According to its own information, the technology group Apple achieved double-digit growth in sales in all product groups and regions in the third quarter.

The company exceeded the averaged forecasts of the analysts with a turnover of 81.43 billion dollars as well as the comparable quarter of the previous year.

Here the increase was 36 percent.

Apple's profit doubled from $ 11 billion to just under $ 22 billion.

Winand von Petersdorff-Campen

Business correspondent in Washington.

  • Follow I follow

The most important source of sales remains the iPhone, with which Apple achieved 39 billion dollars or almost half of total sales.

This corresponds to an increase of 50 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

The high growth is unusual because customers typically hesitate to buy in the second quarter in anticipation of new products.

One billion iPhones are in use

CEO Tim Cook said there are currently a billion iPhones in operation and a total of around 1.65 billion Apple devices.

Cook pointed out that the sales success of the iPhone 12 had been achieved even though the super-fast Internet standard 5G was still in its infancy in most regions.

The device was designed for the new technology.

With the particular success of the smartphone, the composition of sales has changed at the expense of other products such as laptops, iPads or services, which include cloud services, music and film programs or payment services.

Mac computers, iPads and watches have also grown strongly, albeit weaker than the iPhones.

The services generated a revenue share of 21 percent in the quarter and just under 18 percent in the first nine months.

Effects of the pandemic

While computers and iPads, according to CFO Luca Maestri, have benefited from the fact that many people were still working at home or attending classes because of the pandemic, products that require more explanation, such as the new iPhone and the Apple Watch, suffered from the fact that many of the Group's branches worldwide, however Telecom partners' sales outlets also remained closed. According to Maestri, entertainment services such as Apple Music and Apple TV benefited from the fact that there wasn't much else to change. Cook highlighted the success of the "Ted Lasso" series produced for Apple, which apparently hit the zeitgeist with its message of decency. 

The shortage of microchips, which hit the auto industry in particular, did not spare Apple either. In April, Apple had therefore calculated less sales than otherwise possible in the order of three to five billion dollars. Now CFO Maestri has been able to announce that the losses have been lower. For the fourth quarter of the Apple fiscal year, which ends at the end of September, expects weaker sales growth than in the third quarter. Currency changes and procurement problems are responsible for this. Apple paid out $ 29 billion to shareholders in the third quarter.