Apple prospers during the pandemic

IPhone 12 Pro Max. © iStock.

Apple presented its results for the first quarter of 2020 to investors and they once again beat analysts’ forecasts. Revenue for the quarter was $ 89.58 billion, a record for a first quarter and a 54% increase from the previous year. The gross margin is 42.5%. Apple recorded double-digit growth in all of its product categories. Mac and iPad revenues grew 70.1% and 78.9% from last year ($ 9.1 billion and $ 7.8 billion, respectively), and iPhone revenues increased by 65.5% (to $ 47.9 billion). Even the service sector saw strong year-over-year growth of 26.7%, with a record turnover of $ 16.9 billion.

However, clouds hover over this blazing success. Apple officials declined to provide investors with a forecast for the next quarter due to several uncertainties, chief of which is the shortage of semiconductors and its threat to meeting demand in the coming months. Tim Cook said the shortage was affecting iPads and Macs and was not for his latest processors, but for older, more common components, which are also in demand by other manufacturers and industries. Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, warned that the consequences of this shortage will have a very real financial impact in the next quarter. Apple has seemingly tapped the bottom of its well of inventory that sustained it thus far, while other manufacturers came up empty. The huge surge in sales of iPads and Macs has apparently precipitated the drought.

⇨ Ars Technica, Samuel Axon, “Facing uncharted waters, Apple reports 54% year-over-year revenue increase.”

2021-04-28