Apple suffers fourth consecutive quarter of declining sales, beat Wall Street anyway

Apple has reported its results for the fourth quarter of 2023, with its revenue of $89.5 billion a continued drop for four consecutive quarters.

The last quarter of the fiscal year for Apple, the fourth quarter financial results were reported by Apple on Thursday, before its standard conference call with industry analysts.

For the fourth quarter, Apple managed $89.5 billion of revenue, down from the $90.1 billion reported in Q4 2022. The reported earnings per share was declared to be $1.46.

Apple's quarterly revenue and net profit as of Q4 2023

The iPhone revenue has gone from $42.6 billion in Q4 2022 to $43.8 billion in Q4 2023. Revenue from iPad is at $6.43, down from $7.17 billion in the year-ago quarter, while Mac revenue at $7.61 is down year-on-year from $11.5 billion.

The usually dependable Services arm saw its growth continue to $22.314 billion, up from $19.18 billion for Q4 2022, and Wearables, Home, and Accessories reached $9.32 billion, down year-on-year from $9.65 billion.

Apple quarterly revenue by unit

The fourth quarter would've been the first full quarter for sales from Apple's Q3 launches, including the M2 Max and M2 Ultra versions of the Mac Studio, the New Mac Pro with Apple Silicon, and the 15-inch MacBook Air.

Q4 period launches, including the iPhone 15 family of smartphones, the updated USB-C version of the AirPods Pro, USB-C EarPods, the Apple Watch Series 9, and Apple Watch Ultra 2 will have a small effect on the Q4 results. This is due to all of them being introduced in the last few weeks of the three-month period.

The next quarter, Q1 2024, will be the quarter that will benefit the most from Apple's annual iPhone update.

Apple's annual revenue, gross margin, and net income

In comments, Apple CEO Tim Cook said "Today Apple is pleased to report a September quarter revenue record for iPhone and an all-time revenue record in Services." He continued "We now have our strongest lineup of products ever heading into the holiday season, including the iPhone 15 lineup and our first carbon neutral Apple Watch models, a major milestone in our efforts to make all Apple products carbon neutral by 2030."

"Our active installed base of devices has again reached a new all-time high across all products and all geographic segments, thanks to the strength of our ecosystem and unparalleled customer loyalty," added CFO Luca Maestri.

Apple also advised of its full-year results, with annual revenue of $383.3 billion down year-on-year from $394.3 billion.