The increase in iPhone sales is the first increase in over a year. The company did, however, report a revenue miss in the company’s increasingly important services business, which includes the new Apple TV+ streaming offering.
The number of active iPhones, computers and other devices owned by customers, what Apple call its installed base, was up 100 million to more than 1.5 billion. Apple also announced that it had set a new target of 600 million paid subscribers for music, TV, gaming and other services by the end of 2020.Growth in this space is seen as critical to the company's future - services are seen as being more lucrative for the business than hardware over the coming years.
Over the past year the company has slashed prices in China, one of its most important markets, in a bid to lift sales and has made a push into paid services, rolling out a credit card with Goldman Sachs and subscription gaming and television services.
Apple posted $92 billion in revenue for the last quarter, over $3 billion ahead of analyst forecasts, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.