Apple’s iPhone sales may be down, but the company’s Services division, which includes the App Store, iCloud, Music, TV+, and other subscriptions, is still soaring.
The Cupertino-based tech giant reported Thursday its Services business had an all-time revenue high of $26.3 billion for the quarter ended December 28, up 14% year-over-year. Services generated nearly $100 billion in revenue over the past year, CEO Tim Cook said during Thursday’s earnings call. In addition, Apple reported having more than 1 billion subscriptions across its services, including through third-party apps in the App Store.
The company said that customer engagement with its services, including both transacting and paid accounts, reached record highs. Paid accounts and subscriptions both grew by double digits year over year.
Apple pointed to expansions of specific offerings like Apple Arcade, which continues to add games and Fitness+, which adds new programs. It also noted Apple’s Tap to Pay for iPhone, which is now live in 20 markets.
Regulatory impact
On the topic of subscriptions, investors wanted to know how a new regulatory environment could potentially affect these numbers.
While investors didn’t outright ask about the Trump administration’s impact on Apple revenue directly, one question focused on whether new regulatory changes could be beneficial. That is, would a “more balanced regulatory environment” potentially reverse prior headwinds that Apple may now be absorbing in its results?
Apple’s CFO, Kevan Parekh, skirted the question, reiterating instead the positive numbers for Services and adding that customer engagement was increasing across the customer base, all its services offerings, and geographic regions. CEO Tim Cook didn’t respond to the question.
For years, Apple has defended itself over antitrust lawsuits and other governmental actions, both in the U.S. and abroad. The core debate has centered on how much of a percentage Apple is justified to take from the apps it hosts on its App Store and the transactions that flow through them.
Last year, one key antitrust case finally came to an end when the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately declined to hear an appeal on the Epic-Apple decision, initially filed by the Fortnite game maker. That means the lower court’s decision that the tech giant was not a monopolist still stands.
However, that decision did mean Apple has to allow app makers to steer customers to the web from links inside their apps.
Though the lawsuit was largely in Apple’s favor, Epic won a similar case with Google. Given the partial victory, other developers may have been inspired to pursue their own legal actions against Apple or Google, hoping to continue carving away at Apple’s chokehold on the app distribution market.
