Apple’s CFO: We Had Trouble Keeping Up With iPhone 5S Demand

Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s chief financial officer, said that the company could not meet customer demand for the iPhone 5S until closer to the end of the quarter.

“The iPhone 5S sold better than we expected, but we were not able to come into a supply-demand balance until the end of the quarter.”

Oppenheimer said the iPhone 5S sold better at the end of the year than Apple’s own projections, but he did not give details about the demand for the iPhone 5C, the new less-expensive version of the iPhone.

Apple reported that has it sold 51 million iPhones in Q1 2014, which came far below analysts’ estimates of 55 million, on average. The company’s revenue also fell below Wall Street expectations. Oppenheimer said the company will go into “a couple of things” during the conference call, but he did not elaborate any further. Apple’s revenue in the March quarter will range between $42 billion and $44 billion, falling below analysts’ expectations of about $46 billion.

The forecast contributed to the decline of 8 percent in Apple’s shares after hours. Overall, the company reported flat earnings in the holiday quarter, while its earnings per share rose 5% to $14.50 per share, which was helped by a growth in iPad and Mac sales.

[via The Wall Street Journal]