Q1 2022 Apple Inc Earnings Call

January 27, 2022

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Duncan <unk> COO.

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Good day, and welcome to the Apple Q1 FY 2022 earnings conference call. Today's call is being recorded. At this time for opening remarks, and introductions I would like to turn the call over to Tejas Gala, Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Finance. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. Speaking first today is Apple CEO, Tim Cook and he'll be followed by CFO Luca Maestri.

After that, we'll open the call to questions from analysts.

Please note that some of the information you'll hear during our discussion today will consist of forward-looking statements, including without limitation those regarding revenue gross margin operating expenses other income and expense taxes capital allocation and future business outlook, including the potential impact of

COVID-19 on the company's business and results of operations. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or trends to differ materially from our forecast.

For more information please refer to the risk factors discussed in Apple's most recently filed annual report on Form 10-K, and the Form 8-K filed with the SEC today, along with the associated press release, Apple assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information which speak.

As of their respective dates. I'd now like to turn the call over to Tim for introductory remarks.

Thank you, Tejas and good afternoon.

Today, we are proud to announce Apple's biggest quarter ever.

Through the busy holiday season, we set an all-time revenue record of nearly $124 billion.

Up 11% from last year and better than we had expected at the beginning of the quarter.

And we are pleased to see that our active installed base of devices is now at a new record with more than $1.8 billion devices.

We set all-time records for both developed and emerging markets and saw revenue growth across all of our product categories, except for iPad, which we said would be supply-constrained.

As expected in the aggregate, we experienced supply constraints that were higher than the September quarter.

Before I discuss our results in greater detail, I want to first acknowledge the toll that COVID-19 continues to have on communities around the world.

In many places case counts are higher and health systems more strained than at any point throughout the pandemic.

On behalf of all of us at Apple, I want to extend our deep gratitude to the scientists, doctors, nurses and so many others on the front lines of combating COVID-19.

This is our eighth quarter reporting results in the shadow of the pandemic and while I can't say it gets any easier, I can say I'm incredibly proud of the way our teams have come together and continue to innovate on behalf of our customers.

A few weeks ago, we marked the 15th anniversary of the day Steve revealed iPhone to the world. We knew that we had the beginnings of something fundamentally transformative, though none of us could have predicted the incredible and meaningful impact it would have on all of our lives.

The creative spirit that made the first iPhone possible has thrived at Apple every day.

We never stop creating. We never stopped innovating. You can see that spirit reflected throughout our products from the incredible performance and capability of our M1 chips to our powerful yet easy to use operating systems to our unrivaled iPhone camera systems to the beauty and

magic of Air pods.

That's why each of our major products leads the industry in customer satisfaction for their respective category.

People expect Apple to solve hard problems with easy to use products.

And I found has never been more popular. During the December quarter, we set an all-time revenue record for iPhone. Thanks to the strength of our incredible iPhone 13 lineup. This is the best iPhone lineup, we've ever had and the reaction from the press and our users had been off the charts.

This past quarter. We also set another all-time revenue record for Mac with customers eager to get their hands on and M1 powered Macbook Air iMac or Macbook Pro. We've been thrilled with the response from pro users to the M1 pro and M1 Mac chips and to see how Apple

Silicon is blowing them away with its power, performance and efficiency.

Despite the constraints I mentioned earlier, our iPad lineup continues to be indispensable to tens of millions of people from teachers and students to artists and creators.

Customers are eager to get their hands on our ninth generation iPad, which features a beautiful display and doubled the storage capacity as well as the new iPad mini with its ultra-portable design.

Wearables home and accessories, meanwhile, set an all-time revenue record. Customers are loving the Apple watch series 7 with its cutting edge health and fitness tracking features. Nearly every day I get notes from customers, who share how our heart alert led to a lifesaving appointment with the cardiology.

Just.

And more recently. I've been hearing from people who tell me that their Apple watch save their lives by calling 911 when they couldn't.

I've been hearing from people, who tell me that their Apple watch save their lives by calling 911 when they could.

As I've said, we're still in the early innings with our health work, but every day I am encouraged by our positive impact.

We are also making great advancements in audio and are seeing strong demand from customers as a result.

The home pod many continues to earn praise for combining the intelligence of Siri with an immersive room-filling audio experience. And our customers have responded with a lot of excitement to the magic of spatial audio on AirPods, which packs the acoustics of a concert hall.

As always, the deep integration of hardware, software and services is a hallmark of everything Apple makes. It is a principle you can see at work and the introduction of share play. A feature that offers a whole new way to create shared experiences by letting users watch and listen to their favorite content together on FaceTime.

Content together on face Todd.

And we've continued to invest in innovation across our services business, which set another all time revenue record last quarter and performed even better than we had anticipated.

The App store continues to be an economic miracle for developers around the world in a safe and trusted place for consumers to discover their favorite apps.

Since its launch, we have paid developers selling digital goods and services more than $260 billion with 2021, setting a new record for their earnings.

I'm also happy to report that in its first two years Apple TV plus shows and movies have earned 200 award wins and more than 890 nominations among a powerful lineup our feature films like the tragedy of Macbeth Coda and Swan song along.

With many gripping new series coming up including severance and the after party.

Each one is a tremendous credit to all the storytellers. In front of the cameras and behind them, who touched audiences all over the world.

Fitness+ meanwhile continues to inspire customers to reach their health and fitness goals. We recently introduced time to run an extension of our popular series time to walk as well as new collections of workouts and meditations to help users make more intentional training choices.

Despite the pandemic, our retail businesses saw its highest revenue in Apple's history, and we also earned our highest ever customer satisfaction scores.

That is a testament to the incredible adaptability our teams have shown as we've re imagined hotel experience.

I also want to take a moment to thank our retail employees and AppleCare teams for the deep care you have given to our customers as they look to get the most out of our products learn new skills or track down the perfect gift.

We have always lead with our values and with compassion and care and never has that been more needed than during the pandemic.

Last quarter, we celebrated 10 years of our employee giving program, which we started to help our employees identify and support the causes they care most deeply about.

We pledged to match their contributions to organizations doing important work at every level from their local food pantry to global humanitarian nonprofits.

In the last decade, this program has contributed nearly $725 million to charitable organizations.

We also celebrated 15 years of Apple's partnership with a global fund on project Red supporting their life-saving work to expand health care services in subSaharan Africa for people living with HIV AIDS.

With the support of our customers. We've now raised nearly $270 million to fund prevention testing and counseling services for people impacted by HIV AIDS.

And in keeping with our abiding belief in and commitment to education. We also launched a new partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of America.

This initiative will help young people across the US learn to code on iPad, using our everyone can code curriculum.

And we are continuing to drive innovations to help combat climate change, we are already carbon neutral across our own operations and we are working intensely to meet our 2030 goal of carbon neutrality across our supply chain and the lifecycle of our products.

To celebrate black history month, we will be releasing a special edition Apple Watch Black unity rated solo load and a matching unity lights watch face.

And through our racial equity and justice initiative, we are continuing to support organizations blazing trails to a more equitable world and our economies, our classrooms and our criminal justice system.

We recognize as ever that it takes all of us to confront our most profound challenges. And at Apple, we are determined to do our part. That includes our own work and inclusion and diversity, which we are advancing every day.

Let me close by saying that despite the uncertainty of the world. There is one thing of which I am certain. Apple will continue to earn it every day and in every way to deliver on the promise of technology at its best.

<unk> will continue to earn it every day and in every way to deliver on the promise of technology at its best.

I'll now turn it over to Luca to go over our quarterly results in more detail.

Thank you, Tim and good afternoon, everyone.

We're very pleased to report record financial results for the December quarter. We set an all-time revenue record of $123.9 billion, an 11% increase from a year ago.

We reached new all-time records in the Americas, Europe, Greater China, and the rest of Asia Pacific. And it was also an all-time record quarter for both products and services. On the product side, revenue was $104.4 billion up 9% over a year ago.

Despite significant supply constraints, we grew in each of our product categories, except iPad, where supply constraints were particularly pronounced.

And set all-time records for iPhone, Mac, and wearables home and accessories.

The strong level of sales performance the match loyalty of our customers and the strength of our ecosystem have driven our current installed base of active devices to a new all-time record of $1.8 billion devices.

The growth in the installed base was broad based.

As we set all-time records in each major product category and in each geographic segment.

Our services set an all-time revenue record of $19.5 billion up 24% over a year ago with December quarter records in every geographic segment.

Company gross margin was 43.8%.

Up 160 basis points from last quarter due to volume leverage and favorable mix, partially offset by higher cost structures.

Products gross margin was 38.4%.

Up 410 basis points sequentially, driven by leverage and mix.

Services gross margin was 72.4%, up 190 basis points sequentially, mainly due to a different mix.

Net income of $34.6 billion and diluted earnings per share of $2.10. Both grew more than 20% year over year and were all-time records operating cash flow of 47 billion was also an all-time record.

Let me get into more detail for each of our revenue categories.

iPhone revenue grew 9% year over year to an all-time record of $71.6 billion despite supply constraints.

Thanks to a remarkable customer response to our new iPhone 13 family.

We set all-time records in both developed and emerging markets reached new all time high in the iPhone active installed base and the latest survey of US consumers from 451 research indicates iPhone customer satisfaction of 98%.

For Mac, revenue was $10.9 billion was an all-time record with growth of 25% year over year.

Driven by strong demand for our newly redesigned Macbook pro powered by M1.

Despite supply constraints.

We are one year into our transition to Apple silicon and already the vast majority of our Mac sales are from M1 powered devices.

Which helped drive a record number of upgrades during the December quarter, our momentum in this category is very impressive as the last six quarters have been the best six quarters ever for Mac.

iPad generated $7.2 billion in revenue down 14% year over year due to very significant supply constrained by customer demand was very strong across all models.

Despite the supply shortages, our installed base of iPads reached a new all time high during the quarter.

Thanks to a high number of customers that are new to iPad. In fact, around half of the customers purchasing an iPad during the quarter were new to the product.

Wearables home and accessories set a new all-time record of $14.7 billion up 13% year over year, and we set all-time revenue records in each geographic segment. We also continued to improve and expand our product offerings in this category to create unique experiences showcasing our

Deep integration of hardware software and services.

In addition to an outstanding level of states' performance globally, Apple Watch continues to extend its reach. With over two-thirds of customers purchasing an Apple watch during the quarter being new to the product.

Turning to services, as I mentioned, we reached an all-time revenue record of $19.5 billion up 24% with all-time records for cloud services for music video advertising and payments services in a December quarter record for the App Store.

These impressive results reflect the positive momentum we are seeing on many fronts. First, as I mentioned before, our installed basis has continued to grow and has reached an all-time high across each geographic segment and major project product category.

Next, we continue to see increased customer engagement with our services. The number of paid accounts on our digital content stores grew double digits and reached a new all-time high during December quarter in every geographic segment.

Also, paid subscriptions continued to show very strong growth.

We now have more than 785 million paid subscriptions across the services on our platform, which is up $165 million during the last 12 months alone.

And finally, we are adding new services that we think our customers will love.

And we continue to improve the breadth and quality of our current service offerings.

Just in this last quarter, we've added incredible new content on Apple TV plus, on Fitness+ and Apple arcade and a brand new way to listen to music with Apple music voice.

We also announced in November the beta program for Apple business essentials. A new service offering that brings together device management, 24/7 support and iCloud storage to help small businesses manage the end to end lifecycle of their employees Apple devices. We are very excited that many thousands

of small business customers are already actively participating in the beta program.

This announcement is just one of many ways we're expanding our support for enterprise and business customers.

The latest Macbook pros that we've introduced last October. The new M1 powered Mac lineup has quickly become the preferred choice of Macs.

Around enterprise customers.

Shopify for example is upgrading its entire global workforce to ammo empowered Macbook Pro and Macbook Air.

By standardizing on M1 Mac, Shopify continues its commitment to providing the best tools to help employees work productively and securely from anywhere.

And Deloitte consulting is expanding the deployment of the Mac employee choice program, including offering the new M1 back Macbook Pro to empower their professionals to choose devices that work best for them in delivering consulting services.

Let me now turn to our cash position.

Due to our strong operating performance and holiday quarter seasonality. We ended the quarter with 203 billion in cash plus marketable securities. We decreased commercial favorable 1 billion, leaving us with total debt of 123 billion. As a result, net cash was 80 billion at the end of the quarter.

Our business continues to generate very strong cash flow and we were able to return nearly $27 billion to shareholders during the December quarter. This included $3.7 billion in dividends and equivalents.

And $14.4 billion through open market repurchases of 93 million Apple shares.

Our business continues to generate very strong cash flow and we were also able to return nearly $27 billion to shareholders during the December quarter. This included $3.7 billion in dividends and equivalents and $14.4 billion through open market repurchases of 93 million Apple shares.

Yes.

We also began 6 billion accelerated share repurchase program in November .

Resulting in initial delivery and retirement of 30 million shares.

As we move ahead into the March quarter, I'd like to review our outlook, which includes the types of forward-looking information that Tejas referred to at the beginning of the call.

Given the continued uncertainty around the world in the near term.

We are not providing revenue guidance, but we are shedding some directional insight based on the assumption that the COVID-19 related impacts to our business do not worsen from what we are projecting today for the current quarter.

We expect to achieve solid year over year revenue growth and set a march quarter revenue record.

Despite significant supply constraints, which we estimate to be less than what we experienced during the December quarter.

We expect our revenue growth rate to decelerate from the December quarter, primarily due to two factors. First, during the March quarter, a year ago, we grew revenue by 54%. Remember that last year, we launched our new iPhones during the December quarter, while this year, we launched them during the September quarter.

Due to the later launch a year ago, some of the associated channel inventory sale occurred during the March quarter last year.

Occurred during the March quarter last year.

As a result of the different launch timing, we will face a more challenging year over year compare.

Second. We expect foreign exchange to be a three point headwind when compared to the December quarter growth rate.

We expect foreign exchange to be a three point headwind when compared to the December quarter growth rate.

We currently expect FX to have a negative impact on growth of two points in the March quarter, while it represented a one point benefit year ended December quarter.

Specifically related to services, we expect to grow strong double-digits or decelerate from the December quarter performance.

This is due to a more challenging compare because a higher level of lockdowns around the world last year.

Led to increased usage of digital content and services.

We expect gross margin to be between 42.5% and 43.5%.

We expect opex to be between $12.5 billion and $12.7 billion.

We expect [ONE] to be around negative $150 million, excluding any potential impact from the mark to market of minority investments and our tax rate to be around 16%.

Finally today, our board of directors has declared a cash dividend of 22 cents per share of common stock.

Payable on February 10th 2022 to shareholders of record as of February 7, 2022.

And with that, let's open the call to questions.

Thank you, Luca. We ask that you limit yourself to two questions. The operator may we have the first question, please.

Absolutely, we'll take our first question from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley.

Caller. Please check your mute function, we're unable to hear you.

Hearing no response, we'll take our next question from [inaudible] Mohan with Bank of America.

Yes. Thank you.

Your margins have clearly been very impressive.

I have one question each on product and one on services gross margins.

On product gross margins. That's clearly benefiting from a very strong mix. So Tim, I'm curious how sustainable do you think these mixed trends are from the data that you see and can you share any thoughts across how the pro and pro Macs mix compared to prior cycles.

And on the services side, if I could just ask about too.

When you look at the gross margins there that's been really impressive can you give us some sense of

Where within services you are seeing particularly favorable mix trends and how should investors think about the trajectory of these margins.

Given some of the sizeable investments you are making to drive very successful

Areas like like content for TV plus as an example, thank you.

[inaudible] it's Tim. In terms of the the mix.

The mix.

I'll comment directly on mix, but what I would tell you is.

That we saw strong demand across the iPhone 13 family.

And in fact, we had.

We had.

Several of the top-selling models in various markets, including the top five in the US and Australia.

The top four in urban China.

Two of the top three in the UK.

Three of the top four in France, and Germany, and four of the top six and in Japan.

Certainly based on some external data that I've seen.

It does seem to say that we are gaining share as well.

No.

We feel quite good about the momentum of iPhone.

And I should add that we were constrained during the quarter.

[inaudible] on the services side, you were asking about gross margin there. As you know, our services business in aggregate is accretive to overall company margin.

And as you know, our services portfolio is very broad and it contains businesses with very different margin profiles. The difference in margin profile is due in part to the nature of those businesses and in part to the way that we account for them in some cases, we account on a net basis as opposed to a gross basis.

And so as a result, the service services gross margin percentage over time will be influenced by the rapid growth of the different businesses within the portfolio, we do not guide at the product and services level.

But I think you've seen the guidance that we provided for the March quarter at the total company level 42.5% to 43.5%, obviously very strong compared to our recent history. So we're very pleased with that.

Thanks, Tim. Thanks, Luca.

Thank you. Can we have the next question, please?

We'll take our next question from Kyle Mcnealy with Jefferies.

Hi, thanks very much.

Congrats on the solid iPhone result.

That's very good. I assume that you may have prioritized iPhone to the extent there may be similar components that are used for iPhone and iPad.

Can you just level set me on that if that's not the case and if it is.

Should we see a recovery in iPad as you move past your prime iPhone selling season? And you may have better access to components or better supply as we move through the next few months of the year.

Yeah, Kyle, it's Tim. From a supply constraint point of view.

As you'll recall, we said in Q1 the December quarter of that.

We have constraints more than six and we clearly did have constraints more than six.

On March we're saying that we will have we will do better or have less constraints than we had in the December quarter. If you look at the.

The commonality between different products, there is some but generally the.

Different.

Different products, there is some but but generally the.

The challenge is on legacy nodes and these legacy nodes are by supplier. And so it's much more focused on the supplier than.

Than anything else.

Versus us. Behind the curtain. Finding a place to take it. There's none of that.

Behind the curtain.

Finding a place to take it there's not none of that.

There is some of that but largely we have to take it where the shortage is all.

Okay. Great. Can you give us any other color on kind of the trajectory of iPad and what's impacting this quarter and where it might go in the March and the June quarter?

Yes, the issue with iPad and it was a very significant constraint in the December quarter.

It was very much on these legacy nodes that I have talked about. Virtually all of the problem was in that area and so.

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Virtually all of the problem was.

It was in that area and so.

Overall, we're not guiding by product and constraint by product level, but overall, we do see an improvement in the March quarter in terms of the constraints going down versus what they were in the December quarter.

Okay, great. Thanks so much.

Congrats again on the solid results all around.

Oh, thanks very much.

Thank you, Kyle, can we have the next question, please.

Thank you we'll take our next question from Shannon Cross with Cross research.

Alright. Thank you very much. Tim, could you talk a bit about the Mac business? Looking back it's up about 50% from the calendar 2019 revenue. You did almost $11 billion this quarter and you're still working through the M1 transition. So.

Can you talk about where you see the opportunity to gain share? What are really sort of the target markets that you think you can go after in order to grow that beyond? I think it was about 37 billion in the last 12 months. Thank you, and then I have a follow-up.

Yes, Shannon Thank you for the question.

Mac set an all-time revenue record of $10.9 billion for the quarter that was up 25%.

And as you point out, the last six quarters for the Mac had been.

Top six revenue quarters of all time.

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What's further very good about this as we set all time revenue records in Americas, and Europe, and the rest of Asia Pacific and we set a December quarter record in greater China, and so it's it's not narrowed to a particular geos.

Geographic area that we're doing well in.

It's almost across the board.

The response is very much because of M1.

And we got even more response with a MacBook pro that we launched

Even more response with a macbook pro that we.

Launched in June .

During the Q1 time frame.

The.

The upgrade orders, which we had a record number of upgrades for the December quarter, but also in markets like China.

Six out of 10 sales are to people new to the Mac and so it's.

A product that will be very successful in a number of different markets from education to business to the creative industry and in all geographic markets, we're not limiting ourselves.

Great. Thank you and then Luca, can you talk a bit more on services? Just obviously outperformed your guidance or your expectations as well as certainly where we were at.

Where were the, what were the things that really outperformed and maybe what trends are you seeing that that is driving the extra revenue? Thank you.

Yes, Shannon it was I mean, it was really great on all fronts.

We said December quarter records in every geographic segment.

And then as I mentioned earlier, an all-time record for cloud for music for video for advertising for payment services December quarter records in the App store. So we've done as you said better than what we were expecting.

At the beginning of the quarter.

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This over performance has being spread around the world and spread around our services categories.

And the reality is this combination of factors. The fact that installed base is growing, the fact that we continue to add.

More and more engagement of our customers on all of the services.

Paid subscription is a phenomenal story right. We now have 785 million paid subs. We just we've increased 165 million in the last 12 months alone right and so all these things combined.

It is a phenomenal story right. We now have 785 million paid subs. We just we've increased $165 million in the last 12 months alone right and so all these things combined.

Are really powering the business, very very pleased with the performance.

Okay. Thank you.

Thanks. Can we have the next question, please?

We'll hear next from Katy Huberty with Morgan Stanley .

Thank you. Can you hear me okay?

Now we can.

Okay. Good.

The first question just as it relates to some of the disruption you've seen on the component side manufacturing and logistics over the past couple of years. Are you starting to rethink your broader supply chain strategy or the manufacturing footprint on the back of the significant disruption? Are you happy with the overall

of the significant disruption? Are you happy with the overall.

Geographic exposure.

That you see in the supply chain today.

Maybe if you if you sort of step back and look at how we've done.

Our largest issue by far has been the chip shortage.

Largest issue by far has been.

The chip shortage.

That is industry-wide and on these legacy nodes as I had mentioned earlier.

I think our supply chain actually.

Does very good considering the shortages because it's a fast-moving supply chain the cycle times are very.

short, there's very little distance between a.

Chip being fabricated and packaged and a product being.

Going out going out of factory and so.

No, I don't I don't see that it makes a fundamental change in the supply chain.

Got it.

Makes a fundamental change in the supply chain.

Okay. Thank you. And how are you thinking about the metaverse opportunity and Apple's role in that market?

Well, that's a big question.

We are a company in the business of innovation. So we're always exploring new and emerging technologies.

You've spoken at length about how this area is very interesting to us.

Right now we have over 14,000 AR kit apps in the App store.

Which provide incredible AR experiences for millions of people today.

So we see a lot of potential.

In this space and are investing accordingly.

Thank you, congrats on the quarter. Thank you for the call.

Thanks so much.

Thanks, can we have the next question, please.

Thank you we'll take our next question from Amit Daryanani with Evercore.

Thanks for taking my questions. I have two as well.

First off on the supply chain side things continue to be fairly volatile. So I'd love to get your perspective if you feel.

If things or supply chain issues are starting to alleviate or they still remain challenging and then maybe I missed this but could you perhaps tell us how much revenue was left on the table in December but could be supply chain issues and how does that number shakeup in March.

Yeah, Amit what we've said in terms of December and March was.

Yeah.

It's very difficult to estimate with great precision constraints, but we said that they would be more than the Q4 or more than the September quarter, and we're saying that march will be less than the December quarter.

And so that's the kind of verbiage that we that we place around it.

<unk> that we that we place around it.

In terms of is it still challenging, yes, it is challenging. And for us, we pride ourselves on getting products to customers, who really want them in and try to do that in the past.

Basis, and so it's frustrating that we can't always do that at the speed that we would like.

However, March is better than December and so there's some encouraging sign there.

March is better than December and so theres, some theres some encouraging sign there.

Got it. We're not predicting.

Which one.

Overall, obviously because of the number of variables.

That go into such a prediction.

Fair enough.

Tim, I think one of the topics investments can be struggle a fair bit with Apple is really just sort of understand visibility around your product road map.

I think some of the tech peers tend to be more about the initiatives. Some of them go change their name when they find the initiative that's attractive I feel.

You folks are spending I think 23 billion on R&D in '21 so you're only spending a fair amount.

Maybe without telling us the roadmap. Could you just talk about how do you think about the way to focus the R&D resources on? And to some extent is the way to think about this R&D spend. How much of it is really done on things that are more evolutionary than products that are out there in the marketplace versus things that we haven't seen yet on potential new offerings?

We have a little different model.

We tried to announce things when they are ready or close to ready and try to maintain an element of surprise in there and so that explains hopefully what we do with our road map and I think that's proven.

Announce things when they are ready or close to ready and try to maintain an element of surprise in there and so that explains hopefully what we do with our road map and I think thats proven.

Successful for us than other people can do it differently of course, but.

It's been good for us over over time to do that so we're going to continue to do that. In terms of deciding where we invest in we look at areas.

Sort of at the intersection of hardware software and services.

And because we think that that's where the magic really happens and it brings out the best in an Apple.

And so there are areas that have more than piqued our interest and we are investing in those and you can tell through time that we've ramped our R&D spend.

More than piqued, our interest and we are investing in those and you can tell through time that we've ramped our R&D spend.

Yeah.

Even more than we were before.

And so there is a quite a bit of investment going into things that are not on the market at this point as there always are.

Quite a bit of investment going into things that are not on the market at this point as there always are.

Thanks for the question. Thank you.

Thanks, can we have the next question, please?

Thank you, we'll hear next from David [inaudible] with UBS.

Great. Thanks for taking my call and my question. I just wanted to dive in and get your perspective on China and sort of the macroclimate, there and how that sort of pertains to your business as we think about it going forward.

And the reason why I'm asking because we've heard some concerns that current policies might have caused a pause in this market and smartphone inventory maybe more specifically the local vendors can be a little bit elevated going into Chinese new year. So we just love to get your thoughts on what you're seeing in this market around just sort of potential development and then maybe touch on sell in versus sell-through in that market and then I have a follow-up.

Well I can only comment on for us.

Our sales grew 21% there.

In the last quarter, and we're very proud of that.

I'll stay away and let other people be the economist.

And make the macro determinations, but what we're seeing there.

Was super impressive with all time revenue records.

And a record number of up graders and strong double digit.

A record number of up graders and strong double digit.

Growth in switchers on iPhone, which is very important to us. And as I've mentioned before we had the top four selling phones in urban China.

And so there is lot of a lot of good there and I would remind you.

That iPhone was constrained in the quarter.

And.

So I'm not sure where the statements are coming around about inventory.

And I can't comment on whether other people have more or not I don't know the answer to that.

No, that's helpful and then maybe just.

Maybe just on the supply chain, obviously, you've been managing it incredibly well in the last 12 to 18 months gross margins have actually performed relatively well mixed driven both between product and services.

Can you help us think about sort of the quantifiable impact or maybe the cost that you're carrying due to the supply chain that may be sort of, I don't want to use the word transitory, but we would expect over the longer term that might be sort of

[inaudible] a little bit and you'll get a little bit of a benefit as we get past some of the supply chain substantiate issues over the next 12 months or so.

We're seeing inflation and it's factored into our gross margin and Opex.

That Luca reviewed with you earlier.

Reviewed with you earlier.

Logistics, as I had mentioned on a previous call, is very elevated in terms of the cost of moving things around.

I would hope that at least.

A portion of that is transitory.

But the world is, the world's changed and so we'll see.

Thank you.

Yep.

Thanks. Can we have the next question, please?

Thank you we'll take our next question from [inaudible] with JPMorgan.

Oh, great. Thanks for taking my question. I had a couple.

The first question that I had was really on Apple TV Plus.

I know some of the other players in this market I'm talking about slowing subscriber growth as we exit the men to make so curious if you can share what trends you're seeing in Apple TV.

Plus and how similar or dissimilar they are.

And how you plan maybe helping you on that aspect and then I have a follow-up.

We know we don't give out subscriber numbers for Apple TV plus. What we do is give out a subscriber number.

For our subscription number for the total number of subscriptions that we had. And I think Luca mentioned earlier, we ended the quarter at 785 million and so we were incredibly pleased with that.

That's a huge growth on a year over year basis of 165 and accounts as you recall, both Apple-branded.

And third party. I terms of how we're doing with TV plus.

We've been honored with with 200 wins and 890 nomination.

We're doing exactly like.

We had wanted to with giving storytellers of plates to tell our original stories.

And feel really good about where we are competitively and strategic position of the product.

Okay.

And if I can just follow up.

Can you just help us think about when you think about the next few years, where are the biggest opportunities either meet in terms of like geographies or segments?

Customer segment that you may not be tapping into currently and how big of an opportunity in. Thank you.

Well put putting aside.

Any kind of thing that sits on our roadmap for a second in that area, which we obviously wouldn't talk about on the call I would say that I think Apple card has a great runway ahead of us.

It was rated the number one mid-sized credit card and customer sat by JD Power and getting.

Has fast become peoples main credit card for them for many many people and the growth of Apple Pay has just been stunning.

It's been absolutely stunning.

There's still obviously a lot more there to go in and because there's still a lot of cash in the environment and so.

I think that both of these and whatever else we might do you have.

Have a great future ahead.

Great future ahead.

Okay. Congrats on the results.

Thanks so much.

Thanks. Can we have the next question, please?

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Chris Caso with Raymond James.

Yes. Thank you, good evening.

First question is just a little bit of help in.

In interpreting the guidance and if you could speak.

To the March quarter, perhaps.

In terms of seasonality.

And seasonal performance. And Luca as you mentioned last year because of the later launch of the phone that some of that.

Came into the March quarter, and that was better than seasonal performance in March you know should we interpret because.

Supply constraints are easing somewhat.

As you go into the March quarter that we should see something similar that, March quarter.

If we get some better than seasonal performance. Is that the correct way to interpret your guidance?

Well. And we talked about it on a year over year basis, because that's.

And we talked about it on a year over year basis, because that's.

That's probably how most people look at it.

And so just to recap what we said. First of all, we expect a record for the March quarter, we expect solid growth on a year over year basis.

But as Tim was saying, we still expect significant supply constraints, but less than what we've seen in December .

Uh huh.

So I think on that basis, you can do it.

The math around sequential.

But given where we are in the environment, given the difficult compare both on iPhone and as I mentioned on my prepared remarks on services.

We're very very happy with the way we're guiding in the way the business is going right now.

Yes.

Got it, thank you.

As a follow up.

A follow-up question is on perhaps the sustainability and repeatability of the growth in iPhone. After two very good years, well-received product in the 5G upgrade cycle and I think there was a point in time when perhaps the view.

From some that iPhone X growth and that's been proven wrong.

Off of these very strong results.

Maybe you could speak to your level of confidence that iPhone continues to grow in the future and kind of what are the avenues for that growth.

Yes, Chris, it's Tim.

I would say is that the.

iPhone became an integral part of so many people's lives now more than ever.

And the active installed base of iPhone.

Continues to grow and is now at an all time high.

And during December as we had mentioned, we had a record number of upgraders and groups, which have strong double-digit, which I think speaks to the strength of the product.

And that's all [inaudible] into.

An enormous customer satisfaction rating of 98%.

And doing well throughout the geographies I've mentioned some of the.

Doing well throughout the geographies I've mentioned some of the.

Geos that we track and how many units that we have on the top-selling model charts.

The top selling model. Charles.

Charles.

And so even though this is the second product announcement that has 5G in it, we're still really in the early innings of 5G.

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Even though this is the second.

Second product announcement that has five G&A, we're still really in the early innings of five G.

I mean, if you look at the installed base and looked at how many people are on 5G versus not. And we don't release those exact numbers you can do some math then.

And estimate those.

We maintain a very optimistic view on iPhone long time.

Optimistic view on iPhone longtime.

Got it, thank you very much.

Yes. Thank you.

Thanks, can we have the next question, please?

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Ben Bolan with Cleveland Research.

Okay.

Thank you for taking the question.

Tim, I'm interested in how you think about the relationship between the total iOS installed base.

And then the subsequent performance you see within the services or the paid subscriptions.

And then a second part to that is.

How do you look at the existing services business in terms of the growth you get from customers, who are already subscribers versus completely net new or greenfield subscribers?

Business.

In terms of the growth you get from customers, who are already subscribers versus completely net new or greenfield.

<unk>.

Thank you. I'll let Luca comment on the on the second part of that.

But if you back up and sort of look at how we're doing even though we have 785 million subs.

If you back up and sort of look at how we're doing even though we have 785.

Million subs.

Relative to the total number of products offered and the customers. It's offered in there's still a lot of room to grow there.

And so the way that I look at it is that we, there's a lot more greenfield in front of us.

The way that I look at it is that we there is theres a lot more greenfield in front of us.

And Ben, on the on the services engagement and how we think about customers right obviously.

It's important for us that customers are engaged on our services platforms.

And the ones that we have we know that the more engaged they are, they are more likely to stay with Apple for the long term.

So we obviously track all those metrics and they are very important for us and that's why we continue to improve the quality of our offerings and the quantity over time as you've seen we've launched a lot of new services.

We obviously care a lot about new customers as well.

And that's why we keep track of the installed base and a lot of other metrics on that front. It's very similar to what we do with products. I mean also for products. We can a lot about aggregators, we care a lot about switchers.

Obviously, the combination of the two that, you know, when you put it together provides a level of growth that you've actually seen.

In our services business I mean, the last.

The last 12 months with an over 72 billion.

Revenue on services, it's the size of a Fortune 50 company. It couldn't happen without contribution from both existing and new customers.

Thank you.

Thanks. Can we have the next question, please?

Thank you. We'll take our next question from [Harsh] Kumar with Piper Sandler.

Hey, guys, first of all, congratulations on a stellar quarter in December and all of the records that the Apple community has set.

Tim, I had a question on the content on Apple TV. When we look at the Apple content that you guys put on TV original content. It's typically very socially responsible in healthy for example, Ted Lasso. Has this in effect created a constraint or a hesitancy of some sort for Apple to go out and purchase studios when they come up?

when they come up?

Or have those decisions been primarily a financial or otherwise?

We don't we don't make purely financial.

Decisions about the content, we tried to find great content.

That has a reason for being.

And we love shows like Ted Lasso.

We love shows like Ted Lasso in.

And several of the other shows as well that have a reason for existing and may have a good message. And they make people feel better at the end of it.

But I don't view that we've narrowed our.

Universal things were selecting from theirs.

There's plenty to pick from out there.

<unk>.

I think that we're doing a pretty good job of as we speak.

As we speak.

Fair enough and then my follow up.

Was the [Apple version] of healthcare.

In the future. So you guys have sort of cautiously approached health care with iWatch and iPhone.

Most of the preventative sort of approach it could provide you updates, but do you see a situation.

Down the line, where Apple perhaps plays a more active role, either through the watch or some other device for perhaps a doctor or hospital mandates that the watch [inaudible] for effectively four critical and vital and monitoring.

I was curious if you could just give us some color on how you guys think about health care and iWatch and that confluence.

Well with the Apple watch there is literally not days to go by without me getting notes about someone that's received a health alert.

Maybe it's to do with their cardiovascular health.

Or more recently a lot of people told me that they fell and knocked unconscious and couldn't respond and the watch responded for them to emergency contacts.

More recently a lot of a lot of people.

Told me that they sell and knocked unconscious and couldn't respond in the watch responded for them to to emergency contacts and.

And emergency personnel and and so there's a lot that we're doing today.

My sense has always been that there's more here.

But I don't want to get into a roadmap discussion on this call.

Call.

But we continue to kind of pull that string and see where it takes us, but we're really satisfied with how we're doing in this area.

Because we are fundamentally changing people's lives and in some cases saving people's lives.

So it's an area of great interest.

Very helpful. Thank you.

Thanks for the question.

Thank you. A relay of today's call will be available for two weeks on Apple podcasts, as a webcast on Apple.com/investor and via telephone. The numbers for the telephone replay are 888-203-1112.

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806 to one one for two.

Financial analysts can contact me with additional questions at 669-227-2402. Thank you again for joining us.

This concludes today's conference. We do appreciate your participation.

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