Apple sees iPhone sales grow 22.1% to 48M in Q4 2015, but iPad sales declined 19.5%

As part of the company’s latest quarterly earnings announcement, Apple revealed today that it sold 48 million iPhones, 9.9 million iPads, and 5.7 million Macs during its fiscal fourth quarter of 2015. These are mixed results, which should come as no surprise for those who watch the company’s numbers closely.

In Q4 2014, Apple sold 39.3 million iPhones, 12.3 million iPads, and 5.5 million Macs. This means that year-over-year, iPhone sales were up 22.1 percent, iPad sales were down 19.5 percent, and Mac sales were up 3.6 percent. In fact, Apple CEO Tim Cook said on the earnings call that the Mac sales were “an all-time record.”

Q4 2015 industry estimates ranged between 48.56 million and 49.39 million for iPhones, between 10.04 million and 10.37 million for iPads, and between 5.67 million and 5.68 million for Macs. Apple thus failed to beat estimates for iPhones and iPads, but beat them for Macs.

[graphiq id=”7HPdKYqfkd7″ title=”iPhone Quarterly Sales Over Time” width=”600″ height=”521″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/7HPdKYqfkd7″ link=”http://smartphones.specout.com”]

More specifically, while Apple saw massive growth for the iPhone, it did not manage to beat the institutional consensus nor the independent one when it comes to its hottest gadget — its tablets did poorly in both cases. Given that the company’s iPhone business is much more important than its iPad one, this is still good news for Cupertino overall and explains why the company’s stock is up in after-hours trading, but only slightly.

These results aren’t too surprising, given that Apple previously shared it had sold 13 million iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus units in the first weekend. Some were disappointed with the new iPhone 6s iPhone 6s Plus, but these numbers prove people still want the latest and greatest from Apple, even if Wall Street was expecting slightly higher numbers.

[graphiq id=”fWPzQJkObid” title=”Apple Product Unit Sales Over Time” width=”600″ height=”552″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/fWPzQJkObid” link=”http://smartphones.specout.com”]

Those considering buying iPads, however, were likely trying to figure out if they want the new iPad Pro or even the iPad mini 4. Tablet sales in general haven’t been doing well, a trend that Apple has not been able to counter with the iPad. In fact, iPad sales have been falling for more than a year now, and this is the first quarter Apple has sold under 10 million iPads since Q4 2011.

The current quarter is traditionally the most important for Apple, and many will be looking to see how the new iPhones fare. “We are heading into the holidays with our strongest product lineup yet, including iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus, Apple Watch with an expanded lineup of cases and bands, the new iPad Pro, and the all-new Apple TV which begins shipping this week,” Cook said in a statement.

Because the company always breaks records in Q1, expectations will be high.