Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Drives Sales, Services Surge Pushes Valuation Towards $4 Trillion

Apple may have surpassed the $3 trillion value milestone this year, making it the most expensive corporation in the world, but that does not imply that the California-based company had the most successful run in 2023, as rival technology behemoths outpaced it by a wide distance. In reality, according to the most recent study, Apple has seen its greatest sales decline in 22 years, with various hurdles likely to attempt growth in 2024.

Apple Experienced Its Longest Revenue Decline In More Than Two Decades

When comparing Apple's stock performance, the Cupertino titan's shares increased by 49 percent, but the firm underperformed, according to CNBC, with NVIDIA's shares more than tripling this year and Meta increasing by almost 200 percent.

Amazon shares increased by 83 percent, while Alphabet and Microsoft shares increased by 59 percent and 57 percent, respectively. Fortunately, despite these increases, Apple achieved an astounding $383 billion in revenue and $97 billion in profit for fiscal 2023.

According to certain data, Apple is also suffering from a sluggish global economy, with hardware sales declining with each passing quarter. In 2023, the company's iPad division generated $28.3 billion in revenue, a 3.4 percent decrease from the previous year.

Furthermore, despite moving to its M-series chipsets, which give great performance advances and unsurpassed battery life, consumers have shown less interest in the Mac family, and as a result, revenue in this category fell a stunning 27 percent to $10.2 billion in fiscal 2023.

Apple's iPhone 15 Pro Sales Surge as Services Business Boosts Valuation to $4 Trillion

Fortunately, Apple can rely on high iPhone sales over the holiday quarter to keep the momentum going, especially the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max, which have more exclusive upgrades than the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, as per WCCFTech.

Even in China, where Apple was thought to be struggling due to Huawei's revival and the popularity of the Mate 60 series, the top five best-selling handsets in the region for October 2023 contained three iPhone models.

Furthermore, Apple's Services business has performed so well that it has managed to offset the company's other declining divisions, with analysts predicting that this category alone will be worth between $1.5 and $1.6 trillion in 2024, bringing the company's valuation to an unfathomable $4 trillion.

Another challenge for Apple will be selling its $3,499 mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, to users who are ready to pay that high price, which numerous industry observers predict will be difficult. Regardless, Apple can capitalize on where it fell short in 2023, and with the new year underway, the corporation has a fresh chance to increase its 12-month revenue and net income to new heights.

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