Apple’s Q1 2026 Results
Apple (transcript, MacRumors, CNBC, Hacker News):
The Company posted quarterly revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16 percent year over year. Diluted earnings per share was $2.84, up 19 percent year over year.
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“iPhone had its best-ever quarter driven by unprecedented demand, with all-time records across every geographic segment, and Services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14 percent from a year ago. We are also excited to announce that our installed base now has more than 2.5 billion active devices, which is a testament to incredible customer satisfaction for the very best products and services in the world.”
And now, to help you visualize what Apple just announced, here is our traditional barrage of charts and graphs[…]
Even more interesting, though, is Apple’s suggestion that it’s still selling the iPhone 17 about as fast as it can make them—or to be more specific, about as fast as TSMC can make cutting-edge 3nm chips to power them, per Cook[…]
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Mac revenue was down 7% in the quarter, the poorest performance of all Apple’s categories. But it’s hard to be that down about the results, because not only did the Mac still generate $8.4B in revenue and reach an all-time high in its overall installed base, but this was all happening in a quarter that is the proverbial “tough compare”—since Apple released the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac in the year-ago quarter, and only the low-end M5 MacBook Pro in this quarter.
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Apple posted a company gross margin of 48.2%, based on a 40.7% products margin and an astounding 76.5% margin on services.
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What really impressed the analysts was his insistence that even this upcoming quarter, where memory price issues are expected to become even more serious, Apple says it feels “pretty good” about its guidance to another 48% to 49% margin quarter.
Apple CEO Tim Cook believes that his company will have opportunities to deliver “innovations that have never been seen before” this year.
[…]
Cook hypes up Apple’s future on every earnings call, but “innovations that have never been seen before” is particularly bold wording compared to his usual comment about how the company’s product pipeline is stronger than ever.
I’m still waiting for the secret Leopard features and for Catalyst to get really good.
It is difficult to get a company to see that certain of its core competencies are in severe decline when the company is making more money than ever.
Previously:
Update (2026-02-03): Horace Dediu (Hacker News):
Apple is quite simply, delivering at the highest gross and net margins in its history.
9 Comments RSS · Twitter · Mastodon
Yeah it's concerning that the worse Apple get at software the better the do financially.
Maybe we're the ones in the wrong (expecting consistency and good design in OS design) most people in the world are suffering from ADHD just like Apple's UI designers and nobody cares anymore for ancient human interface guidelines - hey look at all the pretty UI swoops and cool blurry stuff on top of other stuff - Squirrel!
This will pay for many trips to the White House, with the accompanying Golden trophies.
Maybe give one of their Oscars to Melania?
It’s strange that nobody in this call (either Apple or the analysts) talked about the phenomenal success of spatial computing andTim Cook’s child, the Apple Vision Pro.
> secret Leopard features
It is striking how that rant still basically holds true after all these years, and could easily have been written yesterday if you just substitute a few app names. Particularly the stuff about background processes. In 2026.
> Yeah it's concerning that the worse Apple get at software the better the do financially.
I think it's the hardware. The base iPhone was a great upgrade due to finally having a 120Hz display (which cheap 300 Euro Android phones have had for a while now) and much-improved selfie-cam. The Pro has better battery life, much-improved thermals, and better cameras. I think for many people who have waited a few years, this cycle was the upgrade cycle.
"Yeah it's concerning that the worse Apple get at software the better the do financially."
That's how enshittification works. Companies extract as much value as possible, regardless of the impact on their customers.
"an astounding 76.5% margin on services"
If you're a monopoly, they let you do it.
I never knew Steve Jobs announced "secret features" for Leopard that never materialized. That's super unusual. Anyone know what that was all about?
