Apple iPhone sales rebound pushes quarterly revenue to record high

Sales of new iPhone 11 models drove Apple's quarterly revenues up to $91.8bn

Apple has reported its highest-ever quarterly revenues following a rebound in iPhone sales.

Revenues for its first fiscal 2020 quarter (ending 28 December 2019) increased nine per cent to $91.8 billion, compared to the same quarter a year earlier.

In addition to rising iPhone sales, robust demand for Apple's newer products, including AirPods, the Apple Watch, and subscription services, also contributed to rising revenues. Net income also rose by 11.4 per cent from $19.97 billion to $22.3 billion.

"We are thrilled to report Apple's highest quarterly revenue ever, fuelled by strong demand for our iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro models, and all-time records for Services and Wearables," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO.

"During the holiday quarter our active installed base of devices grew in each of our geographic segments and has now reached over 1.5 billion," he added.

The sale of all models of iPhones weighed in at $55.96 billion, an increase of 7.6 per cent.

The quarter captured the lion's share of the sales of the iPhone 11 Pro Max, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 following their September 2019 launch. This helped reversed a decline in iPhone sales that had been expected to continue.

Apple's service revenues continued to grow in the last three months of 2019. The sales from the Apple App Store and subscription products were up 17 per cent to $12.7 billion, compared to a year ago. Sales in the wearables division increased 37 per cent to nearly $10 billion.

For the second quarter, Apple expects revenues to be in the range of $63 billion to $67 billion, well ahead of the analysts' forecast of $62.4 billion, suggesting that the company believes its handsets and other devices will perform well during what is often considered a slow time of year.

However, there are some concerns that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China could affect iPhone production, with manufacturing concentrated in China. "The situation is emerging, and we're still gathering lots of data points and monitoring it very closely," CEO Tim Cook told Reuters.

Indeed, some Apple suppliers are based in Wuhan, the epicentre of the outbreak, although Apple has so far only shut down one store in China in response. Some third-party stores selling Apple products have also been closed.

Cook also revealed that some Apple suppliers won't re-open until 10^th February as a precaution from the virus.