Earlier this month, Apple released the results for its 2024 fiscal first quarter (which ran from October 1, 2023, to December 30, 2023, and did not actually include any days from calendar year 2024) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. I have not yet had a chance to report on these results, and even though they came out a few weeks ago, there are a few interesting tidbits in there worth discussing. The fiscal first quarter is always Apple's best quarter of the year because it includes holiday sales. And with $119.6 billion in revenue, it was the second-best quarter in the history of the company, second only to $123.9 billion in Q1 2022 (which was based on the last three months of 2021). As always, I'm not all that interested in the financial details. What interests me is that this is one of four times a year when Apple answers questions from a bunch of analysts, so I'm always curious to see what Apple has to say about the iPhone and iPad and related technologies. 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. Snell also created a number of useful charts that put Apple's financial announcements in perspective over time. Apple's official press release is here. Here are the items that stood out to me.
iPhone
- iPhone revenue was $69.7 billion. This was the second-best iPhone quarter ever, second only to $71.6 billion two years ago.
- Cook said that an all-time record number of people upgraded their iPhone to a new model last quarter.
- Here is how Apple CEO Tim Cook described the new line of iPhones. Yes, there is a certain degree of marketing in this statement, but it is still interesting to hear the features that Apple thinks are worth pointing out: "The iPhone 15 lineup has earned glowing reviews and been embraced by customers. The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus feature a gorgeous new design with color-infused back glass and contoured edges, Dynamic Island, A16 Bionic, and a new 48-megapixel camera system. And the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max set the gold standard for smartphones with a beautiful and lighter titanium design, industry-leading performance with A17 Pro, and our most advanced camera system with the equivalent of seven pro lenses and the ability to record spatial video. Features like Emergency SOS and roadside assistance via satellite bring peace of mind to users when they travel, and I’m grateful for every note I’ve received about their life-saving impact."
iPad
- iPad revenue was $7 billion, down substantially (25%) from the one year ago all-time record of $9.4 billion.
- Considering that Apple didn't introduce any new iPad models in 2023, I guess one could argue that it is impressive that it managed to sell $7 billion worth of iPads without any new designs. Don't get me wrong, even the iPad on sale right now is a fantastic device, but the rumor is that Apple will introduce new iPads perhaps as soon as March 2024, and new models always spark additional iPad purchases.
Other
- This quarterly results announcement occurred on February 1, 2024, the day before the Vision Pro officially went on sale. Apple CFO Luca Maestri said: "With the upcoming launch of Apple Vision Pro, we are seeing strong excitement in enterprise. Leading organizations across many industries, such as Walmart, Nike, Vanguard, Striker, Bloomberg, and SAP have started leveraging and investing in Apple Vision Pro as the new platform to bring innovative spatial computing experiences to their customers and employees. From everyday productivity to collaborative product design to immersive training, we cannot wait to see the amazing things our enterprise customers will create in the months and years to come."
- In these calls, Apple executives routinely decline requests to talk about what Apple will be doing in the future. And yet Cook did promise something in the AI field for later this year: "As we look ahead, we will continue to invest in … technologies that will shape the future. That includes artificial intelligence, where we continue to spend a tremendous amount of time and effort, and we’re excited to share the details of our ongoing work in that space later this year. ... In terms of generative AI, which I would guess is your focus, we have a lot of work going on internally as I’ve alluded to before. Our M.O., if you will, has always been to do work and then talk about work and not to get out in front of ourselves, and so we’re going to hold that to this as well. But we’ve got some things that we’re incredibly excited about that we’ll be talking about later this year." That may not sound like much, but it is more than Apple normally says about what it will be doing in the future.
