Apple's holiday quarter earnings call & report scheduled for February 1

Apple has officially announced that its first quarter 2024 earnings call, covering the holiday period, will be held February 1, 2024.

The holiday quarter is Apple's most lucrative, with new iPhone sales amplified by the gift-giving season. The financial results for the period from October to December 2023 will be published, followed by a conference call with CEO Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri.

Apple shared the earnings call will occur on February 1, at 5 p.m. Eastern via its Investor Relations portal. The earnings call will discuss information from the earnings report, forward looking statements, and include a short question and answer segment with analysts.

The fiscal first quarter is Apple's best based on historical trends. It is the first with a full quarter of new iPhone sales, plus other device releases.

The iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro lineups launched in September to immediate success, as Tim Cook commented it was the best September quarter ever for iPhone. Apple's "Scary Fast" October event revealed three M3 processors used in an updated 24-inch iMac, 14-inch MacBook Pro, and 16-inch MacBook Pro.

New Mac availability through November and December should provide a favorable compare to Q1 2023, as Apple didn't announce any new Macs in the second half of 2022. The M2 processor arrived in June 2022 in the MacBook Air, then M2 Pro/Max came to the MacBook Pro lineup in January 2023 — thus missing the fiscal Q1 2023 entirely.

"We have great confidence in our Mac lineup and are excited about the recently announced iMac and MacBook Pro powered by our M3 chips," Luca Maestri said on the Q4 earnings call. "Our install base is at an all-time high, and half of Mac buyers during the quarter were new to the product, driven by MacBook Air. Also, we saw reported customer satisfaction of 97% for Mac in the U.S."

Apple Watches banned from import by the ITC

Apple's previous year of earnings hasn't been a bright spot for the company, as it saw four consecutive quarters of revenue decline. Services continues to be a growth area for Apple, but the post-pandemic market has been a decline for most hardware.

Wearables will be a tough compare, however, since 2022 supply chain conditions pushed demand into Q1 2023. Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 launched without supply issues, thus allowing demand to concentrate on Q4 2023, likely lowering the available demand for Q1 2024.

The ongoing Masimo case against Apple and potential for an Apple Watch import ban will likely be the focus of analysts. The initial ban didn't occur until December 25 and lasted only two days before a short stay, but if the ban begins again in January, it will mean significant impact to Q2.