# Earnings Analysis: Apple Tops Sales Estimates But Falls Short of Blowout Quarter

An episode of [Bloomberg Intelligence](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/326301337), 30 Apr 2026, 16 min.

Audio: https://podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/tracking.swap.fm/track/UVBrz8bN8aM2Xe47PEPu/traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/7f534b8c-9e91-429a-b102-ae3c00090c6d/1b69d75c-7aa5-4997-8f69-b43c0173a1bd/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=0ad812bf-fd15-4012-a18c-ae3c00090c76

Apple delivered second-quarter revenue that edged past analysts’ estimates, helped by demand for the iPhone and Mac, while failing to produce the blowout results that some investors were anticipating. Revenue gained 17% to $111.2 billion during the period, which ended March 28, the company said in a statement Thursday. Analysts had anticipated $109.7 billion on average. Apple itself had projected sales growth of 13% to 16%. The company is benefiting from a series of new products launched in March, including the MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, updated iPad Air models and a fresh MacBook Pro. The $599 Neo — Apple’s first major push into low-cost laptops — has been particularly popular and remains sold out at several retailers. Still, the results were uneven. Apple fell short of expectations in the Americas and Europe regions, while exceeding projections in China and other parts of Asia. The iPhone — its flagship product — was in line with the average Wall Street estimate. For instant reaction and analysis, Bloomberg Businessweek Daily hosts Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec speak with: • Ed Ludlow, Bloomberg Tech co-host • Anurag Rana, Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Technology Analyst See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:02] Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio News.
[0:09] Speaker 2: This is a breaking news update from Bloomberg.
[0:12] Speaker 1: Instant reaction and analysis from our three thousand journalists and
[0:16] Speaker 1: analysts around the world.
[0:19] Speaker 3: Apple's overall second quarter revenue beat analyst estimates, as did
[0:22] Speaker 3: earnings per share, in particular China sales topping expectations. iPhone
[0:27] Speaker 3: revenue match the average analyst estimates, and this was a
[0:30] Speaker 3: big headline. The company authorized up to one hundred billion
[0:32] Speaker 3: dollar share buyback and boosted its dividend to twenty seven
[0:35] Speaker 3: cents of shared Doing those big buybacks is not unusual
[0:38] Speaker 3: from these companies. Right now, talking to our honor our
[0:41] Speaker 3: grown up Bloomberg Intelligence senior technology analyst out there in
[0:44] Speaker 3: Chicago and out there in San Francisco is at Ludlow
[0:47] Speaker 3: co host b Tech. We continue to track the stock
[0:51] Speaker 3: reaction team here.
[0:52] Speaker 1: Yeah, I just going through Apple's press release, going see
[0:55] Speaker 1: and if there's anything that we missed extraordinary iPhone mayor yeah,
[1:00] Speaker 1: exactly does that?
[1:02] Speaker 3: Yes?
[1:02] Speaker 1: So I feel like we're talking about the Federal Reserve
[1:04] Speaker 1: and the FEDS language here quote extreme. Yeah, what is that?
[1:06] Speaker 4: Exactly? So that's exactly the thought that went through my head.
[1:09] Speaker 4: How much does language in a statement matter, and so
[1:11] Speaker 4: I'm actually going to throw that question to Anaag. But
[1:16] Speaker 4: basically that is the language extraordinary demand. But they also
[1:20] Speaker 4: basically specifically calling out the seventeen e. Is that enough,
[1:24] Speaker 4: Ana Rag, to infer an upgrade cycle? Just that that
[1:28] Speaker 4: one sentence in a statement.
[1:30] Speaker 5: See, if you go back and look at the previous quarter,
[1:33] Speaker 5: we saw Apple iPhone's doing really well.
[1:35] Speaker 2: This quarter has done well.
[1:37] Speaker 5: We think the consensus of you know, roughly around eight
[1:40] Speaker 5: percent increase in iPhone may not be enough. I mean,
[1:42] Speaker 5: they may have to raise those numbers, but we'll only
[1:45] Speaker 5: find out about on the conference call because they don't
[1:47] Speaker 5: give guidance on the their or you know, in the release.
[1:51] Speaker 5: So you know, I'm expecting now based on what I
[1:53] Speaker 5: read that there is a high likelihood that they will
[1:56] Speaker 5: talk about another strong iPhone quarter.
[1:59] Speaker 2: You know, that's the upcoming quarter, Honourag.
[2:02] Speaker 3: You said too in our preview before these numbers, you said,
[2:05] Speaker 3: Apple is the only one who has not taken up
[2:07] Speaker 3: prices because of memory shortages, and it you know, has
[2:11] Speaker 3: given them an opportunity to gain share. Should they continue
[2:13] Speaker 3: to do that in your view, not raise prices and
[2:15] Speaker 3: go after share? I mean it is China indicative of
[2:17] Speaker 3: that or is that something else.
[2:19] Speaker 5: One, especially if the gross margins were forty nine, which
[2:23] Speaker 5: is two hundred basis points.
[2:24] Speaker 2: Above last year.
[2:25] Speaker 5: Absolutely, because it looks like they're doing better deals with
[2:29] Speaker 5: their memory.
[2:29] Speaker 2: Providers than the rest of them.
[2:31] Speaker 5: Now I could be completely wrong and on the conference
[2:33] Speaker 5: call they say, well, memory prices is hurting us, and
[2:36] Speaker 5: we may take some prices, but as often now, what
[2:39] Speaker 5: I see is them gaining market share.
[2:42] Speaker 3: Ed same thing, you know, your thoughts in terms of
[2:46] Speaker 3: what honourug said in terms of pricing versus market share,
[2:48] Speaker 3: This is you know, the potential for a little bit
[2:50] Speaker 3: of a grab here for Apple in someone.
[2:52] Speaker 4: Yeah. I mean you know, historically, Apple, which you know
[2:56] Speaker 4: has a relatively recent CFO in the seat, has been
[2:59] Speaker 4: the mas stir of the bottom line, right, And so
[3:01] Speaker 4: when it comes to memory, we have fixated on margins.
[3:05] Speaker 4: Apple's price strategy has been less controversial, shall we say
[3:10] Speaker 4: generations generation They would argue they keep the iPhone entry
[3:14] Speaker 4: level price static or even if it goes higher, they
[3:18] Speaker 4: give you more memory for storage for that number. So
[3:23] Speaker 4: the way that I look at it is like, is
[3:26] Speaker 4: there any evidence that they share with the investor base
[3:30] Speaker 4: about consumer behavior. In other words, like right now, is
[3:34] Speaker 4: there a macro concern about the health of consumers in
[3:37] Speaker 4: different markets? If you read down the release, they talk
[3:40] Speaker 4: about strength in all geographic segments. But actually if they
[3:44] Speaker 4: gave a bit more granularity of like Okay, well China's good,
[3:46] Speaker 4: how's things going in Europe, North America, latam Southeast Asia?
[3:50] Speaker 4: That to me is kind of interesting.
[3:52] Speaker 1: Is that where the neo comes in, and that's sort
[3:54] Speaker 1: of like a gateway drug to get more people into
[3:57] Speaker 1: the iOS ecosystem.
[4:00] Speaker 4: The MacBook Neo though, like remember different to the iPhone.
[4:04] Speaker 4: It's it's an entrance into a market where Apple's not
[4:07] Speaker 4: really played.
[4:08] Speaker 1: Like a chromebook category.
[4:10] Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, lower price point, go after students, people in
[4:14] Speaker 4: higher education, I.
[4:15] Speaker 1: Would imagine, though. I would imagine those people though ed
[4:18] Speaker 1: would like experience using the interface of a Mac and
[4:21] Speaker 1: then say, wait a second, I don't have an iPhone
[4:23] Speaker 1: right now, but I want to be able to use
[4:25] Speaker 1: I message as well as I could on this Mac.
[4:28] Speaker 1: Would I buy an iPhone? I don't know. I'm just
[4:30] Speaker 1: especially in other parts of the world, I don't know.
[4:33] Speaker 4: I don't have anything intelligence to say about that other
[4:35] Speaker 4: than you know, what's interesting about the Neo is the
[4:37] Speaker 4: processor is basically the same as the latest iPhone, you know,
[4:41] Speaker 4: and that is one way that they were able to
[4:44] Speaker 4: get it at that price point. I don't I don't
[4:46] Speaker 4: know how ANAAG sees the Neo as like a sort
[4:49] Speaker 4: of category defining piece of technology. But again, like while
[4:53] Speaker 4: you guys chat, I'll go back and look at the
[4:55] Speaker 4: Mac numbers overall and see what we learned about everything
[4:59] Speaker 4: outside of the I phone just from the statement alone.
[5:03] Speaker 5: So I mean when I look at the lower end back,
[5:05] Speaker 5: I frankly, I mean, whether you're a student or you
[5:08] Speaker 5: are an emerging market, this is a very good place
[5:11] Speaker 5: for you to get in. Max are much more stable
[5:14] Speaker 5: than Windows devices. You know, I've had only two Macs
[5:16] Speaker 5: in the last eighteen years. I mean, it's just unbelievably stable.
[5:22] Speaker 5: I mean it's you know, it's a completely different ecosystem.
[5:25] Speaker 5: But what you what you actually do is you get
[5:27] Speaker 5: more people to buy your services. And remember that's in
[5:30] Speaker 5: my high margin business. That's seventy five percent gross margins,
[5:34] Speaker 5: whether it's the app store or you know, Apple Care,
[5:38] Speaker 5: whatever it is. So I think the going down the
[5:40] Speaker 5: curve and having an entry level product is extremely important,
[5:45] Speaker 5: especially because the growth is only going to come from
[5:47] Speaker 5: emerging markets. It's not going to come from Europe, Western Europe,
[5:50] Speaker 5: and it's not going to come from the US.
[5:52] Speaker 2: So I think it's a very good strategy.
[5:54] Speaker 3: I want to just I'm looking at our live blog
[5:56] Speaker 3: guys and Mark German weighing, and we're going to hear
[5:58] Speaker 3: from Mark shortly too. He's going to join this conversation,
[6:00] Speaker 3: but he points out, I mean, the stack's going back
[6:02] Speaker 3: and forth between green and red. He says the main
[6:05] Speaker 3: reasons are likely that although the iPhone sold extremely well,
[6:07] Speaker 3: it didn't blow out Wall Street expectations. Instead it met them.
[6:11] Speaker 3: And he says the other factor is the week of
[6:13] Speaker 3: then anticipated revenue coming from the America's region forty five
[6:16] Speaker 3: point one billion versus forecast of forty five point eight billion.
[6:21] Speaker 3: It's just interesting and to watch this share price in
[6:23] Speaker 3: the aftermarket, it's investors kind of going back and forth.
[6:26] Speaker 3: I thought it was going to be like, maybe settle
[6:28] Speaker 3: in and say it seems like, you know, investors like it,
[6:31] Speaker 3: it's solid. They're okay, let's move forward.
[6:33] Speaker 4: But well, let's remember that we started this show and
[6:37] Speaker 4: segment with Bloomberg's Mark German, who leads our coverage of
[6:42] Speaker 4: consumer technology and is generally regarded as the leading journalist
[6:46] Speaker 4: covering Apple on Planet Earth, saying this was not going
[6:49] Speaker 4: to be about the transition of CEO, and it was
[6:54] Speaker 4: not going to be about learning about John Turnis as
[6:57] Speaker 4: a CEO, what his strategy is. I don't know, guys.
[7:01] Speaker 4: To me, this seems like trent.
[7:07] Speaker 5: Apple is trading at thirty times earnings. Microsoft is at
[7:10] Speaker 5: twenty two. Google's at twenty nine, even after blowout results.
[7:15] Speaker 5: So even after all of this, Apple is still more
[7:17] Speaker 5: expensive than them.
[7:19] Speaker 3: What yeah, and does it warrant it based on this
[7:23] Speaker 3: result on a rug or what?
[7:25] Speaker 5: So? I think it's a lot of has to do
[7:27] Speaker 5: with the business model of the company. This is something
[7:29] Speaker 5: we go back to. This is a far more stable
[7:31] Speaker 5: business model with imagine three percent of revenues going into
[7:36] Speaker 5: Capex compared to forty forty five for Microsoft.
[7:39] Speaker 2: They are not raising Capex.
[7:41] Speaker 5: They have an absolutely stellar ecosystem of products, and guess
[7:45] Speaker 5: what was whoever has the best model, They're going to
[7:48] Speaker 5: pay them a little bit of money to get them
[7:50] Speaker 5: on their on their platform. So it's a completely different
[7:53] Speaker 5: business model than the other Max seven.
[7:57] Speaker 2: And people like stability. People like the pre cast flow
[8:00] Speaker 2: nature of it.
[8:01] Speaker 5: They're going to spend They're going to generate over one
[8:03] Speaker 5: hundred million dollars in pre cat flow, and they're going
[8:05] Speaker 5: to buy back their stock with it. They're not going
[8:07] Speaker 5: to build data centers with it.
[8:10] Speaker 4: Can I read you something on a rag and then
[8:11] Speaker 4: you can respond to it? Okay, I'm paraphrasing. Other companies
[8:16] Speaker 4: have a clearer AI story and very different businesses to Apple.
[8:20] Speaker 4: Apple's bottom of the year was March thirty. Apple trades
[8:23] Speaker 4: at a premium despite slower growth than its peers, and
[8:27] Speaker 4: the stock trading flat year to date reflects anxiety on
[8:31] Speaker 4: component costs and memory. Do you know who wrote that?
[8:35] Speaker 2: It was me?
[8:38] Speaker 4: Four twenty six pm Eastern Time.
[8:41] Speaker 2: What do you make? What do you make of that?
[8:43] Speaker 2: Sounds like you're absolutely right? Yeah, absolutely right.
[8:46] Speaker 5: But you know, all I'm saying is, you know, when
[8:48] Speaker 5: you look at a company like an Apple or in
[8:50] Speaker 5: a costco, it really is a different business model compared
[8:53] Speaker 5: to all the others. And I think most people forget
[8:56] Speaker 5: that this is something that's going to be around for
[8:58] Speaker 5: a very long time, spits out of a lot of cash,
[9:01] Speaker 5: even if in a quarter they don't grow, does not matter.
[9:04] Speaker 5: The free cash flow still comes in and they keep
[9:07] Speaker 5: on buying back more shares.
[9:09] Speaker 3: Yeah, right, so they you know, investors are happy. Investors
[9:12] Speaker 3: are happy, you know, so top of mind you guys
[9:17] Speaker 3: when we get to that call with Analyson investors, Anna
[9:21] Speaker 3: rog is it memory prices?
[9:23] Speaker 1: Is it?
[9:23] Speaker 4: What else.
[9:25] Speaker 2: Memory prices?
[9:26] Speaker 5: What's the iPhone story look like in the next quarter,
[9:30] Speaker 5: and what kind of new products can we see during
[9:32] Speaker 5: the September.
[9:33] Speaker 2: There will be questions on city.
[9:35] Speaker 5: But I think they will punt it and say, well,
[9:37] Speaker 5: log in in June eighth and see it.
[9:38] Speaker 2: But to be very honest, thanks to.
[9:40] Speaker 5: Mark Gullman, we already know what's going to happen on
[9:42] Speaker 5: June eighth.
[9:43] Speaker 1: Yeah, I know you got to read read Mark to
[9:46] Speaker 1: understand everything and not be surprised.
[9:49] Speaker 3: Well, I'm Serria to understand me and answer me back
[9:51] Speaker 3: suple questions like you know, a silly little address, like
[9:55] Speaker 3: it seems so far behind ed is it a serie?
[10:01] Speaker 3: I mean, it's funny. Mark has also shared with us,
[10:03] Speaker 3: you know, a lot of the products that the new CEO.
[10:06] Speaker 3: I think he did a story about a pipeline of
[10:08] Speaker 3: ten major products, whether it's a smart home hub, tabletop,
[10:11] Speaker 3: robot security device, smart glasses, AI air pods, appendant. I mean,
[10:16] Speaker 3: there's a lot of stuff. Are we going to get
[10:19] Speaker 3: some some more details here?
[10:20] Speaker 4: Well, so, like that is just not how how the
[10:24] Speaker 4: earning school works, right, Yes, you get granularity and detail.
[10:27] Speaker 4: Tim Cook, you know, I think he's the kind of
[10:30] Speaker 4: CEO that goes, well, I'm not an economist, but and
[10:33] Speaker 4: we'll sort of go into the state of the world.
[10:35] Speaker 4: And Kevanporrekt, the CFO, is very good at explaining all
[10:40] Speaker 4: of the plus and minus factors of the quarter. But
[10:43] Speaker 4: those shiny things, you know, Apple Intelligence, improvement on Siri,
[10:49] Speaker 4: handset innovation, foldable, you know. June is WWDC, the Annual
[10:53] Speaker 4: Developers Conference September takes us into the new hardware season.
[10:58] Speaker 4: Tonight's not it, you know, And so you just need
[11:01] Speaker 4: to find out this sort of plain balance sheet driven factors,
[11:05] Speaker 4: which sounds boring for the audience maybe, but that's so
[11:08] Speaker 4: key when you cover a company of Apples scale.
[11:10] Speaker 3: Well I get that because you're looking at the stock
[11:12] Speaker 3: now down about one percent, So investors are obviously looking
[11:14] Speaker 3: for a little bit more detail or a lot more
[11:16] Speaker 3: detail when it comes to what's on the balance sheet
[11:19] Speaker 3: and Ludlow, we know you need to go at this moment.
[11:22] Speaker 3: Thank you so much. Co host a B Tech on
[11:24] Speaker 3: Bloomberg Television at eleven am Monday through Friday on Bloomberg Television,
[11:28] Speaker 3: Ana Rug is going to stick around, which we are
[11:30] Speaker 3: grateful for.
[11:31] Speaker 1: We were just having a discussion about margins on ROG
[11:33] Speaker 1: and I know that's front and center for you. I
[11:35] Speaker 1: asked you that was the most important number to see.
[11:37] Speaker 1: Have you had a chance to do the back in
[11:38] Speaker 1: the envelope there and get the results?
[11:41] Speaker 5: Yeah, the gross margins are up about two hundred and
[11:43] Speaker 5: twenty basis points, So that's a very good number. Now,
[11:45] Speaker 5: that could just be a MiG shift towards services, But
[11:48] Speaker 5: I think the number one call, the question or the
[11:50] Speaker 5: call has to be what's what our memory price is
[11:53] Speaker 5: doing to all their products and up till how long
[11:57] Speaker 5: can we anticipate these margins actually holding up? Because when
[12:00] Speaker 5: I looked at Consensus, even before the call for the
[12:04] Speaker 5: next two quarters, Consensus are not anticipating any degradation in margins,
[12:08] Speaker 5: which was a bit surprising to me because we all
[12:11] Speaker 5: know memory process are through the roof right now.
[12:14] Speaker 1: So help us out here. Is this I just want
[12:15] Speaker 1: to make sure we're looking at the right place in terms,
[12:17] Speaker 1: because it's not broken out in the release, but we're gross.
[12:21] Speaker 1: We're gross margins forty seven point nine percent.
[12:26] Speaker 2: Forty nine point two compared to forty seven losses.
[12:29] Speaker 1: Okay, compared to forty seven last quarter.
[12:31] Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, yeah, last year, same quarter. Okay.
[12:35] Speaker 1: Obviously I'm not looking at the right place.
[12:36] Speaker 3: Okay, we'll look at on the FA function on the Bloomberg.
[12:41] Speaker 1: On a rog with us, Well, it's.
[12:42] Speaker 3: Always kind of massive numbers, I feel like with Apple overall,
[12:46] Speaker 3: which is kind of interesting. I want to go back
[12:48] Speaker 3: to the China revenue story that twenty point five billion,
[12:50] Speaker 3: because it's been an area where they've struggled a little bit.
[12:54] Speaker 3: Does this indicate a better trend line on a rug
[12:58] Speaker 3: in your view going forward? Or we'll have to weigh
[13:00] Speaker 3: and see.
[13:01] Speaker 5: So two things happen. One is easier comparison. When you
[13:04] Speaker 5: really had a bad year, you know you're going to
[13:06] Speaker 5: go into the next year with the baseline that's low.
[13:08] Speaker 5: So that's one second. You are also looking at promotions
[13:12] Speaker 5: in that geography. Sometimes it's not like all the time,
[13:15] Speaker 5: but you know, but when your competitor is raising prices.
[13:19] Speaker 5: You take your base model and you push it as
[13:22] Speaker 5: hard as you can and you actually get you know,
[13:25] Speaker 5: I would be very surprised if they don't say that
[13:28] Speaker 5: China iPhone revenue, which they don't give frankly, wasn't up
[13:31] Speaker 5: more than twenty twenty five percent.
[13:33] Speaker 2: Like, I would be very surprised if that's not the number.
[13:37] Speaker 6: Why, because you know, one of the things, as I said,
[13:41] Speaker 6: the base was so small they I mean, in a
[13:43] Speaker 6: sense the comparison was easier, and they have been extremely
[13:47] Speaker 6: aggressive in terms of marketing that product, while the others
[13:50] Speaker 6: have not been.
[13:52] Speaker 1: Okay, okay, listen, you know, can you talk to us
[13:56] Speaker 1: a little bit about remind us just guidance wise what
[13:58] Speaker 1: Apple tells us on the call.
[14:00] Speaker 5: So they would typically talk about a handful of things.
[14:03] Speaker 5: One they would give overall guidance in terms of total
[14:06] Speaker 5: revenue growth. Sometimes they would give eephone guidance. Sometimes they won't.
[14:10] Speaker 5: Last time, they did give some indication of where it
[14:13] Speaker 5: could be. They talk about gross margins in total. They
[14:16] Speaker 5: don't really go down on a segment level. And again
[14:19] Speaker 5: I think the number that usually is consistent is total
[14:23] Speaker 5: revenue line. But the others, you know, things do bounce around,
[14:26] Speaker 5: But I think the soft commentary around pricing of memory,
[14:31] Speaker 5: I think is going to be one of the most
[14:33] Speaker 5: important factors.
[14:34] Speaker 3: How much leverage though, Anna rog I think we've talked
[14:36] Speaker 3: about this with you. You know, they have this incredible
[14:40] Speaker 3: supply chain. They're massive, They're a big customer, and when
[14:44] Speaker 3: it comes to the supply chain, those who are supplying
[14:46] Speaker 3: the components, they listen to the biggest and the loudest.
[14:50] Speaker 2: You know.
[14:51] Speaker 5: I have been surprised because yes, they are the biggest
[14:53] Speaker 5: and they're but you know, when something goes up fifty
[14:56] Speaker 5: sev hundred percent, you know, you you understand, and even
[15:00] Speaker 5: the person who's selling it cannot do anything about it,
[15:02] Speaker 5: so you have to eat up some other costs. So
[15:05] Speaker 5: I think, you know, that is probably why I was saying,
[15:08] Speaker 5: I was a bit surprised. When I looked at margins
[15:10] Speaker 5: for the next quarter. They still look healthy in a sense,
[15:13] Speaker 5: I'm not seeing any degradation there.
[15:16] Speaker 2: That's an area where we think there could have been hit.
[15:19] Speaker 5: We had calculated it a while ago that you know,
[15:21] Speaker 5: that number could be anywhere between two to three percent
[15:24] Speaker 5: or somewhere.
[15:25] Speaker 2: You know, in that range. But again, we're not seeing
[15:28] Speaker 2: any of that at this point,

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