Apple announced record earnings for the fourth quarter of 2021. The company said that its September quarter revenue stood at $83.4 billion – up 29 percent over the corresponding period last year.
“This year, we launched our most powerful products ever, from M1-powered Macs to an iPhone 13 line-up that is setting a new standard for performance and empowering our customers to create and connect in new ways,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement.
The company’s earnings could be higher, had it not been for supply chain shortages.
Recent reports have claimed that Apple is looking to cut production of iPhone 13 by 10 million units because chip manufacturers like Broadcom and Texas Instruments are struggling with supplies.
It also faced supply chain problems in India. According to retailers, pre-orders were mostly delivered but walk-in customers went back empty handed. There are also long wait times for iPhone 13’s online, the Pro and Max models proving to be the hardest to come by.
In an interview with CNBC, Tim Cook said, “We had a very strong performance despite larger than expected supply constraints, which we estimate to be around $6 billion.”
Cook said that this was a symptom of “industry-wide chip shortages”, because of, “COVID-related manufacturing disruptions in Southeast Asia”.
Apple is fresh off one of the biggest announcements of the year, where it launched two new MacBook Pro's running on its in-house M1 Pro and M1 Max SoC's. The iPhone business in particular, was up 47 percent compared to last year. The iPad business was up 21 percent.
