iPhone sales are booming — with or without Apple Intelligence

Wrapping up a busy week that saw the launch of the first Apple Intelligence features and several new Macs, Apple reported its fourth quarter results this afternoon. The period included very early sales of the iPhone 16 range and provided an opportunity to gauge the momentum of the company's latest phones. The Apple Watch Series 10 and AirPods 4 were also released during the quarter. CEO Tim Cook told CNBC that iPhone 15 sales were “up 14 from the year-ago quarter and 16 up from 15.”

The company reported revenue of $94.9 billion, setting a new record for the September quarter and up 6 percent year-over-year. The strong performance was tempered somewhat by a one-time $10.2 billion income tax charge Apple paid to Ireland following a long-running tax dispute. With the exception of the wearables, home and accessories category, nearly all of Apple's business segments also posted gains. iPad sales rose 8 percent after Apple finally introduced new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in the spring.

Apple's first AI-powered Apple Intelligence features focus primarily on summaries, writing tools, and image cleanup. ChatGPT integration and the ability to generate images will be available in December with iOS 18.2. “We're already receiving great feedback from customers and developers, and a very early statistic that includes just three days of data: users are adopting iOS 18.1 at twice the rate of 17.1 in the same quarter last year,” Cook told CNBC.

The iMac, Mac Mini and MacBook Pro were all refreshed this week with Apple's latest M4 silicon. The Mini has been fundamentally redesigned and is now smaller than ever. There are rumors that M4 editions of the MacBook Air, Mac Pro and Mac Studio will follow sometime next year. Apple updated the iPad Mini earlier this month. This range of new hardware, along with the iPhone 16 range and wearables, could boost Apple's performance in the important holiday quarter.

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