San Francisco (AFP)

The surge in demand for online music and videoconferencing with containment allowed Apple to perform better than expected in the second quarter, despite a slight drop in net profit.

"Apple made progress in the quarter, thanks to an all-time record in services and a quarterly record for connected accessories," like the Airpod headphones and the Apple Watch, despite the impact of the Covid-19, said Tim Cook, Apple CEO, in a statement released Thursday.

"In this difficult environment, our users depend on Apple products to stay connected, informed, creative and productive," he added.

Revenues for the quarter amounted to $ 58.3 billion, up 1% from the second quarter of last year. It is better than the 54.54 billion expected by analysts.

Adjusted earnings per share, the benchmark in North America, stood at 2.55 dollars (+ 4%), when analysts expected 2.26 dollars.

On the other hand, net profit reached only 11.2 billion dollars, against 11.5 billion in the same period last year.

Apple had suspended its forecast for the year and will not issue new ones at this stage.

The board of directors has also just authorized an increase of $ 50 billion in the current share buyback program.

On Wall Street, Apple was penalized in electronic exchanges after the close of the Stock Exchange: the action lost 2.57% around 19H00 (23H00 GMT).

"Amazon is spending all next quarter profits on the Covid-19. Apple has so much money it is buying back its stock and increasing its dividend. It's really bad, Apple," said consultant Avi Greengart. from Techsponential.

- Confined services -

Containment, first in China and then in a large part of the world from March, has exploded the demand for Apple's digital services, whether music streaming or videoconferencing.

"While people were spending more time on their phones because they were stuck at home, they were clearly spending more money on the App Store," said Yoram Wurmser, analyst for eMarketer, adding that services "have increased by 17 % YoY ".

"Our long-standing investment in a payroll service strategy. (...) We expect to reach in 2020 our long-standing goal of doubling our turnover for services in 2016", rejoiced Tim Cook during a conference call.

And Apple has never had so many devices in use in the world.

The apple brand has just extended its services, including Apple Music to 52 new countries. These new services do not concern the results of the second quarter, nor its new iPhone at 399 dollars, launched in mid-April.

The app launched by Apple in the United States with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to allow the general public to determine what to do in case of symptoms of Covid-19 has been downloaded "almost two million times, "said Tim Cook.

Apple will also work with Google to digitally track individuals who have been around the infected.

In China, where containment measures preceded those taken in most parts of the world, Apple has reopened its stores "in stages, about 30 days until mid-March," said Tim Cook, noting that "from a demand perspective, we saw an improvement in March compared to February", then "a further improvement in April compared to March".

© 2020 AFP