Apple’s online store in India — launched only in the last week of September — played a considerable part in the company’s strongest ever September quarter in the country, CEO Tim Cook said during a call with investors on Thursday. On top of that, everything that Apple offers — barring the iPhone — set either September sales records, or all-time sales records. The Mac, for instance, set and all-time revenue record, and iPad saw the strongest September quarter in eight years. However, amid all this, there was a big surprise: sales in Greater China fell by around 29% compared to last year. In fact, Greater China was the only region to see contracted sales numbers. It was also an unusual quarter for Apple, for a very significant reason. This was for the first time since the original iPhone’s launch that Apple’s September quarter numbers didn't reflect early demand for new iPhones: the iPhone 12 lineup this year saw a delayed launch owing to the pandemic, and will only factor in the company’s results in the quarter ending December. Not having the latest iPhones on time this year especially hurt Apple in Greater China, admitted Cook. Key takeaways from Apple’s September 2020 quarter Apple posted a revenue of $64.7 billion, a September quarter record. International sales accounted for 59% of that: Not having new iPhones before September affected Apple: iPhone revenue fell, and not having a new iPhone for this year before the end of the September quarter did have an impact…
