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The iPhone maker reported big surges in product sales with the Chinese market also seeing a large spike.
Apple surpassed $100bn in quarterly revenue for the first time as iPhone sales surged during the Christmas period.
The iPhone maker reported a staggering $111.44bn in revenue for the fourth quarter of 2020, bringing in $28.7bn in profits. Analysts had expected revenue to be just above the $100bn mark but Apple passed it comfortably.
Chief executive Tim Cook said that the company saw “a historic holiday season” for its products. It launched the iPhone 12, its first 5G smartphones, in October.
Revenue in its iPhone division tallied at $65.68bn for the quarter while sales of Macs, iPads and wearables were also up. This all despite the fact that Apple’s retail stores were closed for the majority of 2020 owing to the pandemic.
International sales, the company said, accounted for 64pc of its revenues in the quarter. This includes the Chinese market, where its sales grew by more than 50pc. It is Apple’s third largest market but one that still has room for growth, especially when the US and Europe markets slow down intermittently.
“Our December quarter business performance was fuelled by double-digit growth in each product category, which drove all-time revenue records in each of our geographic segments and an all-time high for our installed base of active devices,” chief financial officer Luca Maestri said, adding that Apple returned $30bn to shareholders in the quarter.
While the Cupertino company will revel in the bumper year for product sales, its services business has soared too.
The services segment of the company includes the revenue it makes from the App Store, Apple Music and Apple TV+, for which it has invested heavily in content. The segment posted quarterly revenues of $15.76bn, up from $12.72bn the year prior.
Apple was trading at a $2.39tn market cap after posting the quarterly report on Wednesday. The company did not provide any revenue forecast for the next quarter or year, which it has not done since the pandemic started.
