Apple Reports Another Record Smashing 4th Quarter, Admits iPhone Sales Have Reached Their Peak

On Tuesday, Apple reported its most profitable quarter — of any company is American history. While the Cupertino tech-giant’s 4th quarter of 2015 was driven by the sale of 74.8 million iPhones — up less than 1%, year over year — Shareholders still took a deep breath in light of the news, which was driven by domestic sales and greater than expected growth in the Chinese market.

Even despite the company’s impressive sales and earnings, however, Apple CEO Tim Cook warned investors that iPhone sales have slowed dramatically in the last several quarters. This slow down, as Cook noted, has to do primarily with the strong dollar — which is actually hurting the company, surprising as it may seem, as fewer customers in China are able to afford Apple’s blockbuster handset in light of that.

“The challenging global macroeconomic environment is leading to constrained conditions unlike anything we’ve seen, everywhere we look,” Cook noted in a conference call with analysts on Tuesday.

And even though Apple beat it’s own quarterly sales goal by a slight margin during the December quarter, company CEO Tim Cook did not shy away from predicting that iPhone sales in the current quarter (January-March, 2016) could fall for the first time in over a decade. Shares of Apple (AAPL, Tech30) fell 3% in after hours trading on the news.

Here’s how Apple fared with the iPhone year-over-year

4th quarter of 2014 — 74.5 million units

4th quarter of 2015 — 74.8 million units (up >1%)

Cook reported that demand for the latest iPhones has so far been less than impressive, with 60% of customers still using devices released prior to the 6/6s and 6/6s Plus. Yet even still, Cook defended the iPhone, noting that the company sold 34,000 of them per hour last quarter.

“That speaks of the immense popularity of the iPhone,” Cook said. He was also quick to note that over 1 billion iOS devices are currently being used worldwide.

And with the iPad

4th quarter 2014 — 21.4 million units

4th quarter 2015 — 16.1 million units (down 25%)

As Cook noted, and as we’ve been hearing for a while now, iPad sales have fallen for the last eight consecutive quarters.

Mac sales

4th quarter 2014 — 5.5 million units

4th quarter 2015 — 5.3 million units (down 4%)

While Wall Street analysts were expecting Apple to sell upwards of 6 million Macs, Windows PC sales also fell (year-over-year), so the company was bracing for a similar downward trend.

Sales revenue

4th quarter 2014 — $74.6 billion

4th quarter 2015 — $75.9 billion (up 2%)

Profits

4th quarter 2014 — $18 billion

4th quarter 2015 — $18.4 billion (up 2%)

Apple’s December quarter not only beat analysts’ predictions, but was the best quarter for any company in modern U.S. history.

Past vs. Current quarter predictions

1st quarter 2015 — $58 billion

1st quarter 2016 — $50-53 billion (est.)

The last time Apple reported a year-over-year sales decline was in the March quarter of 2003. So even though the company reported a slight profit in the December quarter, perhaps obviously, analysts are more focused on the company’s performance during the current quarter. And, as always, it won’t be long until we find out how the cookie’s gonna crumble.

Learn More: The Apple Car Team Is Reportedly Facing Major Problems as Chief Plans to Leave Company