One of the constant refrains about Apple in 2019 is its shift toward services — a trend that’s reflected, once again, in its third-quarter earnings release.
In fact, the release trumpets the “all-time high” for services revenue in its headline, while a statement from CEO Tim Cook describes this as “our biggest June quarter ever — driven by all-time record revenue from Services,” as well as sales of wearables, iPads, Macs and iPhones.
Apple’s services business includes its subscription products like iCloud, Apple Music and Apple News+. The category will probably grow even more in the coming months with the launch of Apple TV+ and Apple Arcade.
And the latest numbers do indeed beat last quarter’s services revenue (which also set a record), but it’s pretty close — $11.450 billion in Q2 compared to $11.455 billion in Q3. Also worth noting: Analysts had predicted Apple’s services revenue would come in at $11.68 billion, so this is a relative disappointment.
On the other hand, the growth is more impressive when you look at it year-over-year — in the same quarter last year, Apple reported services earning of $10.17 billion, so this is an increase of 13%. It also looks good compared to the direction of product revenue, which is down year-over-year, to $42.35 billion, due in part to falling iPhone sales.