iPhone Sales Up 35% With 47.5M Units Sold In Q3

It would appear that Apple can’t stop, won’t stop when it comes to iPhone sales.

After two blockbuster quarters in a row — Apple sold a record-breaking 74.5 million iPhones in Q1 2015 and 61 million iPhones in Q2 — Apple has completed what is traditionally its slowest quarter selling 47.5 million units of the iPhone. That’s a yearly increase of 35 percent.

Analysts expected Apple to sell around 50 million units of the iPhone, which would represent a 42 percent jump year-over-year. In other words, this quarter’s iPhone sales were just slightly under what analysts expected.

Though iPhone sales are down from the quarter before, which were down from the quarter before that, it’s important to remember that the fall unveiling of new models of the product usually mean slowed sales in preceding months.

That said, the iPhone continues to dominate as Apple expands into new markets, namely China. Just last week, the company announced its fourth Hong Kong location, one of four locations on the island and one of 23 retail locations in greater China.

iPad sales are also slightly down, with Apple selling 10.9 units of the iPad in Q3 2015. Analyst consensus pegged this quarter’s iPad sales at around 11 million units.

Last quarter, Apple also failed to meet analyst expectations for the iPad, selling just 12.6 million units compared to 16 million units the previous year. This quarter’s 10.9 million units sold represents an 18 percent yearly slide, and a month-over-month decline of 13 percent. Obviously the category is still young — the iPad is just five years old — so it’s hard to tell if the declining trajectory of iPad is going to continue.

That said, Apple’s newest version of iOS software, complete with split-screen multitasking on iPad and a new QuickType keyboard (which turns your fingers into a usable cursor) could transform the iPad from a predominantly consumption-based tool to something that can be used more for productivity.

Macs, by comparison, are still on their way up, with Apple selling 4.7 million units of the Mac in the three-month period ending June 28. That represents a quarterly increase of 5 percent, up 9 percent year-over-year.

This is particularly impressive given the lackluster performance of the PC industry as a whole over the past year, though much of Apple’s success has to do with refreshed MacBook Pros and iMacs in the past quarter. The new, slimmer-than-can-be-real MacBook went on sale April 10 (just a few days after this quarter began) and the updated 15-inch MacBook Pro and 27-inch iMac went live in stores in mid-May, giving all three products time to shine. Not to mention, folks are likely stocking up on back-to-school devices during these summer months.

While Apple didn’t break down individual sales of Apple TV, Beats Electronics, iPods, and the oft-discussed Apple Watch, the category collectively made $2.6 billion in revenue, up 49 percent year-over-year.