Tim Cook says iPhone 17 demand is ‘off the charts’, but supply constraints impacted sales

Apple just announced its quarterly results, including $56.99 billion in iPhone revenue. This number is slightly below the average of analyst expectations heading into the earnings, but Tim Cook tells Reuters that Apple would have sold more if it had the supply.

Cook said iPhone 17 demand “was off the charts”. He said supply of advanced processor nodes is constrained and “there’s just a little less flexibility in the supply chain at the moment” in terms of getting more parts available.

All of the iPhone processors are manufactured by TSMC, which is experiencing surges in chip demand thanks to the recent AI boom. If you go back a few years, Apple was TSMC’s largest customer by a mile … but that isn’t so true at the moment which gives the company less leverage.

While availability of chips may be a bottleneck, Apple continues to deftly navigate the environment of higher component pricing for memory and other parts.

Apple reported gross margins of 49.2% during the quarter, above estimates. However, it’s worth noting that overall gross margin figure includes a contribution from services, which has higher margins than hardware.

Apple does not break out unit sales for its hardware businesses, nor give official indications on which models are faring better. However, it’s not difficult to assume the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max is leading sales, with its trendy orange color option and redesigned aluminum chassis.

The base iPhone 17 has also been an appealing option this year, featuring the same screen technology (including ProMotion and always-on display features) as the Pro models for the first time. Apple also launched the lower-priced iPhone 17e during the March quarter.

Alongside iPhone’s strong performance, the Mac division also did well, likely driven by the popularity of the MacBook Neo. Overall, the company reported revenues of $111 billion and net profits of $29.58 billion, a March quarter record.