Apple reports record first quarter results

iPhone, Wearables & Services Drive All-Time Record Revenue and Earnings — Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2020 first quarter ended December 28, 2019. The Company posted quarterly revenue of $91.8 billion …

Apple 2020-01-29

Context & Ripple Effects

This is Apple's first all-time revenue record since its 2016 holiday-quarter peak, and it lands after a stretch where the story looked shakier: in the July 2019 quarter, iPhone revenue fell year over year while Services set records, leaving open the question of whether anything besides the iPhone could carry a headline number.

The fiscal 2020 first quarter answers that question — $91.8 billion with iPhone, Wearables, and Services all cited as drivers — making it the template for how Apple reports growth without leaning on a single product line, ahead of the even larger quarters that followed in 2021 and 2022.

First-order effects

Investors get confirmation that the post-iPhone-peak playbook works: the same quarter structure that showed iPhone declining in mid-2019 now delivers an all-time record with Wearables and Services sharing the load alongside iPhone.
Apple's earnings narrative shifts from defending iPhone unit sales to showcasing a three-engine portfolio, changing what analysts scrutinize each quarter.

Second-order effects

Rivals in wearables and digital services face a competitor whose hardware install base feeds directly into recurring revenue, pressuring them to bundle devices with subscription offerings of their own.
Suppliers and channel partners see demand signals spread across more product categories, reducing their exposure to any single Apple device cycle.

Third-order effects

If the pattern holds across the subsequent record quarters, Apple's valuation case rests less on unit cycles and more on revenue per active device — monetizing a large installed base through Services and accessories rather than chasing upgrade waves.

The trend: Apple is converting its device install base into diversified recurring revenue, with Services and Wearables increasingly carrying record quarters that iPhone alone once had to deliver.

Discussion

@gearoidreidy Gearoid Reidy on x
Apple 1Q sales in Japan were down about 10% y/y after the government introduced new rules on discounting handsets in an attempt to cut mobile phone bills. Interesting that it impacted Apple that much. https://www.apple.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@mgsiegler M.G. Siegler on x
https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@inafried Ina Fried on x
5G will enable Apple to not comment on future products far faster than it has ever been able to before.
@greengart Avi Greengart on x
Question for Tim Cook: will 5G drive future iPhone sales? Is there consumer demand for 5G? What's the killer app for 5G? Tim Cook: [Yeah, I'm not answering that.]
@caro_milanesi Carolina Milanesi on x
Interesting info from @tim_cook on #coronavirus impact. reopening of plants outside of the Wuhan area after the holidays has been delayed and Apple accounted for that. Also accounted for reduced hours at their stores underlining that sales from the WuHan region are small #AAPL
@kirkburgess Kirk Burgess on x
Apple beat the top of their revenue guidance by a big margin this quarter - it's unusual (recently) for them to beat their own high end of guidance by this much. Kudos to Apple! (Even though it screwed up my estimate accuracy by a lot).
@ampressman Aaron Pressman on x
Apple's wearables business is now the size of a Fortune 150 company. That's Broadcom with its's $20.8 billion of revenue, according to @FortuneMagazine $AAPL
@greengart Avi Greengart on x
Tim Cook provided one-day App Store sales data for New Year's Day — $386 million — and is using Amazon numbers for Apple Arcade ("has been fast off the blocks") and Apple TV+ ("off to a rousing start").
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
The iPhone 11 was Apple's top-selling model every week. The three flagship iPhones (iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max) were the top three models.
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
No paid subscriber updates (at least in Tim Cook's prepared remarks) for Apple Arcade, Apple TV+, or Apple News+.
@asymco Horace Dediu on x
@ssaig https://twitter.com/...
@kifleswing Kif on x
Apple is less sure about how much money it will make next quarter, a change it attributes to uncertainty stemming from nCoV https://www.cnbc.com/...
@asymco Horace Dediu on x
Very likely Apple will have 2 billion active devices in 2025.
@asymco Horace Dediu on x
Apple installed base of devices grew in each of our geographic segments and has now reached over 1.5 billion
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
Apple generated more year-over-year revenue growth from Wearables / Home / Accessories (+$2.7B) than Services (+$1.8B) in 1Q20.
@bleedsixcolors Six Colors on x
Wearables is also on a tear. The category was up 37% over the year-ago quarter. That's 10 straight quarters of growth over 30 percent, which is breathtaking. https://twitter.com/...
@bleedsixcolors Six Colors on x
Services revenue continued on its roll, up 17 percent from the year-ago quarter. https://twitter.com/...
@alex @alex on x
$AAPL market cap is now $1.393T per YFinance i recall when all the big 5 adding up to $3T total was a big deal (mid-2017) - now MSFT + AAPL = $2.65T by themselves
@viticci Federico Viticci on x
Our charts for Apple's Q1 2020 are up. Some wild numbers from Apple's quarter this time around. https://www.macstories.net/... https://twitter.com/...
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
Apple's 2Q20 revenue guidance: $63B to $67B My expectation: $57.5B to $60.5B (I included a $2B negative impact from coronavirus) Consensus was $62.5B Another wow. This is really strong guidance for Apple.
@neilcybart Neil Cybart on x
Apple just released 1Q20 earnings: $91.8 billion of revenue $4.99 earnings per share (EPS) My estimates were: $89.6 billion of revenue $4.70 EPS Wow.
@jamestitcomb James Titcomb on x
Huge beat for Apple. Its biggest ever profit. iPhone sales up 8% v expectations of decline https://www.businesswire.com/ ...
@rustybrick Barry Schwartz on x
Whoa - after hours $AAPL https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@carlquintanilla Carl Quintanilla on x
“I can't imagine a scenario where the supply chain isn't disrupted. .. If there's one major hiccup in the raw materials, fabrication, assembly, test, and shipping, it will be a disruption.” (via @business) $AAPL https://www.bloomberg.com/...
@jdolcourt Jessica Dolcourt on x
Coronavirus is already having an impact on technology https://twitter.com/...
@sharatibken Shara Tibken on x
.@Apple has closed one store and is working with alternative suppliers to replace those in the Wuhan, China, area that are impacted by the coronavirus https://www.cnet.com/... via @CNET
@amdalleq Sebastian Sienkiewicz on x
Apple Earnings for Q1 2020, HUGE BEAT Revenue: $91.8B vs estimated $88.38B iPhone Rev: $55.96B vs est $51.5B Earnings Per Share: $4.99 vs est $4.56 Q2 forecast Revenue: $63 To $67B vs est $62.33B $AAPL accounts for 4.9% of the S&P 500, Largest component https://www.cnbc.com/...
@kiplinger @kiplinger on x
Apple ($AAPL) beat analysts' Q1 2020 estimates with its just-reported earnings, based on strong sales in the 2019 holiday shopping season. Here's how dividend investors can size up this hot stock. https://www.kiplinger.com/...
@ophirgottlieb Ophir Gottlieb on x
$AAPL Chart of AAPL services revenue for each Fiscal Q1 https://wccftech.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@robertojirusta R.J. on x
Apple earnings: $4.99 per share, vs $4.55 EPS expected - https://www.cnbc.com/...
@alex @alex on x
aapl up two points after reporting nearly $92B in single-quarter rev - what a world https://techcrunch.com/...
@ruskin147 Rory Cellan-Jones on x
Just absorb that -$56bn from one product in three months https://twitter.com/...
@twostraws Paul Hudson on x
📈 77% of all iOS devices from the last four years are now running iOS 13, and 70% of all devices from any year. Now is the time to learn SwiftUI, folks! Start today for free: https://www.hackingwithswift.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...

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