Chief executive Tim Cook in a statement described the environment as “challenging”.
The company had warned three months ago that foreign exchange headwinds could shave up to 10 percentage points off revenue, equal to a roughly $12b hit.
According to the results on Thursday, the actual impact was about 8 percentage points.
“Eight per cent is a lot of revenue that we lost to the strength of the dollar, but it’s better than it was three months ago because the dollar has weakened a bit,” Cook said.
“Inflation is still going up in the UK, and started to mitigate a bit in the United States, so that is affecting currencies as well.”
Maestri said Apple’s “active installed base” — the number of iPhone, iPad and other devices in use — has crossed 2b, up from 1.8b a year ago.
“This is twice the number of active devices that we had just seven years ago,” he said.
Sales of its Mac computer plunged 29 per cent to $7.74bn and revenues from the wearables unit, which sells the Apple Watch and AirPods, dropped 8.3 per cent to $13.5bn.
Revenue from the fast-growing services unit, which houses the App Store and digital media purchases, rose 6.4 per cent to a record $20.8b. Sales of the iPad were another bright spot, soaring 29.6 per cent to $9.4b.
Apple’s challenges are distinct from those facing other Big Tech groups such as Meta and Alphabet, or even rival hardware maker Samsung.
While demand has remained strong, it has been struggling to fulfil orders since a Covid outbreak at “iPhone City” in Zhengzhou, an assembly hub run by partner Foxconn, prompted the warning in November of “significant” disruptions to supply.
The group based in Cupertino, California, lost $1 trillion in market capitalisation in a 12-month period to early January, when it briefly fell below $2t.
But sentiment has rebounded, sending Apple’s stock up about 20 per cent since the start of the year.
Shares fell more than 4 per cent in after-hours trading.
Written by: Patrick McGee in San Francisco
© Financial Times
