Apple Q4 2020 Results: Record Mac Revenue, iPhone Down

Jason Snell:

Despite the tough iPhone quarter, revenue was a record for the company’s fourth fiscal quarter, at $64.7B. iPhone revenue was $26.8B, down 20% year over year. Mac revenue was $9B, up 29%. iPad revenue was $6.8B, up 46%. Services revenue was $14.5B, up 16%. And Wearables revenue was $7.9B, up 20.8%.

As usual, Snell has excellent charts to visualize Apple’s quarter.

iPhone being down might largely be explained by the fact that none of this year’s new phones shipped in the quarter. Last year, the iPhones 11 and 11 Pro started shipping September 20. Tim Cook says demand for iPhone 12 — with the Mini and Pro Max not even being on sale yet — looks good. So I wouldn’t worry about iPhone.

Mac being up 29 percent is just fascinating. I think it’s largely about the whole work-from-home drive? People buying new Macs and replacement Macs to accommodate new ways of working? But what’s really obvious is how much Mac sales being up from July through September show that the Mac is a mainstream product. Nerds — folks like you, dear reader of this website — know that the Mac is on the cusp of a major transition from Intel’s architecture to Apple’s own, and that right now is probably not the time to buy a new one. But normal people just buy Macs when they need new ones, and they need them now.

Lastly, it shows how diversified Apple’s financials are getting that iPhone revenue could be down 20 percent year-over-year but the company had record revenue for the quarter overall. A few years ago that was unimaginable.

★ Thursday, 29 October 2020