Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri said the company was not yet seeing a slowdown in demand for iPhones, which is the company’s biggest source of revenue.
Despite the global economic downturn and despite a 9% drop in demand in the smartphone market, Apple phone sales rose 3% to US$40.7 billion in the third quarter. Wall Street forecasts a 3% decline.
While Apple’s smartphone is largely unaffected, Maestri says the slump in the economy is affecting sales of advertising, accessories and home products, and the company is suffering from bottlenecks that continue to hamper sales of the Mac and iPad. Maestri however expects the hit to decline further in the current quarter.
In the third quarter, Apple revenue and profit were US$83 billion and US$1.20 per share, above analyst estimates of US$82.8 billion and $1.16 per share.
Growth in the company’s service business was 12% lower than a year earlier, at 33%, resulting in revenue of US$19.6 billion, below estimates of US$19.7 billion.
Sales of iPads and Macs were US$7.2 billion and US$7.4 billion, compared with estimates of US$6.9 billion and US$8.7 billion.
Like other U.S. companies with investments and operations outside the United States, Apple suffered from currency fluctuations that caused revenue to shrink by 3% in the June quarter. Currency fluctuations will also affect sales by 6% in the current quarter.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.