Apple's biggest quarter ever: iPhone is the star, but also the anchor
Be humble, sit down... Yesterday, Tesla reported a respectable $11B in sales for its fourth quarter. Facebook followed up proudly with an expectation-beating $28B in sales. Then Apple stomped in with...
- $111B in sales: It's the first time Apple has crossed the $100B mark for a single quarter. That's nearly 3X Facebook and Tesla's quarterly sales combined.
- $28.8B in profit: Apple's mind-boggling quarterly profit is one of the largest in history for any company. Ever.
All eyes on iPhone (12)... iPhone sales consistently make up over half of Apple's total sales, but they fell in 2019 and 2020. Last quarter, sales for every single product category jumped by double-digit percentage points. And the star of the quarter was (finally) iPhone.
- iPhone sales soared 18% to $66B, driven by the launch of iPhone 12 last fall. Apple's first 5G rectangle spurred a fresh wave of upgrades.
- Apple made $10B more from iPhone sales last quarter than it did in the first quarter of 2020. That $10B extra = more than total Mac sales last quarter.
- Honorable mentions: Services sales (think: App Store, Music) jumped 24% to nearly $16B, making it the 2nd highest-grossing category after iPhone.
iPhone = a profit today + a bonus profit tomorrow... Apple is the most valuable company on Earth, in part thanks to its self-serving ecosystem. Last quarter, iPhones accounted for 58% of Apple's total sales. But each iPhone anchors users into Club Apple's connected world. iPhone sales drive growth for other products, from AirPods to Apple Books. With the recent launch of the "Apple One" subscription, Apple might soon have us more locked in than ever.