Apple first quarter revenues decline as iPhone revenues drop 15 per cent

Apple points to wearables and services as iPhone sales fall in China and Europe

Apple has reported a first-quarter decline in revenues of five per cent, caused by a 15 per cent drop in iPhone sales.

Total revenues weighted in at £84.31 billion during the quarter, down from the $88.3 billion achieved in the same quarter last year.

The results follow on from a profits warning issued at the start of the year, which warned that revenues would weigh-in around the $84 billion mark. In that warning, the company attributed the tougher sales conditions to differences in timings of major product releases compared to the previous year, and a fall in sales in China.

Indeed, sales in the Greater China region fell from $17.86 billion to $13.17 billion, and also fell by 3.3 per cent to $20.36 billion in Europe and by 4.5 per cent to $6.91 billion in Japan.

However, the company was keen to point to sales of the Mac laptop and desktop computers, which have rebounded following a series of launches last year, which increased by 8.7 per cent to $7.42 billion. The Wearables, Home and Accessories category also enjoyed a strong sales increase, up by one-third to $7.3 billion.

Sales of the iPad also look to have modestly increased, an upturn that follows on from several years of decline.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was also keen to point to increasing sales in services, which encompass such services as iCloud, Apple Pay and iTunes.

Revenues for iCloud increased by 40 per cent, compared to the same quarter last year, while around 1.8 billion sales were transacted using Apple Pay, twice the number of the year-ago quarter. Apple Music, meanwhile, now boasts more than 50 million subscribers. All that helped add up to services revenues up from $9.13 billion to $10.9 billion in the first quarter.