News
Shipments of all Apple products decline as China slump continues.
Apple predicted a happy holiday season late on Tuesday, and it needs one, after fiscal fourth quarter revenue slipped and product shipments fell across the board.
The U.S. device maker expects to generate revenue of $76 billion-$78 billion (€69.7 billion-€71.5 billion) in the current quarter, more than last year’s record quarterly revenue of $75.9 billion. However, the company expects to see its gross margin narrow to 38%-38.5%, compared to 40.1% a year ago.
Evidently Apple is expecting great things from its Watch Series 2 and the iPhone 7, which both went on sale in select markets on 16 September, too close to the end of Apple’s fiscal Q4 to have any meaningful impact on results.
"We’re thrilled with the customer response to iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2," said Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a statement.
The customer response to any of Apple’s products was not quite so glowing in Q4 though.
iPhone shipments fell 5% year-on-year to 45.5 million, while iPad shipments were down 6% to 9.3 million and Mac shipments fell 14% to 4.9 million. Apple does not disclose unit volumes for its ‘Other Products’ segment, which includes Watch, iPod, Apple TV, Beats headphones, and branded accessories. However, revenue for that category fell 22% year-on-year to $2.37 billion.
Meanwhile, Apple’s services business, which includes Apple Pay, iTunes, the App Store and AppleCare, among others, generated revenue of $6.33 billion, up 24% from a year ago.
The growth in services was not strong enough to offset the decline in product shipments though, and Apple’s quarterly revenue fell to $46.85 billion from $51.5 billion last year. Net income fell to $9.01 billion from $11.12 billion.
On a regional basis, Greater China stood out, with revenue there declining 30% on last year to $8.79 billion. Revenue in the Americas, Apple’s biggest region, fell 7% to $20.23 billion. Europe grew by 3% to $10.84 billion, while Japan revenue increased 10% to $4.32 billion.
For the 12 months to 24 September, Apple generated revenue of $215.64 billion, down from $233.72 billion in fiscal 2015. Net income fell to $45.69 billion from $53.39 billion.
