7 Key Highlights from Apple’s Q1 2024 Earnings Call

Active Apple Devices

As we noted from Apple's press release, there are now more than 2.2 billion active Apple devices around the globe. This includes iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, and likely Apple TVs and HomePods — anything that connects to Apple's servers with an Apple ID. AirPods are not likely counted in this number.

Changes to the EU App Store

Cook and Maestri both answered questions about possible economic hits that may result from the changes being made to the App Store and app distribution policies in the European Union. While Maestri commented that the EU accounts for just 7% of Apple's global app revenue, Cook commented that the impact of the changes was impossible to determine at this time, as it is difficult to predict what developers and customers will do.

"We've really focused on privacy, security, and usability," Cook said. "And we've we've tried our best to get as close it in the past in terms of things that people love about our ecosystem, but we're going to fall short of providing the maximum amount that we could supply because we need to comply with the regulation."

Artificial Intelligence

Tim Cook told those assembled on the call that Apple is spending a "tremendous" amount of time and effort on artificial intelligence and that the company will share more details about its AI work later this year.

This lines up with several rumors we've heard that iOS 18 could introduce a new AI-powered Siri that could debut at this year's Worldwide Developers Conference, plus some possible AI hardware improvements on this year's iPhone 16.

Wearables, Home, and Accessories

Revenue from the Wearables, Home, and Accessories category dropped to $12 billion, down from $13.4 billion last year. This was likely the result of no significant new releases of AirPods last quarter — the switch to USB-C on the AirPods Pro wouldn't have necessarily attracted a drove of new buyers — plus Apple's patent-related complications with the Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 that forced it to pull them from sale just before Christmas.

Apple Services

The Services category performed very well during the quarter, setting an all-time revenue record at $23.1 billion, up from $20.7 billion a year ago. Paid subscriptions showed healthy growth, up double digits year-over-year.

Apple's executives said the company set all-time revenue records in advertising, cloud services, payment services, and video while setting December quarter records for the App Store and AppleCare.

Apple Vision Pro

Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that several big companies — including Walmart, Nike, Bloomberg, SAP, and others are planning to develop and release Vision Pro apps.

"From everyday productivity to collaborative product design to immersive training, we cannot wait to see the amazing things our enterprise customers will create in the months and years to come," Mastri said.

CEO Cook said that Apple is "incredibly excited" about the enterprise opportunities for Apple Vision Pro. Cook said Walmart has a "very cool" merchandising app in development. He said several companies are creating collaboration and design apps, field service applications, control center/command center apps, and more.

"We couldn't be more excited about where things are right now," Cook said. "This has been multiple years of efforts from so many people across Apple and took a whole of company effort to bring it this far."

Mac and iPad Sales

Mac and iPad sales were disappointing for the quarter, with Mac sales only slightly up at $7.8 billion (compared to $7.7 billion last year). While Apple did release a lineup of M3-powered MacBooks and a new 24-inch iMac during the quarter, the best-selling M3 MacBook Air was missing in action.

Meanwhile, iPad sales plunged to $7 billion, down from $9.4 billion last year, thanks to Apple not releasing any new iPad models during 2023 — the first time since the iPad was introduced in 2010 that we've gone an entire year without any new iPads.