AAPL: Apple Stock Jumps as Profit and Revenue Rise. But Sales of the iPhone Drop.

Sales in China tumbled 11% — it’s getting increasingly difficult for the iPhone to compete against local rivals.

💰 Apple Posts Record Revenue

• Apple stock AAPL rose 3% after hours after the company logged a never-before-seen milestone. Best to hear it from the boss himself: “Today Apple is reporting our best quarter ever, with revenue of $124.3 billion, up 4% from a year ago,” CEO Tim Cook told investors after the release of Apple’s earnings report.
• That is despite the tech titan’s 11% drop in sales in China to $18.5 billion. China is a key market that has been increasingly difficult to conquer. Looming competition is breathing down the iPhone’s neck.

🐌 iPhone Sales Lack Momentum

• Speaking of the iPhone, the company’s main revenue driver, sales of that wonder of technology slipped 1% year on year to $69.1 billion and fell below forecasts of about $71 billion. Apparently the iPhone 16 packed with the company’s innovative Apple Intelligence wasn’t attractive enough to consumers.
• For the March quarter, Apple said it’s eyeing revenue growth in the low to mid single-digits and that helped investors pump up the shares a little bit.

👉 More Numbers and Performance

• Some more optimistic numbers: Net income for the December quarter climbed roughly 7% to $36.3 billion and surpassed expectations of $35.5 billion. Apple’s services business, which includes the App Store, iCloud and Apple Pay, reached record revenue of $26.3 billion.
• Shares of Apple are down about 2.6% this month and largely survived the DeepSeek mayhem earlier this week due to the company's lack of deep engagement with artificial intelligence.