Apple Q4 2016 financials: revenue slides as services boom

Apple has revealed its Q4 2016 earnings report, revealing US$46.9-billion in revenue and US$9-billion in profit for the quarter.

How did they fare compared to Q4 2015 though? Well, the company reported revenue of US$51.5-billion and US$11.1-billion in profit back then, marking a notable slide.

The company has also seen a significant year-on-year decline in the crucial Greater China market, going from US$12.5-billion in Q4 2015 to US$8.7-billion in Q4 2016 (representing a 30% drop).

As for the all-important hardware sales this quarter? Well, the firm recorded a 17% revenue drop for Macs compared to a year ago, as well as a 13% revenue drop for iPhones.

There were bright spots though, as the company touted a 24% increase in services revenue (i.e. iTunes, Apple Music, App Store etc).

Apple has been leaning on its services to bring in more cash, but new MacBooks might help matters as well

“Our strong September quarter results cap a very successful fiscal 2016 for Apple,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

“We’re thrilled with the customer response to iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus and Apple Watch Series 2, as well as the incredible momentum of our Services business, where revenue grew 24 percent to set another all-time record.”

“We are pleased to have generated US$16.1-billion in operating cash flow, a new record for the September quarter,” said Luca Maestri, Apple’s CFO, in a statement. “We also returned US$9.3-billion to investors through dividends and share repurchases during the quarter and have now completed over US$186-billion of our capital return programme.”

The company is forecasting between US$76-billion and US$78-billion for Q1 2017, representing a small leap over Q1 2016’s US$75.9-billion revenue.