"No matter what standard you use, this is an extraordinary quarter," said Apple CEO Tim Cook

On July 31 local time, Apple released its fiscal third quarter (ended June 28, 2025) financial results. The data showed that Apple's total revenue for the quarter reached $94.04 billion, an increase of 10% year-over-year, marking the largest rise since December 2021; net profit reached $24.43 billion. Among these, iPhone revenue was $44.58 billion, up 13% from the previous year, compared to an estimated $40.06 billion. Notably, Apple's revenue in the China region reached $15.37 billion for the quarter, up 4.4% year-over-year, compared to an estimate of $15.19 billion, ending two consecutive quarters of decline and resuming growth.

Other hardware besides the iPhone, in the third quarter, Mac revenue reached $8.05 billion, up 15% year-over-year; iPad revenue was $6.58 billion, down 8% year-over-year; wearable devices and other hardware products (including Apple Watch and AirPods) generated $7.4 billion in revenue, a decrease of 8.6% year-over-year; while the service business (including iCloud, Apple Music, AppleCare, etc.) continued its growth trend, with revenue reaching $27.42 billion for the third quarter, an increase of 13% year-over-year.

After the release of the financial report, Apple's stock rose by 2.42% after hours.

Apple CEO Tim Cook

"This was better than we expected," said Cook during a conference call with analysts, attributing the improvement in this quarter's performance to double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac, and service businesses.

Previously, there were voices questioning that the U.S. President Trump's tariff policy "helped" Apple achieve an "explosive" quarterly performance — consumers rushed to buy due to concerns that "reciprocal tariffs" would significantly increase the costs of phone manufacturers. In response, Cook admitted, "Discussions about tariffs did indeed trigger unusual purchasing patterns in April, mainly concentrated on iPhone and Mac sales in the United States," but he believed "overall, the boost was limited." Cook added that only one percentage point of the 10% revenue growth in this quarter came from these "early purchases."

Cook explained that the strong performance of iPhone revenue was because the iPhone 16 was more popular than the iPhone 15 launched last year, with sales of the iPhone 16 showing "a double-digit strong growth" compared to the previous generation. Cook also emphasized the enthusiasm of existing iPhone users upgrading to new models.

Notably, Apple's revenue in the Greater China region rebounded, with revenue from the region increasing by 4% to $15.37 billion during the quarter, which was also the first time since the fourth quarter of 2023 (equivalent to the third quarter of the natural year 2023) that it achieved year-over-year growth.

Cook specifically mentioned that subsidies provided by China for some devices ("national subsidies") helped Apple's development in the region. "This subsidy does apply to some of our products, and obviously, it has been helpful," Cook said.

Bloomberg commented in its report, "You don't actually need to look at the numbers in the financial report to know that this was an excellent quarter — just listen to Cook's tone. He clearly felt enthusiastic when stating the results, forming a sharp contrast with the tone of the previous quarter." In recent quarters, due to a significant slowdown in growth, Cook has continuously faced pressure from Wall Street investors and shareholders. Two analysts even claimed that Apple should replace Cook with a chief executive who focuses more on products, causing a stir in the market.

However, media analysis pointed out that the latest data shows strong iPhone sales and a rebound in revenue in the China region, providing much-needed relief for two major business areas that had struggled over the past year, giving Cook a breather. However, Apple's obvious lag in generative AI and smart assistant fields still casts a shadow over its performance.

This year, Apple's stock has fallen by about 15%, underperforming other tech giants like NVIDIA and Microsoft. Besides the tariff risk, the main reason is Apple's slow progress in AI and failure to fulfill promises in a timely manner. For example, the performance of Apple's voice assistant Siri has not met expectations, and even now, users of the Chinese version of the iPhone 15 Pro series and iPhone 16 series cannot experience Apple's AI features.

Cook stated during the financial report conference call that the company is significantly increasing investments, and the upgraded Siri is making "good progress," with plans to release a new version next year.

"From an artificial intelligence perspective, our focus is to place AI features on the platform, which are highly personalized, private, and seamlessly integrated. We are significantly increasing investments, and we have also reallocated a considerable number of people, focusing on internal AI functions within the company," Cook said.

He also mentioned that in the next four years, Apple will invest $50 billion in the United States in advanced manufacturing, silicon engineering, and artificial intelligence sectors, creating job opportunities.

However, previous foreign media reports indicated that several key talents in Apple's artificial intelligence field have been recruited by social network giants Meta. After Peng Ruoming, the head of Apple's large language model team, Meta recently hired two key AI researchers from Apple — Mark Li and Tom Gant — to join its superintelligence laboratory team. Analysts pointed out that the loss of personnel may further hinder Apple's AI ambitions.

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