Apple reports biggest drop in revenue since 2016

Apple has reported its results for the festive quarter that ended on 31 December 2022. And it has good news and bad news.

Here's What We Know

The bad news (for Apple itself) is that revenue fell. The company ended the quarter with $117.2bn, down 5% on the same period last year. As a result, this is Apple's first year-on-year drop in quarterly revenue since 2019 and its biggest drop since 2016.

Sales fell in all key markets, especially China and Europe. The company says three factors contributed to this: a strengthening dollar, manufacturing problems in China that delayed deliveries of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, and the general macroeconomic situation.

Almost all products also declined: smartphones, down 8.17%; Macs, down 28.66%; and home accessories and devices, down 8.3%. Only the tablet category (+29.6%) and services (+6.4%) were up.

In the good news, Apple broke the new psychological mark for the number of active devices. There are now 2 billion iPhones, iPads, Macs and other devices in active use around the world. In 2012 there were only 500 million, in 2016 there were 1 billion, and in 2020 there will be 1.5 billion.

Source: Apple