US tech giant Apple has reported a record-breaking final quarter of 2017. The company saw its profits soaring as stronger iPhone prices more than offset a decrease in its global smartphone sales.
Image: Reuters/D. Gray
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Apple said its net income for the September-to-December quarter rose by 12 percent year on year to $20 billion (€16 billion).
At the same time, iPhone sales dropped by 1 million devices to 77.3 million smartphones, partly due to the fact that the new iPhone X only came out in November instead of September as previously planned. The increase in revenue despite lower sales has been credited to the rise in the price of an Apple phone, up to an average $796 compared to $695 a year ago. Turnover for the quarter came in at $88.3 billion, marking a 13-percent increase.
"Over time, we're trying to target a capital structure that is approximately net-neutral," CFO Luca Maestri told Reuters in an interview.
Morningstar Inc. analyst Brian Colello called Apple's cash plans "a pleasant surprise," saying that it "goes a bit against Apple's historically conservative capital structure."
Apple investor Trip Miller added the planned move to a level balance sheet was good news. "Let's face it; this cash has been doing nothing for us over the last six years."
From a 'hunk of chunk' to feature-heavy elegance
The introduction of Apple's iPhone 10 years ago was certainly a breakthrough. But it's equally astonishing how the phone has matured within just a decade, with the latest models making the original one look primitive.
Image: DW/M.Bösch
The original
By today's standards, the original iPhone — presented by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007 — looks OK, but certainly not like a must-have. From today's perspective, some tech experts have even called it a 'primitive brick.' A grave injustice?
Image: picture alliance/AP Images/P. Sakuma
Painfully slow
The first iPhone ran on a data transmission technology called "Edge," a version of 2G wireless. It was really slow - it would have taken you roughly eight minutes to send a 5MB file - with today's 4G LTE it takes under four seconds.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Apple
'App-solutely' unthinkable?
There was no App Store when the iPhone hit markets worldwide. It only opened in 2008 via an update to iTunes after Steve Jobs finally agreed to let customers use the software distribution platform to personalize their smartphones.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Duenzl
Spartan text messages
Back in 2007, iPhones were unable to send a picture together with a plain text message. Apple's modern iMessage service allows users to not only send text, but also photos, videos, contact information and a lot more.
Image: Fotolia/Pavel Ignatov
Picture it!
First-generation iPhones had relatively weak cameras, "boasting" a mere 2-megapixels. And they couldn't record any videos - imagine that today! Capturing high-resolution pictures and videos is child's play for the iPhone7 pictured above.
Image: Reuters/B. Diefenbach
Features galore
Needless to say, in 2007 iPhones did not have a notification center. There was no Siri around or any other personal digital assistant. There wasn't even a turn-by-turn directions app - all relatively recent additions to modern iPhones.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/H. H. Young
Steady evolution
Modern iPhones brim with features that the developers of the prototype could only dream of. Nevertheless, Apple will need to add even more exciting things to keep sales figures from falling further (sales were down 5.3 percent in Q3/2016 year on year).
