Apple reports first quarterly profit drop in a decade

A net profit of $9.5bn for the quarter ending March was not enough to see Apple avoid its first quarterly profit decline in a decade.

That’s down from the $11.6bn profit recorded in the same period the year before.

In truth, Apple actually beat its guidance thanks to stronger than expected sales of iPhone and iPad. In total 37.4m iPhones were sold, up from 35.1m the year before, and 19.5m iPads – a huge jump from the 11.8m sold in 2012.

The new iPad Mini is certainly having the desired effect.

How far this will go to alleviate the market’s nerves remains to be seen. Apple is currently tracking 40 per cent lower on the stock market than it was when it reached its record high last September.

"Though we’ve achieved a credible scale and financial success, we acknowledge that our growth rate has slowed and our margins have decreased from the exceptionally high level we experienced in 2012," Apple chief exec Tim Cook said.

"The decline in Apple’s stock price over the last couple of quarters has been very frustrating for all of us… but we’ll continue to do what we do best. The most important objective for Apple will always be creating innovative products.

"Our teams are hard at work on some amazing new hardware, software and services, and we are very excited about the products in our pipeline."