Apple today held its earnings call for the second fiscal quarter of 2024 (first calendar quarter), with Apple CEO Tim Cook and Apple CFO Luca Maestri providing us with some details on Apple's performance, Vision Pro sales, services growth, AI plans, and other topics.
We've highlighted the most interesting takeaways from today's earnings call.
Next Week's Announcements
Apple CEO Tim Cook said Apple is prepping for "an exciting product announcement" that the company thinks "customers will love."
Generative AI
Apple CEO Tim Cook said that Apple is making "significant investments" in AI, and that it has some "very exciting things" to share with customers "soon."
Cook also said that he believes Apple has "advantages that will differentiate" the company, including Apple's hardware and software integration, Apple silicon with Neural Engine, and focus on privacy.
There's a "big opportunity" for generative AI across all of Apple's devices, and Cook said he is "extremely optimistic" about future consumer demand.
Digital Markets Act
Cook said that it's too early to determine the security risks and privacy implications of the changes that it has made to the app ecosystem in Europe. Apple is focused on complying while mitigating impacts to user privacy and security.
Vision Pro
Leading enterprise companies have been investing in Vision Pro, and Apple is seeing it used for things like aircraft engine maintenance, real-time collaboration for racing, and immersive kitchen design. Cook said that Apple "couldn't be more excited about the spatial computing opportunity in enterprise."
Services
Apple's services segment set a new all-time revenue record of $23.9 billion, up 14 percent from $20.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. Transacting accounts and paid accounts reached a new all-time high, with paid accounts and subscriptions showing double digit growth.
Apple has more than 1 billion paid subscriptions, more than double the number from four years ago.
Mac Sales
With the launch of new M3 MacBook Air models in March, Mac revenue saw growth, reaching $7.5 billion. Mac sales were at $7.17 billion in the year-ago quarter, for four percent growth.
iPad Sales
iPad revenue continued to drop with no new iPads released in 2024 as of yet. iPad revenue was at $5.6 billion, down 17 percent from $6.7 billion a year ago. iPad sales should see some improvement next quarter as Apple next week is planning to unveil new iPad Air and iPad Pro models.
Wearables
Wearables, Home and Accessories came in at $7.9 billion, down 10 percent compared to last year. Last year, Apple had launched the USB-C version of AirPods Pro, and there was a "difficult compare" this year.
June Quarter
Maestri said that Apple expects June quarter revenue to grow low single digits year-over-year, but Services is expected to grow double digits, as is iPad revenue.
Top Rated Comments
Wish investors would really press Tim for more direct answers. His spin on Apple Vision Pro was skirting given how much they invested in the project.
It's a nice bit of spin, but the outlandish price tag of the Vision Pro might be a sign that Apple is beginning to realize that they have pretty much tapped out the consumer market, and that enterprise revenue is the path forward for the next era of revenue increases.