Apple is largely immune to the global supply bottlenecks and continues to grow unchecked. In the Christmas quarter, sales increased by eleven percent to almost 124 billion dollars, which has never been achieved before, as the group announced. iPhone sales accounted for nearly 60 percent. The company benefited above all from good business in China, where, according to Counterpoint consultants, it increased the iPhone market share to 23 percent, higher than ever before. For the first time in six years, Americans sold more smartphones than any other supplier in China.
As recently as October, company boss Tim Cook had warned that the chip crisis was now affecting most Apple products. At the time, he assumed that this could push sales by $6 billion. Ultimately, the effect was even greater, said CFO Luca Maestri of the Reuters news agency. However, restrictions eased in the current quarter.
Apple’s supply problems were primarily limited to semiconductor products from older production processes, Cook said. Such chips are used in power supplies, for example. They quickly became a scarce commodity as demand for computers skyrocketed during the coronavirus pandemic. Because the chip industry had reduced capacities over the years. The situation remains a challenge, emphasized the company boss. However, thanks to its well-organized supply chains, Apple has so far managed to get through the bottlenecks better than many of its competitors.
The smartphone business in particular is booming
Sales and the increase in quarterly profits by 19 percent to $34.6 billion exceeded analysts’ expectations. Apple shares are up nearly 4 percent in after-hours trading, but have lost about 10 percent since the start of the year, amid the general sell-off in tech stocks on Wall Street. Last year, Apple was the first company in the world to surpass the three trillion dollar mark in market value.
Apple was one of the few smartphone providers to launch a new model with the iPhone 13 during the Christmas season. Sales of smartphones rose 9 percent year-on-year to $71.6 billion, Apple said. That was significantly more than analysts expected. According to calculations by the analysis company IDC, Apple, as so often in the Christmas quarter, pushed Samsung out of the top spot in the smartphone business. With around 85 million iPhones sold, Apple had a market share of 23.4 percent. There was also significant growth and record sales for Mac computers, the division with the Apple Watch and accessories, and in the subscription business. The iPad business shrank by 15 percent.