Apple’s sales figures for the fourth quarter of 2023 signal that this giant of the technology industry, under the management of Tim Cook, is finally starting to take steps along roads of success, which was something like a natural environment for this company for a long time, but has recently become an inaccessible or hard-to-reach space.
Last Thursday, February 1, the mentioned brand reported its first sales growth in a year. This unequivocally positive result is due to factors such as record revenues from the App Store and other services. At the same time, the tech giant continues to face difficulties in the Chinese market. In this case, the critical sensitivity of the specified negative circumstance is explained by the fact that for Apple the mentioned Asian country is one of the main commercial spaces in the global area, generating a significant portion of income.
Apple reported earnings per share of $2.18 for the fourth quarter of 2023. This figure is a record for the company. Analysts had forecast earnings per share of $2.11.
The tech giant’s revenue for the fourth quarter of last year was recorded at $119.6 billion. This figure is 2% higher than the result for the same period in 2022.
Analysts predicted that the tech giant’s revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 would be $117.9 billion.
The tech giant is currently preparing for the debut of an augmented reality headset called Vision Pro. This is the most significant new product of the company in recent years. The technology giant plans to make this development a mandatory element in the structure of home electronics. Over the past five years, the company has spent about $100 billion on research and development of this device, which will cost $3,499 in the United States market.
In the context of Apple’s revenue growth, for the first time in a year, the Chinese market has become a weak spot, which at the same time does not negate the overall positive result. In the last quarter of 2023, the tech giant’s revenue in the Asian market decreased by 13% year-on-year. At the same time, the company’s sales figures in Japan and Europe showed growth.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that the positive results for the fourth quarter of last year are based on a high level of consumer interest in the iPhone and record revenue from the brand’s services unit. He also said that the installed number of active devices of the company currently exceeds 2.2 billion, which is a record figure in all products and geographical segments.
Net iPhone sales in the fourth quarter of last year totaled $69.7 billion. Over the same period in 2022, this figure was fixed at $65.7 billion.
Jesse Cohen, Senior Analyst at the company Investing.com suggests that the negative result of the technology giant in China is evidence that the demand for the brand’s devices in this country demonstrates the dynamic of slowdown, which turned out to be more extensive than the preliminary expectations of the pace of the corresponding process. Currently, in the Asian country, Apple is facing increased competition from the local manufacturer Huawei.
Jesse Cohen says that nowadays there is no understanding of whether the situation in the Chinese market is a temporary state of affairs or signals the beginning of a fundamental transformation in the consumer environment. In this context, the expert separately noted that rising interest rates and a weak economic background reduce the desire to make expensive purchases.
Tim Cook expressed concern about the decline in his company’s sales in China. At the same time, he expressed an optimistic vision of the prospects for activities in this country from the point of view of the long-term planning horizon.
As we have reported earlier, Apple Reportedly Makes Push to Bring AI to iPhone.
