Apple’s latest earnings report showed that the iPhone is winning over Android users and first-time smartphone buyers, as well as current iPhone users who cannot resist the urge to upgrade. The company sold a record 61.2 million iPhones in the quarter ending March 28, posting quarterly revenue of $58 billion and net profit of $13.6 billion, or $2.33 per diluted share.
This marks the second full quarter of sales for the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, which sport the larger screen sizes popularized by Samsung’s Galaxy line and other high-end Android devices. Apple CEO Tim Cook said the new iPhones are motivating Android users to switch.
“We continue see a higher rate of switchers than we have seen in previous cycles so we’re extremely excited about that,” said Cook on an earnings call yesterday. “We want to keep inviting over as many switchers as we can.”
“We also continue to see a reasonable percentage of first-time buyers, particularly in some of the emerging markets,” Cook said. “Revenue from emerging markets was up 58% year-on-year and a big piece of what is driving that is iPhone.”
Cook added that emerging markets contributed almost 40% of Apple’s revenue during the first quarter. He said that growth is being driven by broad segments of emerging market populations.
“It’s clear to me that it has to be coming from [the] middle class,” he said. “Upper income earners – there’s only so many of those. You can’t grow those kind of numbers without getting significantly into the middle class.”
Apple Watch
Cook said that Apple is working hard to remedy the Apple Watch supply-demand imbalance. He said the company is now filling orders online only, and that over the weekend it was able to deliver more Apple watches to customers than it had anticipated.
“It is a new product for us and with any kind of new product you wind up taking some time to fully ramp,” said Cook. “By sometime in late June we anticipate being in a position that we could begin to sell the Apple Watch in additional countries.”
Cook said the number of apps ready for the Apple Watch is very encouraging to him. There are already 3,500 Apple Watch apps available; that compares to 1,000 apps ready for the iPad when it launched in 2010.
