Apple FY 2015 Q4 Results: Record Fourth Quarter With 48 Million iPhones Sold
by Brett Howse on October 27, 2015 6:35 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mac
- Apple
- Tablets
- Financial Results
Today Apple released their Q4 results from fiscal year 2015, and in what seems like an almost unending cycle, the company has once again set a new record for the quarter with $51.5 billion in revenue. That is a 22% increase over the same period last year, where the company only had $42 billion in revenue. Apple’s strong margins continue, with 39.9% margin for the quarter. Operating income came in at $14.6 billion, up from $11.2 billion last year, and net income rose $2.6 billion year-over-year, coming in at $11.1 billion for the quarter. Earnings per share was $1.96, up from $1.42 last year.
Apple Q4 2015 Financial Results (GAAP) | |||||
Q4'2015 | Q3'2015 | Q4'2014 | |||
Revenue (in Billions USD) | $51.501 | $49.605 | $42.123 | ||
Gross Margin (in Billions USD) | $20.548 | $19.681 | $16.009 | ||
Operating Income (in Billions USD) | $14.623 | $14.083 | $11.165 | ||
Net Income (in Billions USD) | $11.124 | $10.677 | $8.467 | ||
Margins | 39.9% | 39.7% | 38.0% | ||
Earnings per Share (in USD) | $1.96 | $1.85 | $1.42 |
The large gains can be mostly attributed to the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, released last year to record sales. The recently launched models were only available for a short time this quarter, but of course contributed their initial sales to Q4. The full impact of the latest models should be even more felt in Q1 FY 2016. Despite the iPhone being far and away the largest product for Apple, Mac sales have also contributed, along with services and Apple Watch.
The iPhone is king at Apple. It contributes the largest portion to their overall revenues, and with the excellent margins Apple enjoys, it is very profitable. Apple sold just over 48 million iPhones last quarter – a quarter where the new model was known to be incoming. Yes, the 6s and 6s Plus were released in Q4, but only at the tail end of the quarter. This is a 22% increase in phones sold year-over-year. Revenue for the iPhone alone was $32.2 billion for Q4, which is up 36% year-over-year and up 3% from last quarter. Q1 2016 (Oct-Dec 2015) will be the holiday quarter, and this is traditionally the strongest quarter for iPhone sales.
Mac sales increased 3% year-over-year, which means that the Mac is still showing slow growth at a time when the rest of the PC market is in decline. Apple sold 5.7 million Macs last quarter, which resulted in $6.9 billion in revenue.
The iPad continues to decline, with sales falling 20% year-over-year. For the quarter, Apple sold 9.9 million iPads, for revenues of $4.3 billion. This one segment is really the only chink in Apple’s armor, and iPhone sales are likely part of the problem, with people turning to larger phones rather than tablets.
Apple Q4 2015 Device Sales (thousands) | |||||
Q4'2015 | Q3'2015 | Q4'2014 | Seq Change | Year/Year Change | |
iPhone | 48,046 | 47,534 | 39,272 | +1% | +22% |
iPad | 9,883 | 10,931 | 12,316 | -10% | -20% |
Mac | 5,709 | 4,796 | 5,520 | +19% | +3% |
Apple has also steadily increased its services, with the segment achieving 10% growth to $5.086 billion. This includes iTunes, AppleCare, Apple Pay, licensing, and other services.
Finally, we have Other Products, which is Apple TV, Apple Watch, Beats, iPod, and accessories. This segment outperformed all other Apple segments in terms of growth, with a 67% increase in revenue year-over-year. With the acquisition of Beats, as well as the launch of the Apple Watch earlier this year, revenue grew from $2.641 billion in Q4 2014 to $3.048 billion this quarter. Unfortunately, Apple does not break out unit numbers for anything in “Other Products” but you can bet this gain was not due to iPod sales.
Apple Q4 2015 Revenue by Product (billions) | |||||
Q4'2015 | Q3'2015 | Q4'2014 | Revenue for current quarter | ||
iPhone | $32.209 | $31.368 | $23.678 | 62.5% | |
iPad | $4.726 | $4.538 | $5.316 | 8.3% | |
Mac | $6.882 | $6.030 | $6.625 | 13.4% | |
iTunes/Software/Services | $5.086 | $5.028 | $4.608 | 9.9% | |
Other Products | $3.048 | $2.641 | $1.896 | 5.9% |
I tend to think of Apple as iPhone and other stuff, because the iPhone sales are such a huge part of their revenue stream. iPhone sales now account for 62.5% of revenue, up from 56.2% a year ago. It’s hard to fault them on this though, because clearly the larger displays on the latest iPhones have done very well for the company. But they did show good growth in Macs at a time when other PC vendors have seen a reduction in overall sales. Apple Watch is also off to a good start, but without unit sales its difficult to see any sort of pattern there yet, since it was just launched this year.
Looking ahead for Q1 2016, Apple is expecting revenues of $75.5 billion to $77.5 billion, and gross margins staying between 39% and 40%.
Source: Apple
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colonelclaw - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
TVs and related services, cars/transport, and something no-one knows about yet. As a guess.lucam - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
Well done...but still no iPhone 6s review yet...:(melgross - Tuesday, October 27, 2015 - link
Yeah, it's been a long time already.ciderrules - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Hopefully the long wait is because they're dong a detailed analysis of the A9 processor.boozed - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Or a review won't cause anyone who wasn't going to buy one to buy one, and vice versa?lucam - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Good question..in meantime they have done the iPad 4 mini review...Morawka - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
yeah they need to stop giving anandtech early review units.. save those few review units for sites that will actually review the phone within the first 3 weeks.Michael Bay - Thursday, October 29, 2015 - link
Forget iPhone, where is 960? ^_^iwod - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Apple are doing great, except their stock price hasn't moved. Compared to MS and other Tech trading at 30+ P/E. Apple is now trading at P/E 12.x and has more cash then Google + Microsoft tech reserve combined.Speedfriend - Wednesday, October 28, 2015 - link
Because they have guided to 1%-4% revenue growth in Dec quarter, despite it including the first Christmas sales for Apple Watch, iPad Pro and MacBook. And it includes an additional week over last Dec quarter. This implies that iPhone revenues are going to be down and maybe even units too, giving they are lapping the big ASP uplift. The warning a few days ago from Dialog Semi is additional evidence of iPhone stagnating. Apple is becoming a mature business in its main profit driver and that doesn't warrant a high PE.