Apple’s quarterly statistics are finally in. And, after a long haul of beating analyst expectations and blowing away all estimates, for the first time in last couple of years, Apple has not been able to live up to investor expectations. The gross revenue of the company has dropped significantly; lower than expected.
Over the last few years, Apple’s chief revenue stream has been from iPhone sales. Whereas Apple’s tablet stands right at the top in the tablet market, iPhone sales still were far more lucrative as compared to iPad sales. And that is precisely what has wrecked Apple’s overall earnings during the third quarter.
We are gradually nearing the anticipated launch of iPhone 5 in October. Naturally, a lot of prospective iPhone buyers are holding their breaths and waiting. They are no longer in queue for an iPhone 4S because they know that the next big thing from Apple will be out soon. And thus, that has adversely affected iPhone sales, and Apple’s overall sales.
This ‘transition’ has affected Apple’s finances significantly. When Wall Street analysts were pegging Apple’s quarterly revenue at $37.1 billion, Apple ended up with $35 billion. This translates to an earning per share of $9.32, against the expected $10.36.
iPhone sales, which were expected to go to 29 million, despite anticipation for iPhone 5, went only as far as 26 million. The good part for Apple was iPad sales, which was well beyond expectations. The company sold 17 million iPad tablets even when the most optimistic expectation was 16 million iPad units.
However, Apple’s chief, Tim Cook, seems to be in good spirits. At the quarterly conference call, he said, “We’re thrilled with record sales of 17 million iPads in the June quarter. We’ve also just updated the entire MacBook line, will release Mountain Lion tomorrow and will be launching iOS 6 this fall. We are also really looking forward to the amazing new products we’ve got in the pipeline.”
Despite having released new MacBook models and the truly mesmerizing MacBook Pro with Retina Display, the sales of Macs wasn’t affected much and experienced a growth of a mere two percent over the year-ago quarter.
Naturally, Tim Cook sees a brighter and more prosperous future for Apple; thanks, in part, to the much-anticipated and eagerly awaited launch of the next iPhone.
Source: Apple
Courtesy: Business Insider
