Apple has come out of the slump in recent iPhone sales in its summer quarter, which is the first sign that its recent efforts to revive demand for its marquee product with the inclusion of artificial intelligence are paying off.
iPhone sales reached $46.22 billion in the July-September period, a 6% increase from the same period last year, according to Apple’s fourth-quarter financial report released Thursday. That improvement reversed two consecutive year-over-year declines in quarterly iPhone sales.
The iPhone boom helped Apple deliver revenue and a full-quarter profit that exceeded the estimates of analysts who influence investors, despite a one-time charge of $10.2 billion to deal with a recent European Union court ruling that charged the Cupertino, California, company with debt. big. with back taxes.
Apple earned $14.74 billion, or 97 cents per share, a 36% decline from the same period last year. If it weren’t for the one-time tax, Apple said it would have earned $1.64 per share—beating the $1.60 per share forecast by analysts, according to FactSet Research. Revenue rose 6% from a year earlier to $94.93 billion, about $400 million more than analysts’ forecast.
But investors were clearly hoping for a better quarter and appeared to be disappointed by Apple’s forecast that said revenue for the October-December quarter that includes the holiday shopping period may not grow as much as analysts thought. Apple’s stock price fell nearly 2% in extended trading Thursday, leaving shares hovering around $221—well below the $237 high reached in mid-October.
The latest quarterly results capture the first few days that consumers have been able to purchase the new iPhone 16 lineup that includes four different models designed to handle the AI wizardry the company is marketing as “Apple Intelligence.” The marketing is part of Apple’s effort to differentiate its AI approach from rivals like Samsung and Google who started by bringing the technology to smartphones.
Even though the iPhone 16 was designed specifically with AI in mind, the technology wasn’t available until Apple released a free update earlier this week that unlocked its first batch of tech tricks, including a feature designed to make its virtual assistant Siri smarter. , flexible and colorful. And that upgrade is only available in the US for now.
“This is just the beginning of what we believe productive AI can do,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told analysts during a call Thursday.
Cook said plans to expand AI iPhone features to other countries in December, as well as release other software updates that will add more technology to the iPhone 16 and two high-end iPhone 15 models are also being specially equipped. computer chips needed for new smart features. The December expansion will include the option to connect to OpenAI’s ChatGPT to use technology that Apple doesn’t develop on its own. Additional languages
Investors are betting that as Apple’s AI becomes more widely available, it will prompt hundreds of millions of consumers using older iPhones to upgrade to newer models to get their hands on the latest technology.
“We believe it’s a strong case for improvement,” Cook asserted. But Investing.com analyst Thomas Monteiro believes iPhone sales would have accelerated if consumers were blown away by Apple’s AI technology, increasing pressure on the company to “do a better job of pleasing the public.”
—Michael Liedtke, AP Technology writer
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