Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2019 fiscal third quarter (which ran from March 31, 2019 to June 29, 2019) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. This is typically not a big fiscal quarter for Apple; the important quarter for Apple every year is the first fiscal quarter (containing the holiday sales season). During the fiscal third quarter, most potential Apple customers — which for the most part means iPhone customers — are waiting to see what new products Apple will introduce in the Fall. Even so, Apple had their best fiscal third quarter ever, with quarterly revenue of $53.8 billion, just slightly more than one year ago when Apple reported a record $53.3 billion. If you want to get all of the nitty gritty details, you can download the audio from the announcement conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Seeking Alpha, or a transcript prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Apple's official press release is here. As always, I'm not as interested in the financial details as I am the statements of Apple executives during the call that are of interest to iPhone and iPad users. Here are the items that stood out to me.
iPhone
- Apple is no longer reporting each quarter the number of iPhones sold. Apple is reporting iPhone revenue, and while iPhone revenue this past quarter was $26 billion, which is down 12% from this time last year, that is better than three months ago when that revenue was down 17% from the previous year. And Cook said that in the last month of this past quarter (June) iPhone sales were increasing year-over-year in Apple's retail and online stores.
- Cook noted that just last week, Apple purchased the majority of Intel's smartphone modem business. This was Apple's largest ever acquisition in terms of staff, and second largest in terms of dollars. The modem is obviously a central part of every iPhone, and Cook said that this acquisition is consistent with Apple's "long-term strategy of owning and controlling the primary technologies behind the products that we make."
- When asked about a 5G iPhone, Cook responded that he wouldn't comment on future products, but he would say that "I think most people would tell you we're in sort of the extremely early innings of it."
iPad
- iPad revenue for the past quarter was just over $5 billion, up from $4.9 billion last quarter and up from $4.6 billion in the 2018 fiscal third quarter. This was the third consecutive quarter of iPad revenue growth.
- Cook pointed out that Apple has a strong iPad lineup, with the iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Air, and iPad Pro. I agree; Apple has a great range of iPad devices right now.
Other
- Cook said that Apple had "an absolutely blowout quarter for Wearables, where we had accelerating growth of well over 50%." So folks are buying Apple Watches and AirPods.
- Apple Watch sales were at a record level this past fiscal quarter, and over 75% of customers buying an Apple Watch were buying their first Apple Watch.
- Apple Pay is now completing nearly 1 billion transactions every month. I myself am using it more and more, but given that number, I'm not the only one. Apple Pay now works in 47 countries/markets.
- Apple will start rolling out its new credit card, Apple Card, in August.
Finally, if you want to see some interesting charts that provide a graphical overview of this past fiscal quarter, check out this post by Jason Snell of Six Colors.
