Economic Observer Network reporter Qian Yujuan On October 27, Eastern Time, after the US stock market closed, Apple (NASDAQ:APPL) announced the fourth fiscal quarter of fiscal year 2022 (ie the third quarter of 2022).
According to the data, Apple’s total revenue in the third quarter was US$90.146 billion. Although it hit a record high for the same period, its year-on-year growth rate was only 8.14%. The net profit was US$20.721 billion, a year-on-year increase of only 0.83%.
“Without the foreign exchange headwind, we could have grown by double digits.” Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that the slowdown in revenue growth is mainly due to the “over 600 basis points of foreign exchange headwinds” encountered in the quarter. exchange rate impact.
The reporter noticed that overseas technology giants such as Google, Microsoft, and Amazon, including Apple, have been affected by the strong US dollar recently. The direct externalization of operating data is that their stock prices are all falling.
Apple closed at $144.8 per share on October 27, Eastern Time, down more than 3%. After the market, the stock price continued to fall after its earnings report was issued, with a decline of nearly 5%, and then closed down and turned up until a slight increase of 0.41%.
According to the situation of each business line, the core of Apple’s revenue is still iPhone sales, which reached US$42.626 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.67%, slightly lower than the previous analyst expectations.
It is understood that the new iPhone 14 series launched by Apple was only sold for 9 days in the third quarter, so the sales of the iPhone in the third quarter were still contributed by the iPhone 13 series. Sun Yanbiao, chairman of Chaodian Think Tank, told the Economic Observer Network reporter that from this perspective, he felt that the iPhone’s revenue was “really optimistic”, but he was worried about the performance of the iPhone in the next quarter, “(Apple) will have a big trouble”.
When the consumer demand for the iPhone 14 series was fully revealed in the fourth quarter, Sun Yanbiao predicted that the iPhone 14 series was released in the context of the overall decline in the global economy, and it was difficult for consumers to boost the demand for replacement, and the sales of the iPhone naturally There will also be shocks.
In addition, it should be noted that this time Apple focused the selling point of the new model on the high-end iPhone 14 Pro, leaving it with a difficult problem: how to solve the problem of limited supply?
Tim Cook did not shy away from the question at the earnings conference. He said that the limited supply of the iPhone 14 Pro has indeed affected the sales scale to a certain extent. But Apple CFO Luca Maestri added that demand for the iPhone 14 Pro was strong among the new models on sale, and “Apple is trying to keep up with demand.”
In response to the fact that the above-mentioned hot-selling products exist in Apple’s new iPhones, IDC also pointed out in the quarterly mobile phone tracking report released on October 28, but IDC conducted research on the shipments of China’s smartphone market in the third quarter and found that the iPhone 14 and The iPhone 14 Plus, which was only officially shipped in October, “has limited appeal to consumers due to its smaller upgrade compared to the previous generation.”
The IDC report pointed out that in the third quarter of China’s smartphone market shipment rankings, Apple’s market share not only increased by 15.1% month-on-month, but it also became the only TOP5 manufacturer to maintain positive growth due to a year-on-year increase of 2.5%.
It can be seen from the financial report that Apple currently has five major sales markets, of which the revenue in Greater China was US$15.47 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.23%. Although the above revenue growth still has room for improvement compared to Europe and the Americas, at present, the Chinese market has become Apple’s third largest target market.
As for Apple, the iPhone, which supports its core revenue source, is particularly facing fierce competition in the Chinese market. Tim Cook is very clear about this, and he also said at the earnings conference that there are already signs that other smartphone companies are dealing with the recent decline in demand.
Focusing on China’s smartphone market, “it will continue to be sluggish and difficult to recover in the short term.” Guo Tianxiang, a senior analyst at IDC China, also suggested in the report that mobile phone manufacturers in the industry should adopt a “pragmatic and prudent” strategy to reasonably and effectively control Inventory level, while maintaining or even increasing investment in product research and development.
Previously, in response to Apple’s official website’s move to cut prices on iPhone and other products, Tim Cook had denied that “it has nothing to do with clearing inventory.” Now when it comes to Apple’s performance in iPhone sales, he remains at the earnings conference. The word “strong” is used.
However, due to the increasing uncertainty about the outlook, since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia in 2020, Apple has not issued new performance guidance after each quarterly earnings report, and the third-quarter earnings report is no exception.
“In the third quarter, the company continued to invest in long-term growth plans.” Luca Maestri highlighted that in the past quarter, Apple’s activated installed devices hit a record high. In his view, this is thanks to Apple’s ecosystem, customer loyalty and sales incentives.
This is reflected in Apple’s financial report. Not only the iPhone sales revenue increased, but Apple’s Mac computer revenue increased by 25.39% year-on-year to $11.508 billion; the revenue of wearable devices, home products and accessories also achieved a year-on-year increase of 9.85%. , amounted to 9.65 billion US dollars.