Apple chief executive Tim Cook though said sales were stronger towards the end of March, including in China where it cut iPhone prices to boost demand. For the quarter ended March 30, which is Apple’s fiscal year 2019 second quarter, the company reported revenue of $58.0 billion, down 5% from the year-ago quarter, and earnings per diluted share of $2.46, down 10%. Wall Street analysts’ consensus estimates had projected Apple to report revenue of $57.37 billion and EPS of $2.36. Apple’s stock rose over 5% in after-hours trading. While iPhone revenue fell, to $31.05 billion, Apple’s Services segment – which includes the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud, Apple Care and Apple Pay – generated quarterly record revenue of $11.5 billion, up 16%. According to the CEO, Apple had 390 million paid subscriptions at the end of March, up 30 million in the last quarter. Apple is also attempting to shift its reliance on the iPhone towards services and last month unveiled its new TV streaming platform, Apple TV+, to take on the likes of more established companies such as Netflix. Services revenue rose to $11.4 billion from $9.8 billion in the same quarter last year.
