Business

Apple did a lot more than just smash its iPhone sales record

But despite the silver linings, a dark cloud is looming.

Written by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Senior Contributing Editor Jan. 31, 2017 at 2:17 p.m. PT

Here's how Apple smashed its previous iPhone sales record. But despite the silver lining, a dark cloud is looming.

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78.29 million is a new record for iPhones sold by Apple in a quarter, up 5 percent on the year-ago quarter and 72 percent on the previous quarter, and beating the 74.78 million sold in 1Q16 and 74,47 million sold in 1Q15.

Good numbers, but how is the iPhone's average selling price (ASP) doing?

It's doing spectacularly well, jumping to $695, beating the $691 of 1Q16, and a massive jump from the $618 that is was in 4Q16. This is a clear sign that the iPhone 7 is selling strongly, and that the higher-priced iPhone 7 Plus is also going well. It's also an indication that the drag that the lower-priced iPhone SE was having on sales is no longer an issue.

On the iPad front things are not so good. Sales of 13.1 million are weak, down a massive 19 percent on the year-ago quarter, and suggesting that the iPad Pro is doing little to reinvigorate sales. It's also indicative that the much-anticipated iPad upgrade cycle hasn't, as yet, kicked off.

The iPad's ASP has also fallen through the floor, crashing to $423 from $460 on 4Q16 and $490 in 3Q16.

Not only are people buying fewer iPads, the ones they are buying re the low-end, budget iPads.

When it comes to Mac sales, 5.37 million is reasonably strong, and clocks in as Apple's fourth strongest Mac quarter to date, beating the year-ago quarter by 1 percent.

ASP for the Mac isn't bad either, hitting $1,348, up from $1,175 for the previous quarter and $1,270 for the year-ago quarter. This strong uptick suggests that sales of the much-anticipated new MacBook Pro have been particularly strong.

Weakness for the "Other Products" category, which includes among other things Apple Watch, is not is good. At a shade over $4 billion, which is a 8 percent fall compared to the year-ago quarter, this implies that Apple Watch sales may not have been as strong as expected. Either that, or something bad has happened to Beats sales, which are usually strong over the holiday quarter.