Apple China sales double

Apple China sales doubled in the three months to June 27 – but that wasn’t enough to pacify analysts whose reactions drove the tech giant’s stocks downwards.

Apple says its quarterly profit leapt 38 per cent to US$10.7 billion on surging iPhone sales as turnover jumped 33 per cent to US$49.6 billion. It now has a massive $203 billion in cash reserves.

But those figures weren’t enough to please analysts. The company’s stock price fell six per cent after the figures were released. Doomsayers fear Apple’s iPhone sales will come under pressure in Mainland China as consumers there reel in their spending – this despite the almost undentable local passion for Apple as a brand.

“We had an amazing quarter,” Apple CEO, Tim Cook, insisted, noting that iPhone revenue was up 59 per cent from the same period a year earlier.

But analysts expected higher sales – and some latched on to rumours the Apple Watch sales have tanked after launch and the fact iPad sales fell for the sixth straight quarter, this time by 18 per cent to 10.9 million. Mac sales increased 9.5 per cent to 4.8 million.

Apple sold 47.5 million iPhones in the quarter, with sales up 85 per cent in Greater China – Mainland, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau – where the company’s overall revenue more than doubled to US$13 billion, according to Apple CFO Luca Maestri.

But further analysis shows Apple’s Greater China revenue fell 21 per cent quarter on quarter, to US$13.2 billion, down from US$16.8 billion.

Apple did not detail specifics on sales of its newly-launched smartwatch, instead folding the figure into an “other” category that rose 49 per cent to US$2.64 billion.

Cook said during an earnings call that sales of iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Macintosh computers “topped internal expectations”.

Nearly three months after the launch of Apple’s fashionably smart wrist wear, some analysts say it’s not a mainstream hit. But others see promise in its popularity with internet-savvy younger people.

A recent study by research firm Slice Intelligence suggested that, based on a large sampling of email receipts in the US, orders for Apple Watch have plunged 90 per cent since the week that the wearable computing gadget made its debut.