Apple Sales Set March Quarter Record in India and Defy Estimates in China

BEIJING, May 4 (TMTPOST) Thanks to strength in India and other emerging markets, Apple sales in the first quarter of the year defied the Wall Street projection amid the gloomy macroeconomic outlook. Besides, sales in the key market China showed improvement following the Covid-19 reopening in late 2022.

Source: Visual China

Apple on Thursday posted revenue of $94.84billion in the quarter ended April, 1, 2023 (“the first quarter”), decreasing 2.5% from the record made in the same period a year earlier. This was the second consecutive quarter of annual revenue declines, the first time for iPhone maker since March, 2019. However, the recent performance was just half of its previous guidance of about 5% yearly drop, better than analysts’ estimates of $92.6 billion for a 4.8% decline. The sales fell 5% during quarter ended December 31, 2022, the first quarterly decrease in revenue since 2019 and the biggest annual drop since September, 2016.

iPhone, the core product for Apple, logged revenue of $51.33 billion with a 1.5% year-over-year (YoY) increase in the first quarter, much better than analysts’ forecast of $48.97 billion with a decrease of 3%. iPhone sales help offset weakening of Mac and iPad, which recorded revenue declines of 31% and 13%, respectively. Analysts previously expected Apple for the first time to show sales drop in all the hardware offerings that quarter.

“We are pleased to report an all-time record in Services and a March quarter record for iPhone despite the challenging macroeconomic environment, and to have our installed base of active devices reach an all-time high,” CEO Tim Cook said in the press release on Thursday.

Geographically speaking, Apple sales in its biggest market United States were the worst across the world. Revenue from Americas fell 7.6% YoY to $37.78 billion, highlighting notably softened demand. But sales in Greater China offered a surprise in the first quarter as the eevenue shed 2.9% YoY to $17.81 billion, beating the estimated $17.16 billion with an around 6.4% slump. The decline significantly eased compared with the previous quarter, when Apple raked in $23.91 billion there with a yearly decrease of 7.3%.

Emerging markets emerged as a bright spot as overall revenue fall. Asia-Pacific, outside of Japan and greater China, generated $8.12billion, representing a robust YoY growth of 15.3%. Apple said sales in countries including Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, set their quarterly record, and those in Brazil, Malaysia and India shattered March quarter records. "We were thrilled by our performance in emerging markets," Cook said. "We set records for the iPhone installed base in every geographic segment, and we had very strong 'new to' (sales in) emerging markets, particularly in Brazil, India and Mexico."

The Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri noted iPhone business grew particularly strong in places such as India , Indonesia, Latin America and the Middle East, and the reason for Apple did well in India is its recent investments there, with new physical stores and focus on building up the local app-developer community. Cook said a first-quarter record for iPhone sales partially resulted from picking up new users in markets including India.

Apple just opened its first retail stores in India last month, when Cook first visited the country since 2016, then inaugurated the first store and met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The executive underscored commitment to growing and investing across the country, signaling an effort for refocus. Apple was said last month to seek to make India a center to produce iPhones and accessories, after Piyush Goyal, the Commerce and Industry Minister, revealed in January the tech giant was targeting to make 25% of iPhone in India. Bloomberg reported last month that Apple currently makes nearly 7% of iPhones in India, up from just 1% in 2021. Apple could work to unprecedentedly produce the next generation of iPhone series in India at the same time as in China, and could assemble a quarter of all iPhones in India by 2025, if the aggressive expansion trend of Foxconn and other suppliers lasts, according to the report.