Apple hits all-time services revenue high of $13.3 billion, iPhone drops 7 percent in Q2 2020

Apple has posted Q2 2020 revenue of $58.3 billion USD (roughly $81 billion CAD), a modest increase of one percent over the same period last year during a difficult quarter where both supply and demand for Apple’s devices have been negatively affected by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The recent shift to focusing on services also seems to be continuing to pay off for the tech giant, with revenue for the category hitting an all-time high of $13.3 billion USD (about $18.5 billion CAD) for the quarter, compared to $11.5 million USD (approximately $16 billion CAD) for the same period last year. The company’s services category includes iCloud and Apple Music, as well as more recently launched platforms like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+.

iPhone revenue, on the other hand, decreased seven percent to $29 billion USD (about $40 billion CAD) compared to $31.1 billion (roughly $43 billion CAD) a year ago. To an extent, this downturn makes sense given that the company’s retail stores around the world remain closed as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, with locations in China and South Korea being the only countries where physical Apple Stores are currently open.

While hardware sales are down across the board, AirPods and Apple Watch sales experienced a 23 percent year-over-year increase. The company’s total revenue growth for the quarter is down 0.5 percent from nine percent last quarter. The tech giant’s most recently released iPhone is the entry-level iPhone SE (2020). Apple also released a new MacBook Air (2020), iPad Pro (2020) and the tablet’s new Magic Keyboard during the pandemic.

“Despite COVID-19’s unprecedented global impact, we’re proud to report that Apple grew for the quarter, driven by an all-time record in Services and a quarterly record for Wearables,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, in a recent press release.

“In this difficult environment, our users are depending on Apple products in renewed ways to stay connected, informed, creative, and productive. We feel motivated and inspired to not only keep meeting these needs in innovative ways, but to continue giving back to support the global response, from the tens of millions of face masks and custom-built face shields we’ve sent to medical professionals around the world, to the millions we’ve donated to organizations like Global Citizen and America’s Food Fund.”

At this time, Apple has not issued guidance for the fiscal quarter ending in June as it usually would. The tech giant also pulled back its official earnings guidance of between $63 billion USD (about $87 billion CAD) and $67 billion USD (approximately $93 billion CAD) for the quarter. Analysts expected Apple to earn revenue of $53.8 billion USD (about $75 billion CAD) in Q2 2020.

Rumours continue to swirl that the release of Apple’s 5G-enabled 2020 lineup of iPhones will be delayed this fall as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to create manufacturing difficulties for the tech giant.

Source: Apple