Apple held its quarterly earnings call today where Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri spoke with analysts about the first quarter of 2017. You can read our full transcript if you want to see everything they had to say, or check out our highlights below!
Apple overall
- Apple sold 78.3 million iPhones, 13 million iPads (85 percent of the market share for tablets above $500) and 5.3 million Macintosh computers in the first quarter of 2017. The Company posted all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion.
- Apple products were the most popular devices on Alibaba during Singles Day in China.
- 50 percent of sales in China during the first quarter of 2017 are attributed to switchers from another device maker and first time buyers.
- Cook is hopeful for tax reform during Trump's presidency that would let Apple move its more than $200 billion in cash back to the United States without repercussions.
- When asked about why Apple decided to take Qualcomm to court, Cook noted that he does not like to litigate and view it as a last resort. He said the company felt it didn't have any other choice in this situation. Qualcomm, according to Cook, "insisted on charging royalties for technology they had nothing to do with." Apple felt this type of behavior was making innovation difficult for the company. He likened it to buying a couch and being charged a different price, depending on how much you spent on the house. Cook also noted that Qualcomm had withheld $1 billion owed to Apple as it enforced its model.
Services
- Apple's services offerings are now driving over 150 million paid customer subscriptions.
- ... And, no surprise, the software/services business is predicted to be the size of a Fortune 100 company this year.
- Beginning this quarter, Comcast customers can pay their monthly bill in a single touch with Apple Pay.
- iCloud Storage as a business is growing "very quickly," according to CFO Luca Maestri. (I bet it's because of all those 4K videos in iCloud Photo Library.)
iPhone
- Cook noted that the company "misjudged" the popularity of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, and noted that demand from people switching to iPhone from another device was the highest it had ever been.
- iPhone unit sales grew by "double digits" in the United States, in part thanks to annual upgrade programs.
- Cook's still very bullish on future innovation for the iPhone: "We think different about a bunch of things; maybe this is just one more."
iPad
- Quoth Tim: "If I sort of zoom out of the 90-day clock and look at it, we've got some exciting things coming on iPad." Yay: We're getting new iPads this year! Boo: Probably not in March.
The Mac
- The Mac generated its highest quarterly revenue ever with a lot of buyers entering the Mac ecosystem for the first time.
- Tim Cook referred to the new MacBook Pro models as the "MacBook Touch with Touch Bar." New marketing name?
Wearables
- Q1 2017 was the best quarter ever for Apple Watch, with demand so high they couldn't make enough.
Want more details on Apples Q1 2017 earnings call? Go read our transcript!
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