If you a smart phone it will either be an android (google owns the insides) or apple. If you own an apple then the apps will be tailored to the apple insides. Apple’s value went over $3 trillion, although the tech selloff in January means the worth is slightly below $3 trillion.

In an article by Danielle Kaye and Paresh Dave of Reuters, Apple reported its 4th quarter results and as an investor, you would like the results.

Often we talk about the holiday season we refer to the US holiday season, but a company such as Apple which sells phones around the world, people look to China. According to research firm Counterpoint Research, Apple’s smartphone market share in China reached 23% where it was the top selling vendor for the first time in 6 years. The iPhone 13 led to worldwide phone sales revenue of $71.6 billion a 9% increase from 2020.

Apple’s services business which covers paid apps, Apple TV, Apple Music, Apple Fitness, saw revenue rise 24% to $19.5 billion. The company has 785 million paying subscribers across its platforms an increase from 620 million a year ago.

For Microsoft, Amazon and Google cloud services are a major revenue generator, not so much Apple.

iPad sales were down 14% to $7.25 billion; sales for Macs rose 25% to $10.9 billion.

Overall, revenues rose 11% to $123.9 billion with profit of $34.6 billion or $2.10 a share.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, if you think about Apple, you tend to think about the iPhone, but they have 3 distinct revenue sources the iPhone, Macs and Services. The Services component is growing because Apple’s infrastructure is in house and when a great app comes out, the Apple equivalent is soon added. People do not have to miss out and are happy owning Apple products which means they will be repeat customers or upgrading their phones on a consistent basis.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.