Apple shows us what might have happened sans COVID-19

Huge demand as iPhones hit shops

Apple has somehow managed to shrug of the damage of the year and deliver yet another September quarter, with yet another record.

All-time high for Macs and Services

Apple boss Tim Cook put it into context:

“Apple capped off a fiscal year defined by innovation in the face of adversity with a September quarter record, led by all-time records for Mac and Services,” he said.

“Despite the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, Apple is in the midst of our most prolific product introduction period ever, and the early response to all our new products, led by our first 5G-enabled iPhone line-up, has been tremendously positive.

“From remote learning to the home office, Apple products have been a window to the world for users as the pandemic continues, and our teams have met the needs of this moment with creativity, passion, and the kinds of big ideas that only Apple can deliver.”

Show me the money

FY2020 Q4 delivered not bad cash for the world’s biggest company.

• Revenue: $64.7 billion.
• Quarterly earnings per diluted share of $0.73.
• International sales accounted for 59 percent of the quarter’s revenue.
• Cash dividend of $0.205/share of common stock, payable Nov 12.
• Imagine what might have been in the event the plague hadn’t ruined everything for most of us in 2020…
• And don’t forget, this quarter includes just a few hours of iPhone sales, at most…

A new (Apple World) record

Over to Luca Maestri for a glance from the bean counter perspective:

“Our outstanding September quarter performance concludes a remarkable fiscal year, where we established new all-time records for revenue, earnings per share, and free cash flow, in spite of an extremely volatile and challenging macro environment.

“Our sales results and the unmatched loyalty of our customers drove our active installed base of devices to an all-time high in all of our major product categories. We also returned nearly $22 billion to shareholders during the quarter, as we maintain our target of reaching a net cash neutral position over time.”

We’ll get to dig through all the mutterings at the (virtual) shareholder’s meeting later on, but this is where we are now.

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