Apple logo in a store. The company had record profits in the last quarter of 2020 afp_tickers
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–This content was published on 27 January 2021 – 21:45
(AFP)
Apple and Facebook on Wednesday reported shocking increases in their earnings and revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020, the latest sign that tech companies were a lifeline for consumers hit by the pandemic around the world.
Quarterly results from the two Silicon Valley giants underscored how consumers turned to social media, digital services and electronic equipment as they became confined by the global health crisis.
– Powerful apple –
Apple announced on Wednesday a strong advance in its quarterly earnings as well as a record turnover in three months, for the first time exceeding 100 billion dollars.
The iPhone maker made a net profit of $ 28.7 billion in the first quarter of its 2020-2021 fiscal year – that of Christmas sales – a 29% increase compared to 2019.
The group’s revenue reached an astronomical sum of $ 111.4 billion.
“We are gratified by our customers’ enthusiastic response to our unparalleled line of cutting-edge products that we delivered in a historic holiday season,” said CEO Tim Cook.
Apple said iPhone sales accounted for nearly $ 66 billion, leading all of the company’s other products and growing 18%.
But the tech giant also saw strong growth in wearable devices, including its Apple Watch, which generated $ 12.9 billion in sales.
Services accounted for 15.7 billion as Apple increased sales of music, digital content, cloud archiving and subscriptions.
– The force of advertising –
Facebook, for its part, had a turnover of more than 28,000 million dollars, essentially from advertising, in the last quarter of 2020, and had a net profit of 11,220 million dollars, 53% more than in the same period last year, due to the explosion of use of social media during the pandemic.
“We had a very strong close to the year as the public and businesses continued to use our services during these challenging times,” said Facebook CEO and founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The number of users increased even more during the holidays.
As of December 31, 3.3 billion people frequented at least once a month one of the group’s four platforms and messaging services (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp), according to a statement published on Wednesday.
But the company anticipates “headwinds” this year due to increased data confidentiality on Apple-branded devices, he said.
This can affect the display of targeted advertisements for users.
The dispute between the two tech giants centers on changes to the latest version of Apple’s iOS operating software, which includes a tracking transparency feature that Facebook says will cripple its ability to serve targeted ads.
“While the timing of the iOS 14 changes remains uncertain, we would expect to see an impact from the end of the first quarter,” Facebook said.
Last month, the social media giant opened fire on Apple, saying the iPhone maker’s new measures on data collection and targeted ads would affect small businesses.
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