“Apple announced its Q3 FY2012 results on July 24, exceeding its own guidance but falling short of the market’s rather bullish estimates,” Trefis Team writes for Forbes. “Nevertheless, the quarter was the company’s third best in its history, coming on the back of two of its best quarters ever.”
“Revenues from iPhone sales were up 22% y-o-y but declined almost 30% sequentially due to softness in demand for the higher-margin iPhone 4S as well as seasonality in China following the very successful launch of the same last quarter,” Trefis writes. “iPad sales surprised on the positive with unit sales exceeding 17 million and besting the previous record of 15 million in Q4 2011. However, a deteriorating product mix took a toll on gross margins which fell by over 450 basis points sequentially.”
Trefis writes, “Looking ahead, the company expects to see margins contract further in the next quarter as customers hold off on purchasing an iPhone in anticipation of the release of the iPhone 5 next quarter. However, as was seen last year, customers that held off purchasing an iPhone didn’t necessarily buy a competing product but waited until the launch of the iPhone 4S. Apple’s results last year were back-weighted with almost 40% of iPhone sales coming in Q4 CY2011 alone… Apple talked about a ‘fall transition’ impacting margins in the coming quarter; so the iPhone 5 launch will most likely be scheduled towards the end of Q4 or early Q1. We expect the huge pent-up demand to help Apple more than offset the current loss of sales with a very strong holiday quarter, a la last year.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]