Following Apple’s record-breaking fiscal Q1 2020 earnings release, CEO Tim Cook has offered some additional commentary on the results. Speaking to Reuters, Cook said that Apple continues to face supply issues for certain products.
According to Cook, Apple struggled to keep up with demand for AirPods and Apple Watch Series 3 during the holiday quarter. While Apple has regularly acknowledged supply and demand imbalances with AirPods, holiday promotions seemingly drove newfound interest in the Apple Watch Series 3 as well:
Cook told Reuters that Apple could not make enough AirPods and Apple Watch Series 3 devices to meet demand during the fiscal first quarter and continues to be short on both. Cook said Apple does not have an estimate for when it will be able to fulfill demand for each. “We’re working on both of those very hard,” Cook told Reuters.
The Apple CEO also touched on the early performance of Apple TV+. While Apple doesn’t report specific revenue and user numbers for its Services, Cook said Apple TV+ has been a “rousing success” so far:
Cook said the company’s Apple TV+ subscription streaming video service released last fall was a “rousing success” and that it is “very strong, both the people that are getting it in the bundle and the people that are paying for it that haven’t bought a new device.”
And building on that, Cook said that Apple expects to surpass its goal of 500 million subscribers ahead of schedule — this includes subscribers to all Apple subscription services, as well as other App Store subscriptions. The company is setting a new goal of 600 million subscribers by the end of this calendar year.
Meanwhile, speaking to CNBC, Cook said that Apple has set a wider-than-usual guidance range for Q2 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak:
Cook said the decision to set guidance with a range of $4 billion was reflective of the coronavirus outbreak and “the uncertainty around that.”
Cook also explained that Apple is restricting travel and providing its employees in Wuhan with care kits:
“We’re restricting travel to business critical travel. For employees that are in the Wuhan area, we are providing care kits and supplying them across our employee population in China as well.”
Read our full coverage of Apple’s earnings results here.
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