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Apple is still reaping huge profits from the iPhone while mining more moneymaking opportunities from the growing popularity of its smartwatch, digital services and wireless earbuds. That combination produced a banner holiday season for a company whose fortunes appeared to be sliding just a year ago amid declining sales for the iPhone, its marquee product for the past decade.
News agency AP reported, that Apple’s fiscal first-quarter results provided the latest proof that the fears hanging over the consumer electronics icon might have been unfounded. Apple’s profit and revenue for the October-December period topped analysts’ projections, providing another boost to a stock that has more than doubled in less than 13 months.
Apple got off to a fast start for fiscal 2020, with a first-quarter profit of $22.2 billion, or $4.99 per share, on revenue of $91.8 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet had predicted earnings of $4.54 per share on revenue of $88.5 billion.
As usual, the iPhone remained Apple’s marquee attraction. Boosted by the release of the iPhone 11 heading into the holiday season, the product generated sales of $56 billion, an 8% increase from the previous year’s disappointing showing. Besides rolling out high-end phones with more cameras and a starting price of $1,000, Apple sold a more basic model starting at $700 — a $50 drop from a comparable version released in 2018.
