{"id":644794,"date":"2026-05-01T07:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=644794"},"modified":"2026-05-01T08:03:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T06:03:07","slug":"apple-sales-beating-the-memory-crunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business\/644794-apple-sales-beating-the-memory-crunch.html","title":{"rendered":"Apple beating the memory crunch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Apple delivered a surprisingly strong revenue forecast for the third quarter, even as it warned that memory-chip costs will increase and that shortages of Mac computers will persist for \u201cseveral months.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales will rise 14% to 17% in the period, which runs through June, the company said during a post-earnings conference call Thursday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That range trounced the 9.1% that analysts had anticipated on average, helping send the shares up nearly 4% in late trading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The outlook bodes well for incoming chief executive officer John Ternus, who takes the reins from Tim Cook on 1 September.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ternus appeared briefly on the conference call, saying he would maintain Cook\u2019s \u201cthoughtfulness, deliberateness and discipline\u201d as CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have an incredible road map ahead,\u201d Ternus said. \u201cThis is the most exciting time in my 25-year career at Apple to be building products and services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cook, who has run the Cupertino, California-based company for 15 years, will remain as executive chairman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple has benefited from a series of new products launched in March, including the MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, updated iPad Air models and a fresh MacBook Pro. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The $599 Neo \u2014 Apple\u2019s first major push into low-cost laptops \u2014 has been particularly popular and remains sold out at several retailers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total sales gained 17% to $111.2 billion during the fiscal second quarter, which ended March 28. Analysts had anticipated $109.7 billion on average. Apple itself had projected sales growth of 13% to 16%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple signalled that it\u2019s mostly coping with shortages and memory costs, but things will worsen over time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A memory crunch has rippled through the tech industry, forcing companies to boost prices and reduce output.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the call, Cook said memory expenses would climb \u201csignificantly higher\u201d this quarter, compared with more subdued increases in the March period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the fourth quarter and beyond, he said, there would be an \u201cincreasing impact on the business.\u201d He declined to disclose whether Apple would raise prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Processor shortage a bigger factor<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple. Photographer: Kena Betancur\/Bloomberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Apple\u2019s main supply constraints involve processors rather than memory chips. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impact has primarily hit the Mac mini and Mac Studio, two desktop Macs that have become popular for running artificial intelligence models.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cook said the company \u201cunder-called\u201d demand on those Macs. It also underestimated the appetite for the MacBook Neo, which also remains hard to find. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple\u2019s online store quotes several-week wait times for all three products and sellouts for some configurations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not at the point where we\u2019re saying this is going to end anytime soon,\u201d Cook said, adding that the constraints will likely last \u201cseveral months.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He characterised the iPhone shortages as being less significant than the ones affecting the Mac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investors had taken a wait-and-see approach to Apple this year. The shares were down less than 1% this year heading into the report, trailing a 5.3% gain by the S&P 500 index.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sales of the iPhone rose 22% to $57 billion during the quarter, in line with estimates. The Mac also increased, growing to $8.4 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iPad rose to $6.9 billion, while Wearables, Home and Accessories brought in $7.9 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of its second-quarter earnings report, Apple said it would buy back as much as $100 billion in shares and boosted its dividend. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company also said it would be winding down its net cash strategy as it begins to look at cash and debt independently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
John Ternus, Apple senior vice president of hardware engineering and incoming Apple CEO. Photographer: Adam Gray\/Bloomberg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Earnings rose to $2.01 a share, beating the projection of $1.96. The China market \u2014 where Apple has struggled in recent years \u2014 was a highlight last quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue there soared 28% to $20.5 billion. Wall Street had projected $18.9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Services \u2014 a segment that includes TV and music streaming, the App Store, iCloud subscriptions, and other digital offerings \u2014 generated revenue of $31 billion last quarter, up 16% from a year earlier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That topped the Wall Street prediction of $30.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The latest numbers extend a sales resurgence that broke records during the holiday quarter, when revenue increased 16%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond dealing with supply-chain challenges, Ternus is tasked with turning around Apple\u2019s fortunes in artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tech giant is struggling to keep up with its Silicon Valley rivals in this area and has delayed key features, including a revamped Siri voice assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company faces \u201cpressure to define the next consumer device for the AI era,\u201d Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said in a note. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now, the iPhone remains Apple\u2019s biggest moneymaker. Cook said the iPhone 17 line has become the company\u2019s most popular smartphone ever, based on sales through the March quarter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Apple will celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the iPhone next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing a strong response \u2014 not only from customers upgrading from previous generations \u2014 but also from people choosing iPhone for the very first time,\u201d Cook said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple has benefited from a series of new products launched in March, including the MacBook Neo, iPhone 17e, updated iPad Air models and a fresh MacBook Pro. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":631944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[605,22011,1125,100531,86925,103591,2652,103069,4082],"class_list":["post-644794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-apple","tag-ipad-air","tag-iphone","tag-iphone-17e","tag-john-ternus","tag-macbook-neo","tag-macbook-pro","tag-memory-shortage","tag-tim-cook"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644794"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644794"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644794\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644798,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644794\/revisions\/644798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}