(Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Tuesday reported sales and profits for the holiday shopping quarter above Wall Street expectations, powered by a rise in iPhone sales for the first time in a year and soaring demand for add-ons like AirPods wireless headphones.
But even though Apple executives set a new target of 600 million paid subscribers on its platform by the end of calendar 2020, the company’s closely watched services business, which includes its new Apple TV+ streaming offering, missed Wall Street’s targets. Apple’s total number of installed devices grew by 100 million to more than 1.5 billion over the past year.
Apple gave a revenue forecast for the quarter ending in March above Wall Street expectations. But Chief Executive Tim Cook told Reuters the company was using a wider-than-normal prediction range because of the uncertainty created by the coronavirus outbreak in China, where many of Apple’s suppliers are based. Cook said executives plan to discuss more details of how the virus will affect Apple’s supply chain on the company’s conference call with investors.
Apple shares rose 2.7% to $326.15 in after-hours trading after the results were announced.
Apple posted $91.8 billion in revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 28, compared with analyst estimates of $88.5 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. The company forecast $63.0 billion to $67.0 billion in revenue for the quarter ending in March, ahead of estimates of $62.4 billion, showing it believes that its phones and other devices such as AirPods wireless headphones will continue to sell well during what is often a slow time of year.
Apple’s share price
