Tim Cook (Apple)
Apple has posted yet another record quarter in 2021, closing out its best year ever with revenue of US$83.4 billion, up nearly 30 per cent year-over-year. Every category posted gains, though Cook said revenue was affected by supply constraints to the tune of $6 billion.
First the good news. Apple sold a ton of products in the quarter, which saw a week of iPhone 13 sales versus no iPhone 12 sales last year, as well as the iPad mini and ninth-gen iPad. Apple also announced the Apple Watch Series 7 in the quarter, though it didn't go on sale until October. Last week, Apple launched the new MacBook Pro, which is already backordered for weeks.
Here's how each category broke down, with the year-over-year percentage increase:
- iPhone: $38.9 billion (47 per cent)
- iPad: $8.3 billion (21 per cent)
- Mac: $9.2 billion (two per cent)
- Wearables: $8.8 billion (12 per cent)
- Services: $18.3 billion (26 per cent)
Sales were up in all regions, with China's revenue nearly doubling from $8 billion to $14.6 billion. Apple said it also doubled its business in India and Vietnam.
Now the bad news. In the earnings call, CEO Tim Cook said he is encouraged by progress around the world but added that manufacturing disruptions would likely be worse in the recent holiday quarter (Apple's Q1 2022).
"This year we launched our most powerful products ever, from M1-powered Macs to an iPhone 13 line-up that is setting a new standard for performance and empowering our customers to create and connect in new ways," Cook said. “We are infusing our values into everything we make -- moving closer to our 2030 goal of being carbon neutral up and down our supply chain and across the lifecycle of our products, and ever advancing our mission to build a more equitable future.”
However, Apple said the next quarter is expected to see bring very solid year-over-year revenue growth but declined to offer revenue guidance.
