Apple's revenue hits a record high, with over $200 billion in cash reserves, making it rich enough to rival a country. This is all thanks to the iPhone

Recently, Apple released its first quarter results for fiscal year 2017. The report shows that Apple's net revenue for the first quarter was $78.351 billion, up 3% from $75.872 billion in the same period last year, a record high, of which international sales accounted for 64%; net profit was $17.891 billion, down 3% from $18.361 billion in the same period last year; but the diluted earnings per share for this quarter reached $3.36, a record high.

This is the first growth for Apple after three consecutive quarters of year-on-year revenue decline. After the results were announced, Apple's stock price rose 2.5% after the market closed.

At the end of the first fiscal quarter, Apple's cash reserves had increased to $246.09 billion, a record high, an increase of $8.49 billion from the previous fiscal quarter. This figure exceeded Sri Lanka's GDP in 2016 and is equivalent to the world's 13th largest economy.

Regarding Apple's "rich" cash reserves, Apple CFO Luca Maestri said: "The result of our excellent business performance is record earnings per share and operating cash flow of more than $27 billion. We returned nearly $15 billion in cash to investors through stock repurchases and dividends, bringing the cumulative cash return of our capital return program to more than $200 billion."

Apple sold a total of 78.29 million iPhones in the first fiscal quarter, with revenue of US$54.378 billion, accounting for more than two-thirds of total revenue, up 5% from 74.779 million units in the same period last year, exceeding analysts' previous sales estimate of 77.42 million units; a total of 13.081 million iPads were sold, with revenue of US$5.533 billion, down 19% from 16.122 million units in the same period last year; a total of 5.374 million Macs were sold, with revenue of US$7.244 billion, up 1% from 5.312 million units in the same period last year.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the 5.5-inch iPhone 7 Plus released in September last year is the most popular Plus device released by Apple, with sales exceeding the iPhone 6 Plus released in 2014 and the iPhone 6s Plus released in 2015.

In addition, Apple's service business also performed well. Apple's service business revenue, including App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud, was $7.172 billion, an increase of 18.4%, helped by the popularity of games such as Pokemon Go and Super Mario Run and higher revenue generated by subscriptions.

Nintendo said that of all Pokemon GO downloads, about 5% paid $10 to unlock all the levels.

Cook said that Apple Pay users have tripled in the past year, and transaction volume has increased 500% year-on-year. He told CNBC: "This is a dynamic quarter."

Revenue from other products was $4.024 billion, down 8% from $4.351 billion in the same period last year.

The financial report shows that the revenue of Greater China was US$16.233 billion, a decrease of 12% from US$18.373 billion in the same period last year, and it was also the only region with a decline. According to data from Kantar Worldpanel, the challenges Apple faces in the Greater China market mainly come from local brands such as Oppo and Huawei. The revenue of the Americas, Europe, Japan, and other Asia-Pacific regions increased by 9%, 3%, 20%, and 8% respectively.

Cook said in a subsequent conference call, "Compared with the previous three quarters, the business in Greater China has performed very well in every aspect. Kantar's statistics show that iPhone 7 was the best-selling smartphone in the Chinese market in the first fiscal quarter." Cook mentioned that the Hong Kong market is currently a very difficult market. He said, "Although I am pleased with the performance of Greater China, we are not without challenges in this market."

Although Apple performed strongly in the last quarter, it faces risks such as tax instability and rising production costs after Trump took office. It is reported that Trump's new policy will impose tariffs and increase tax rates on goods entering the United States. Since most of Apple's products are made in China, the policy is bound to have a significant impact on it. Cook responded to this in an interview with CNBC.

"We need more work," Cook said. "Everyone wants to get their fair share of benefits, and we can achieve our goals even without a trade war... Border taxes will hurt the interests of middle-class consumers. China and the United States need each other, and the world needs the United States and China to achieve a win-win situation."

In addition, Apple recently filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm, claiming that Qualcomm illegally exploited its monopoly in the field of mobile phone chips and demanding that Qualcomm return the $1 billion in patent royalties it had promised to return. Cook said this time, "I don't like litigation. But Apple has no choice but to sue. Qualcomm still insists on charging patent fees for some of the company's useless technologies. The more we innovate, the more patent fees Qualcomm will charge, increasing the cost of our innovation. It's like a sofa seller charging different fees based on the size of the buyer's living area."

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.