Apple Calls Sharp Slowdown

Apple forecast that sales in the quarter ending December 29th will reach between 89 billion and 93 billion US dollars, which would represent a year-on-year increase of between 1% and 5%. "This range reflects a number of factors," said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO. "First, ... the launch timing of our new iPhones this year versus last year. Second, we expect almost 2 billion dollars of foreign exchange headwinds. Third, we have an unprecedented number of products ramping, and while our ramps are going fairly well, we have uncertainty around supply and demand balance. And fourth, we also face some macroeconomic uncertainty, particularly in emerging markets."

Apple reported a 20% year-on-year increase in revenues for the quarter ending September 29th to 62.9 billion dollars, driven primarily by a 29% rise in iPhone revenues. However, iPhone unit shipments were flat year-on-year. Even so, Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, told analysts that Apple's installed base is growing at "double digit", driving growing demand for services, such as Apple Pay, Apple Music and the App Store.

Services revenue rose 27% on a like-for-like basis to almost 10 billion dollars in the quarter ending September 29th. “We concluded a record year with our best September quarter ever, growing double digits in every geographic segment," said Maestri.  "We set September quarter revenue records for iPhone and Wearables and all-time quarterly records for Services and Mac.” Source: Apple statement