fastest growing markets. Sales in China increased by nearly 100% to $12.5 billion. The market now accounts for nearly a fourth of the company’s global revenue.
