Apple on Thursday announced its fiscal first quarter 2026 (calendar fourth quarter 2025) revenue results. The Company posted quarterly posted revenue of $143.8 billion and net quarterly profit of $42.1 billion, or $2.84 per diluted share, compared to revenue of $124.3 billion and net quarterly profit of $36.3 billion, or $2.40 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.
Apple revealed several factors behind Apple’s impressive quarterly numbers in both its press release and comments from Apple CEO Tim Cook and CFO Kevan Parekh on a follow-up conference call, as well as comments that were made to various publications.
Rising RAM and SSD Prices
CEO Tim Cook revealed on the earnings call how fast-rising RAM and SSD storage chip prices impacted Apple in the fiscal first quarter, as well as how badly it might affect the company in the current quarter.
Cook said rising RAM and SSD storage prices had a “minimal impact” on the company’s fiscal Q1 gross margin. However, the company does expect to see more of an impact on its margins during the current quarter, and is looking at “a range of options to deal with that” over the long term.
Apple’s revenue for the fiscal first quarter was up 16% year-over-year, with gross margins of as much as 49% for the quarter, so it looks like Apple has some wiggle room when it comes to dealing with rising component costs.
Apple Off-Guard Off-Guard by AirPods Pro 3 Popularity
CEO Cook told Reuters that while Apple’s Wearable, Home, and Accessories segment’s 2% drop in revenue year-over-year may have been an increase in revenue if the company hadn’t been caught off-guard by the unexpectedly popularity of its new AirPods Pro 3 wireless earbuds, which debuted in September.
“AirPods Pro 3 were supply-constrained during the quarter, and we think we would have grown year over year if we would not have been constrained,” Apple CEO Tim Cook told the publication, indicating Apple simply didn’t have enough inventory ready to hit stores in the holiday quarter.
The new AirPods Pro 3 offer longer battery life, improved sound quality and active noise cancellation, new ear tip sizes for improved fit, increased water resistance, heart rate monitoring during workouts, and more.
Apple has apparently caught up with demand as both Apple’s online store and Amazon show a ready supply. Amazon can even deliver them later today in my area.
More Than 2.5 Billion Active Apple Devices
Apple yesterday revealed that there are a mind-boggling number of Apple devices active in the wild today.
“We are also excited to announce that our installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, which is a testament to incredible customer satisfaction for the very best products and services in the world,” said company CEO Cook.
That number is up from the 2.35 billion active devices in the wild during the year-ago quarter.
Impressive iPhone 17 Lineup Sales
To be counted among the 2.5 billion active Apple devices are what is likely an impressive number of devices from the iPhone 17 family.
iPhone revenue in the fiscal first quarter hit a new all-time high, with $85.2 billion in sales, a 23% increase from the $69.1 billion in revenue in the year-ago quarter.
“iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment,” Cook said in the Apple earnings results release.
Cook also told CNBC‘s Steve Kovach that demand for the “iPhone 17 family” (the iPhone 17, iPhone Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max) during the holiday quarter hit “simply staggering” numbers, easily beating his company’s expectations.
Apple does not break down iPhone sales on a model-by-model basis, so there is no way to tell which models were most popular, and specifically how well the iPhone 17 Air performed.
