Apple achieves record quarter results, sells 78 million iPhones and beats Samsung

It’s a new year, and while everyone’s off to a slow start, Apple just announced another record breaking quarter. Apple announced its financial results for its fiscal 2017 first quarter which ended on 31 December, 2016. Contrary to what many expected, Apple posted an all-time record quarterly revenue of $78.4 billion which is up from $75.9 billion in the year ago quarter.

The Cupertino tech giant sold a staggering 78.29 million iPhones in the fiscal quarter, which is up from 74.78 million of the previous year. As per Reuters, Apple also beat Samsung Electronics‘ smartphone sales which ended at 77.5 million. According to data firm Strategy Analytics, this win over Samsung comes after a rather lengthy gap, back in 2011.

“We’re thrilled to report that our holiday quarter results generated Apple’s highest quarterly revenue ever, and broke multiple records along the way. We sold more iPhones than ever before and set all-time revenue records for iPhone, Services, Mac and Apple Watch,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO.

According to research firm Counterpoint, Apple captured a record share of premium smartphone segment which in a way has also widened the gap with Samsung and that too by a large margin.

While Apple started off 2016 with a slow start, it was the iPhone 7 that catapulted its global smartphone sell-through sales from a low point of 47 percent to its highest at 70 percent.

While Apple’s market share gained towards the end of the year, Samsung lost ground and in all probability, its Galaxy Note 7 was to blame. The phablet smartphone which started catching fire, not once but twice, was enough to make enough room for Chinese smartphone giant Huawei to grow.

So the Apple Vs Samsung battle seems to continue with Huawei creeping up from behind in third place. Indeed there could  be variety of reasons for the Apple’s success with the iPhone 7 which could include carrier exchange programs (easy upgrades to a newer model), Apple’s own iPhone Trade-up program and plenty more. Combine all of these with strong holiday year end sales and holidays indeed seems to have made for Apple’s saving grace this year which also comes in part thanks to Samsung’s troubled Note 7 phablet.

However, it is wise to keep in mind that Apple currently only has 5 models of its iPhone up for sale (iPhone 7, 6s, 5SE) in comparison to the barrage of smartphones that Samsung and Huawei have across a number of smartphone segments which helps them get these numbers year after year.

Apple is expected to announce a third smartphone this year to celebrate the tenth anniversary of its iPhone.