Apple, driven by the iPhone, beats expectations with 12% revenue growth in Q4
Net income reached $30.7 billion (+12 %), with a gross margin of 47.9 %, at the upper end of Apple’s guidance range.
Apple published results on Monday that exceeded expectations for the fourth quarter of its staggered financial year (July-September), with turnover up 12% year-on-year, to $114.5 billion, driven by the iPhone (+17% to $57.6 billion). Net profit reached $30.7 billion (+12%), with a gross margin of 47.9%, at the top of Apple's forecast range. But investors are especially waiting for its forecasts for the holiday period, which the group must detail during a conference with analysts at 10:00 p.m. GMT: in July, a disappointing forecast caused the stock to fall by more than 6% after the close, despite results better than expected.
Like the entire sector, Apple is experiencing a global shortage of memory chips, monopolized by artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, which is driving up the cost of its components. The group raised the prices of its Macs, iPads and accessories from $30 to $300 at the end of June, then by $100 for its new iPhone 18 Pro, launched on September 18. The retail prices of smartphones jumped by 20% in 2026 worldwide, and their deliveries fell by the same amount in the third quarter, according to the firm Counterpoint, which however attributes to Apple an unprecedented market share of 22% for this period.
However, Mac sales have increased by 24%, and those in China by 21%, but services (App Store, iCloud) are slowing down to almost 10% growth. The quarter includes only nine days of sales of the iPhone 18 Pro and none of the iPhone Duo, the group's first foldable, sold since October 23 from $1,999 - a device that new boss John Ternus presents in the press release as "the most transformative iPhone since the original".
Apple stands out from other American tech giants by the modesty of its investments: around 2.2 billion dollars over the quarter, according to an AFP calculation, when Alphabet spent 51.4 billion and Microsoft 45.2 billion over the same period, mainly for their AI data centers. In October, Apple shares gained 3.5%, when the Nasdaq index, with a strong technological composition, was experiencing its worst month since March 2025, weighed down by doubts about the profitability of massive spending in AI.
Machine-translated from French
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- Le Figaro2 Nov, 23:34Apple, driven by the iPhone, beats expectations with 12% revenue growth in Q4 ↗Figures: 30.7 milliards
| Publisher Le Figaro (established tier) | +76 |
| Checkable figures cited | +3 |
| Total | 79 |
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