Apple is back on track for growth. After four consecutive quarters of declines in sales, the electronics company reported growth again for the past three months on Thursday after the stock market closed. The numbers were generally slightly above expectations, but the company also had some bad news. In its important Chinese market, sales fell by 13 percent this time.
Apple's share price was trading slightly lower in after-hours trading. A few weeks ago, Apple was replaced by the software company Microsoft as the most valuable company in the world. Apple's market value is currently $2.9 trillion, Microsoft has a market capitalization of $3.0 trillion.
iPhone remains the most important product
According to the Bloomberg news agency, Apple's negative series of four consecutive sales declines was the longest since 2001. For the last quarter, the company reported sales growth of 2 percent to $119.6 billion. Net income rose 13 percent to $33.9 billion, and earnings per share of $2.18 were 8 cents better than expected.
—
— (–)
For detailed view
For the iPhone, by far its most important product, Apple reported sales growth of 6 percent to $69.7 billion, which was slightly more than expected. The service business, now the second largest division, which includes offers such as the App Store, the music platform Apple Music and the payment service Apple Pay, developed even better. Sales here rose by 11 percent to $23.1 billion.
The other divisions performed worse. There was a slight increase in sales of Macintosh computers by one percent to $7.8 billion, while iPad sales fell significantly by 25 percent to $7.0 billion. Apple also had to accept an unusually strong decline in sales of 11 percent to $12.0 billion in the division, which includes many relatively new products such as the Apple Watch digital watch and the Airpod headphones.
Sales in China fell 13 percent to $20.8 billion. This isn't entirely surprising; In recent weeks, some media reports have mentioned a slowdown in business in the country. Apple is struggling in China, among other things, with increased competition from its domestic rival Huawei.
#Apple #growth #path #business #China
