MUSIC BRIGHTENS APPLE'S Q4

Apple experienced a mixed bag of results in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2018, but its top bright spot remained consistent as the services unit edged oh-so close to $10b in revenue.

Services, which includes Apple Music, iTunes and the App Store, pulled in $9.98b, a 27% increase from 2017’s $7.9b.

In a conference call, CFO Luca Maestri said the number of users within Apple’s sphere provides the company with an opportunity to monetize more services. He noted the company is on track to double its fiscal 2016 services revenue by 2020.

With earnings at $2.91 per share on revenue of $62.9b, the company beat analysts’ expectations of $2.78 earnings per share on $61.4b. However, iPhone sales were flat, which concerns analysts.

Just when we were hoping they would break out music numbers, the company has instead chosen to no longer provide detailed sales numbers for individual products. That didn’t make many friends on Wall Street where Apple stock took a 7.3% dip Friday to just under $206 a share.

Apple CEO Tim Cook issued a statement saying all is well. “We’re thrilled to report another record-breaking quarter that caps a tremendous fiscal 2018, the year in which we shipped our 2 billionth iOS device, celebrated the 10th anniversary of the App Store and achieved the strongest revenue and earnings in Apple’s history.”