Apple has posted a revenue increase in the first quarter of its 2025 fiscal year, which covers October to December 2024, surpassing Wall Street expectations despite a decline in iPhone sales.
The company recorded a 4% rise in overall revenue, reaching $124.3 billion, while net income climbed to $36.33 billion, a 7.1% increase from the previous year.
iPhone sales took a hit, particularly in China, where revenue dropped by 11.1% to $18.51 billion. This marks the steepest decline in the region since early 2024, as Apple faces growing competition from domestic brands like Oppo, Vivo, and Huawei.
The company’s struggles in China have partly resulted from the delayed rollout of Apple Intelligence, a key feature of the iPhone 16, which remains unavailable in the country.
Speaking with CNBC, Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, noted the impact of this limitation: “During the December quarter, we saw that in markets where we had rolled out Apple Intelligence, that the year-over-year performance on the iPhone 16 family was stronger than those markets where we had not rolled out Apple Intelligence.”
While the feature is set to support Chinese later this year, regulatory challenges have stalled its launch in mainland China. Apple has reportedly partnered with Baidu to introduce AI-powered capabilities in the country, but progress has been slow.
Beyond smartphones, Apple Services division is expanding, setting a new record with $26.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, a 14% year-over-year increase. The company also announced that it has surpassed 1 billion subscriptions across its services, including Apple Music, iCloud, Apple TV+, and third-party apps on the App Store.
Other segments also performed well, with Mac and iPad sales rising by 15% following the release of new models. The company now has an active install base of 2.35 billion devices, up from 2.2 billion a year ago.
Even with the slowdown in iPhone sales, Apple’s strong performance in services and hardware refreshes has reassured investors who initially had doubts.
