Cupertino’s comeback kid: With iPhones doing the heavy lifting, Apple shrugs off the gloom and posts a clean beat for Q3

iPhones to the Rescue

Apple has done it again, snatching another quarterly win from the jaws of analyst doubt. The tech giant’s third quarter earnings report dropped yesterday and brought some much-needed good news for investors: revenue came in at $94 billion, beating expectations and up 10% year on year, largely thanks to an unexpected jump in iPhone sales.

You read that right. The iPhone, the product Wall Street loves to prematurely eulogize, posted a year-over-year sales increase, pulling in $44.58 billion this quarter, up 13.5%. That’s around $4 billion more than analysts had anticipated. Apparently, there are still enough people on the planet willing to shell out over a grand for marginal camera upgrades. Apologies for the snark, the latest models are great, as usual but, as usual, they’re overpriced.

CEO Tim Cook, naturally, was ready with the victory lap. “Today Apple is proud to report a June quarter revenue record with double-digit growth in iPhone, Mac and Services and growth around the world, in every geographic segment,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “At WWDC25, we were excited to introduce a beautiful new software design that extends across all of our platforms, and we announced even more great Apple Intelligence features.”

All good news? Sure. But, iPhone is the key.

The Stock Likes It

Apple’s share price reacted accordingly. After the earnings were released, shares rose around 2-3% in after-hours trading.

Investors found comfort in Apple’s forward guidance. The company hinted at continued strength in iPhone sales for the next quarter and suggested that wearables and iPads, which declined this time, could see an improvement ahead.

No flashy artificial intelligence (AI ) announcement, no “one more thing”, no big pivot, just solid numbers and a calm tone from the executive suite. In this market, that’s practically a flex.

Not All Sunshine and Titanium

It wasn’t a flawless quarter. Mac sales of $8.05 billion beat expectations of $7.26 billion, and wearables (yes, that includes your Apple Watch and AirPods) did $7.4 billion, missing estimates of $7.82 billion. Services, long considered the company’s golden goose, pulled in $27.42 billion, topping analyst expectations of $26.8 billion. iPads hit $6.58 billion in sales, missing expectations of $7.24 billion

As a Mac user for over 25 years, I’m happy to say that the Apple silicon MacBook Pros are … great. They’re fast, powerful, offer a load of options in terms of RAM and storage … but they’re incredibly expensive for what you’re getting and the upgrade pricing is eye watering. Perhaps in these challenging times, that’s becoming more of a factor. But if you’re wedded to Mac OS, or love a good piece of aluminum, you’re probably all in.

Still, the real story here is how the iPhone is carrying the whole ecosystem. Critics have spent years calling Apple a one-trick pony, and while the company has made attempts to diversify (hello, Vision Pro), it turns out the old pony can still shift when it needs to.

Added to that, the firm unveiled the impact of tariffs, with a $1.1 billion increase in costs just from tariffs for the current quarter.

So while Cook and co. talk up services, privacy, and environmental goals, the quarterly earnings math remains simple: sell iPhones, win quarter.

What Comes Next?

With Q3 in the bag, all eyes are on the September quarter, typically Apple’s most lucrative thanks to new product launches. The company didn’t give away much, as usual, but reading between the lines, they’re expecting a strong iPhone 16 cycle and probably a little help from back-to-school Mac and iPad sales.

Meanwhile, Apple continues to invest heavily in AI, cloud infrastructure, and who knows what else in its top-secret R&D bunker. But for now, Wall Street is just relieved that people are still buying iPhones in a saturated smartphone market.

Maybe the iPhone isn’t dead. Maybe it just needed another incremental upgrade.

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