CUPERTINO (The Thursday Times) — Apple reported its biggest September quarter ever on Monday, with revenue of $114.5 billion, but warned that memory chip prices would keep climbing and that it could not say when buyers of its new foldable iPhone would stop waiting.
Revenue rose 12 percent from a year earlier, and net income reached $30.7 billion. iPhone sales were $57.6 billion, up from $49 billion. Mac sales rose to $10.8 billion and services to $31.6 billion, while sales in Greater China climbed to $17.5 billion from $14.5 billion. For the full year Apple took in $479 billion, a record.
It was John Ternus’s first earnings call since he took over from Tim Cook as chief executive on September 1.
The iPhone Duo wait
The iPhone Duo, Apple’s first foldable, went on sale on October 23, after the quarter ended, so its sales are not in these figures. It sold out on Apple’s website within hours, and customers who did not preorder or queue are now seeing delivery dates in next year.
“It’s really hard to predict when supply and demand will be in balance,” Sabih Khan, Apple’s chief operating officer, told analysts. Apple said it was deepening its partnership with its titanium supplier to help meet demand.
Why devices may cost more
The bigger worry on the call was memory, the chips that hold data in phones and computers. Demand from the AI industry has pushed prices up for every hardware maker. “What we’re seeing with memory pricing right now is unprecedented,” Ternus said, adding that Apple expected “even higher” costs in the December quarter and further increases after that.
Apple already raised prices on Macs and iPads at the end of June and on iPhones in September, decisions Khan said were made “reluctantly”. He did not rule out more. Apple forecast a gross margin of 45 to 46 percent for the December quarter, down from 47.9 percent in the September quarter, a figure that included about one percentage point from tariff refunds.
The company has been stockpiling. Its inventory stood at $14.54 billion, up 154 percent from $5.72 billion a year earlier, and its commitments to buy parts rose by $33 billion between June and September.
Supply limits also hurt the iPad, Apple said. Its sales fell 10 percent to $6.2 billion, below analysts’ expectations of $6.7 billion. Sales of wearables, home products and accessories also fell, to $8.3 billion from $9 billion.
