Information Technology iPad helps Apple overcome iPhone decline
Apple made slightly less money with its iPhones last quarter - but the iPad tablets more than filled the gap.
02.08.2024, 07:03
SDA
Group turnover rose by five percent year-on-year to 85.5 billion dollars. The bottom line was a profit of 21.45 billion dollars (19.9 billion euros), around eight percent more than a year ago.
iPhone sales fell by one percent year-on-year to around 39.3 billion dollars. Apple thus exceeded analysts' expectations.
I-Pad boost with new models
However, the star of the quarter in Apple's product range was the iPad - after the company launched a new high-performance Pro model and a new edition of the iPad Air.
Sales of the tablet jumped by almost a quarter year-on-year to 7.16 billion dollars. Analysts had expected half a billion dollars less on average.
Mac computers were also a bright spot, with sales up 2.4 percent to a good seven billion dollars. Apple emphasizes that there is still a large market to be developed: With both the iPad and the Mac, more than half of buyers had purchased one of the devices for the first time.
AI functions as an incentive to buy
Apple wants to bring new functions based on artificial intelligence to its devices from the fall. Some of the AI innovations have high hardware requirements: They should, of course, run on new iPhone models - but at least an iPhone 15 Pro from last year will be required. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call with analysts that this could give customers a reason to buy new iPhones.
Rival Huawei regains strength in China
Apple had recently lost ground in the large smartphone market of China. According to calculations by analysis firm IDC, Apple dropped out of the top 5 smartphone providers in China.
At the top, the Chinese provider Vivo and the resurgent Huawei Group are in a neck-and-neck race, each with a good 18% market share. Apple's revenue in the China region fell by more than six percent to 14.73 billion dollars.
At the same time, Cook emphasized that he is nevertheless confident about the market in the long term. For example, iPhones have recently been the most popular smartphone models in cities.
