In the fourth quarter of its staggered fiscal year, the Californian group saw its smartphone sales increase by 9.7%, to 42.6 billion dollars, but analysts expected 43 billion.

Its services activity, which notably includes the App Store and iCloud, also disappointed slightly with 19 billion in turnover instead of 20.

The apple brand welcomed Thursday in its results release to have achieved a "record fourth quarter", with revenues up 8% year on year.

The company's stock declined very slightly in electronic trading after the close of trading.

Analysts were counting on Apple to reassure the markets after disappointing results from Google and Meta (Facebook, Instagram) which weighed on Wall Street this week.

The group's chief financial officer, Luca Maestri, predicted three months ago that Apple's sales would regain momentum this summer despite the negative impact of currency effects.

The international brand is suffering from the strong dollar for its sales outside the United States because the conversion into dollars of income generated abroad in other currencies depends on the exchange rate, which has depreciated for almost all currencies against the greenback.

"The strength of our ecosystem, the unparalleled loyalty of our customers and record sales have brought our base of devices in service to a new record," said Luca Maestri, quoted in the press release.

Demand for computers and smartphones has fallen this summer, with many households postponing such spending in the face of runaway inflation.

Mobile phone sales have thus gone through their worst summer since 2014 and demand should not improve in the coming months, according to Canalys.

For the period from July to September, Apple was the only brand to substantially increase its market share, to 18% of the global cake, behind the South Korean giant Samsung (22%).

The only downside, the new range presented in September would be less in demand than expected: according to the specialized information site The Information, Apple had to reduce the production of iPhone 14+.

"Orders for the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14+ were poor, but those for the pro models exceeded our expectations," commented CFRA analyst Angelo Zino.

"We believe Apple's smartphones will hold up better than the competition," he added.

© 2022 AFP