Apple’s shares rose in the operations after this Thursday after the company forecast higher sales than expected by Wall Street, a sign that expects a recovery in iPhone sales as it introduces artificial intelligence functions .
Apple executives said they hope that current quarter sales will increase in a single -to -medium digit range. After considering an impact of 2.5 percentage points due to change rates, the prognosis seemed to exceed the 5% increase to 95.3 billion dollars expected by analysts for the quarter that will end in March, according to LSEG data.
Apple’s shares rose 3.5% after the prognosis announcement.
In the first recently completed fiscal quarter, Apple exceeded Wall Street profit estimates, but iPhone sales and revenues in China during the Christmas season were weak due to strong competition in that country and the slow launch of intelligence functions artificial.
The company’s general sales and profits were driven by a better performance than expected in iPads and Macs, where new chips helped persuade customers to update their devices.
The financial director, Kevan Parekh, told analysts that the gross margins in the second fiscal quarter (the first of the calendar) will be between 46.5%and 47.5%, with the upper end of that range exceeding the estimates of 47.01%, According to LSE data.
“The guidelines provided at the telephone conference exceeded expectations, since the iPhone is gaining impulse and Apple is overcoming a difficult quarter in China,” said Gil Luria, general director of Da Davidson.
The lack of sales elements based on artificial intelligence contributed to the sales of the iPhone falling slightly to 69.14 billion dollars, compared to the 71.03 billion that analysts expected, according to LSE data. Sales in China fell to 18.51 billion dollars, compared to 20.82 billion of the previous year and below the 21.33 billion expected by a survey of five analysts conducted by Visible Alpha.
Total sales of 124.3 billion dollars in the first fiscal quarter, which ended on December 28, slightly exceeded the target of Wall Street of 124,120 million, according to LSEG, while the profits per share of $ 2.40 comfortably exceeded the consensus target of 2.35 dollars.
Lee: Apple’s sales in 4T were probably affected by delays in AI and Chinese competition
Apple has positioned artificial intelligence as a set of new capacities and functions, such as emails and transcription of telephone calls, but the company is implementing these functions progressively and has not yet secured a local partner in China for its launch.
The weak sales in China reflect Apple’s inability to launch its AI software and services in the country, macroeconomic weakness and strong competition, factors that probably also affect the current quarter, according to Tom Forte, senior internet consumption internet analyst in Maxim Group.
In an interview, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said that artificial intelligence functions, called Apple Intelligence, are promoting sales of the company’s new devices.
“We observed that in the markets where we have launched Apple Intelligence, the interannual performance of the iPhone 16 family was stronger than in those where Apple Intelligence was not available,” Cook said.
While the director mentioned that Apple Intelligence will be available in new languages such as French and German in April, did not give a schedule for its launch in China.
“We continue working with the regulators and we will launch it as soon as we can,” he said.
Cook told Reuters that approximately half of the 11% drop in China’s income was due to changes in the amount of inventory that the company’s resellers had in stock.
“While inventory liquidation through discounts in China could have affected the quarter of December, this positions Apple well for the rest of the year, especially if it manages to implement Apple Intelligence in China,” said Gil Luria, general director of Da Da Davidson.
Lee: Apple phone sales in China fell 18% in the last quarter of 2024
Mac sales benefited from a new MAC Mini, IMAC and MacBook Pro line with a new M4 chip. Apple Intelligence functions are more widely available in Apple Mac and IPads, since their larger size allows them to house more powerful chips.
“Silicon makes it perfect to execute AI workloads, and therefore, I assume that this is a key and convincing reason for people to update their devices,” Cook said.
Mac and iPad sales reached 8,990 million dollars and 8,090 million, respectively, above the estimates of 7,960 million dollars and 7,320 million, according to LSE data.
Apple said its service business, which includes storage in ICloud and its music and video streaming services, reached 26,340 million dollars in sales, 13.9% more than the previous year and above the estimates of 26,090 million, According to LSE.
“While the caution approach of the company in the deployment of AI has been criticized, the solid growth of the services and the expansion of the ecosystem are providing a crucial impulse to relieve the continuous difficulties of the iPhone in China,” said Jacob Bourne, an analyst of Emarketer.
Lee: Apple loses the crown in smartphones sales in China and falls to third place in 2024
The company’s wearable segment, which includes the Apple Watch and Airpods lines, had sales of 11,750 million dollars, compared to the expectations of analysts of 12,010 million, according to LSE.
With Reuters information
Follow us on Google News to always keep you informed
