By Alex Brooks iPad Quarterly Sales (Q112 – Q215)
On Tuesday Apple will announce the results of its third fiscal quarter of 2015. Apple’s third quarter is traditionally the weakest throughout the year as the back to school period looms and so do the iOS device lineup refreshes. As with any results out of Apple, there are questions to be asked—many of which we may not get direct answers for.
As a quick reminder, in fiscal Q314 Apple had revenue of $37.4 billion and net income of $7.74 billion. Net income represented year over year growth of 12.29%. Apple has predicted for Q315 that revenue will be up to $48bn or as low as $46bn.
Let’s explore some areas of interest ahead of Apple’s fiscal results on Tuesday.

iPad Slide Continues?
iPad unit sales haven’t grown since the end of the fiscal year of 2013, with year over year growth (well shrink actually) coming in around -10%, and in the last quarter that year over year growth came in at -22.8%. This clearly presents Apple a problem, this device is meant to be a pillar product—a leg on the stool you could say. The iPad is Apple’s answer to PC market decline (the Mac is doing ironically well).
Expectations across the board for the quarter that end at the end of June are that Apple will have shipped just 10.7 million iPads , down from 13.2 million in Q314 (decline of 19%). Some estimates from respectable analysts like Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities predict that Apple shipped just 8.8 million iPads.
The market should be raising serious questions about the life of the iPad. There are rumours of an iPad-Pro type device which would bring a larger screen to compliment some of the more advanced features of the upcoming iOS 9 update (namely split screen apps). It is also expected that Apple will not update the iPad Air this year, a bizarre move in a market that is accustomed to annual update cycles.
It’s unlikely that we’ll hear on Tuesday about Apple’s strategy to turn around the iPad, but flat or shrinking sales will spook some analysts to the point where we may hear something more honest from Apple in the future. Tim Cook has not shied away from the subject, but referred to the annual declines as just a “speed bump”.
Eyes on the Watch
The June quarter did not quite see a full period (nine weeks to be precise) of Apple Watch sales with the device only shipping from April 24—and even during this time was heavily constrained in supply. Apple has already told us that it will not break out Apple Watch sales and is instead sticking it in the category of other products. Estimates at launch (to be taken with a pinch of salt) predicted that Apple had shipped over one million pre-ordered Apple Watches in the US alone, and a recent story (to be taken with a truck load of salt) suggested that Watch sales had stalled towards the end of June.
Estimates for device sales from analysts are heavily varied, with the average estimate coming in at around 4.5 million. However this number is a little useless without understanding how much money Apple is making on each device, and estimates of the model split are not forthcoming.
Will Apple reveal more than it has suggested in the past to counteract some negativity around predicted sales figures? Or will Apple continue to be Apple and report numbers bunched into a fairly wide product category? I bet the latter.
iPhone, iPhone, iPhone
The iPhone continues to dominate Apple’s balance sheet, however June is always cruel to the iPhone. Apple has already announced iOS 9 which means the general consumer has got a whiff of a new iPhone model—arriving in late September we assume. In Q314 Apple shifted 35.2 million iPhones, representing healthy year over year growth of 12.6%. However, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus have been performing well with year over year growth in the last two quarters clocking in at 46% and 40%. Apple hasn’t seen that kind of iPhone growth since 2012.
Estimates for the quarter just gone remain healthy with many expecting Apple to have sold just over 50 million iPhones, that would represent over 40% growth from the year ago quarter.
No analyst is going to grumble at these kind of numbers. However with the iPhone now representing more than 70% of Apple’s total revenue, one slip up in these numbers will have a lot of people spooked.
Law of Large Numbers
Famed Apple watcher Horace Dediu wrote earlier in the month about Apple smashing all kinds of predictions about growth that have been made in recent years. On Dediu’s predictions Apple will have brought in just north of $53 billion in revenue in the June quarter, on an earnings per share of $2.02—that represents growth of nearly 50%, Dediu calls this growth “astronomical” for what is already the world’s largest company by market capitalisation by far.
More questions
Questions remain around Apple’s continued growth of services which will in the not too distant future include revenue from Apple Music. And of course every quarter Apple shock us with some incredible numbers out of China, but China recently had a wobble so will it maintain that incredible growth of recent years?
The Results
Apple will announce its fiscal third quarter results for 2015 at the close of markets on Tuesday 21 July. That will be about 5.30pm Eastern, 1.30pm Pacific, 9.30pm London. Get the results immediately by following @worldofapple

Source:: World of Apple