With the March quarter of 2021 having wrapped up, tech companies are announcing their quarterly results. Most of these companies have had a blast in the last 3 months, thanks to easing restrictions and businesses returning to normal. Apple, the company behind the iPhone, is no exception .
The Cupertino tech giant announced on Wednesday that it had a “blowout quarter” with a 54% increase in revenue year-over-year. The company’s profits beat Wall Street’s estimates, and the Tim Cook led company is having the time of its life.
The company generated a revenue of $89.58 billion, significantly higher as compared to the estimate of $77.36 billion. Out of this, the company’s main product line, the iPhones, contributed to $47.94 billion.
The gross margin too, was much better as compared to the estimate of 39.8%, reaching 42.5%.
Double digit growth was seen across all Apple product offerings, with the iPhone line alone shooting up by a whopping 65.5% as compared to last year. However, the winners were the Mac laptop series and the iPad, with the former recording a growth of 70.1% as compared to the last fiscal year, and the latter notching a record 79% growth.
With such a strong balance sheet at the end of the quarter, Apple has announced its plans of increasing its dividend, or the money it has bid per stock, by 7%, to make the value hit $0.22 per stock. It also ordered share buybacks worth $90 billion, around $60 billion higher than the $30 billion it had kept aside for the purpose last year.
The company has not, as of yet, announced what it expects from business in terms of revenue, for the next quarter which wraps up in June. This is in line with its behavior since the start of the pandemic, with the reason being “business uncertainty.” Nevertheless, the newly launched iMac and iPad Pro lines, which were both introduced in March, are not a part of the sales data for the first quarter, and are expected to provide a boost to the sales in the June quarter.
Additionally, company CFO Luca Masteri has expressed hopes of another double digit growth, even as the company faces shortage of products due to the worldwide chip shortage.
The reason for Apple’s growth in the past few months has been in part due to the pandemic, as reasoned by the company itself, which claims that people buying computers and other gadgets for working and entertainment at home, has helped boost sales. According to CEO Tim Cook, the amazing rise in the sales of the Mac was made possible due to the launch of some of the line’s latest products, which make use of Apple’s own M1 chip, instead of relying on the chips made by Intel. The company claims that these chips allow the Mac to have a much longer battery life.
Cook said, “This quarter reflects both the enduring ways our products have helped our users meet this moment in their own lives, as well as the optimism consumers seem to feel about better days ahead for all of us,” further adding, “We’re seeing strong first-time buyers on the Mac … it continues to run just south of 50%. And, in China, it’s even higher than that … it’s more around two-thirds. And that speaks to people preferring to work on the Mac.”
Speaking of China, sales went up by 87% year-over-year in greater China, including the mainland, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan. Sales in all other geographical zones went up as well.
One the metrics for increased sales is the increased number of subscriptions, through offerings like Apple One, as well as to its App Store. Cook said in a statement, “We now have over 660 million paid subscriptions across the services on the platform, and that’s up 40 million from the previous quarter, which is an acceleration from 35 million.”
