Apple's bumper quarter: Four juicy takeaways for the channel

We sifted through the fruity vendor's quarterly earnings, so you don't have to

Apple last night bucked a disappointing run of quarterly results from tech giants by posting an eight per cent revenue jump, with Mac sales up 25 per cent.

Here we pick out the top takeaways for the channel.

Mac's ‘incredible' quarter

Even as the wider PC market registered its steepest decline in over two decades, Apple managed to rack up record Mac sales in its final quarter.

Mac revenue in the three months to 24 September 2022 hiked 25 per cent to $11.5bn, despite "significant FX headwinds".

On an earnings call, CEO Tim Cook branded it "an incredible Mac quarter".

"If you look at the Mac, it was the best quarter we've ever had in the history of the company. It was helped by the product launch of the MacBook Air with M2," he said.

"It was helped that in the previous quarter, in the June quarter, if you remember, we lost output from the factory for a significant portion of the quarter. And so we had a backlog exiting our Q3 headed into Q4. We were able to satisfy all of that demand during Q4 and filled the channel for the Mac."

Overall results top expectations

Although the latest round of quarterly results from Big Tech companies have disappointed Wall Street, Apple bucked the trend by posting better-than-anticipated revenues of $90.1bn in its final quarter.

That's an eight per cent year-on-year rise (rising to 14 per cent stripping out negative foreign exchange effects).

And Mac was by no means the only high point.

Although iPad revenues fell 13 per cent to $7.2bn (which Apple blamed on tough comparables from last year's Q4), iPhone and wearables, home and accessories revenues both swelled by 10 per cent to hit $42.6bn and $9.7bn, respectively. Services rose five per cent to $19.2bn.

For the full year, Apple saw revenues rise eight per cent to $394bn as it set records for iPhone, Mac, wearables, home and accessories and services.

Apple's year-on-year revenue performance will "decelerate" in its current quarter ending December, it predicted however, due partly to increasing FX headwinds. Mac revenues are also set to "decline substantially year-over-year" in the quarter due to a "very challenging compare against last year".

Enterprise grows ‘strong double digits'

Fuelled partly by lockdown, Apple is becoming a stronger challenger to the likes of HP, Dell and Lenovo in the channel's SMB and enterprise back yard, with Softcat CEO Graeme Watt telling CRN this week that he sees "opportunities to grow even further" with the vendor.

On the earnings call, CFO Luca Maestri revealed that Apple's enterprise business grew "strong double digits" in its fiscal 2022, picking out Cisco as a case study for its progress here.

"Cisco expanded its Macs as a choice programme and is now offering it to all its employees to help attract and retain top talent. And when given this choice, employees have chosen Macs twice as often as other options," he said.

Apple greening up its supply chain

In what will encourage the growing ranks of UK resellers and distributors that have set net zero targets, Apple also used its results statement to detail how it is stepping up its efforts to become net zero itself by 2030.

Apple already claims to be carbon neutral across its global operations, and had previously pledged that, by 2030, every Apple device sold will have a net-zero climate impact.

To support Apple's 2030 environmental goals, Cook (pictured above) said the fruity vendor has asked all its suppliers to become carbon-neutral across their entire Apple-related footprint by the end of the decade.

"We are also providing them with resources based on what we learned achieving net-zero carbon in our own global operations."