Apple has returned to growth in India, says CEO Tim Cook

“In emerging markets, we returned to growth in mainland China, grew strong double digits in India and in Brazil, and we set new Q3 records in Thailand, Vietnam and the Philippines,” CFO Luca Maestri said in the call. He said there was marked improvement in our year-over-year comparisons “from emerging markets relative to the first half of this fiscal year, particularly in the BRIC countries where year-over-year performance went from a 25% revenue decline in the first half to 3% growth in the June quarter.”

As per research firm Counterpoint, which released its Q2 2019 report today, “iPhone shipments fell 11%, and iPhone revenues fell 12% year-on-year”. But the report said “trends are improving” thanks to Apple’s buyback programmes and other marketing.

The silver lining seems to be iPhone XR, which, as per Canalys, accounted for 37.5 per cent of Apple shipments in May.“The range of iPhones relative to last year is frustrating its distributors,” said Canalys Research Analyst Vincent Thielke. “Distributors are taking on additional complexity and cost, but not necessarily seeing shipments or revenue growth as a result.”

The iPhone still got Apple$26 billion in revenue. “While this is down 12 per cent from last year’s June quarter, it is a significant improvement to the 17 per cent year-over-year decline in Q2,” Cook said.

A lot of Apple’s success this time comes from services and wearables. “This was our biggest June quarter ever — driven by all-time record revenue from Services, accelerating growth from Wearables, strong performance from iPad and Mac and significant improvement in iPhone trends,” said CEO Cook. “These results are promising across all our geographic segments, and we’re confident about what’s ahead. The balance of calendar 2019 will be an exciting period, with major launches on all of our platforms, new services and several new products,” Cook said in the quarterly release.