Apple's wearables revenues jump to over $5.5B in June quarter

Sales from Apple's "Wearables, Home and Accessories" segment jumped substantially year-over-year in the June quarter to $5.53 billion, underscoring their importance.

That's up from $3.73 billion in Q3 2018, according to Apple data. The category includes everything from the Apple Watch, AirPods, and Apple TV to the HomePod and Beats headphones.

As such it's not immediately clear what drove the increase. The Apple Watch and AirPods are believed to be category's greatest hits though, and Apple released updated AirPods in March, with the option of a wireless charging case. Some fuel may also have come from the launch of the Powerbeats Pro in May.

Apple CEO Tim Cook in an investors conference call touted record-breaking Apple Watch adoption and noted that, over the last four quarters, the overall wearables business is bigger than 60% of companies in the Fortune 500. Importantly, the wearables category as a whole enjoyed a 50% growth rate from last year, fueled in large part by new users.

According to Cook, 75% of Apple Watch buyers — numbered in the millions — in the June quarter were new to the platform.

Apple claimed $53.8 billion in overall revenue during its third fiscal quarter, up 1% year-over-year despite iPhone sales remaining down. Aside from wearables, the company was helped by higher Mac, iPad, and services income.

The wearables segment could potentially kick into overdrive when a rumored AR headset arrives. That could ship as soon as 2020, though some rumors have claimed 2021 or later. A first-generation model may be dependent on a paired iPhone for processing.