Four juicy takeaways for the channel

Apple last night shrugged off the tech giant’s disappointing quarterly results by reporting an eight percent jump in revenue, with Mac sales up 25 percent.

Here we pick the best takeaways for the channel.

Mac’s ‘amazing’ quarter

Even as the broader PC market posted its steepest decline in more than two decades, Apple managed to rack up record Mac sales in its latest quarter.

Mac revenue in the three months to September 30, 2022 rose 25 percent to $11.5 billion, despite “significant currency headwinds.”

On revenue callCEO Tim Cook called it “an incredible quarter for Mac.”

“If you look at Mac, it was the best quarter we’ve ever had in the history of the company. It was helped by the product launch of the MacBook Air with the M2,” he said.

“It helped that in the previous quarter, in the June quarter, if you recall, we lost production from the factory for a significant portion of the quarter. And so we had a lag coming out of our Q3 heading into Q4. We were able to satisfy all of that demand in Q4 and fill the Mac channel.”

Overall results exceed expectations

Although the latest round of quarterly results from big tech companies disappointed Wall Street, Apple bucked the trend by reporting better-than-expected revenue of $90.1 billion in the latest quarter.

That’s eight percent year-over-year growth (rising to 14 percent, stripping out negative currency effects).

And the Mac was by no means the only peak.

While iPad revenue fell 13 percent to $7.2 billion (which Apple blamed on tough comparisons from last year’s fourth quarter), iPhone and wearables, home and accessories revenue rose 10 percent to 42.6, respectively billion and $9.7 billion. Services grew five percent to $19.2 billion.

For the full year, Apple’s revenue rose eight percent to $394 billion, setting records for iPhone, Mac, wearables, accessories and home services.

Apple’s annual revenue performance will “slow down” in the current quarter ending in December, it said, however, due in part to growing currency headwinds. Mac revenue is also expected to be “significantly down year-over-year” in the quarter due to a “very challenging year-over-year comparison.”

Enterprise grows by ‘strong double digits’

Fueled in part by the lockdown, Apple is becoming a stronger rival to HP, Dell and Lenovo in the SMB and enterprise backyard channel, Softcat CEO Graham Watt said CRN this week that he sees “opportunities for even greater growth” with the supplier.

During the earnings call, CFO Luca Maestri revealed that Apple’s enterprise business grew at “strong double digits” in fiscal 2022, singling out Cisco as a case study for its progress here.

“Cisco has expanded its Macs of Choice program and now offers it to all employees to help attract and retain top talent. And when given that choice, employees chose Macs twice as often as other options,” he said.

Apple is greening its supply chain

In what will encourage the growing ranks of UK resellers and distributors who have set themselves net zero targets, Apple also used its results statement to detail how it is stepping up its efforts to become net zero itself by 2030.

Apple already claims to be carbon neutral in its global operations and has previously pledged that by 2030, every Apple device sold will have a net zero impact on the climate.

To support Apple’s 2030 environmental goals, Cook (in the picture above) said the fruit seller has asked all of its suppliers to become carbon neutral across its entire Apple-related footprint by the end of the decade.

“We’re also providing them with resources based on what we’ve learned about achieving net zero carbon in our own global operations.”