Sales of 'services' help Apple beat earnings forecasts

Apple on Thursday reported profit of $27.5 billion in the recently ended quarter, powered by iPhone and services revenue.

The net income, along with revenue of $102.5 billion, beat market expectations, despite a slight ebbing of revenue in China when compared with the same period a year earlier.

"Apple is very proud to report a September quarter revenue record," chief executive Tim Cook said in a release.

Apple shares were up more than 4 percent in after-hours trade that followed release of the earnings figures.

Overall sales of iPhones, the heart of Apple's business, fell shy of market expectations, bringing in $49 billion in an increase from the same quarter last year.

Apple's services business, which sells digital content and subscriptions to users of its coveted gadgets, generated $28.8 billion in revenue, an increase of some $3 billion from the same quarter a year earlier.

"These results come at the close of an extraordinary year for Apple in which we achieved an all-time revenue record of $416 billion for the fiscal year," Cook said.

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"We set an all-time revenue record for iPhone, and in services we achieved all-time records across every geographic segment."

Cook predicted that the current fiscal quarter would be the best ever for Apple.

Cook touted the latest Apple devices and the tech giant's custom chips and efforts to enhance products and services with artificial intelligence.

"As we continue to expand our investment in AI, we're bringing intelligence to more of what people already love about our products and services," Cook said on an earnings call.

"At the heart of it all is Apple silicon... these incredibly advanced chips make Apple products the very best place to experience the power of AI."

Apple has been under pressure to show it is not being left behind when it comes to artificial intelligence with the potential to change how people engage with the internet and computers.

Source: AFP