Despite announcing record revenues on Thursday for its September quarter (July-September) and fiscal year 2018 - nearly $70 billion (up 20%, $10 billion) and $266 billion (up 15%, $36 billion), respectively - Apple will no longer be providing unit sales data for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, as of now.
And the reason is that the Cupertino-based tech giant is expecting the number of units sold for each of its product categories to either stagnate or decrease, while their price tag (i.e. revenues) increases.
Apple wants investors to focus on its financial performance
"To give you an example, the unit sales of iPhone at the top end of the line have been very strong during the September quarter, and that's very important because we're attracting customers to the most recent technologies and features and innovation that we bring into the lineup, but you don't necessarily see that in the number that is reported," said Apple CFO Luca Maestri during the company's last earnings call.
Maestri also pointed to the fact that Apple's "top competitors in smartphones, in tablets, in computers, do not provide quarterly unit sales information either," and that "unit of sale is less relevant today than it was in the past."
"If you look at our revenue, given the last 3 years, if you look at our net income during the last 3 years, if you look at our stock price here in the last 3 years, there's no correlation to the units sold in any given period,"said Apple CFO Luca Maestri.
Atherton Research' Take
In hiding its declining unit sales numbers, Apple is avoiding a sour topic that could affect negatively its stock price and investors confidence - at least for short-term and/or amateur investors - while refocusing everybody's attention on what it thinks matters most, its financial performance and massive capital returns ($90 billion for fiscal 2018), which Apple seems to deliver quarter after quarter.
For the current quarter, Apple is expecting another all-time record holiday season with revenues between $89 billion and $93 billion, despite currency and geopolitical headwinds, which we believe the company will exceed given its strong and more expensive product lineup (iPhone XS/XS Max/XR, new MacBook Air, and iPad Pro).
"Our installed base is growing at double-digit, and that's probably a much more significant metric for us from an ecosystem point of view and the customer loyalty," added CEO Tim Cook.
