Yesterday, Apple released the results for its 2021 fiscal third quarter (which ran from March 28, 2021, to June 26, 2021) 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). But this time last year, with so many people buying Apple products during the beginning of the pandemic as they worked and went to school from home, Apple had a record fiscal third quarter. And every quarter since then has been a record quarter for Apple, including the one that just ended. Yesterday, Apple announced that it had its best fiscal third quarter ever, reporting record revenue of $81.4 billion, up an impressive 36% from the $59.7 billion it reported this time last year. If you want to get all of the nitty-gritty details, you can listen to the audio from the announcement conference call on the Apple website, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Apple's official press release is here. Here are the items that stood out to me.
Part of Apple CEO Tim Cook's opening remarks included this statement, which I thought was well-written:
This quarter saw a growing sense of optimism from consumers in the United States and around the world, driving renewed hope for a better future and for all that innovation can make possible. But as the last 18 months have demonstrated many times before, progress made is not progress guaranteed. An uneven recovery to the pandemic and a Delta variant surging in many countries around the world have shown us once again that the road to recovery will be a winding one. In the midst of that enduring adversity, we are especially humbled that our technology has continued to play a key role in keeping our customers connected.
iPhone
- iPhone revenue for the quarter was $39.57 billion, which I believe is an all-time record for a fiscal third quarter. One year ago, it was $26.418 billion, so that's a substantial 50% increase in iPhone revenue from last year.
- Cook said that iPhone sales saw "very strong, double-digit growth in each geographic segment" with high demand for the iPhone 12 line.
- Apple CFO Luca Maestri noted that demand for iPhones "exceed[ed] our own expectations, as the iPhone 12 family continued to be in very high demand."
- Cook noted that more people upgraded their iPhones in the past quarter than in any prior fiscal third quarter.
- To give you some context for the increase in iPhone revenue this past quarter, here is a chart showing the year-over-year percentage change since fiscal 2013 Q1, which is when Apple started reporting this type of revenue in this form. For the past three quarters, Apple seems to be returning to the impressive iPhone revenue growth it last saw in 2014-2015:
iPad
- iPad revenue was $7.368 billion, up 12% from $6.582 billion this time last year.
- Cook said that the "iPad had its highest June quarter in nearly a decade." Maestri noted that Apple saw this result even though there were "significant supply constraints" for parts needed to make the iPad.
- Maestri noted that "with more people working from home, more people studying from home, we know that iPad and Mac demand was very, very strong" in the past quarter.
- When describing some of the new features coming to iPadOS this Fall, Cook noted that "new productivity features make iPad an even more useful tool for multitasking, helping users navigate across apps, split their screen, or use Quick Note to capture a thought, the moment inspiration strikes."
- Here is a chart to show the year-over-year percentage change in iPad revenue since fiscal 2013 Q1, which is when Apple started reporting this type of revenue in this form. Although iPad revenue growth was not nearly as impressive in the most recent quarter as the prior quarter, this most recent quarter along with the prior four quarters showed five consecutive quarters of iPad revenue growth.
Other
- Cook noted that the services sold by Apple had a new all-time revenue record. This includes subscribers to Apple TV+.
- In the past quarter, nearly 75% of people purchasing an Apple Watch were purchasing their first Apple Watch. In China, that number was 85%.