Although Apple had a Strong Quarter, Revenue Growth is Decreasing

It Made More Money than ever before from its Services Division

After a rocky series of earnings announcements this week, all eyes are on Apple today. Alphabet, the parent firm of Google, missed revenue projections this quarter, while Meta (previously Facebook) had a greater profit than projected. Apple just revealed its financial figures, and the business did well in the second quarter of fiscal year 2022. With revenues of $97.3 billion, it had its highest March quarter yet, up 9% from the same period last year. CEO Tim Cook stated the numbers were "better than we anticipated" on the company's earnings call today. However, it's still a decline from the previous quarter, when it set all-time highs with $123.9 billion in revenue. Apple's income from Services, which includes subscriptions to TV+, Music, and Fitness+, also reached a new all-time high. It's no wonder that TV+ is gaining subscribers, given its recent success on the awards circuit. Because Apple doesn't break down how much money it makes from each service, it's difficult to estimate how big of an impact shows like Coda or Ted Lasso have made. Coda's win at the Academy Awards for Best Picture makes Apple TV the first streaming service to win in that category. The company's other products also performed well, with revenue from Mac, iPhone, and "Wearables, Home, and Accessories" all increasing year over year. Cook mentioned the new Mac Studio and Studio Display that were released in March, as well as the iPhone SE and the iPad Air with M1 processor. On the results call, CFO Luca Maestri also stated that the last seven quarters have been "the strongest seven quarters ever for Mac." Surprisingly, the one area that underperformed was iPad, which brought in $7.6 billion versus $7.8 billion at the same period last year. However, iPads are notorious for their up-and-down performance. The wearables segment was the most eye-catching, with Apple earning $19.8 billion this quarter from sales of AirPods and watches, up from $16.9 billion a year ago. That's more than it earned from Macs this quarter, which totaled $10.4 billion (up from $9.1 billion last year). "Our wearables business has doubled in three years and is nearing the scale of a Fortune 100 firm," Maestri remarked on the call. If you're keeping track, that means Apple made nearly twice as much money in the Services area as it did in the Macs category (apart from iPhones, which brought in around $50.5 billion). Some of the Services earnings, according to Maestri, can be ascribed to a few factors. According to him, the company's "install base has continued to grow, reaching an all-time high across every geographic category." Paid subscriptions climbed as well, with over 825 million paying subscribers across Apple's services presently. 165 million people signed up in the last year, according to Maestri later in the call. The call's question-and-answer segment focused heavily on global supply challenges, and when asked about the long lead time on Mac products, Cook highlighted COVID-related interruptions in China and the ongoing silicon shortage as major factors. "We're not really estimating when we'll be out of the silicon shortage," he said, adding, "I think the COVID portion of it — I'm hoping it's a transient kind of issue, and so I'd hope that gets better over time."