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Live blog: Apple’s fiscal year Q1 2018 earnings call

Just a few minutes ago, Apple officially announced its fiscal first quarter results for 2018, representing the massive holiday shopping season and the first quarter of iPhone X sales. The company reported profits of $20.1 billion on revenue of $88.3 billion, selling 77.3 million iPhones, 5.1 million Macs, and 13.2 million iPads.

Next up is Apple’s quarterly earnings call with Tim Cook and CFO Luca Maestri. It will kickoff at 2PM PT/5PM ET. Follow along below…

In the earnings press release, which you can read in full right here, Cook was optimistic about the numbers and iPhone X sales, saying the device has been the top-selling iPhone every week since it was released:

“We’re thrilled to report the biggest quarter in Apple’s history, with broad-based growth that included the highest revenue ever from a new iPhone lineup. iPhone X surpassed our expectations and has been our top-selling iPhone every week since it shipped in November,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

The earnings call will begin in just a few minutes and you can listen on Apple’s investor relations website right here. Tim Cook will likely kick things off with a broad overview at the numbers, with CFO Luca Maestri then diving in for a deeper look. Things will wrap up with a Q&A from analysts. Check out all of the details from the call down below:

Tim Cook:

  • Tim Cook touts Apple active install base hitting 1.3 billion devices, an all-time high for all major products
    • 30 percent growth in 2 years
  • “Apple’s biggest quarter ever, which set new all-time records in revenue and earnings.”
  • Rehashing numbers from earnings release, including $88.3 billion in revenue
  • Says quarter was 13 weeks, compared to 14 weeks
    • Average revenue per week up 21 percent
  • iPhone X the “best selling smartphone in the world”
  • Revenue for the newly launched iPhones was the highest of any lineup in Apple history
  • “Our team has put the technology of tomorrow in the hands of our consumers today.”
  • Services revenue at $8.5 billion, up 18 percent YOY
    • 240 million paid subscriptions, up 30 million in last 90 days along
  • A record quarter for App Store, 2,000 ARKit apps in the App Store
  • “Just four months after the release of ARKit, we’ve already released ARKit 1.5 in beta to developers and the response has been amazing.”
  • Apple Pay, iCloud, and Apple Music had record quarters
    • Apple Pay up 50 percent YOY
    • Launching in Brazil in coming months
  • Best quarter ever for Apple Watch, 50 percent unit growth for 4th quarter in a row
  • Third consecutive quarter of revenue growth for iPad
  • 60 percent of Mac sales are to first time buyer, and in China almost 90 percent
  • “Looking forward to getting HomePod to customers next week. We’re very happy with the initial response from reviewers and we think customers are going to love it.”
  • Cook touting Apple’s ‘Everyone Can Code’ initiative
  • “This is an exciting time at Apple, we could not be more excited about our future.”

Luca Maestri:

  • Rehashing detailed numbers from earnings release
  • Apparently Q1 was a week shorter this year than last year. Who knew?
  • Fifth consecutive quarter of accelerating revenue growth
  • Double digit revenue growth in all geographic markets
  • iPhone ASP rises to $796, from $695 in year-ago quarter
  • 99 percent customer satisfaction for iPhone
  • 77 percent of smartphone users in the next quarter plan to purchase iPhone
  • 96 percent iPhone loyalty rate, the highest ever measured
  • Services up 27 percent in average revenue per week
  • App Store redesign leads to quarterly store visitor all-time high, as well as all-time high for paying accounts
  • Wearables the second largest contributor to revenue growth, including AirPods, Apple Watch, and Beats
  • 2% YOY increase in Mac sales, active install base up double digits YOY
  • Active install base of iPad has grown every quarter since its launch in 2010
    • 46 percent share of US tablet market
    • Of customers planning to buy in the next quarter, 72 percent plan to purchase iPads
    • 99 percent satisfaction rate for business
  • Apple rolling out new ‘Apple At Work’ initiative to make managing and deploying iOS devices in enterprise easier, launched with CDW in U.S. last week
  • 538 million visitors to Apple Stores, over 200,000 Today at Apple sessions
  • Due to tax legislation, Apple expects $38 billion tax payment to government

Q&A Time:

  • More color on iPhone demand and balance between $400 and $1000 iPhones?
    • Cook: Revenue growth for iPhone in all geographic segments was double-digits, 22% on a weekly sales basis. Proud Apple was able to enter supply/demand balance in December. iPhone X most popular every week since launch. “We feel fantastic, particularly as it relates to iPhone X.”
  • March quarter guidance predicts slow revenue and iPhone shipments, how should we read into this as it relates to decay of demand around higher-priced iPhones?
    • Maestri: Strong double-digit growth, 13-17%. $7 billion to $9 billion higher compared to last year. iPhone sell-through accelerating during March quarter compared to December quarter. We anticipate iPhone revenue will growth double digits in March quarter.
  • I know you don’t comment on future products, but when you think about the future of iPhone devices, more iPhone X-like designs coming?
    • Cook: You did a good job of answering your questions. We don’t comment on future products. We’re thrilled with the response to iPhone X. As we said when we launched it, we were setting up the next decade and that’s how we see it.
  • Color on iPhone upgrade rates and effects of battery replacement program?
    • Cook: The way I look at this, generally what we see with iPhone is that the reliability of iPhone is fantastic. The previously owned market has expanded in units over the years and you see carriers and retailers having very vibrant programs around trading iPhones in because iPhone has the largest residual rate on it. It acts as a buffer for the customer to buy a new one and it winds up with a customer somewhere else having a previously owned iPhone. I view this as a positive as it increases iPhone user base.
    • We did not consider what the battery program would do for upgrade rates. I don’t know how it will impact upgrades. We did it because we saw it as the right thing to do for our customers. The effect on upgrades was not in our thought process in deciding what to do.
  • With 1.3 billion active devices, what’s the rate of unique users?
    • Cook: I don’t want to attribute a number of devices per person, but there are more active users today than two years ago when there were 1 billion active devices.
  • What category is HomePod? Speaker? Assistant?
    • HomePod is an incredible product that gives an unbelievable audio experience in a small form factor with a super digital assistant, Siri, that knows a lot about music, but can handle home automation. The use cases are broad-based, much like our phones. Some may use it for music, some may use it as a digital assistant. The majority will likely use all of it.

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Avatar for Chance Miller Chance Miller

Chance is an editor for the entire 9to5 network and covers the latest Apple news for 9to5Mac.

Tips, questions, typos to chance@9to5mac.com