Apple on Tuesday posted a June quarter record of $81.4 billion in revenue, up 36 percent year over year. It’s another astonishing quarter in a string of them, but Apple’s share price is nonetheless drifting lower in trading on Wednesday.
Apple posted double-digit growth in all categories and all geographies. In the quarter, iPhone generated revenue of $39.6 billion, up nearly 50%. Apple Services posted $17.5 billion in revenue, up 33%. Revenue grew 33% in the Americas, 34% in Europe, and 58% in Greater China.
So here’s what’s worrying investors.
It starts with the supply chain. Apple warned on its postearnings conference call that September-quarter results would see an increase in the hit to sales from component shortages, with a particular impact on iPhone and iPad. That’s a slightly different message than three months ago, when Apple had warned that sales in the June quarter could be reduced by $3 billion to $4 billion due to the impact of supply chain issues on iPad and Macs.
Meanwhile, Apple warned that overall top-line growth would be slower in the September quarter than in the June quarter. One reason for that is slower growth in services. The company noted that the June quarter benefited from an easy comparison in advertising and Apple Care revenue, which had been hurt a year ago by the pandemic. The comps get tougher from here. And Apple said that it expects that foreign exchange will be three percentage points less favorable this quarter.
MacDailyNews Take: We’re all for irrational free AAPL sales whenever the opportunity presents. In fact, more please!
Own it, don’t trade it.
Again, from the horse’s mouth:
We expect very strong double digit year-over-year revenue growth during the September quarter. We expect revenue growth to be lower than our June quarter year-over-year growth of 36% for three reasons:
First, we expect the foreign exchange impact on our year-over-year growth rate to be three points less favorable than it was during the June quarter.
Second, we expect our services growth rate to return to a more typical level. The growth rate during the June quarter benefited from a favorable compare, as certain services were significantly impacted by the COVID lockdowns a year ago.
And third, we expect supply constraints during the September quarter to be greater than what we experienced during the June quarter. The constraints will primarily impact iPhone and iPad.
We expect gross margin to be between 41.5% and 42.5%. — Apple CFO Luca Maestri, July 27, 2021