NEWS ANALYSIS
and Pro Max models, but Apple most
definitely did not include the iPhone
12 in its praise.
It’s interesting, but let’s all get a
grip: the very first people to rush out
and buy a new iPhone are likely to be
the most motivated iPhone buyers
around, and those buyers are probably
more likely to spend a lot of money on
high-end models. It’s entirely possible
that the 12 and 12 mini will become a
bigger part of the iPhone product mix
as the year goes along. Regular people
actually buy iPhones in the spring and
summer, you know.REVENGE OF THE
‘TOUGH COMPARE’
Last quarter, Apple cautioned that
iPhone sales looked softer than they
actually were, because the 2020
iPhone models went on sale a lot later
than the 2019 models. As a result,
Apple’s quarterly results for 2019
included early iPhone sales, and the
2020 results didn’t. That’s what they
call a ‘tough compare’ in the financial
expectation-management game.
But a tough compare often turns
into an easy one. The results get to
include the initial iPhone sales surge
that had already come and gone in
2019, giving iPhone sales growth a
bit of a bounce.Still, don’t worry – more tough
compares are on the way. Maestri
warned that while the company
expects a return to typical seasonal
patterns in its sales in 2021, there
are still a few areas that will probably
take a hit. They’re Apple’s two biggest
growth engines for the last few years,
the Services and Wearables lines.
To hear Maestri tell it, Services
got a massive benefit from much of
the world going into lockdown in
the early days of COVID last year –
and that won’t be the case this year,
presumably. Also, the Wearables line
benefited from pent-up demand for
AirPods at this time last year, while this
year Apple expects to be more normal.
File this away for late April, when we’ll
probably be right back here explaining
why Services and Wearables looked
soft. It’s all about the compare.APPLE BOUNCED BACK IN CHINA
Apple’s business in China has been
lacklustre for the last couple of years,
but this latest quarter saw a huge 57
per cent growth in revenue versus the
same quarter the previous year. That’s
the largest year-over-year growth
quarter in China in five years.
Apple executives say that China’s
broad re-opening, including Apple
retail stores, helped a lot – though