Apple's wearables arm now bigger than most Fortune 500 companies

iPad and Mac updates help Apple return to growth in its fiscal Q3

Apple CEO Tim Cook has claimed Apple's wearables business is now bigger than 60 per cent of Fortune 500 companies following a "blowout" quarter for the Apple iWatch and its wider wearables portfolio.

The fruity vendor returned to growth in its fiscal third quarter ending 30 June 2019 as strong sales of iPads, Mac, wearables and services cancelled out a 12 per cent annual drop in iPhone sales.

Total revenues inched up one per cent to $53.8bn, while quarterly earnings per diluted share fell seven per cent to $2.18.

On an earnings call, CEO Tim Cook singled out services and Apple's wearables business as the key growth drivers, emphasising that these are both areas in which Apple has strategically invested in the last several years.

The latter saw "sensational" growth of "well over 50 per cent" in Q3, he said.

"We had great results for Apple Watch, which set a new June quarter revenue record and is reaching millions of new users," Cook said on the call, a transcript of which can be found here.

"Over 75 per cent of customers buying Apple Watch in the June quarter were buying their first Apple Watch. We continue to see phenomenal demand for AirPods. And when you tally up the last four quarters, our wearables business is now bigger than 60 per cent of the companies in the Fortune 500."

Recent product releases helped drive growth elsewhere in Apple's portfolio, with "strong customer response" to the new iPad Mini and iPad Air helping it record a third consecutive quarter of growth in iPad.

Mac also hit double-digit growth, fuelled by MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

"Looking forward, there's an enormous amount to be excited about for Mac," Cook enthused.

"On the heels of our Mac mini and iMac updates earlier in the fiscal year, we brought significant updates to the bulk of our notebook lineup in the last couple of months."