Apple Silicon Pushes Apple to Record Financial Results

Writing that Apple is making large profits almost seems superfluous these days, but the Cupertino phone company is at it again, with revenue of $123.9 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal 2022, for a profit of $384 million a day. The figures come from its consolidated financial statements.

The 11% year-on-year revenue increase was fuelled by a record 25% growth in Mac sales to $10.9 billion. This was balanced by a 14% decline in sales of iPads, with CEO Tim Cook explaining on an earnings call that the worldwide chip shortage had hit the ‘legacy nodes’ used for tablets rather than the newer ones used for the Apple Silicon M1 chips in Macs.

On the same call, Apple's chief financial officer Luca Maestri enthused about M1: "We are one year into our transition to Apple silicon, and already the vast majority of our Mac sales are from M1-powered devices which helped drive a record number of upgraders during the December quarter. The last six quarters have been the best six quarters ever for Mac."

"In markets like China, six out of ten sales are to people new to the Mac. It's powered by both upgraders and switchers," explained Cook on the same call. In a statement released later, he was equally enthusiastic about the products of the company that paid him almost $100 million in stock and salary for 2021: “This quarter’s record results were made possible by our most innovative lineup of products and services ever,” he said. “We are gratified to see the response from customers around the world."