Apple surprises with good quarterly figures and plans to offer AI features in Europe soon.
Apple made a little less money with its iPhones last quarter – but the iPads were able to more than fill the gap. Group sales rose by five percent year-on-year to $85.5 billion. The bottom line was a profit of $21.45 billion (€19.9 billion), around eight percent more than a year ago. iPhone sales fell by one percent year-on-year to around $39.3 billion. Apple thus exceeded analysts’ expectations.
The star of the quarter in Apple’s product range was the iPad – after the company launched a new, powerful Pro model and a new version of the iPad Air. Sales of the tablet jumped by almost a quarter year-on-year to $7.16 billion. Analysts had expected half a billion dollars less on average. Mac computers were also a bright spot, with an increase of 2.4 percent to a good seven billion dollars in sales. Apple stressed that there is still a large market to be tapped: more than half of buyers of both the iPad and the Mac purchased one of the devices for the first time.
AI functions as a purchase incentive
Apple plans to bring new features based on artificial intelligence to its devices starting in the fall. Some of the AI innovations have high hardware requirements: They require an iPhone 15 Pro – or one of Apple’s new smartphones, which the company is expected to introduce in September. Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a conference call with analysts that this could give customers a reason to buy new iPhones.
However, the launch of these new features, which are marketed under the umbrella term Apple Intelligence, has been delayed. The first AI functions will not be available until iOS 18.1 – probably in October. Most of the new features will not be available on iPhones, iPads and Macs until next year. In the EU countries and China, Apple Intelligence is not yet available in the current beta version of iOS 18.1 – unlike in the rest of the world.
According to Tim Cook, the new software features should come to Europe as soon as possible. The company is in contact with the relevant authorities. Apple can only meet the regulatory requirements if the company understands them. It is not yet clear when Apple Intelligence could be introduced in this country.
Rival Huawei regains strength in China
Apple recently lost ground in the large Chinese smartphone market. According to calculations by the analysis firm IDC, Apple fell out of the top 5 smartphone providers in China. At the top, the Chinese provider Vivo and the resurgent Huawei Group are neck and neck with a good 18 percent market share each. Apple’s revenue in the China region fell by more than six percent to 14.73 billion dollars.
Cook also stressed that he was confident about the market in the long term. iPhones have recently been the most popular smartphone models in cities. As reported, Apple has numerous other new products planned for the fall in addition to the new iPhone.
