APPLE briefly lost its $1tn valuation on Thursday when its shares fell 7 percent in after-hours trading despite posting record results.
The tech giant’s strategy of charging more for its phones has paid off, with revenues jumping in the last three months despite relatively flat sales.
Revenues rose 20 percent to $62.9bn year-on-year, and profits rose 31 percent to $14.1bn.
But a warning of possible weaker sales in coming months sparked a share price slide after official trading ended.
The sell-off accelerated after Apple said it would stop disclosing the number of units sold.
Apple executives defended their decision, arguing that the figures are no longer good indicators of the firm’s financial health.
Analysts, however, warned that outsiders may view it as a move that masks less sunny performance.
The total number of smartphones sold by all makers globally declined for the first time in 2017.
But Apple’s strategy of charging higher prices for its phones has helped it to shrug off flagging demand.
The firm sold 46.9 million iPhones in the quarter to end-September, a modest rise on the 46.7 million sold for the same period last year.
The California-based company is also making more money from “services” such as the App store, Apple Music and Apple Pay. Services revenue hit a record $10bn in the quarter.
For the firm’s full 2018 financial year, profits increased 23 percent to $59.5bn, as revenue rose 16 percent to $265.5bn.
“I can reassure that it is our objective to grow unit sales for every product category that we have,” Apple’s chief financial officer Luca Maestri told financial analysts. “A unit of sale is less relevant today than it was in the past.” (BBC)
