Tim Cook ‘excited by the enthusiasm’ in India as Apple sets all-time revenue record

Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company continues “to be excited by the enthusiasm” it is seeing in India, where the iPhone maker set an all-time revenue record during the September quarter as the iPhone sales returned to growth globally after two quarters.

“We can’t wait to bring four new stores to customers in India,” Cook said during the fourth-quarter earnings call.

“Apple is reporting revenue of $94.9 billion, a September quarter record and up 6% from a year ago. iPhone grew in every geographic segment, marking a new September quarter revenue record for the category,” Cook noted.

The California-based company reported net sales growth in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific (including India), while sales in China—its third-largest market—were slightly down for the September quarter and dropped 7.7% for the financial year.

Meanwhile, the iPhone maker’s bottom line took a hit as the company paid a one-time charge as part of a tax decision in Europe. In Q4, Apple’s net profit fell to $14.7 billion, down 35.8% year-over-year (YoY).

“During the quarter, we recorded a one-time income tax charge of $10.2 billion, which relates to the impact of the reversal of the European General Court’s State Aid decision,” Apple Chief Financial Officer Luca Maestri noted during the earnings call.

“When we exclude this one-time charge, net income was $25 billion and diluted earnings per share were $1.64, up 12% year-over-year, and a September quarter record,” he added.

The tech giant wrapped up FY24 with a revenue of $391 billion, showing a 2% YoY rise, and a net profit of $93.7 billion, down 3.3% YoY.

iPhone and services 

While Apple’s flagship smartphones have driven the company’s sales, its services segment has been steadily growing and becoming an increasingly important source of revenue.

After two quarters of dip in iPhone sales, the revenue from the smartphones rose 5.5% to $46.2 billion in the fourth quarter.

In September, the tech giant launched its latest flagship smartphones, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, alongside the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus powered by Apple Intelligence—the company’s very own brand of artificial intelligence.

During the call, Cook said Apple believes Apple Intelligence is a “compelling upgrade reason”.

That said, Apple expects its December quarter total company revenue to grow “low- to mid-single digits” year-over-year, according to Maestri.

Moving to the service revenue, Maestri expected it to “grow double-digits” at a rate similar to what Apple reported in the fiscal year 2024. Services revenue in FY24 was $96.1 billion, up 12.9% YoY. In the September quarter, it grew 12% to $25 billion.

In other categories, such as Mac and iPad, net sales grew for the quarter, while sales for wearables, home, and accessories declined. For the fiscal year 2024, Mac sales increased, but the other two categories saw a decrease.

In Q4, Mac revenue was $7.7 billion (up 2% year-over-year), iPad revenue reached $7 billion (an 8% increase), while revenue from wearables, home, and accessories totalled $9 billion (down 3% from the previous year).

According to the CFO, Apple experienced strong performance in many emerging markets for the iPad, including double-digit growth in India and others.

Overall, sales of Apple products in the September quarter reached $70 billion, a 4.1% increase YoY, while sales for fiscal year 2024 decreased by 1% to $294.9 billion.

Apple Intelligence

Apple has expanded its product line-up with Apple Intelligence, with new launches this week, including a new iMac, featuring the M4 chip; an all-new Mac mini powered by the M4 and new M4 Pro chips; a new MacBook Pro, powered by the M4 family of chips, which got two new chips—M4 Pro and M4 Max—along with M4. All these new products will have access to Apple Intelligence.

There is also support for a range of older devices: iPad Pro, iPad Air, MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, iMac, Mac mini (all featuring M1 chips or newer), Mac Studio with M1 Max or later, Mac Pro with M2 Ultra, alongside iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Earlier in the week, Apple made the first set of Apple Intelligence features available in US English for iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

“We are getting a lot of positive feedback from developers and customers. And, in fact, if you just look at the first three days, which is all we have obviously from Monday, the 18.1 adoption is twice as fast as the 17.1 adoption was in the year-ago quarter,” Cook said

“There’s definitely interest out there for Apple Intelligence,” he added.