Apple posted a sales record in the third quarter 2020 for the period from July to September, but at the same time had to accept a profit reduction. 12, 673 Billion US dollars or 0, 73 US cents per diluted stock was washed into the till with total proceeds of 64 $ 7 billion. In the comparative quarter 2019 it was still 13, 686 billion dollar profit on a turnover of 64 Billions.

Corona and the iPhone shift The reason for the drop in profits by one billion is probably the fact that the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Had to postpone it for one month due to Corona. The devices were not announced in September, as usual, but only in October. Also the start of trading of the first two models – iPhone 12 and 12 Pro – postponed by a month, the two still missing Devices, iPhone 12 mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max, will even follow in November. For the iPhone, sales fell by 20, 7 percent to 26, 44 Billion dollars back – a worse result than most analysts suspected.

After all, the sale of Macs in the home office ensured -Time for more sales – and the service business was booming. Both areas have never generated such high revenues. For the Mac this was 9 billion, an increase of 28 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. The iPad went up to 6.8 billion, even 46 percent more. The services division with iCloud, Apple Music, App Store and Co. now came up 14, 55 billion dollars, an increase of 16, 3 percent.

No forecast for that next quarter With the “other products”, which also include wearables like the Apple Watch and accessories like the AirPods, Apple achieved sales of 7, 73 Billions, a growth of 20, 9 percent. The margin was 28, 2 percent. Traditionally, Apple no longer mentions sales figures for its products. Apple refused to provide a forecast for the coming quarter – the important Christmas and thus iPhone season. The reason is the COVID – 19 – situation. The stock exchange reacted negatively and sent the share in after-hours trading in the red, which was sometimes 4 percent.

Apple boss Tim Cook said after the quarterly figures were announced, in Western Europe and the number of infections rose in the USA. Therefore there is a greater factor of uncertainty. “This is not an environment where we want to make a prediction.” The first data points on the iPhone 12 are “really pretty good “. The devices come with 5G for the first time, which could trigger an alternating wave. Various markets are worrying Apple: Sales in China including Hong Kong and Taiwan, actually the Group’s second most important market, fell by 28 percent to 7, 95 billion dollars.

(bsc)