Apple manages to honorably overcome the slump that hits demand in the technology sector, usually subscribed to strong growth.
The Cupertino company, the last of the digital giants to report on its performance from January to March, shows a drop of only 3% in turnover and profits.
For the third time in ten years, Apple is certainly experiencing a decline in its quarterly sales.
However, the firm headed by Tim Cook manages to do better than analysts' expectations.
The spectacular $24.1 billion in quarterly profits generated from total sales of $94.8 billion were driven by demand for Apple services (+5.5%) and to a lesser extent by the remarkable appeal of iPhones (+1.5%), particularly in emerging countries, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Success in India
Apple has only just opened its first "Apple Store" in India but is investing, as well as its big supplier Foxconn Technology Group, more and more in this country of more than 1.4 billion inhabitants now more populous than China. .
It is for Apple to reduce in the medium term its dependence on the leading economy in Asia, which is increasingly seen as an adversary to Western countries.
In the conference call with analysts following the announcement of quarterly results, Tim Cook returned to India.
"What I see in India is a lot of people falling into the middle class category and I'm hopeful that we will convince a number of them to buy an iPhone."
During the last quarter, the return of Chinese consumers, freed from the confinement constraints that had weighed on Apple's sales during the last quarter, was not enough to boost the Californian company's sales in China compared to the quarter. equivalent in 2022.
Read alsoTim Cook inaugurates the first Apple Store in India
The modest increase in quarterly iPhone sales should be seen against the gloomy backdrop of a global contraction in smartphone sales in 2022 and probably again in 2023. Cristiano Amon, head of Qualcomm, an American giant of technology and essential components mobile phones, has just warned of the gloomy prospects in this sector.
He does not yet see demand rebounding in China.
"The macroeconomic context is reflected in a further deterioration in demand, particularly for mobile phones, at a rate that exceeds our forecasts," he explains, to the chagrin of his shareholders.
That Apple still manages to sell more iPhones is a remarkable achievement.
Conversely, sales of other Apple product lines confirm their decline: - 31% for Mac personal computers, - 13% for iPad tablets and even - 0.6% for wearables. i.e. wearable products like earphones and watches.
Apple's good performance in services, a category which includes, for example, music, video-on-demand programs and payment systems, continues to support the group's growth.
A job that lasts
Apple is the only digital giant that hasn't announced a major workforce reduction in recent months.
Google, Meta Platforms, Amazon, Salesforce and even Microsoft have had to solve it, sometimes several times.
Its lesser dependence on the advertising market and its greater caution in recruiting during the pandemic largely explain this distinction.
Thanks to its enormous liquidity, Apple is able to announce a program to buy back its shares on the market of 90 billion dollars.
What reassure its shareholders.
Apple's share price soared more than 2.4% in the over-the-counter market on Thursday night after the Nasdaq closed.
The capitalization of the Cupertino company now reaches more than 2630 billion dollars, a gain of nearly 28% since the beginning of the year.
