 beat Wall Street expectations by delivering their strongest ever set of Christmas results.){kind=link}
Technology giant Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) beat Wall Street expectations by delivering their strongest ever set of Christmas results, with an increase in both profit and iPhone sales.
The tech giant reported net sales of $78.4 billion for the last three months of 2016, up 3 percent on last year. The company also sold 78.29 million iPhones in the fiscal first quarter ended December 31st, up from 74.78 million the year before. This was above analysts’ expectations of 77.42 million, as reported by Reuters.
Recently the company had suffered from falling iPhone sales, as lower-cost Android smartphones flood the market. However, over the holiday period Apple beat their biggest rival Samsung’s sales in terms of units shipped.
Although Apple relies heavily on iPhone sales, which make up over two-thirds of its total company revenue, it also saw revenue jump in the services business, which includes its App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud offerings. Demand for these jumped, sending revenue up 18.4 percent to $7.17 billion.
However, Apple’s were cautious outlook going into the next quarter, warning of the impact of a stronger dollar.
Chief executive Tim Cook said: “We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way.”
This comes after the company controversially removed the headphone jack on their lastest iPhone 7 model, forcing customers to use an Apple headset or invest in a more expensive set of bluetooth headphones.
However in China Apple saw revenue fall 11.6 percent to $16.23 billion. Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri remained positive:
“We were encouraged by our performance in China because it was clearly an improvement over the last couple of quarters. In mainland China in particular, our revenue was flat and actually grew in constant currency terms.”
Apple shares are currently trading down 0.23 percent at 125.45 (1203GMT), but were up over 3 percent in pre-market trade.