APPLE has forecast earnings for its next financial quarter – and the figures suggest the US technology company expects to include a few we...
APPLE has forecast earnings for its next financial quarter – and the figures suggest the US technology company expects to include a few weeks of iPhone 7S and iPhone 8 sales in its report.
The Cupertino-based company beat analysts' expectations in its latest financial results as revenue rose 7 per cent year-on-year.
The iPhone maker announced revenue for the last quarter of 45.4 billion dollars (£34.4 billion), up on the 42.4 billion dollars (£32.1 billion) posted a year ago.
Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "With revenue up 7 per cent year-over-year, we're happy to report our third consecutive quarter of accelerating growth and an all-time quarterly record for services revenue.
"We hosted an incredibly successful worldwide developers conference in June, and we're very excited about the advances in iOS, macOS, watchOS and tvOS coming this fall."
As well as giving an update on the last three months, Apple has forecast its earnings for the next financial quarter, which runs until the end of September.
Apple told investors that it expects to see somewhere between $49 billion and $52 billion in revenue next quarter.
That reveals some crucial information about the iPhone 8 release date – since it’s high enough to speculate that Apple will launch a new iPhone in September.
Apple typically launches its new iPhone in mid- to late September.
That means the company’s Q4 financial results include at least one week of shipments of the latest and greatest iPhone – significantly bumping up sales figures and revenue for that quarter.
However, this year has seen a slurry of rumours about delays to the new iPhone, partly due to supply constraints around the OLED display and low-yield around the new Touch ID technology.
Had the iPhone 8 been delayed – as many insiders predicted – we would have been likely to hear some low numbers forecast by Apple for this next financial quarter results.
Earlier this week, a number of high-profile analysts and Apple watchers had predicted a mid-October release date for the iPhone 8, which would fall into the next financial quarter.
Most investors had been looking for quarterly revenue to be around $49.2 billion – significant lower than Apple’s own high-end forecast.
Cybart – who expects Apple’s next iPhone and Watch to ship in October – this week produced a much lower forecast, according to technology blog Recode.
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