Apple’s Record Q1 2017: 78.3 Million iPhones Sold; $78.4 Billion Revenue

Just ahead of Apple’s first fiscal quarter of 2017 earnings, analysts were prepared to see a third quarter in a row of declining iPhone sales. Apple, however, was keen to announce – just as calendar 2017 started following its pattern of App Store revenue reporting – that its app storefront has been highly successful, topping $3 billion in December alone.

But the iPhone is estimated to account for roughly 60% of Apple’s total revenues, so that’s the reason analysts are so eagle-eyed when it comes to quarterly earnings of the world’s most valuable tech company. And the numbers are in: Apple has sold 78.3 million iPhones, and sales generated a net profit of $17.8 billion.

Apple’s fiscal first quarter by device sales:
• 78.3 million iPhones
• 13 million iPads
• 5.3 million Mac computers.

Apple provided guidance for the holiday quarter revenue of between $76 billion and $78 billion, and as the press release reveals, the company’s performance was above the higher end of the guidance.

The Q4 consensus earnings estimate from third-party Wall Street analysts was $3.22 a share, down from $3.28 per share for the same period a year ago. Looks like Wall Street underestimated Apple, as the iPhone maker announced an “all-time record quarterly earnings per diluted share of $3.36.”

“We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way. We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Revenue from Services grew strongly over last year, led by record customer activity on the App Store, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline.”

Apple provided the following guidance for the fiscal second quarter of 2017:
• revenue between $51.5 billion and $53.5 billion
• gross margin between 38 percent and 39 percent
• operating expenses between $6.5 billion and $6.6 billion
• other income/(expense) of $400 million
• tax rate of 26%.