The iPhone manufacturer is feeling the effects of the chip crisis.
(Photo: dpa)
San Francisco The global shortage of microchips is hitting Apple with increasing force. In the fourth quarter alone, the technology company lost six billion US dollars as a result, the company announced when the figures were presented. Some of the failures can also be attributed to Corona protective measures in Southeast Asia, although this effect has noticeably weakened in recent weeks.
Still, Apple achieved record sales of $ 83.4 billion between July and September, an increase of around 29 percent over the previous year. The consolidated profit also increased significantly by 62 percent. The bottom line is that Apple closed the quarter with a net profit of $ 20.5 billion. “The demand for our products was consistently strong,” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
For the first quarter of the current fiscal year, which began at Apple on September 26th, the manager expects the loss of sales to widen due to the ongoing delivery problems with chips. All Apple products are currently affected by the bottlenecks. On the stock exchange, the news was received with disillusionment: After hours, the price of Apple shares fell by four percent at times.
Apart from that, Cook had very positive results to report. For example, sales of the iPhone rose by 47 percent, the iPad by 21 percent and in the wearables (iWatch) and smart home products business by almost 12 percent. The service business also closed significantly better than expected, with sales increasing by 47 percent – while sales of the Group’s computers (Mac) hardly changed.
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Content is becoming more important
The content offered by the Cupertino group is also becoming increasingly important. In addition to the music streaming service Apple Music, which the group recently expanded to include a purely voice-controlled version at a competitive price of around five euros, the video service Apple TV + is also seeing more and more users. Across the various platforms, Apple now has 745 million customers, 45 million more than in the third quarter.
The fact that the share reacted with significant losses is explained by analysts primarily with the disappointed expectations – and the uncertainties that arise from the delivery difficulties. For example, Ed Snyder of Charter Equity Research told the television broadcaster CNBC that there is currently a waiting position in the market for Apple shares – until “the chip and delivery problems have been resolved”.
However, the company benefits from the fact that demand has continued to develop robustly. Dan Ives, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, therefore emphasized that the chip bottlenecks were a transition problem from his point of view. “The demand exceeds the supply by ten million devices.” This corresponds to the number of iPhones that the group was able to manufacture less due to the shortage in the fourth quarter. “It’s a time problem,” said Ives.
No profit outlook
The fact that the group has not given an outlook on its future profit since the beginning of the pandemic also causes uncertainty. Cook said the shortfall in revenue is likely to have a more severe impact in the current quarter than it did in the past. However, he still forecast a record turnover. He is likely to hope that the devices that Apple has presented in recent weeks – the iPhone 13 and the laptop Macbook – will sell well in the Christmas business.
The chances for that are not bad. For example, the US retail association NRF expects record sales around the holidays. This year, consumers would have higher savings than ever before because of the pandemic. For November and December, the association expects sales growth of between 8.5 and 10.5 percent. At least if the existing problems don’t get worse.
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