Apple today forecasted between $76 billion and $78 billion in revenue for the first quarter of the 2017 fiscal year, reflecting a three-month period between September and December, signaling the company's return to growth in the upcoming holiday shopping season.
Apple's lower-end guidance of $76 billion would be enough to eclipse the $75.9 billion in revenue it reported in the year-ago period, putting an end to the company's downturn after its first annual revenue decline since 2001 and three consecutive quarters of negative growth.
Apple's decline through the first nine months of 2016 was in line with the iPhone's first-ever drop in sales, while iPad and Mac sales also shrunk during the year. However, the strength of the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, alongside Apple's growing services category, should help reverse that trend over the next three months. In the quarter just ended, Apple's revenue from services like the App Store, Apple Music, and iCloud grew 24% to an all-time record of $6.3 billion.
Top Rated Comments
I can't stand investors and analysts. A company can't grow into perpetuity. They want year over year revenue and market growth forever. That isn't sustainable. I think $9 Billion is pretty incredible.
Off the top of my head in the last 4/5 years they've added:
* Smartwatches
* Headphones
* Music streaming
* Maps
* iCloud being the backbone of their devices
* Health with Health app and associated ResearchKit and CareKit
* Home automation with HomeKit & Home app
* Payments with Apple Pay
* AI whilst maintaining privacy
* Underlying changes - with Swift as the language and then upcoming Apple File System
Besides that's what's been shown. Tim Cook has mentioned the importance of AR/VR, there are rumours of car research, TV deals etc. it amazes me you think they're doing the same thing over and over. I'd take another look.
It's also one of the fun parts of following Apple, whilst most of the other tech companies preview in public, Apple usually just releases their consumer version out to the public (often with lots of rumours and internet hype). So, many people like yourself wrongly think they're "coasting" as we don't see anything official until the reveal.
That thought aside, sounds like they are expecting some good sales from the revised laptops and maybe even a planned surprise upgrade to one or all of their desktops?
Apple had as much of an opportunity or better to establish a powerful cloud computing business as any of the other major tech companies. Apple could have also purchased DuckDuckGo and tried to go head-to-head with Google's search/ad business and also build a knowledge engine for Siri. Why should Apple leave Alphabet a clear field when Alphabet is basically crippling Apple's iPhone business with Android and also offering competitive smartphones, too. Apple's management is just stupid or blind to allow a company to steal their lunch and then do nothing about stealing it back. AppleWatch is not even close to being a multi-billion dollar long-term cloud computing business. Everyone on Wall Street knew AppleWatch would quickly fail from the very beginning. It's growth has already stopped and is in decline.
Do I think I could run Apple better than it is being run? Absolutely not. I only see what other major tech companies are doing to keep growing their revenue. It just makes sense if a company has a means to grow then why not pursue it instead of simply coasting like Apple is doing. I realize Apple's mountain of cash is stuck overseas but it's possible Apple put too much emphasis on stock buybacks instead of acquisitions. This I'm saying in hindsight and I also have no idea of what Apple's end goals are. I'm just saying that when a company like Microsoft is more than managing its Windows sales slowdown and the complete collapse of its mobile business and yet Wall Street sees more prospects in Microsoft than Apple, then something is definitely wrong.
I do know that all the other major tech companies will be posting decent share gains on earnings and only Apple's share price will be declining. It's becoming a theme for Tim Cook and Apple. It's something shareholders are almost expecting every quarter and it's quite disappointing.