During today's fourth quarter earnings call, Apple CFO Luca Maestri announced that going forward, Apple will not provide unit sales of iPhone, iPad, and Mac during its quarterly earnings reports.
This marks a major change to the way that Apple reports data and it will make estimating iPad, Mac, and iPhone product sales a more difficult task. Apple is perhaps making this change because its unit sales are decreasing while revenue is growing due to rising ASPs.
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This quarter, for example, iPhone unit sales were flat at 46.9 million, but iPhone revenue was up 29 percent.
According to Maestri, Apple does not believe that unit sales over the course of a 90-day period are an indicator of the underlying strength of its business.
Apple also plans to rename the "Other Products" category to "Wearables, Home, and Accessories," a change that will also be made in the December quarter. This category will continue to include the Apple Watch, Apple TV, AirPods, HomePods, Beats headphones, and more.
Top Rated Comments
Amazon has never announced unit sales on any of their products. We've never been told how many Kindles get sold, how many Prime members they have, how many Echos are in use - etc etc
Or maybe they just don’t want their stock affected by numbers not meeting some ridiculous analyst estimates.
I feel personally that they've reached a point where the products don't offer enough value. Their stuff has always been expensive but it's now reaching such a high level that for the first time in almost twenty years I'm considering alternative products and ecosystems, I'm talking Windows + Android.It’s a bold move in this industry but we know they sell enough and make enough.
I'm not saying Apple is doomed, I don't think they're in trouble. But I do feel like they are entering this phase of their life where they're pushing a boulder up a mountain (high revenue and profit margins) and eventually it's going to get to the top and quickly go down the other side as consumers exit the brand due to it being too expensive and not offering the things Apple had been known for in the past (ease of use, functionality, great design and intuitiveness etc).
To me the company now more than ever cares about profit beyond all else. In the past I really truly believed they cared about making great products. Now I think they only care about making great margins and everything else is secondary to that goal.
I am not currently an Apple stock holder but I have been in the past. I think they're probably 75% of the way up that mountain I just spoke about, but this is all just my opinion I'm sure many here will disagree with me and that's perfectly fine.
What’s with these hateful commenters rushing to be the first posters?
Post quickly, get the anti-Apple jab in early, and rack up some easy likes.It’s step 1 in the MacRumors rulebook.