Apple has reported record-breaking revenue of $111.4 billion in its first fiscal quarter of 2021. The earnings cover the last 3 months of 2020 and the holiday sales season.
According to the report, this is the first time Apple’s quarterly revenue has crossed the $100 billion mark. Last year, the company recorded a revenue of $91.8bn during the same quarter.
Apple posted a revenue of $111.4 billion, up 21% year over year, and quarterly earnings per diluted share of $1.68, up 35%.
A handful of big tech companies including Facebook and Walmart have also released their report. Facebook reported a total of $28 billion during the quarter while Walmart reported a revenue of over $100 billion during the same period. Amazon is also expected to hit the $100 billion mark when it reports next month.
Record iPhone 12 launch
Apple’s boost in revenue was fueled by strong double-digit growth in hardware sales during the holiday season. This included the strong demand for the latest iPhone 12 lineup – iPhone 12, iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 12 Pro, and iPhone 12 Pro Max.
With the latest iPhone sales coming a bit later than normal last year, the first fiscal quarter result is the first to include sales from its iPhone 12. That means this is the first time we’re getting a real indication of how well the lineup did.
International sales accounted for 64 percent of the quarter’s revenue
As it turned out, the iPhone lineup did really well despite the woes of the pandemic. According to Canalys, iPhone sale during the quarter was about 81.8 million.
This generated an all-time record of over $65 billion in revenue during the quarter. The previous record for iPhone revenue in a quarter was $61.58 billion, recorded in the first fiscal quarter of 2018.
Analysts tout Apple’s first 5G-enabled phones as the most successful product it has launched in five years.
The boom in sales of the Mac and iPad lines which started during the prolonged lockdown period caused by the pandemic continued during the quarter.
iPad sales soared a whopping 41% during the quarter while Mac sales rose up 21% year over year. The wearable division was not left out of the boom as the sales of AirPods / AirPods Pro and the Apple Watch were up 30% year over year.
Facebook revenue grew by 33%
Like Apple, Facebook also saw strong growth during the quarter. The social media giant reported revenue growth of 33% year-on-year.
According to Facebook founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the strong growth was driven by people and businesses that continued to use the company’s services despite challenges.
We believe our business has benefited from two broad economic trends playing out during the pandemic. The first is the ongoing shift towards online commerce. The second is the shift in consumer demand towards products and away from services.
Facebook
A break down shows that the company’s advertisement revenue jumped to 27.1 billion from the 20.7 billion recorded during the same quarter the previous year.
In general, Facebook made a profit of about 12.7 billion in Q4 2020. this a whopping 44% increase from the 8.8 billion gained during the previous year.
Other major highlights of Facebook’s Q4 report is the 11% growth of monthly active users (MAUs) to 2.8 billion and 52% increase of earning per share to $3.88
Forecast for 2021
Despite the huge growth recorded in the last quarter, Facebook is predicting moderate and stable growth in the first and second quarters of 2021. However, it says that the second half of the year will see fast-rising growth.
Zuckerberg has expressed excitement on the companies product roadmap for 2021. According to the report, Facebook plans to spend within the range of $21-23 billion on capital expenditures which include new projects like data centres, servers, network infrastructure and office facilities.
Apple, on the other hand, didn’t give a growth prediction for the year but revealed that the new M1 processors which debuted in MacBook Air, base-level 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini will extend to other Mac products over the coming months.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, also revealed that the company is focused on helping the communities build back strongly and equitably, through efforts like Racial Equity and Justice Initiative and a multi-year commitment to invest $350 billion throughout the United States.
In summary
Apple came roaring into the new year with the biggest quarterly profit ever for a private-sector corporation. The reported revenue of other big techs like Facebook and Walmart have also been huge.
Even without all the results, the number already on the ground shows that the rapid rise of the big tech companies shows no sign of stopping. As things stand, 2021 is poised to be an even bigger year for Apple and other tech giants.
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