John Ternus took over from Tim Cook on September 1, inheriting an Apple that was pushing through an unusually busy product cycle. Before the quarter closed, he had unveiled the company’s first folding phone, the iPhone Duo, a HomeView smart-home hub and a touchscreen MacBook Pro. But the Duo did not reach stores until October, leaving the period’s numbers dependent largely on the established iPhone lineup, including only a few weeks of iPhone 18 Pro sales.¹

On Monday, Ternus delivered his first earnings report as chief executive with an unmistakably upbeat message. “This is an amazing time at Apple,” he told analysts, calling the recent launches “one of the most prolific launch periods in our history.”¹ Revenue reached $114.5 billion, ahead of the $113.46 billion expected on Wall Street, while earnings per share of $2.10 beat the $2 forecast. The result also stood apart from a quarter in which several large technology rivals disappointed investors.²

The drivers were familiar. iPhone revenue came in at $57.58 billion, above estimates, and Mac sales of $10.79 billion beat expectations by more than $1 billion. Services, at $31.57 billion, was broadly in line. Ternus highlighted the iPhone and Mac performance, while acknowledging supply constraints.¹

The weak spots, however, were too large to dismiss. Greater China revenue was $17.54 billion, roughly $1.2 billion below forecasts, while iPad sales also missed. Investing.com analyst Jesse Cohen called the China gap “not a rounding error, it’s a worrying pattern,” arguing that misses in Wearables, Home and Accessories showed the concern extended beyond one market.¹

Costs are the other immediate test. CFO Kevan Parekh said that, excluding tariff refunds, company and product gross margins would each have fallen about one percentage point sequentially, chiefly because of higher memory prices. Ternus called current memory pricing “unprecedented”; Apple expects those costs to rise again in the holiday quarter, even as higher hardware prices help cushion the blow.¹