New Delhi: Apple has kicked off calendar year 2026 with a strong earnings performance, driven largely by record iPhone sales and steady growth across multiple regions. The company reported first-quarter results late Thursday that came in ahead of Wall Street expectations on both revenue and profit, even as executives flagged rising costs linked to a global memory crunch.
For India, the quarter carried extra weight. Apple’s leadership repeatedly pointed to the country as one of its fastest-growing markets, with new revenue records, strong device adoption, and an expanding retail footprint. The comments add fresh momentum to Apple’s long-term push in the Indian smartphone and PC space.
Apple beats estimates as iPhone hits record quarter
Apple reported earnings per share of $2.84 on revenue of $143.8 billion for the quarter. Analysts, according to Bloomberg consensus, had expected EPS of $2.68 on revenue of $138.4 billion.
The biggest contributor once again was the iPhone.
According to Apple CFO Kevan Parekh, “iPhone revenue was $85.3 billion, up 23% year-over-year, driven by the iPhone 17 family.” The figure also marks an all-time quarterly record for the iPhone business, well above analyst expectations of $78.3 billion.
Apple’s Services business brought in $30 billion, in line with forecasts. Mac revenue stood at $8.4 billion, while iPad revenue reached $8.6 billion. Wearables, home, and accessories posted $11.49 billion, slightly below expectations.
India emerges as a bright spot
India featured prominently in Apple’s earnings call.
CEO Tim Cook said, “We continued to gain momentum in emerging markets, which includes India, where we saw strong double-digit revenue growth.” He also highlighted Apple’s physical retail expansion, adding, “We were excited to open our fifth store in India in December and have plans to open another store in Mumbai soon.”
On device performance in the country, Cook said Apple set multiple records during the December quarter. “We did set a quarterly revenue record during the December quarter, and to go a little further down, we set quarterly revenue records on iPhone and Mac and iPad, and an all-time revenue record on Services. So it was a terrific quarter in India.”
Parekh added that Apple is also seeing “strong double digit growth in the install base in India,” which he described as encouraging.
China rebound and global footprint
Apple reported China revenue of $25.5 billion, up nearly 38% year over year. The rebound follows a period where sales in the region had declined in three of the previous four quarters.
Cook said Apple set all-time revenue records in the Americas, Europe, Japan, and the rest of Asia Pacific, pointing to broad-based demand across developed and emerging markets.
Memory crunch could pressure margins
One area of caution came from Apple’s outlook on costs. Cook warned that the global memory crunch, linked to heavy AI data center buildouts, could weigh on margins in coming quarters.
Apple projects gross margins between 48% and 49% for Q2. Margins stood at 48% in Q1.
The company’s stock rose nearly 1% following the earnings announcement.