Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) Q4 2020 Earnings Conference Call - Final Transcript

Good day everyone and welcome to the Apple Inc. Fourth Quarter Fiscal Year 2020 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded.

At this time for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn things over to Tejas Gala, Senior Analyst, Corporate Finance and Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

Thank you. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us. Speaking first today is Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, and he will be followed by CFO, Luca Maestri. After that, we'll open the call to questions from analysts.

Please note that some of the information you'll hear during the discussion today, will consist of our forward-looking statements including without limitation those regarding revenue, gross margin, operating expenses, other income and expense, taxes, capital allocation and future business outlook, including the potential impact of COVID-19 on the company's business, and results of operations. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results or trends to differ materially from our forecast. For more information, please refer to the risk factors discussed in Apple's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K and the Form 8-K filed with the SEC today, along with the associated press release. Apple assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

I'd now like to turn the call over to Tim for introductory remarks.

Thanks Tejas. Good afternoon and thanks for joining the call today. Back in April, I said we were in the most challenging environment in which Apple as a company, has ever operated. That atmosphere of uncertainty of resolve of making difficult calls with limited information, has not only come to define Apple's year, but each of our lives as individuals across this country, and around the world. It has been a chapter that none of us will forget. In the face of these challenges, Apple stayed relentlessly focused on what we do best, seeing in every obstacle an opportunity to do something new, something creative, something better on behalf of our customers.

Today we report a quarter and a fiscal year that reflects that effort. This quarter, Apple achieved revenue of $64.7 billion, a September quarter record, despite the anticipated absence of new iPhone availability during the quarter, and the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, including closures at many of our retail locations. We also set a new all-time record for Mac and Services. Outside of iPhone, each of our product categories saw strong double digit year-over-year growth, despite supply constraints in several product categories.

Our results for this quarter were ahead of our expectations, driven by stronger-than-expected iPhone and Services performance. As we anticipated, we launched new iPhone models in October, a few weeks later than last year's mid-September launch. Up to that mid-September point, customer demand for iPhone was very strong, and grew double-digits.

On Services, we saw stronger-than-expected performance across the board. Geographically, we set September quarter records in the Americas, Europe and Rest of Asia Pacific. We also set a September