Apple is selling fewer iPhones, but it's making tons of money
The iPhone X wasn't a magic elixir to reinvigorate Apple's iPhone sales, but it wasn't the flop some people were saying it would be.
In Apple's second quarter earnings report, the tech giant saw revenue continue to grow, but its key product, the iPhone, fell just short of sales expectations.
Analysts were predicting 53 million in sales, but this quarter it was a meager 52.2 million. That's a 32 percent drop from the previous quarter, which saw 77.3 million iPhone sales, though there's always a drop-off from the holiday.
It wasn't all bad news, though. Revenue from iPhones was up about $5 billion year-over-year, going from $33 billion to $38 billion, while the number of iPhones sold only increased from 51 million to 52 million -- meaning Apple is generating significantly more money per iPhone than it was last year.
Apple CEO Tim Cook seemed to confirm this in the press release, crediting the iPhone X for leading phone sales: "Customers chose iPhone X more than any other iPhone each week in the March quarter, just as they did following its launch in the December quarter."
Cook reiterated this point in an afternoon earnings call and noted that this is the first product cycle where a "top of the line" iPhone model was the most popular. He called the $999 device "a beloved product." He likened the phone to a winning team despite the tepid earnings numbers. "Maybe you want them to win by a few more points, but it's a Super Bowl winner," he said.
"I could not be prouder of the product," he said about the newest handset.
Cook also highlighted the Chinese market as a big iPhone X driver. The expensive device was the most popular smartphone in China this past quarter.
Other Apple products like the iPad and Mac brought in a sizable portion of the quarterly revenue, but compared to the previous holiday quarter those products dropped off. Apple's wireless headphones, its new speaker, the HomePod, and the Apple Watch together with other products saw revenue growth, up more than 30 percent from this time last year -- though the HomePod wasn't available then.
No matter how you slice it, Apple isn't hurting for cash.
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
