iPhone sales boost Apple, but shortages threaten margins

For the second quarter, Apple reported earnings per share (EPS) of $2.01 on revenue of $111.2 billion. Analysts were anticipating EPS of $1.96 and revenue of $109.66 billion, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Apple’s iPhone revenue grew 20% for the second consecutive quarter to $56.99 billion, while China revenue ticked in at $20.49 billion, ahead of expectations of $18.9 billion.

That, coupled with strong Services sales, seemed to give investors more confidence in Apple’s outlook. And with the company’s WWDC event scheduled for June 8, we should get more insight into Apple’s AI strategy after a series of fits and starts that have been an overhang for the smartphone maker.

Throw the expected foldable iPhone and planned CEO transition from Tim Cook to John Ternus in September into the mix, and things are certainly looking interesting for Apple at the moment.

BofA Global Research analyst Wamsi Mohan noted both the foldable iPhone, WWDC, and Ternus taking over, as well as Apple’s record install base and double-digit Services growth as key reasons the firm remains bullish on the company.
But Apple’s Mac business also improved in the quarter, thanks to the launch of the MacBook Neo and massive Mac mini and Mac Studio demand from AI developers, particularly those using OpenClaw.

OpenClaw gained an enormous amount of attention among developers thanks to its ability to perform actions on your behalf from your own desktop using your own data.

The benefit is that you can customize it as you see fit, provide it with access to the information you want, and allow it to run tasks for you.

“The Mac Mini and the Mac Studio, both of these are amazing platforms for AI and agentic tools, and the customer recognition of that is happening faster than what we had predicted. And so we saw higher-than-expected demand,” Cook said during the company’s Q2 earnings call.

According to the outgoing CEO, the pint-sized desktops are selling out so quickly that it will take several months for Apple’s supply to catch up with demand.

But Apple, like the rest of the tech industry, is dealing with supply constraints related to the global artificial intelligence data center build-out.

Cook noted Apple’s iPhone processors are facing constraints, as the company competes with AI firms for capacity for its own chips.

The tech giant is also dealing with the ongoing global memory shortage, which Cook said will have an increasing impact on margins in the quarters ahead.