Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke with market analysts and investors during its Q1 2022 earnings call to confirm the company’s achievements in Q4 2021 and reveal some of its future plans. The Q4 2021 has been Apple’s biggest quarter ever. In addition, the Cupertino-based firm has achieved new records in developed and emerging markets by setting new revenue growth across all its product categories except for iPad, which was affected due to constrained supply.
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In the important holiday quarter, Apple generated a revenue of $123.95 billion. As usual, the iPhone remains the company’s most important product as it accounted 58 percent of the company’s overall revenue. During the Q1 2022 earnings call, Cook revealed that he “sees a lot of potential” in the metaverse space and aims to invest in it.
Apple aims to enter the metaverse industry
Apple has teased its plans to enter the metaverse industry
Major tech companies such as Meta (formerly Facebook), Google, and Microsoft have confirmed their investment in the metaverse, which is a virtual world that incorporates AR, VR, 3D holographic avatars, and more. When analyst Katy Huberty from Morgan Stanley asked Cook whether he is thinking about the metaverse opportunity, he responded by saying that Apple has over 14,000 AR kit apps in the App Store to provide incredible AR experiences to its users.
He added, “We see a lot of potential in this space (metaverse)) and are investing accordingly.” It is not clear whether Apple will be selling products and services for metaverse, or whether it will create a virtual environment of its own.
Reports have revealed that Apple is planning to launch its first AR/VR headset later this year or in 2023. The rumoured mixed reality headset will be designed for gaming, communication, and content consumption.
Apple’s Q4 2021 earnings
| Apple products | Revenue | YoY Growth |
| iPhone | $71.63 billion | 9% YoY increase |
| Mac | $10.85 billion | 24% YoY increase |
| Services | $19.5 billion | 9% YoY increase |
| Wearables, home, accessories | $14.70 billion | 9% YoY increase |
| iPad | $7.25 billion | 14% YoY decrease |
While analysts had predicted Apple would achieve a huge profit and revenue in Q4 2021, the company had warned that its sales would be negatively impacted due to supply issues. However, the Q1 2022 earnings call shows that the company managed to overcome the hurdle quite well. The $123.95 billion revenue that Apple generated in Q4 2021 is 11 percent higher than the $111.4 billion that it recorded in Q4 2020.
Despite the supply constraints, Apple was able to beat Wall Street estimate of $118.28 billion for Q4 2021. The table shown above gives a breakdown of Apple’s Q4 2021 revenue. As can be seen, the company grew in all categories except for iPad, which encountered pronounced supply constraints. As far as the March quarter is concerned, Cook believes that the company will be less affected by the supply constraints than it did in December.
Commenting on the record-setting Q1 2022 results, Cook said, “This quarter’s record results were made possible by our most innovative lineup of products and services ever. We are gratified to see the response from customers around the world at a time when staying connected has never been more important. We are doing all we can to help build a better world — making progress toward our goal of becoming carbon neutral across our supply chain and products by 2030 and pushing forward with our work in education and racial equity and justice.”