Apple released its holiday quarter earnings today, and it reports record earnings thanks to the series of new iPhones that the tech company debuted just in time for the holiday season. The news comes on the heels of a series of contradictory reports that Apple would discontinue its brand new iPhone X after the summer.
Ironically, Apple reported that it was the hefty $1,000 price tag on its iPhone X that helped the company exceed sales expectations, as Deadline reports. The phone’s price was apparently a significant factor for revenue in the December quarter.
”iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve also achieved a significant milestone with our active installed base of devices reaching 1.3 billion in January. That’s an increase of 30 percent in just two years, which is a testament to the popularity of our products and the loyalty and satisfaction of our customers.”
The report also states that Apple shipped 77.3 million iPhones over the holiday season, and although that’s about 1 percent fewer phones than the same time last year, the high price of the iPhone made up for it by upping revenue. In fact, even though it sold fewer phones, Apple reported a $61.6 billion revenue, which is 13 percent higher than the same period last year.
But the iPhones were not the only thing helping Apple pad out its bank accounts (do companies like these even have bank accounts? Don’t actually tell me, the answer is probably depressing.) Apple sold 13.2 million iPad units, which is actually 1 percent more than last year. By comparison, Mac sales decreased 5 percent to 5 million units.
Finally, Apple’s reported $88.3 billion revenue for its first fiscal quarter actually exceeded analyst estimates (which was around $87.28 billion). As Deadline notes, investors will now be paying attention to what Apple does with iPhone X production—were the earlier reports true, or will Apple keep its most expensive phone and reap the benefits?
