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Apple has weathered the supply chain grunts that fueled the global electronics market and other industries at the end of 2021, announcing an 11 percent increase in revenue and a 20 percent profit increase in its most recent quarter on Thursday.
Apple, the world’s most valuable public company, beat Wall Street analysts’ expectations, easing fears that the tech industry’s long period of rapid growth may be coming to an end. It posted a profit of $34.6 billion on record revenue of $123.9 billion in the three months ended December, but revenue growth continued to slow from 29 percent in the prior quarter.
As usual, the iPhone boosted Apple’s sales. In short, its market value has exceeded 3 trillion dollars in early January, before dropping to about $2.6 trillion by Thursday. iPhone sales increased by 9 percent compared to the previous year, reaching $ 71.6 billion. Demand for the latest iPhone 13 was expected to boost sales, but the company had warned for months that production problems related to computer chip shortages and the pandemic in Asia would limit supply and stifle revenue.
Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, said in October that supply restrictions cost the company $6 billion in revenue in the fall quarter, and he expects even more losses in the quarter that includes the holidays.
Apple announced a list of new hardware products this fall, including new models of the MacBook Pro laptop, AirPods, iPad and Apple Watch. It’s working on an augmented reality headset that could compete with offers from companies like Facebook’s parent company Meta. Increasing tech companies jockeying for influence In the budding metaverse, a futuristic online universe.
Apple has also benefited from strong growth in its services business, which includes the App Store. The services business grew nearly 24 percent from a year ago to $19.5 billion.
Apple also said it plans to use about $27 billion in cash to pay dividends to its shareholders.
Apple’s positive results came towards the end of a wild week in the stock market, driven in part by fears about how quickly the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates to curb inflation. Higher interest rates make riskier investments like tech stocks less attractive, raising concerns that the pandemic-driven surge for tech companies may soon end.
But Microsoft and tesla, despite tackling its own supply chain issues, posted record profits this week and exceeded industry expectations. Next week, Google’s parents Alphabet and Amazon will report their results for the last three months of 2021, giving insight into the health of online advertising and retail.
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