Apple Just Had Its Best Quarter Yet Thanks to Rise in iPhone and Software Sales

Despite it being a traditionally slow quarter (given the anticipation for new iPhone releases), Apple has made surprising headway in Q3, showing its best financial performance for the quarter. The Cupertino-based company posted a revenue of $53.3 billion during Q3, beating expectations handily by $1 billion. The sales were driven primarily by iPhone sales which had an average selling price of $724, against expectations of $693, which the company says is due to the success of the iPhone X. And while, in hard numbers, Apple missed the target of 41.8 million by selling 41.3 million phones, it was an improvement over the 41.03 million phones it sold during the same time last year. The subscription and software-based businesses also continued to prosper, with the revenue from iCloud, Apple Music and App Store reaching $9.54 billion, an increase of 31%, with both iCloud and Apple Music growing by 50% each. Even slowing Mac sales didn’t affect the sheets much, though, Apple would hope that the decline of 13% over the past year is curbed. It shows that the new Macs are one of the most confusing aspects of Apple’s strategy. On the flip side, the Watch segment grew by 40 percentage points. The growth will likely carry forward into the next quarter, where it is expected to earn as much as $62 billion, a figure which is 20% higher than the amount it earned last year. Finally, in the race to be the first trillion dollar company, Apple now appears to be a front-runner. The rosy earnings call pushed its stock price by 7% in its aftermath, bringing Apple’s market capitalization to $935 billion.